Dragon Awakened(48)
“Ten minutes ago,” Cyn said.
The corners of Kade’s mouth turned up in a smile he aimed at Ruby. “Pain in the ass, isn’t he?”
“You don’t know the half of it. Well, maybe you do, if you worked with him.”
“Skip the commentary,” Cyn said, not looking amused.
Kade dropped into a chair at the tiny table and opened the cover of the book. He closed his eyes again and pressed his hands to the exposed pages. This time they glowed a brilliant blue, spreading out from his fingers until it covered the entire book. He spoke words she didn’t understand, until she heard Brom’s name, and then more unintelligible words. The whole book glowed now. She hoped it wouldn’t burst into flames.
Her heart gave a jolt to find Cyn watching her. He didn’t shift his gaze away as she’d expect a man caught to do. Of course, Cyn wasn’t just any man.
The glow dissipated, and Kade opened his eyes. The page beneath his hands was still blank.
“Didn’t it work?” she asked, coming closer.
He flipped the first page, revealing scrawly writing. She sat down at the table.
Cyn came up behind her. “If this is a vision of the future, it’s not written in stone, right?”
“No, like any foretelling, it portends the likelihood of the future given the intentions and events in motion now.”
She could feel Cyn’s tension, and his heat, as he leaned over her shoulder to study the writing. “Whatever this says is open to interpretation. Remember that.”
“Yeah, okay.” What was he so tensed up about? And why was he so close, getting her Dragon vibrating? The citrusy scent of his soap tickled her senses.
She pointed to a line. “There’s my name.”
Kade gave Cyn a sly glance. “Thought your name was Garnet.”
He met him, look for look. “It is.”
She pulled her attention back to the book. “Something about the Dragon…specifically you, Cyn, coming in and saving me. Sweeping me away at the moment of danger. Well, you didn’t do that when that orb was chasing me around.”
“Whoa. She’s the one who evaded the star orb?” Kade said, amazement in his voice now.
Her gaze went to the dagger tattoo on Kade’s arm. “When I was fighting the orb, I used a couple of daggers in Mon’s office. They felt…well, now I’d say magickal. Like a current of electricity.”
Kade nodded. “Sounds like they were charged with magick. Did they help?”
“Both times I hit the orb, it seemed to shrink.”
“Damn, you hit a star orb twice? You’re good.”
“She got lucky. Don’t encourage her,” Cyn said.
Kade assessed her with a spark of admiration in his eyes. “Why not? Give the girl some credit. Takes some skills to survive one of those.” He looked up at Cyn. “Hell, my friend, you’ve got your hands full, don’t you?”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
She wondered if Cyn did that to other people, too, mirroring their words back.
“If you’ll recall,” Cyn said, now talking to her, “I did sweep in and save your pretty little ass in the library.”
Her mouth dropped open at both his assertion and his compliment. She clamped it shut again. “Yes. Yes, you did.” She turned back to the page. “Here it says, ‘hide her away,’ or at least I think it does. And then ‘awaken.’ So far, it’s on target with what’s happened.”
“What did you save her pretty little ass from?” Kade asked.
“Demons,” they both answered at once.
Kade grimaced. “Fun.”
Cyn braced his hands on the table. “Summoned by the same Deuce son of a bitch who sent the orb, I’m guessing.” He tried to read farther down the page, pointing to the words Justin’s work. “He’s underlined it.”
She flipped the next pages but found nothing else. She looked at Kade. “We have to wait for the rest?”
“For however long it took him to write it down. There’s not a lot here, I can tell you that. A few pages.”
She got up and grabbed the larger book, setting it gingerly on the table. It reeked of smoke. “Can you bring back the words in this book? My uncle used magick to create beautiful fairy tales for me. Now they’re gone.”
He waved his hand over the leather cover, tilting his head as he sensed for the magick, she guessed. “Is he dead?”
She nodded, still having trouble saying that he was. She’d hardly had time to mourn the loss of him.
Kade shook his head. “When a Deuce creates illusions, they die with him. It doesn’t always work with demons that are summoned, unfortunately, or tulpas.”