Page 54 of Jay's Silence

“Could it be your ex?” Tyson asked.

“My ex looked to be in his eighties. This video is from just a few months ago,” I tapped my pointer finger a few times before flattening my hand against the table. This wasn’t just a few missing memories; I’d used my magic, and a lot of it, based on the video.

“But it fits, right?” Lux added. “How much power did this casket give you.”

I scowled. “It didn’t.”

“What?” Og blinked at me in disbelief.

“I wasn’t always badass.” I rubbed the edge of the metal table. “My ritual salt wasn’t pure. Gorm, the god trapped in the casket, got stuck in a power loop before the casket split into three pieces. At the time, I didn’t have the raw magic to fix the vessel to try again, so I scattered the pieces.” I scowled. “It took me months of evaporating sea water to get enough salt forthat ritual, too,” I added before perking up. “Never made that mistake again.”

“Again?” Rehan asked. “How many caskets did you do this to?”

“This was the only casket,” I said before fanning my fingers between us, ticking them off one by one. “But, I mean, there was a sarcophagus. The god stuck in a ferret. Not to mention a few sacrifices… no people, promise.” I wiggled my eyebrows. “I gave away my firstborn, but the joke’s on the Marduk cuz I gave away my uterus first. It was all just more power. I like power. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“You have a problem,” Rehan stated.

I grinned. “I do. All the best people do, anyway. I haven’t gotten a boost since the late eighteen hundreds. Technology made me cool my magical heels. So.” I popped my lips. “Water under the bridge.”

Rehan pointed at the picture. “That you remember.”

I held my hands up. “I broke the casket eight hundred years ago.”

“And didn’t have the knowledge or the power to fix itat the time,” Og stressed the last three words. Lux and Rehan leaned in as if waiting for a lightbulb to fire in my head. Tyson paced behind us, his steps loud in the too-quiet room.

“At the time, I did not,” I said awkwardly. “But at this time, I do.” I hit my forehead with my palm. “Shit.”

Tyson let out a growl. “I don’t get it, and I don’t like being left out.”

“The video implies Jay was collecting the pieces of Gorm’s casket,” Og explained while I pulled up every fact I knew about the ancient Viking god. “But she doesn’t remember. Now, the Ley Lines are filled with demons, and she’s cursed. It heavily implies she fixed the casket and released the god.”

“Why would I do that?” I moaned. “Gorm was a bloodthirsty god of war, and after spending all that time trapped in a broken vessel, I doubt he’s even sane.”

Lux squeezed my shoulder.

“You don’t know you did that,” Lux smiled encouragingly. “Technically, we don’t even know if you actually released Gorm or if this man in the video absorbed the God’s power like you were planning to do. Or if Gorm was even in the casket at all. We don’t have enough information. Don’t start blaming yourself before we’ve gathered all the facts.”

I put my hand over his metal one and squeezed it.

“I think our best bet is to retrace your steps, Jay.”

I nodded. “We need to check in with Oliviarose, but yeah. If I can’t remember, then we need to figure this out fast.”

Superintendent Kelly cleared his throat. “I believe the situation has escalated above my pay grade.”

I snapped my attention to the superintendent, having completely forgotten he was still here. “No shit, Sherlock.”

Tyson snickered while Rehan let out a disappointed grunt.

Superintendent Kelly scowled. “Someday, your smart mouth will get you into trouble. Fortunately for you, today is not that day.”

He typed into the laptop before turning the screen back to us. Green dots speckled a map of the world. Although only a few hovered over the Americas and Australia, the dots became denser until they were almost a solid color directly above the dragon’s island. The letters DPT were written above the map, and along the left was a graph of some sort of active energy reading. On the right was an open chat filled with speculation.

My dragons focused in on the laptop. Tyson swore while Lux started reading the chat out loud. Og and Rehan put their heads together and whispered about their secret island now with a big sign saying ‘problem here.’

I rubbed my neck, feeling the ribbon of Ley Line magic, which pushed me out of the gym and started this whole mess. When I woke up on the island, the ribbon was gone, and I assumed the Ley Line had moved on. What if it hadn’t? The Ley Lines weren't capable of thought, but when they needed help, they nudged the world. That nudge pushed me onto an island, literally creating a blood clot in the Ley Line’s circulatory system that was now the center of demon activity.

The Ley Lines were incapable of setting up my car accident. That had been whoever cursed me and trapped me there. But what if I ended up exactly where I needed to be?

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