Page 75 of Claim the Light
All this talk of dark ash is triggering the memory of my conversation with the keeper ofoldmagic. She’d talked of ash and destruction, too. But I’m not sure what the connection might be.
“I agree.” I rub my forehead with my free hand as my thoughts become increasingly worried. “What if I did the wrong thing?” I can’t bear to look at Beatrix and Micah now. “What if I should have left the ash on you? What if getting rid of it only made things worse?”
“No.” Beatrix speaks quietly. “That ash dragged me down into darkness. If you’d left it on me, I’m sure it would have eaten my soul. I’d be dead already.”
Micah grips my shoulder, a comforting hold. “You removed it from yourself too, Sophia,” he points out. “You aren’t sick.”
I groan with frustration. “But that only brings us back to the possibility that there’s something about my power that’s protecting me. In which case, I was never going to be hurt like you were.”
Which Tyler could have known.
A shudder stops me from speaking now.
Tyler threatened to hurt everyone I love, one by one, starting with Micah. He told me he would take everyone away from me until I would have to accept that he was the only one who loved me.
Every threat he made implied that he waschoosingto let me live so I would witness the destruction of my found family and experience heartache because of it.
But now I wonder if, somehow, he knew that his power couldn’t kill me. So if he couldn’t harm me physically, then he would hurt the people I love instead.
“Could theBook of Light Magicgive us answers?” I ask Isaac, but the angel shakes his head.
“The book once contained all the secrets of light magic, and it might have had answers for us, but it was wiped clean. The events recorded in it now go back only as far as the evening of the battle at the Cathedral.” A shadow falls across Isaac’s expression as he speaks. “Also, I fear it isn’t theBook of Light Magicthat would enlighten us in this situation.”
“Dark magic,” I whisper, fighting the fear that arises within me whenever Micah speaks of uncaging my power. “Where would we find theBook of Dark Magic, assuming there is one?”
Again, Isaac shakes his head. “Its location is unknown. Hidden, just like theBook of Old Magic. Of the four books, only theBook of Elemental Magicis now being kept out in the open, passed between powerful fae. Apparently, they see it as a symbol of prestige to be in possession of the book. Of course, they aren’t going to simply leave it lying around, but they make no secret about which family has it.”
I dismiss the idea of seeking that book. “Fae magic won’t help us here.”
Not against the dark power that’s draining the life force from the shifters I love.
“Are there any other books in your library that could help?” Micah asks. “We were planning to go there this morning.”
Isaac purses his lips. “It’s possible. There could be something in the history books, but…”
“But?” I ask.
Isaac sighs. “For many years, I filled my days by enriching my mind with the knowledge in those books. I don’t remember seeing anything in them that explains what’s happening here.”
Frustration threatens to overwhelm me now.
I hoped Isaac might be able to help. I thought I might find answers in his library, or even in theBook of Light Magic. And, while I haven’t looked in the library myself, and I don’t plan on ruling it out, it sounds like there’s little hope there.
We’re dealing with dark magic and there are only a few sources of truth available to us in that regard.
“Ash, destruction, and death,” I say, my declaration falling into sudden silence. “We don’t have the answers, but I know where I can find them.”
Even if I don’t like it. Not one fucking bit.
Micah considers me warily. “Sophia?”
His hand has remained on my shoulder and now I reach up to cover it with my own. “There’s one supernatural I can ask,” I say. “The keeper of dark magic himself.”
Micah immediately shakes his head. “No.”
I meet his worried eyes. “I need to return to the oblivion.”
* * *
