As one they moved forward, Lucas leading them to the door at the rear of the building. This was the door through which everyone entered, unless it was a meeting, when the front doors were used, each member having to knock and prove who they were before being taken into the inner Chamber. Jack wondered if a shifter ever got on the Council, whether they would have to turn into their animal and do tricks for the amusement of the Council, before they were allowed in.
The idea was still stuck in his head that the druids should not have sole control over the Council. Not when they made decisions affecting the lives of all the others.
“That way is the Great Chamber,” Lucas said, as if he were giving a guided tour. “This way to the archives.” He swung left along a wide sweeping corridor, their footsteps echoing though the building. If anyone was in the building, they would know the squad was here. Jack didn’t want to get into a dogfight with any of the druids if they were discovered, but if they had to…
“Here,” Lucas said, stopping before a closed door that had runes carved into it, unlike the other doors, which were plain solid wood. Lucas took a key from around his neck, mumbled some words, passed his hands over it a couple of times, and then put it in the lock and turned it.
The door opened, and after one slight hesitation, Lucas led them through the door and down a flight of stairs. The smell inside the Council Chambers was always beeswax and incense; down here it was definitely bookish. Jack drew in a deep breath, and cataloged it, as he did with all new smells. He had been to libraries before, but this was different. Row after row of bookshelves, but the shelves didn’t only contain books. There were rolls of parchment sticking out, of different colors, and sizes. Some with ribbons wrapped around them, others sealed with wax.
“I would hazard a guess that what we are looking for will be in one of two sections,” Lucas began when they reached the bottom of the stairs. From down here, Jack saw the magnitude of their quest; they were surrounded by shelf after shelf of books, parchments, and sheets of paper. Jack would hate to be the one who had to catalog all of this. But thankfully, someone had. “Dragon Lore, or Alchemy, which is contained under the Spells section.”
“I’ll take Alchemy,” Helena said, stepping forward.
“No,” Lucas said sharply. “It’s bad enough that I have brought a witch down here at all, but to allow you to see our most ancient spells…”
Jack felt the air buzz. Helena was gathering her energy. He stepped forward and placed his hand on her shoulder. “He’s right. You would not want a druid poking around in your spell books, would you?”
She glowered at Lucas, but then stepped back and said, “I guess I’ll take dragons, then.”
“I’ll go with Lucas,” Kurt said.
“I’m on dragons too,” Liam said. “I always wanted to meet one.”
“The Night Hunter should not be in here at all,” Lucas said. “Why don’t you patrol the perimeter or something? Just keep your eyes off the books.”
“Sure,” Jack said, evenly. “Come on, Eva. We can stand guard, listen for anyone approaching.”
Eva followed, with one last longing glance at the books. “Do you think there are books in here that would tell me what I am?”
“What you are?” Jack asked. “You mean what a Night Hunter is?”
“Yes. If my mom won’t tell me. Or can’t…” Her voice faltered.
“We’ll get to her in time,” Jack said.
“Even if we do, she might not tell me. She dumped me. Which means she probably knew I was a Night Hunter reject. Isn’t what why some animals abandon their young?”
“Or she could have been protecting you,” Jack offered.
“Not all families are like yours.”
Jack sat down on the bottom step, and she joined him. Her black hair framed her pale face. The dark rings had faded from under her eyes, which were a nut brown, the same shade as a ripe horse chestnut. Her lips were full and sensual, and he longed to kiss her, and make her understand that she was his family now. And families protect their own.
“It’ll be OK, Eva.”
“You are the eternal optimist, to my eternal pessimist,” she said.
“And I’m always right. Ask my brothers.” He smiled at her. “One step at a time. Once we find a way to replicate the Dragon’s Tear, we switch it, just like Gareth did to you. That way no one raises the alarm. We go get your mom, take out the people who took her, swap the stones back, and go home.”
“What?” She yanked her head around to look at him. “You are going to go in there and fight them?”
“Yes. We can’t let them keep the Dragon’s Tear. They are a threat. They kidnapped your mom, and blackmailed you into getting it for them. They need to be stopped. The Dragon’s Tear is powerful magic, and we can’t let them keep it.”
“Don’t do this for me. Don’t risk your life, or your brother’s lives, for me,” Eva said. “I know you think I’m the one you are supposed to be with forever. But I’m not worth it.”
“Yes, you are.” He leaned across and stroked her cheek. “I would lay down my life for you.” He let his hand drop to his lap. “But this isn’t just about you. My job is to take out any threats. And they are a threat to us. If not now, then in the future.”
His words were the truth, but they were driven by his need to keep her safe. Would he risk their lives if Eva was not caught up in the middle of this? He didn’t answer, because he didn’t know, not anymore. There was no before Eva, there was just Eva and their future together.
No man was ever going to threaten that.
Chapter Eleven – Evaine
Eva had never depended on anyone before. So for Jack to talk about him and his brothers risking their lives to put an end to the people who took her mom did not sit well. If one of them died, she would have to carry that for the rest of her life. It would be so much simpler for her to go and get the Dragon’s Tear alone. And then run.
She didn’t need them. And they did not need her in their lives.
