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I shouldn't have felt so good about taking down that pack last night. I was at work, in my office, and should have been cataloging new books. Instead, I was staring out the window, feeling restless. Just like everywhere else in town, the library had a view of the woods. I kept my eyes on the trees like I felt something was going to come out of them.
But I knew there wasn't. It was probably all the magic that was coursing through Dante and Lou, but the closer they came into joining my pack, the more I could feel it.
A part of me felt like I should be worried by having that much power. But another part of me, a bigger, hungrier part of me, was eager for it.
I was tired of bowing to the Ascendancy and their laws, and I was sick of having to run to keep everyone safe. If the stories that I heard were true, then we wouldn't have to run or hide anymore.
And isn't that what I wanted this whole time?
My phone rang and I glanced at the area code. It looked familiar, but I couldn't exactly place for the phone number was coming from.
"Hello?" I said.
"Alpha Ortega. It's been too long," a vaguely familiar, male voice said at the end of the line.
I leaned back in my chair and returned my gaze to the window. "Maybe. Who's this?"
He laughed on the other end. "I guess it's been far too long. This is Clint Hart, here in Pittsburgh. How are you?"
Alpha Clint Hart was a friend from childhood. We had known each other for a very long time but lost touch shortly before Artie was born.
"Clint. It has been a very long time. How are you?"
I heard the creak of leather as he settled into his own chair. "Oh, you know. Same old stuff, killing monsters, protecting the innocent."
"All just in a days work, right?” I prodded.
"Exactly. But I hear that you are looking for some special information.”
"I might be. What's it to you?" I said.
It had always been like this between Clint and me. He was a tease, flirt, and the reputation he had wasn't unwarranted. It was hard to dislike the guy, though. He may have been an outrageous flirt and far too arrogant for his own good, but he was a man of his word and tried hard not to hurt anyone that he didn't have to.
"Well, I might have something for you. But it will cost you," he said.
I kept my heart steady, so he didn't realize how important this information was. He wasn't above bargaining to keep his own pack safe.
"What would you like?" I asked. They came out far more sexual than I had intended but I did hear an uptick in his heart rate, so I might have gotten what I wanted without promising anything at all.
"Next time I'm in town, a date," Clint bargained.
"Is that all? A date? You got yourself a deal," I agreed.
He laughed. "Celia, you were always the best of us. I should be so lucky to be able to take you out someday."
I laughed and picked up a pencil from my desk. "I don't know about all that, but what kind of information do you have for me?"
"Those stories, about the Powers and Virtues? A distant cousin of mine from Europe has one of the oldest books of their history. A few pages of them talk about the Powers and Virtues. He sent them over to me just a few minutes ago."
I had to tamp down on every instinct in my body to not jump to my feet. I knew that putting out those rumors that I was looking for old books about the Powers Virtues would come in handy. Really, thinking about it, I should have just gone to Clint. He had more connections than anyone else I knew.
"What do you want these for, anyway, Cee? These are just the bedtime stories our parents told us when we were little."
I hesitated and he noticed. He let out a soft breath.
"Give me your email address."
I gave it to him and seconds later an email with an attachment arrived. I opened it and wanted to scream. I didn't care if he could hear my heart beat now, there was no controlling it.
"I'm packing right now. It looks like I'll be seeing you sooner rather than later and I really will be getting the date."
"Clint, I can't ask that of you. This is more than I could possibly ask for from anyone," I murmured as I read through the pages.
"When you get to the bottom of those pages, you'll be calling me back anyway. Might as well get this all over with and start packing now. Me and mine will be there later this afternoon. Let me know if I need to rent a car or if you will have one of yours there waiting for us."
If this is how urgent he was packing, I realized that there was no stopping him.
Especially if he knew that I was going to need him.
"Someone will be at the airport for you. Thank you, Clint. This is more than I could possibly imagine."
"Well, don't thank me yet."
"Don't tell me what to do. I want to thank you, so thank you."
He chuckled but there was far less humor in his voice now. "I'll see later, Cee."
He was gone before I could reply and I replaced the headset on my phone and continued to read.
I was scribbling down notes on a piece of paper when my phone rang again.
This time I didn't even look at the area code before I picked it up. "Celia Ortega, how can I help you?" I said.
"Alpha Ortega. It's so nice to hear your voice. This is Brent Stanley, from the Harper pack in Durango, Colorado. How are you?"
Although I was on good terms with the Harper pack, we were not what you would call friends. It was very unusual to hear from them.
"I am very well Brent. How are you?" I asked and sat up straight. I put my pencil down and turned away from the computer where I still had the notes up from what Clint had just sent me.
