“She’s lived here that long? Where did she come from?”
“She was born in Caelestis, but has traveled the continent most of her life. She spent a lot of time exploring the unclaimed land east of Caelestis. When I brought her here, it was after I met her during one of my own travels.”
“And you two have beentogetherfor how long?”
My father arched an eyebrow. “Maeve…Spit it out.”
I pushed up to a stand. “We think she might be working with Beaumont.”
Shaking his head in denial, Archer growled out a shocked and raspy, “What?”
“She was one of the only people who knew that Cicily's journal existed, and by some of the things she said, she had an idea about what was written in it, too. And come to find out, the journal ended up in Draemor. How would it have gotten in Beaumont’s hands without someone who knew what it was bringing it there?”
Archer opened his mouth to speak, but I continued my explanation. “She enchanted the journal for Cicily, and when we brought it back to Lumosia, she offered to undo it for us. Then when we finally go to read it, the entire thing is blank.” I began pacing through the study. “The thing that doesn’t make sense is why she helped us locate the journal if she already knew where it was. That part I can’t figure out. Why bother with putting Kohen through hell if she already knew the answer?”
“She helped you locate it because she wanted to help you save Sebastian," Archer growled. “The accusations you are making are asinine.” His fist slammed down on the desk.
“Are they, though? Has Venay ever traveled outside of Lumosia besides when we had her tour Caelestis? Has she ever just disappeared then returned days later?”
Archer didn’t respond. He fell back into his seat, dropping his head into his hands.
I gave him a moment to process while I ran through my own memories. When Venay offered to help us find the journal, Archer had been hesitant.Was he in on this?
“Why were you so reluctant when she offered to perform the ritual?” I spat out without really processing what I was implying.
Archer leisurely lifted his gaze, his jaw tightly clenched. “Accusing my wife is one thing, but accusing your own father isanother.” He closed his eyes to draw in a calming breath. “I was reluctant because performing the dark magic that she did to help you is frowned upon in the eyes of the gods. It is unnatural and, if done incorrectly, can affect the balance that the gods work so hard to keep.”
Solid explanation, but I was still skeptical.
“I can assure you that Venay is not the one you are looking for. Now, I won’t tell her about this, but I expect you to drop it.” His eyes narrowed on me, and I got a taste of what I looked like when I gave someone my own deathly glare.
I nodded, letting him think I’d let this go. But I knew for certain that Venay was no longer allowed to attend our meetings. Not unless we could clear her name.
Kade paced the common room,rubbing a finger along the bridge of his nose. His frustration was clear, and I couldn’t blame him. We’d been going back and forth for over an hour, trying to figure out a way to prove or disprove our claim about Venay.
“Let’s lock her up and have Maeve use her mind compulsion on her,” Sawyer suggested as a last resort.
“That wouldn’t go over well with our father,” Delani shot his idea down.
“Who cares? For all we know, he’s in on this, too,” Sawyer supplied.
“He’s not in on it,” I plainly stated. That much I was sure of. I trusted that he was being honest about what he knew. I mean, the man faked his death to rule a kingdom that was created with the sole purpose of keeping his daughter safe, so I really didn’t think he’d do anything to jeopardize that.
“This meeting is going nowhere,” Kade groaned, finally sitting down on the sofa.
“I think we need to list everything that's going on, and prioritize. See what we need to handle first and what can wait,” Pia supplied, and we all agreed.
“Killing Beaumont is first on the list,” Sawyer said.
“No. Figuring out what those creatures are should be first,” Leighton piped in. She’d proven that we could trust her when she told us about the damn things, so we’d been letting her into our group from time to time. “If they are half as dangerous as they look, they could give us a hell of a time when we do try to kill him.”
“Agreed,” Kade said. “After that, Beaumont. And figuring out why Maeve gets allglowywhen she wields can wait. It doesn’t seem to be affecting her negatively, and the fact that she has even a little bit of control now is a bonus.”
I scrunched my nose at his back-handed compliment. “Where does that leave the Venay and the journal issue?” I asked.
“Chances are that therewaswriting in that journal. Right?” Kohen added. “If we can find out what was in it, it could hold the answers to all of the other matters at hand. So I say that comes first.”
We pondered, and came to the consensus that his idea made the most sense.
