Page 73 of A House of Fangs & Deceit

“As part of my interest in the history of blood magic, I’ve also been collecting as much information as I can about the original ritual our human ancestors did,” Roth explained as we all moved closer to look at the scroll they’d stretched out on the board. “The spell was definitely of Fae origin, but I haven’t been able to determine if it was Seelie or Unseelie. However, I can say with certainty that the ritual itself was performed in their towns around this symbol.”

Roth pointed to a symbol of three interconnecting crescent moons. Two of them faced away from each other, the back of each moon just barely touching, and the third crescent moon cut across the middle of the other two with its points facing up.

Alaric and I both touched the crescent moon marks on the left side of our necks while Rynn absently touched the mark on the right side of her neck. Furies bore the mark with the crescent moon facing upward in the center of their necks. I’d never seen this symbol with all three of our marks intertwined, but I supposed it made sense. We’d all been created during the same ritual.

“What if…” Roth stared harder at the scroll. “What if something was left behind in those human settlements? Something from the ritual?”

Alaric shook his head. “We would have found it.”

“Not necessarily.” I looked at the glyph on the wall that contained the silencing spell.

The glyph itself had been carved into a piece of wood that easily fit in the palm of my hand. It rested on top of a chunk of obsidian to power it. Something that small could easily beoverlooked, especially considering the chaos that descended in the century after the ritual took place.

I added, “Most of those human settlements were abandoned for over two centuries. The Moroi who founded the Houses retreated to the Fae fortresses because they were easier to defend. We didn’t expand and start building up the outposts until the third generation and by then, the priority was getting them built as fast as possible to make room for our growing population.”

“Between whatever was left behind being exposed to the elements for a couple centuries and it being small,” Roth said, following my line of thought, “they might have overlooked it.”

I nodded. “We need to go to some outposts that were built on human settlements. Ones that haven’t been attacked yet and see what we can find.”

“It’s going to raise a little suspicion if we do that,” Alaric argued.

“We’ll say it’s for research.” I waved a hand at Roth. “We’ll bring them with us. Anyone who spends thirty seconds with Roth will just accept our reasoning so they can get away.”

“I’m not leaving my books and going outside!” Roth’s eyes went wide as they snatched a book up and clutched it to their chest.

The three of us started bickering then, each talking louder and louder to speak over the previous person, before a shrill whistle cut through the air, and we all slammed our hands over our ears.

“Or,”—Rynn lowered her fingers from her mouth calmly—“we can visit some human settlements that haven’t been turned into outposts yet, which would actually answer two questions for us.”

I glared at my friend while I rubbed at my ears. “It’s bad luck to whistle inside.”

She rolled her eyes. “First, that’s not a thing. Second,maybe the wraiths have been searching for whatever is left of the ritual for a long time and they just first searched the human settlements that were still abandoned.”

“So even if we don’t find what we’re looking for, if there are signs that wraiths have already searched it, we’ll at least have confirmation that it’s the human settlements in particular that they’re interested in.” I dropped my hands to my sides, ringing eardrums now forgotten. “Based on that smirk on your face, I’m guessing you’ve already identified some locations for us to check out?”

“I’m not smirking!” Rynn pressed her lips into a hard, flat line, but the corners kept curling upward as she fought to keep the satisfied grin off her face.

“It’s hard to tell with the shadows, but I’m gonna agree with Samara on this one,” Alaric said. “You were definitely smirking.”

Rynn glanced back and forth between Alaric and me. “Since when do you two agree on anything?”

Alaric stiffened, and now Roth was looking at the two of us curiously. Fantastic.

“Focus, Rynn!” I barked. “Where are the settlements?”

She gave me a pointed look that said she’d very much be bringing up the topic of what was going on between me and Alaric later. At which point, I would tell her that absolutely nothing was going on and it was just my libido going insane.

Kieran needed to get back soon so I could get laid. Once I got that taken care of, I was sure I would be thinking rationally again.

Rynn moved to where Roth had hung a map on the board, which was next to the unraveled scrolls. “I’ve identified three potential locations. It’s hard to find information on old human settlements that haven’t already been turned into outposts, but somehow we got lucky because there is one about a two-day run from me, and there’s one less than aday’s ride from you. There’s also one for Cali to check out that is on the outskirts of the badlands. I’ve already spoken to her and caught her up on everything. She’s on her way there now.”

I looked at where Rynn had pointed on the map close to House Harker. She was right. It was less than a day’s ride and was basically up the coast.

“Are you sure there was a settlement there?” I frowned. “I’ve ridden up and down the coast, and I don’t remember ever seeing something.”

She nodded. “Given how close it was to the shore, most of the town has probably been wrecked by storms with no one to repair it. If you were riding past it on the road, you probably wouldn’t have noticed the leftover debris.”

“Maybe.” I chewed my bottom lip, still a little skeptical about missing the skeletal remains of a town, but Rynn was never wrong about these sorts of things. If she said that a human settlement used to be there, then it used to be there.

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