Page 159

I pricked up my ears at Larissa's question.

Julie seemed to be a very powerful Quatura indeed.

“I don't even want to think about it,” Julie laughed dryly. It was a confident tone that was new to me and made me stare at her. “And I don't want to talk about Gloria any longer than necessary.” She looked around until her gaze stopped at Bayla. “What did you find out?”

I thought I saw a purple flicker in Bayla's eyes. But I must have imagined it. A smirk crossed her lips, her eyes glinting, and she held up the book, waving it in the air as if it were a birthday present she had been waiting for for years.

I didn't miss the curiosity in the others' eyes, and a strange feeling spread through my stomach.

It was funny that the very people who were supposed to be my enemies were the ones who represented my only chance of finding answers.

“What is it?”

Larissa took the book from her best friend's hands, and the moment it landed in Larissa's hands, her eyes began to glow red. She flinched and suddenly gasped.

Overwhelmed, I clung to the table behind me.

Bayla looked at her with concern, but she couldn't see her eyes the way I did.

“Are you okay?” Bayla asked.

“A woman...” Larissa seemed paralyzed. “A woman wrote this book.”

She looked up, in my direction, and I held my breath, ready to put even more distance between myself and the Ruisangor if she wanted to attack me. But it seemed... as if she were staring into space.

“She wrote it in her room.”

“What are you talking about?”

Bayla slid off the windowsill and went to Larissa to take the book from her hand, but Larissa spun around to Julie.

Instantly, Julie's eyes turned white before taking on an icy blue sheen, and she backed away to one of the other tables, where the wooden top was instantly covered with a layer of sharp, cracking ice shards.

Miles and I recoiled at the same time, and he raised his hands in front of him.

“Wow... relax,” he murmured darkly to Julie.

Now his eyes were glowing too, and he looked back at Larissa, who seemed oblivious to all this and still appeared to be in a trance.

“Alice...” she whispered, and then, finally, the eerie glow disappeared. “I saw Alice.”

Bayla stared at her, and Julie, who seemed to have calmed down again, broke away from the table with the layer of ice sparkling in the lantern light behind her before turning to Miles.

“Is there an explanation for this behavior?”

Miles’s gaze darkened. “She has received her Legacy gift.”

Bayla's mouth opened slightly. “You guys have gifts?”

Julie stepped next to Larissa, carefully took the book from her hands, and began to inspect it as if it were a precious relic.

“Yes, we do.” Miles looked at everyone. Everyone except me. “Only... this kind of gift is new to me.”

He seemed confused. Another condition that was new to me, automatically drawing me into his grasp.

I caught myself watching him as he raised his knuckles to his lips and placed his thumb under his chin.

“What is your gift?” Larissa had found her voice again and was now facing her brother.