“Someone’s coming,” Jack hissed. He was on his feet and halfway up the stairs before her brain had registered his words.
Eva got up, forcing her legs, which still ached from yesterday, to run up the stairs. If there was going to be a fight, she was going to have Jack’s back. Her sixth sense did not approve of protecting a shifter, but Eva told it to shut up. And it did.
Breakthrough, she said with some jubilation. The voice had to know when it was needed, and when it was intruding. She had lived the first twenty-four years of her life without it, and had managed OK. Although that world hadn’t contained degetty, druids, shifters, and whatever else existed in this world of Others.
“Who is it?” she asked Jack. He was paused at the top of the stairs, listening.
“The Grimmwold.”
“The Grimmwold. What kind of creature is that?” she whispered.
“Not a creature, a person. The druid who tends the grimoires.” Jack headed back down the stairs.
“The books? He’s going to come in here?” Eva asked.
“Unless we stop him,” Jack said.
“You’re going to attack him?” Eva asked, horrified. This would set in motion a chain of events that would have serious repercussions for Jack and the others.
“Not exactly.” He turned to her, taking hold of her hand and asking, “Do you trust me?”
Did she? She didn’t know. The silenced voice in her head would have screamed no. But Eva said, “Yes.”
“Good.” Jack opened the door, and they left the library. He pushed her back against the wall and looked down the corridor. “He’s going to come around the corner any minute.” Jack ran a few paces back along the corridor, and she followed. “Look natural.”
“Natural?” What is natural about being inside a building belonging to your people’s mortal enemy? She slapped her sixth sense back down, and reminded it to be quiet.
Following Jack’s lead, she allowed him to hold her hand, let her tension go, an
d relaxed. Eva had seen enough couples to know how boyfriends and girlfriends were supposed to behave. She might not be a participant in normal life, but she had a fascination of it. Often, on a Saturday morning, she would sit in the window of her favorite coffee house and watch the world and its inhabitants go by, studying the behavior of normal people and wondering why she wasn’t part of that world.
“Ready?” Jack asked, and then he let go of her hand and put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. Her first instinct was to pull away, but then he whispered. “Natural.”
Eva relaxed into him, trying to ignore the sensations creeping through her body, and instead focus on the old man coming toward them. He was old. Really old. As old as the books in the library. The gentle voice in her head had returned.
You know him? Eva asked.
And now you want to talk? it asked with some humor.
Eva ignored it. She wanted information; she did not want to play games.
“Ah, Jack. I sensed there were people in the building. I didn’t know you were called in,” the old man, what had Jack called him, The Grimmwold, asked.
“I came to see you.” Jack lied smoothly.
“No one comes to see me,” the Grimmwold replied. “Unless they want information.” His old eyes, which had seemed so out of focus, were trained on Eva like a laser beam. “She does not belong here.”
“She is my mate, Master Grimmwold.” Jack’s words were heavy, and the Grimmwold switched his gaze to the bear shifter.
“That changes things.” He nodded. “That changes things more than you know.”
“More than we know?” Eva asked.
“Yes, Evaine Talbot. It does.” The Grimmwold knew her name, or at least her first name. The last name didn’t belong to her. Did it?
“How?” Eva began.
“I know you, I know your blood.”
“You know other Night Hunters?” she asked.
“Some. More particularly, I knew your father.” The focus left his eyes and he looked into the distance, nodding and mumbling. “It all makes sense now. The ward that was broken. It was broken by you.”
“Yes. It was. Although I didn’t know about any ward.” She took a step closer to him, not wanting to let this link to her past go. “Please. Will you tell me what you know?”
“What I know?” He waved his hand toward the door to the library. “What I know fills a library. What I can tell you, that is the question you need to ask.”
“Riddles,” Jack said. “Can’t you answer her questions?”
“I cannot. I am bound.”
Jack took a sharp breath. “By whom?”
“A man who walks these walls. A man of words. A man of books.”
“You bound yourself?” Jack asked.
“I swore to another I would not tell.”
“Jack, what do you mean, he is bound?” Eva asked, her hope of information fading.
“Druids bind things. They use their magic to tie knots. Those knots can be around a degetty, like the one Gareth has. But they can also be used to bind information.”
“And that is what has happened to Master Grimmwold.” Eva nodded. “Why does nobody want to tell me who I am?”
“When people care for each other, they can do strange things to protect them. Or the information they carry,” Master Grimmwold said.
“Like leaving a baby on the steps of a hospital?” Jack asked.
“Ahh, that explains your lack of knowledge.” The Grimmwold’s old eyes filled with pity.
“Exactly, I have no knowledge. I was a few weeks old when I was abandoned. Which means I had no information worth protecting.”
“No, child. It means you were the only one with the information.” The Grimmwold’s face grew old and gray. “It means death.”
“Death. Whose death? My mom is still alive. She is being held captive…” She closed her mouth too late, the information spilled.
“Then your father has passed. And with it he passed...” The Grimmwold waved his hand at Eva.
“The information he had passed to Eva? How?” Jack pressed.
“The baby knew. The girl knew. The woman knows.”
