Page 92 of Owned By the Fae
‘Do you know what they mean?’ I ask, not recognizing them.
‘No, but we need to make a copy of this.’
Grey goes back into the study and returns a moment later with a small piece of parchmentnotmade of human flesh. He quickly sketches the outline of the map, and I’m impressed by his swift rendering, which is almost an exact copy of the original. He sees my expression and smirks.
‘I helped the scholars in the library at Alcana make copies of texts more than once. I got quite good at recreating what was in front of me.’
He marks the symbols from the map carefully, making sure that every single one is exactly the same as the original, even though we can't read them.
‘Large sections are still missing from this,’ he says.
‘But not many,’ I murmur. ‘What is this? What’s he trying to find?’
Grey shrugs. ‘Perhaps even he doesn’t know what this map is. The key is missing, the piece that will show him what realm to begin in. It’s useless until he has that.’
Next to the table, I notice a book. I open it to the ribbon-marked page and huff.
‘I can't read this either, but it’s been marked, so it must be important. It’s the only book in here.’
Grey quickly copies the page on the other side of his parchment.
‘It looks like it's in some kind of magickal cipher,’ I remark as he writes, remembering when Dane was learning about such things and studying them in our tent at night when we were younger.
Grey folds the parchment and places it in his tunic. After a final look around the study, I push the book back into place, and the secret alcove shuts seamlessly and quietly.
‘I haven’t seen any maps or Breach charts. Did you?’
‘No. But they could be in the room off the main hall. It is closer to the Gate.’
I nod. ‘I’ll see what I can find the next time Varrik is gone.’
Grey puts a hand on my shoulder, and we go unseen through the wall to the main corridor. Now that I know that most of the guards are drinking heavily, it's easy to slip through their half-hearted patrols and get to the area where the elites’ rooms are quickly.
‘I want to see her,’ Grey murmurs.
‘Fine,’ I say, ‘but we can't stay long.’
I’m about to take us into Lia’s room when Fiana enters the hallway. I pause, watching her look this way and that, making sure no one is around.
Suspicious.
Grey grips me harder. He wants to follow her just as I do. Neither of us have ever trusted that bitch. There’s always been something off about her.
We shadow her at a distance, and my eyes narrow as she lets herself into a room at the end that I thought was for storage. It isn’t her bed-chamber, at any rate. Hers is the first on the left on the opposite side of the hall to Lia’s room.
Is this some romantic interlude? Is Dane in there? Someone else?
She slips inside, closing the door behind her. I frown and poke my head through the wall, ignoring Grey’s impatient tap on my shoulder as the cold envelopes me.
Inside, I find that it’s not a storeroom as I’d assumed. There's a bed and a table. A looking glass and a cupboard. It’s not as large or as fine as the other elites’ rooms that I’ve made a point of poking around in since gaining admittance to the keep, though, and I wonder whose it is.
Then I notice Dane’s dark green cloak on the bed, unmistakably his with its golden filigree edges, and it clicks into place. I’d thought Dane was spending less time at the house. Varrik’s given him a room here now that Fiana is back.
I watch her flit about, sliding out drawers here and there, having a good nose around. She opens the cupboard and casually picks up a small jar of what looks like tea that’s inside on the shelf. She sniffs it and frowns, seeming to contemplate something.
She puts it back and closes the cabinet door. Then, she leaves Dane’s room and makes her way quickly along the corridor to her own.
‘What's she doing?’ Grey asks.