"I am very well, thank you for asking. I have in my possession the book that your Sentinel has been requesting. It was very hard to find, but I was able to procure it. Our library is extensive, so I do apologize for the lateness," Harper said.
I knew that Harper was a singularity, even among sentinels. He was Harvard educated and I had to wonder how he pulled that off. I'm not sure I could let my own Sentinel go that far without me.
He was rumored to be a bit cold, and very formal, which was obvious so far.
"I understand. And I appreciate all your help. Tell me, will you be able to send it our way?" I asked politely.
"Unfortunately not," Harper said. He sounded confused.
"That is unfortunate. Might I ask why not?" I said. I had no idea what book we were talking about or why Artie needed it so badly that he used my authority without asking first. That bothered me a little bit.
"Well, it seems if anyone that touches this book, it crumbles, little by little. I fear that if any of us go near it, it will disintegrate altogether. And from the way that Artie spoke of it, it is very urgently needed. If you know of someone that can come get it without destroying it, you are welcome here. But, as I said, I'm afraid we would destroy it if we moved it," Harper said.
I was silent for a moment and tapped my pencil against my desk.
"Sincerely, Alpha Ortega, I apologize. I know that it's a great inconvenience at this time –"
"It's fine. It's beyond your control. Can you tell me anything about the book?" I asked.
"Only very little. The binding is old, and I was not able to open it. All I can tell you is the title."
"And that is?" I prodded.
"The Wolf Of The Innocent," Harper said.
I frowned. It didn't sound familiar. "Thank you so much for your help, Harper. I will speak to Artie immediately and either he or I will get back to you as soon as possible."
We exchanged goodbyes and for the second time that they, I put the phone down.
This time I was more troubled. This book should have sounded at least slightly familiar, but it didn't. Instead, it sounded like the book then Artie had, that he kept treasured in his room.
With the excitement of the past few days, I hadn't been paying attention to Artie and Eli as much as I should have been. They didn't seem resentful of it, because we did have visitors and Lou and Dante required a great deal of attention, but I wondered if I was missing something anyway.
I gathered my things and went to the front desk.
I told Marianne that I would be taking the rest of the day. She nodded and I handed over the keys to my office, giving her instructions to finish cataloging the books.
I swung into my car and carefully placed my laptop on the seat next to me. I started my car and then noticed that Marcus pulled in to a spot closer to the front.
I forgot that he was supposed to bring me lunch today.
I rolled down my window and called him over. He turned, confused, and saw me. He joined me in my car and we headed home.
"I thought you were working today?" He said as he rustled through the bags in his lap. He pulled out a carton of chicken nuggets and stuck them in my cup holder. He pulled out curly fries and stuck them in the adjoining holder as well. I plucked a nugget from the carton and chewed on it and nodded.
"Something came up. Actually, a couple of things," I said.
He looked at me, waiting for me to go on, but also giving me the choice to stop there. It was an interesting tactic that he had learned from the police department. Sometimes there were things that I couldn't tell him and sometimes there were things that I had to tell him. That was probably where the first cracks in our relationship showed.
I looked over at him and then returned my eyes to the road in front of me. He was chewing on his double patty cheeseburger and then offered me a drink of the small barrel of soda that came with our meals. I took a drink and then rolled my shoulders. I took a deep breath and explained everything that had happened that morning.
***
"SO THIS CLINT GUY, you know him well?" Marcus asked.
We were sitting at the end of my driveway, still eating.
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, Clint and I have known each other for a very long time. Since we were kids."
"What's he like?" Marcus asked, trying to be casual.
"He's arrogant, smart, funny, hardheaded, and pretty good looking. Do you want his Social Security number too?" I asked.
"Wouldn't hurt."
I glared at him. Marcus and I were friends, but nothing more. I knew that it was hard for him and he was adult enough to admit he had made a mistake when we broke up, but that didn't mean that I was going to just let him waltz back into my life. However, he was a valuable resource. He was smart and him being a police officer gave us some invaluable insight into things that we would've otherwise overlooked.
But there were times like these when I felt like he was overstepping his boundaries.
"You and I aren't together anymore, Marcus. I'm not with Clint. In fact, my life is so busy right now, if I have to deal with one more thing, I'm going to scream," I told him, matter of fact.
Marcus tipped his drink in my direction. "Don't say that. That's like asking the universe to give you five more things to deal with."
He was right.
