Page 118 of Illusory

Between what Jaqueline had already done and the little bit I managed to translate on my own, I’d learned that—much like my other abilities—my wings were also very much tied to my emotions. Though I still hadn’t decided if that was a good thing or not.

According to Elspeth and some of her earlier entries, her abilities appeared to have been just as erratic and uncooperative as mine were, especially pre-Ascension. As much as I wanted to skip forward to the end and see if everything ended up working out for her, I couldn’t help but feel afraid that maybe I wouldn’t find the happy ending I was looking for. That maybe things had only gotten progressively worse for her as they always seemed to do for me.

I honestly wasn’t sure I could take any more sad news.

My thoughts quickly wandered from my wings to my own upcoming Ascension. I still didn’t fully understand what an Ascension even was other than the fact that it would likely commence on my birthday tomorrow. I couldn’t help but wonder what that entailed and how the whole thing was going to play out. Would there be some kind of countdown to aspecific time when all my Nephilim abilities emerged at once or would it happen slowly over time? I had no answers, and it only made the nauseating anxiety under my skin worsen.

Unfortunately, before I could find any spoilers in the journal regarding Elspeth’s Ascension, I was abruptly yanked out of focus at the sound of Tessa and Gabriel’s heated voices carrying in from down the hallway in what appeared to be some kind of argument between the two of them.

Though I had no idea what the topic of contention was, I could tell it was serious by the way Tessa was hissing out her words at him and then by the way Gabriel was steadily increasing his own volume as if to overcompensate for hers. Honestly, it sounded kind of personal and for a second, I debated whether I should be listening in at all, but then I heard something about ‘not being in her right mind’ and that ‘it meant nothing’and I quickly decided that I needed a lot more fucking details.

Shoving my chair back from under the desk, I managed to take one whole stride toward the door before the conversation came to an abrupt end. My shoulders slumped as I cursed under my breath.

Fucking vampire hearing.

Too late to pretend I hadn’t heard anything, I crossed the study and then poked my head out into the hallway to find Tessa and Gabriel standing there like they’d been caught with their pants down. Neither one said anything as they just stood frozen in place, staring at me like the idiots they were.

“Well, this isn’t weird at all,” I said dryly as I folded my arms over my chest and openly examined them. I could still see the tension etched in their faces from the argument, but there was also a nervous air about them that made them both look painfully uncomfortable. “Lover’s quarrel?”

Gabriel looked as though his soul left his body at thatexact moment while Tessa turned the brightest shade of red I’d ever seen. But it wasn’t from blushing, though. Pretty sure Tessa didn’t do that. It was more of a I’m-going-to-murder-you-while-you-sleep kind of reddening.

“Seriously, guys. Don’t stop on my account. It sounded like it was just about to get juicy,” I said, only half teasing. “What are you two arguing about anyway?”

“Nothing.” They answered at the same time.

“We’re not arguing,” added Tessa, speaking more softly as if to throw me off their scent. But it was forced, and it still reeked like hell.

“Right.” That definitely wasn’t suspicious, and they definitely weren’t arguing. Said no one ever. At least it wasn’t my drama for once. “Care to share what you’renotarguing about then? Maybe I can help.”

“You can’t. And we’re not arguing. Gabriel was just leaving.”

Gabriel’s brows shot up into his forehead.

“Not leaving…I meant, going somewhere else. In the house,” she amended, waving her hand in the air like she couldn’t be bothered to tell a proper lie. “Right, Gabriel?” She eyed him pointedly.

He bounced a glance at me and then turned back to Tessa, tensing his jaw. “We’ll finish this later,” he said lowly, apparently not in the mood to play along with whatever strange game she was playing.

“Great. Can’t wait,” she grumbled as Gabriel stormed down the hallway and then disappeared around the corner.

Although neither one had said anything revealing during their little heated exchange, I’d managed to glean a few facts on the matter. One: they were definitely arguing. Two: it was something personal that they didn’t want anyone to know about. And three: something was definitely up with Gabriellately. I couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that something was just…off about him. Come to think of it, Tessa was also kind of off kilter as of late, too. Maybe they had a secret romance going on? Or maybe it was just the pressure and stress of everything going on.

I kind of hoped it was the first one.

“So, are you going to tell me what that was about?” I asked as she crossed the hallway to where I was standing, hoping that she’d be more willing to share the details now that it was just me and her. You know, sister-talk and all.

“You don’t want to know.”

“Oh, Isobeg to differ,” I said, unable to fight away the smile yanking at the corners of my mouth.

She paused in front of me and glanced over my shoulder into the empty study. “What were you doing in there all alone anyway?” she asked instead of answering the question.

“Reading a certain dead ancestor’s grimoire. So, about that thing I don’t want to know about.” I waggled my eyebrows at her.

“Maybe some other time,” she said and then carried on down the hallway, leaving me with the sneaking suspicion that ‘some other time’ was probably never going to come.

* * *

My grimoire translating session lasted another hour before my eyelids began to feel like sandpaper and I decided to call it quits for the night. Other than learning that my wings were tied to my emotional state—for better or worse—I hadn’t gotten any closer to figuring out how to actually use the wings, let alone control them at will, though truth be told, I hadn’t really expected to be able to translateanyof Elspeth’s journal, so I was still considering it a win.

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