Jack turned to her. “He means it’s hidden inside you.”
She avoided his gaze, but he tucked his finger under her chin and turned her to face him. His eyes locked on hers, and she remembered his words. She could trust him. She had to trust someone. “There’s a voice in my head.”
“What kind of voice?” Jack asked.
“The kind that tells me you are the enemy,” Eva said.
“You must control it, as your father did,” the Grimmwold said.
“You knew him well?” Eva asked. “You were friends. The voice hated it.” A slight nod told her she was right. “Did my father hide the Dragon’s Tear?
“Yes, against the wishes of the other Night Hunters,” The Grimmwold said. “The rest you must hear from your mother. When you find her, bring her here. I will ensure her safety. But do not lose the Dragon’s Tear.”
“Why? What is it for?” Jack asked. “Why is it so valuable?”
“It was hidden for a reason. A reason I cannot tell.” He leaned closer. “No man should be in possession of something so powerful.”
“No man?” Jack repeated, his face intent on the old man’s. “I need to know if you mean that literally?”
“No man.” The words were emphasized. “The Dragon’s Tear should be returned to the one it belongs to.”
“But there are no dragons,” Eva said.
“If there is a tear, there is a dragon,” Jack said, remembering what Lucas had told them yesterday.
The Grimmwold smiled sadly. “That knowledge is why Eva must learn to control the voices of the past. Find your father.”
“My father?” Eva asked. The realization of what the Grimmwold had told her spread across her face. “He’s one of the voices.”
“They are all there. But they will try to silence him,” the Grimmwold said.
“I understand,” Eva said, her voice filled with hope. She at last had a connection to her past, to someone to tell her who she was. “Will you help us? Will you help us make a fake Dragon’s Tear so we can take the real one from Gareth?”
“You do not have it?” the Grimmwold asked, surprised.
“No, Gareth set his degetty on Eva. He then pretended to rescue her and swapped the stones.”
“Then swap it back,” the Grimmwold said simply.
“I don’t have the fake. The men who have my mom destroyed it. Please, help us,” she implored.
“All I can do is tell you where to find the spell. The rest is up to you. The Dragon’s Tear must not fall into the wrong hands. Bring it here and Master Donavon will hide it deep under the Council Chambers.”
“I thought you said it should be returned to the dragon it belongs to?” Jack asked.
“Did I?” The Grimmwold asked. “I cannot go against the wishes of the Council. I am sworn to uphold the word of Master Donavon.” He winked, one old wrinkly eye closing and then opening so fast Eva thought she had imagined it.
“Understood,” Jack said.
The Grimmwold looked up, listening. “You must hurry.” He took a piece of parchment from the satchel he had slung over his shoulder, and then he rummaged deeper, pulling out a quill. Hurriedly, he scribbled on the parchment and handed it to Jack. “I trust you with this. When it is done, you will destroy it.”
Jack opened it up and looked at the words, written in a language he didn’t understand. “The spell for the Dragon’s Tear.”
“You knew the spell off by heart?” Eva asked.
“What I know fills the library. Every parchment, every book. I am a living record of the knowledge stored here.” He smiled sadly. “I wish I could tell you more. But the one piece of the puzzle, the location of the last dragon, is not here.”
“How do we find it?” Eva asked.
“Look in here.” He placed a gnarled finger to her head, and then removed it
, putting it to his lips. Eva frowned and opened her mouth to speak, but the Grimmwold shook his head in warning. Confusion filled her. The Grimmwold had told her it was inside her head, but didn’t want her to speak of it. “When you have control. Then you should seek it out.” She couldn’t trust the other Night Hunters, only her father. Would she ever be able to separate the two, and control who used her head for their own schemes?
A noise to the north alerted Jack to the presence of someone else in the Chambers. “We need to go.”
The Grimmwold took Eva’s hand, his bones sharp through his thin skin. “I hope you find your mother.”
He walked away, and they stood in silence watching him, until the burning question in Eva’s mind had to be asked. “If we can’t let any man have the Dragon’s Tear, what am I going to trade for my mom?”
Jack glanced down at her, and then looked away. “You will trade the real Dragon’s Tear.”
“But you heard what the Grimmwold said. It’s too big a risk to let them have it in the hope we can steal it back.”
“Once you have your mom safe, we will go in and take it back. We have to act fast; the real Dragon’s Tear has to be back in Gareth’s hands by tomorrow so that he can give it to the Council. That way no one will follow the trail that will lead them to us misusing Council property.”
“No.” She stood firmly as he walked back toward the library.
“No what?” he asked.
“No, I’m not going to let you get yourselves killed.”
“We won’t.”
“How do you know?”
“Because this is what we do.” He came back to her and placed his hands on her upper arms. “Let us do our job. We will succeed.”
“And then we let Gareth hand it to the Council?” Eva asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you trust them? If it’s buried under here, do you think that is where it will stay?”
“Yes. Because I have a plan.” He grinned widely. “It’s a good plan.”
“Are you going to tell me?” she asked.
“When the time comes,” he said. “When the time comes.”
Bear my Fate (Hero Mine Book 1) Page 8