"Okay. So you have Clint coming in later on this evening. Artie is researching everything that has to do with Azolata to see if there is a way out of his imprisonment, and something else that you probably aren't in the loop with. Lou and Dante are supposed to be getting ready to join your pack. Stephen and Billie are here –" Marcus stopped. His brow furrowed and he looked over at me. "I actually don't know why Stephen and Billie are still here."
I shrugged. "I offered to take Stephen back to his truck this morning in The Cove but he said that he would like to stick around until after the trials if that was okay with us. He wants to be able to help."
Marcus sucked on his drink and it made a rattling sound. "What you think?" He asked.
"I think there's something going on with him. There is something about Azolata that Stephen is drawn to. And I'm not even sure if it's like a romantic thing. But Stephen is constantly with Azolata. They don't even talk when they are together, which is super weird. But when I went to Azolata’s tattoo shop yesterday, Stephen was there and he was just sitting there, staring at Azolata. Not talking, just staring. It's like - " I stopped myself and shook my head. I shoved another chicken nugget in my mouth before I said too much.
"Staring at Azolata? Why?"
I pressed my lips together because all I had was a hunch and sometimes when I opened my mouth and said things, they had a tendency of being correct. In this instance, I wasn't sure if I was right or even if I wanted to be right. But all the signs were there, and for me, of all people, to try to ignore that seemed foolish.
"That story I told you about Azolata and Yaotl?"
Marcus nodded. He was eating my curly fries now. But he was listening and that was more than I had gotten from a lot of people lately.
"Azolata said that Yaotl and Tlanextli were still wandering the earth, looking for him. And that they would always wander the earth until they found him."
I looked down at my lap and didn't finish.
But Marcus wasn't stupid.
"You think that Stephen and Billie are Yaotl and Tlanextli?" He whispered.
I nodded.
"What does that mean? What is- what does that mean for Azolata?" Marcus sputtered.
I shook my head. "There's no telling. And I mean that literally. I don't think that Azolata can tell us any more than he has without putting us in danger."
Marcus laughed. When I looked over at him he pressed his lips together but his shoulders were still shaking and there were tears in his eyes. I shook my head at him, slowly. Then I started to smile. And I started to laugh. Pretty soon we were both laughing so hard that all we could do was wheeze and there were tears on her cheeks. We were hysterical as he gasped for breath and I slapped the steering wheel.
It felt good.
"I don't think I could be any more screwed than I already am," I said between hiccups. I wiped my face.
Marcus handed me some napkins. He also was wiping at his face. "I don't think you can be, either. But we shouldn't say that either because the universe has a way of hearing these things."
I looked over him, surprised. "I thought you didn't believe in any of that hocus-pocus stuff. That's what you called it, Marcus. You said that all this stuff was just a bunch of crazy people getting together and making stuff up."
Marcus’ smile faded. "Yeah. I was an ass. I thought I knew everything. Then this happened to Dante and Lou and the Ascendancy came for Miss Maricel. And it's not that it's hocus-pocus or illogical or a bunch of crazy people, it's just that it's beyond my understanding and I have to grow up and admit that I don't understand everything," he looked over at me. "That's not to say that it's a bad thing. There's so much out there that it would be impossible for one person or nonhuman to understand. And that's fine. I guess that's the way it should be."
I stared at him. It felt like I was seeing a completely different part of Marcus that I didn't even know existed. "When did you get so smart?" I asked.
Marcus shrugged and leaned back in the seat. He adjusted his thick jacket and smirked. "I think it was when Miss Maricel yelled at me for two hours when I said something about monsters."
I nodded. "She'll do that."
"The best part is?" Marcus looked over at me. "I wasn’t even talking about the nonhumans. I was talking about a horror movie."
That set us off again. Pretty soon we were laughing just as hard as before. After a while, I started up the drive once again. "Come on. I need to see what these two are up to."
In the driveway, there was an unfamiliar truck. I saw Billie leaning into it and when she heard my car, she straightened up. She grinned at me and waved. We waved back. If she was a goddess or not, I really liked this girl. She was unexpectedly soft in ways that I hadn't seen, especially from freelancers like her and her brother. Today she was wearing jeans that looked unfamiliar to me and her trusty dark brown boots. The green shirt she was wearing looked like one of Artie's and I knew the green and white flannel she wore was definitely Artie's.
"I got Artie that flannel for his birthday," Marcus noted. Nothing escaped his eyes.
"What did we say about not needing one more thing?" I asked as I parked.
Marcus looked grim.
As I stepped out of the car, I waved at Billie. "Is that your truck?" I asked.
"Eli and I figured that Stephen isn't going to leave Azolata's side anytime soon. He offered to take me into The Cove to get the truck and we just got back a little while ago," she said. She was struggling to get a duffel bag out from behind the front seat and it seemed to be caught on something.
