“Well, hopefully, I can figure out what’s wrong with your book.” My mind flashed to payment. It was a normal businessperson thing, to ask for money for a service rendered. It was half the reason I’d started this business, in fact. I needed to be paid for my work if I wanted to stay on top of my rent. But how did one ask for payment from someone who is in trouble?
As if she could read my thoughts, she asked. “What is your fee?”
“I suppose that depends on who is paying.” I’d charge the Devil of Darkvale—Grey, as I now thought of him—a hell of a lot more because he was rich as Croesus. But someone who didn’t have a lot of money? I’d charge them less.
“I can afford it,” Seraphia said. “Or at the very least, the library can. The book is from their collection, after all.”
“Then we’ll work it out after the fact.”
I rose and strode over to the book.
My skin prickled with awareness at the slight pulse of dark magic coming from the leather and paper.
“You might want to sit,” Seraphia said. “First time I touched it, I fell on my arse.”
I took her advice and slid into a chair, feeling their gazes on me. I drew in a breath, focusing on the object in front of me and on the magic welling inside me.
Control.
I needed to see what I wanted to see. Not whatever blasted out at me.
I looked at Seraphia. “What do you most want to know about this book and its dark magic?”
“Why now? It’s been in the collection for years, I think. So why is it now saturated in evil? And who took the pages out of it? Why?”
I nodded, then turned back to the book and ran the question through my mind.
Tell me why.
The book seemed to pull at me, an unnatural tug that I’d never felt before. As my fingertips grazed the smooth leather cover, pain slammed into me, followed by a vision of the city wall. I gritted my teeth and kept contact with the book, trying to narrow in on the vision.
Where was this?
Somewhere in Guild City, definitely. I recognized the large stone blocks that made up our city wall. They had been laid in a distinctive pattern and occasionally seemed to shimmer with magic. This was definitely Guild City…but where?
I tried to memorize the stones, then opened my eyes. The interior of the book called to me, and I flipped it open, searching for the missing pages.
Dark magic seeped from the book, coating the air in a sickening, oily sheen, and I held my breath as I laid my fingertips on the stumps of the torn pages.
Who did this?
Nothing, not so much as a hint, as if there were a steel wall between me and the information.
“It’s protected by a charm,” I said. “Someone has used magic to conceal their actions.”
“What did the pages used to say?” Seraphia asked.
I asked the question and once again hit the same wall. “I don’t know. That information is hidden from me.” The vision of the wall flickered in my mind. “But I’m seeing a section of the city wall. I think our answers are there. It’s…pulling at me.”
It felt wholly unnatural. Cursed.
I shuddered.
What the hell was going on?
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