Page 15 of Fleshbound
“I couldn’t… I didn’t know how to tell anyone.” He looked off in the distance. “I’m not even sure anyone will believe me. I’m not sure I believe it all at this point.”
“You fell in love,” Cassius whispered. “You loved and you lost. That’s all we needed to know.”
The backs of Quill’s eyes burnt with unshed tears as he met Cassius’s gaze. “I’m started to think it was all a dream.”
“He wasn’t. I sensed his presence here with you.”
“You did?”
“I’m in charge of securing our coven. When an unknown entity appears—passing our runes—I know about it. I came to your door… and sensed no evil intent, so I waited for you to come talk to me and tell me who he was. But you never did.”
Quill winced.
“Had you talked to me about it, we could’ve discussed things. Instead, I had to put the pieces together after you collapsed.”
“What do you mean? Put the pieces together?”
“I asked Race to twist time to see who was here and if he’d hurt you.”
Quill’s eyes widened, heat creeping up his throat. “He…saw?”
“Fleshbound, holding one Corven of Evonium within it. Now vanished with him inside.”
Quill scooted higher in the bed. “What else did he see?”
“Nothing that would help us much,” Cassius said. He smiled, a hint of wicked humor glittering in his eyes. “Not here, anyway.”
“Where else did Race go?”
“Back two thousand years. He witnessed Merlin putting the spell on Corven—and it’s just as he said. Merlin wanted him but Corven didn’t welcome those advances. Instead of giving in, he allowed himself to be trapped in that book for two millennia.”
He’d sensed Corven had been telling the truth, but the story was so incredible that it had been hard to swallow. Having Race confirm it helped quell any doubts.
“Does Race remember the spell Merlin used? Maybe we can use it to track the book somehow and find where it went next.”
If it went anywhere next. It had dissolved in front of his eyes.
“Race said it was a language he’d never heard before—which is interesting considering he’s heard nearly every language at this point in his travels.”
Quill spun, moving his legs to the side of the bed. “I’ll go speak with Race. Maybe there’s something he saw that will help me in my search.”
Cassius grasped Quill’s wrist. “You’re not ready to get out of bed yet. You need to rest…”
“I can’t, Cassius. Corven’s out there somewhere and I have to find him.”
Cassius pulled a small tome from a pocket of his black cargo pants. He handed it to Quill. “Perhaps this will help.”
Quill reached for it but pulled his hand back. The thing oozed magic, a mixture of good and dark.
“It’s Merlin’s diary. The one open on his desk when he placed that spell on Corven.”
Quill snagged it from Cassius’s hand and whipped through the pages, ignoring the licks of evil. “It’s Olde English. Might that be what Race heard?”
“No. I’ve already asked. Race speaks Olde English.”
“Oh,”Quill said. He stopped on a page written in characters he’d never seen before and sensed it was the spell used to trap Corven. “This is it. I’m sure of it.”
The words shimmered on the page, glowing like fire.
