“And your father has been keeping it to himself all these years?” Castor asked speculatively. “Is that why Quinn tried to blast her way into Astraeus? Are there more here?”
Stellan shook his head. “Based on the timing of Quinn’s attack, I assume her target was Cade. Without him, she can’t bring back the Sanguis. The stone was the only artifact left in Astraeus. Deckard had no idea it was in the vault,” he said. “Believe me, he would have already used it for his own advantages by now.”
“Okay but no one else has brought up the biggest issue with all this,” Bridget interjected. “It wasn’t Stellan that brought us here.Nylahused it. She’s human. Us and magic usually don’t mix.”
“The stone…” Stellan choked. Taking a deep breath through his nose, he clenched his fists. Hoarsely, he spit out, “Only someone with pure intentions can wield it, even if they’re human. It’s how it was designed. As long as it remains in her possession and her intentions stay the same, it will only obey her.”
Alarm trickled down Cassia’s spine. Blood dripped out of Stellan’s nose, like the admission had cost him a great deal. There had to be more the curse was costing him than just his memories. Not only was magic taking a toll on a Tuathan rare, but he spoke of the artifacts like they were living, breathing entities.
Archer loudly snapped his fingers. Cassia jumped. She’d almost forgotten the exasperated Warlock in the corner. “We already went over most of this back in your Lincoln Log cabin. There are four. They all sound equally dangerous. We happen to have one of them. We still need to find the others. What else do we need to know?”
Cassia couldn’t help but agree with him. Just a little. They already had one of them. It didn’t matter what the others were or what they did. The sooner they could find them, the sooner Quinn’s use of the Bloodstone and assault on Elyria would stop. It had to. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched dark clouds swirl in the sky. Even through the window, the air outside seemed heavy.
“The more we know about the artifacts, the easier they will be to find,” Finn argued. “There’s so much lore surrounding the artifacts, even I’m not sure what’s true.”
Cassia watched a bead of sweat form on Stellan’s temple. If no one helped him explain anything soon, he was going to pass out. She cleared her throat. “It all starts with the lake, right?” Ignoring Cade’s stunned stare, she quietly continued, “It’s rumored Tuathans received their power from an enchanted lake. They proved themselves and the land rewarded them… at least, I think so.”
Stellan ran a trembling hand through his hair, leaving the normally slicked back blonde strands slightly ruffled. He gave Cassia a quick, grateful half-smile. “Even I don’t know exactly how the artifacts came to be. Thathappened long before our time. All I know is what we figured out while we tried to beat Vega to them.”
Bridget and Cade froze. Cassia watched them share another meaningful look before they locked eyes with Stellan. Their unspoken conversation sent a wave of anxiety up Cassia’s spine. The weight of their history stifled the air. Would she ever be able to wrap her head around the fact that her brother and Bridget had lived a whole life over five hundred years ago?
Beside her, Castor cursed under his breath, his frustration clearly visible. She wondered if the next question pressing her mind was the same as his.
Would any of them ever be able to find out the truth about it?
Bridget’s throat bobbed. Her voice was raspy as she asked, “How much about that can you remember?”
“It started when…” Stellan flinched. Closing his eyes, he balled his fists. “Damn it. Okay… let me go a little forward. There’s only so much Marin was able to break free and some of those memories still want to stay locked up. Eventually, Cade concluded that the first Tuathans decided the power the lake had given them wasn’t enough. They channeled more magic from the lake into four artifacts… to be an endless source of power. For any creature. Even humans.”
“But magic is unpredictable,” Cade said, crossing his arms. “The artifacts took on a mind of their own, didn’t they?”
Cassia took Stellan’s silence as a yes. After a moment, he nodded. “If you want to channel their power… you have to pass their tests. A fact we didn’t understand until it was too late.”
“Tests?” Finn asked.
“Or price. Whatever you want to call it,” Stellan replied stiffly. “If you haven’t already figured it out, we didn’t get much of a chance to test our theories.”
“Which artifact did Vega want?” Castor asked. “Or was it all of them?”
Bridget’s cat-like eyes cut to Stellan before she sat her hip on the edge of the table. “We think it’s the crown. Stellan said it could raise the dead. Apparently, it went missing around the same time Cade and I died.”
The last words fell out of Bridget’s mouth in a quiet, slow cadence, like she still didn’t quite believe them. A muscle in her brother’s jaw twitched as he rubbed Bridget’s lower back. Cassia couldn’t stop the twinge of sympathy that sprung in her gut. Still, did theyeverstop touching?
“And you think they had something to do with it?” Castor asked Stellan.
“I thinkshedid.”
Cassia scoffed. “Of course, she did. Leaving chaos in her wake is Bridget’s specialty. What about the others? The sword hasn’t been seen since around that time either.”
“That one is in Andarre,” Archer said. “The joy that is Alexia helped us figure that one out.”
“It was taken by another Tuathan there for safekeeping. It’s the first artifact we found and it…” Suddenly, Stellan bent over and coughed roughly. Bridget tried to reach out for him, but he waved her away. Droplets of blood were splattered across his hand. “Don’t. I need to get out what I can. The sword…” Stellan struggled for a moment. “It’s the first one we found. It’s how we figured out that once someone passes an artifact’s test, it only answers to them.”
Cassia’s stomach twisted.
“He’ll be fine,” Castor whispered in her ear, his hand on her lower back.
But Cassia’s gaze was no longer on Stellan… it was onBridget. She’d paled considerably. Once Cade gripped her hand, she seemed to find her voice. “It’s Cade. That’s why this whole plan to bring us back was created… Because it has to be him.”