"Here, let me help you," Marcus said. It took some tugging, but he finally got her bag free. "You guys have quite the armory back here," he said as he looked behind the seat.
I joined him and whistled. There was all manner of guns and sharp objects and other things that I couldn't identify.
"Well, we have to keep everything on hand. This is pretty much our home," Billie said and tapped the hood of the truck.
Unexpectedly, I felt a wave of sympathy this young kid. I wanted to tell her that no matter what happened, she could always come back here. She could always find a home with us.
But that would be an invitation to the pack. Another human brought into the Ortega line. And there was still Savannah to consider.
So I kept my mouth shut. I put an arm around her shoulders and gave her a brief squeeze. "I'm glad you're here. Both of you, even though I barely see your brother anymore."
Billie scrunched up her nose and looked to me. "Yeah. What's going on with that? I've never seen Stephen so smitten over a guy before. With guys, he's usually way more standoffish and less eager to spend time with them."
"I have no idea. But, if it helps, I will happily join you in making fun of them the next time we see him," I said as we made our way up the patio stairs.
Billie turned to me and smiled. "You're the best, Celia."
When we got inside she headed upstairs, eager to change into her own clothes. As she headed up, I asked, "I haven't seen Artie or Eli anywhere. Do you know where they are?"
Billie shook her head and stopped. "I think they said something about going in the backyard to find something."
I looked over my shoulder to Marcus and we both headed for the backyard. As we did, his phone rang. He grimaced when he looked at it and I waved him off. He turned back into the house as he answered the phone and I headed down the stairs and looked around the backyard.
I was all alone.
Frowning, I headed into the tree line. The backyard could mean anything from our actual backyard to fairly deep inside the forest. I tipped my head and listened for a moment before I heard Eli and Artie talking.
"Why can't we just have it shipped here?" Eli asked.
"I don't know. But these artifacts aren't cheap and they aren't easy to transport. I wouldn't even be surprised if the person who these objects are meant for the only person who can move them," Artie said.
"I hate magic. It has so many rules. And how are we supposed to know which book is the right one? If you can't see it and you have to go to it, we could be running all over the country and for what? For nothing?" Eli demanded.
They were talking about books. Again. I didn't understand what was going on with all of these books because neither one of them had said a word about it to me.
"We have to be able to leave town without arousing suspicion," Artie said and he sounded exhausted.
When he said that I couldn't help but stand up straighter. Why were they talking about leaving town? And what was it was all these books?
More importantly, why hadn't they said anything to me?
"Awesome. Great. Because now is the perfect time for a little vacation," Eli said scathingly.
"I didn't say it was convenient. But, if there are other books out there like mine, with the same information, then we need to get to them before anyone else does."
"I get that. But Artie, if they are already out there and we don't even know who they belong to and we don't know if you can read them, then what's the point? Maybe we should drop it."
I started over to them to demand answer bus then paused once more.
"The best chance we have is for me to at least see them. Hold them. We know that there are four more books like mine. When Lou and Dante join the pack there will be five members. Five books. It makes sense that there is a book for each of us. I have my book. Maybe they are about you. Maybe they are for you. I don't know –"
"I would say that you know a lot more than you are telling," I said and leaned against a tree.
Artie and Eli spun around and saw me. The guilt on their faces was a dead giveaway.
I stared at them and they stared back. "What are you talking about?" I asked.
"There are some books about Azolata that I need to get –" Artie said.
"Try again. This time, lie better."
"We found some books on the immortal pack –" Eli tried.
"I said lie better."
They both stared back at me and for the first time, I realized they had been keeping this from me for longer than I realized.
"Are you done lying? Are you ready to try the truth?" I asked.
Artie looked over at Eli and Eli crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at the ground.
"We didn't want to put this on you. Not right now. Not with everything else happening," Artie said.
I nodded. "Okay. But that's not for you to decide. Not only am I your alpha, but I am also your guardian, your parent, for all intents and purposes. If there is something that you think is too big for you to handle, then you have to come to me. I don't care how stressed out I am or how much I am dealing with."
Artie nodded quickly and pressed his lips together.
"Eli?" I said.
"We didn't want anyone to panic," he muttered.
"I'm sure you had good intentions, but that's never been good enough. How bad is it?" I asked.
They both looked at the ground. Eli was still as a statue and Artie raised his hand to his mouth and chewed on his thumbnail.
This was exactly what I needed right now. Marcus had been right, I should've kept my mouth shut and not said anything.
