Page 8 of Death Warden
I cracked it open to find pages of neat script and arcane symbols I didn’t understand. It looked like…a spell book?
How the heck had it gotten under my sofa?
A wave of dizziness overcame me. I slid off the sofa and planted both hands on the floor to ground myself.
Shit.
My chest…It felt like a weight was pressing down on it, crushing me. Blood pounded in my ears. I clambered onto the sofa, dropping the book in the process. The spot between my collarbones burned and my hand went to the amulet around my neck.
“Fuck!” I tugged it away from my skin by the chain.
What in the hell was happening?
The thundering in my head died and the pressure on my chest melted away. I lay panting on the sofa like I’d run a marathon. Had that just happened? Had I dreamed it?
My phone rang and vibrated across the table as if trying to get away from me. I sat up and scooped it up to check the caller ID.
Tobias? Foreboding bloomed inside me. “Hello?”
“Adi, are you okay?”
“I’m…yeah, but something… I think something just happened.”
He sighed heavily. “Yes. It did. Mary and Leo are dead.”
I went blank for a moment, not sure who the hell he was talking about, and then the names registered. Mary and Leo had been friends of my parents. Crescents, if I remembered correctly. I hadn’t seen them in years.
“Oh, fuck. I’m so sorry.”
“Has the book found you yet?”
“The book?” My gaze dropped to the leather-bound tome. “Wait… how did you—”
“Is it there? Brown leather, gold lettering?”
“Yes. It’s here. But how…I’m so confused.”
“I’ll be there in half an hour. Sit tight and I’ll explain everything. Put the kettle on.” He hung up.
I sat back and stared at the phone in my hand. Mary and Leo were dead, and a book had magically appeared in my apartment.
I should be freaked out, right? But I trusted Tobias to explain it all.
All I could do now was put the kettle on and wait.
CHAPTERTHREE
Tobias liked tweed jackets and waistcoats. He looked like he was in his early thirties, but he’d always looked the same to me. He’d been the history keeper for our three bloodlines for as long as I’d been alive, and if Bernard was to be believed, way before then.
He was a Mageri and his family had served the Crescents, Thornes, and Blackmores for centuries.
I let him into the apartment, noting the gray at his temples for the first time, and the tired lines at the corners of his eyes.
Panic gripped me. “Tobias, what happened?”
“Tea first, Adi. I need it. Strong.”
I poured him a cup and sat across from him at my small dining table.