"Lies like this will tear us apart. If you keep things from me, you send me out there vulnerable and if I don't have my two most trusted allies, then you send me out there to die."
Both of them looked up at the same time their eyes wide. Artie looked like he was on the verge of tears and when Eli saw that, he went pale with anger.
"That's not what this is. You know that," Eli hissed.
"Do I? Because there are obviously things that you two aren’t telling me, so what do I know? What should I have known?" I demanded.
Again, neither one of them answered me.
I spun on my heel and stormed back towards our house. The two of them followed me and as I stepped out into her yard and headed for the back patio, Marcus and Billie came out at the same time.
Marcus grabbed Billie and pulled her out of my way.
I headed into the house and heard Eli and Artie come up behind me.
I turned around to face them once more. We were in the hallway that led to the front door and behind me, I heard Lou's car stop and park.
"I can compel you. I don't want to, but I can make you tell me what you are lying about," I threatened.
Compelling a member of the pack was done under the gravest circumstances. It's what I used to call them to my side or, as I had during not night that the Ascendancy took me, to tell them to run.
Resistance was agony.
I had never used it on Artie before and only once before on Eli.
"Celia, please. We thought –" Artie began.
His eyes widened when he saw that Lou and Dante headed our way.
It was then that I realized whatever they were keeping from me had to do with them.
"I'm going to say it one more time. Tell me or I will compel you," I said through gritted teeth.
Artie looked over at Eli once more and Eli turned away from us.
He went into the kitchen and I heard him leaning up against the counter.
I heard the back door open and knew that Marcus and Billie were coming inside. Savannah was with them. Behind me, Lou and Dante also came into the house.
"My book, the one that came in when I was born," Artie began.
I nodded. Magic Of The Honored, it was called. I always thought that seemed a little arrogant.
"Right after we took Savannah to Miss Maricel's house, I realized that I hadn't gone through it in a while. I was looking through it and Eli came in. You know how it writes new instructions, gives me bits of history, new spells?" Artie said.
I nodded. He turned and went into the living room and I followed him. Everyone else followed after me and they stood behind me as Artie began to pace.
"The last page, it gave me instructions," Artie said.
He raised one trembling hand his mouth and began to chew on his thumbnail again. I remembered when he was a baby how he would suck his thumb. It took my mother months to break him of that habit.
"What did it say?” I asked.
Artie glanced up, behind me.
"The Deaths Of The Power And Virtue," he whispered.
Everyone in the house was silent, even Eli in the kitchen.
Artie began to pace again, faster now, and his words tumbled over one another. "I tore the page out. Burned it. But when I looked down, it was just writing the same thing again, on the same page. Remember how mom and dad tried to destroy it?" He didn't look up to see me nodding. "I can't get rid of it. Even if we hurled it into space, I am pretty sure it would still come back."
Behind me, I heard Dante sit down.
We had all taken for advantage of the fact that Lou and Dante were unkillable. And if they were, that meant that the rest of us would be as well, once they joined the pack. It was protection like we had never had before.
"Okay. Now tell me about the other books," I said slowly, trying to digest this news.
"I was looking up other books like mine. I was asking around, other Sentinels and other packs. If they had or heard of books like mine. No one did. I asked them to keep an eye out and they agreed. I guess Sentinel Harper found it, right?” He said and looked up at me.
I nodded.
"He was my best hope. The other books are scattered in different collections."
"Why do you want these books?" Lou asked.
"If they are copies of mine, then they have the same information. Which means they have the same instructions on how to kill you."
"Oh," Lou said. When I looked over my shoulder he was also sitting. His eyes were wide and glassy and he was staring blankly at the television behind me.
"And you didn't want to tell me this why?" I asked.
Artie looked up at me and stopped pacing abruptly. "Have you seen yourself lately? You're running yourself ragged. That stunts that you pulled with the rival pack last night? I don't know who that was. And it's not just me. That cold-blooded attitude that you had ran through the entire pack. We should have been worried or disgusted, but instead whatever you were feeling came through to us. Sure, it was self-defense. Yeah, they were stupid enough to come here after you told them not to. But how many times have we killed other shifters? Did you know that we left their bodies are out there? That I had to explain to the duende that we would take care of them? You didn't even notice Eli and I going out there last night to burn the bodies. That's not my sister. That's not how you have always treated the forest. So I had to figure out what this would do to you. How much farther it would push you over the line."
His reasoning pulled me up short and for a minute, I stared at him. Then I shook my head.
"But this kind of information, Artie- This is vital. If Lou and Dante can be taken out and there are step-by-step instructions in a book or a couple books, then I need to know. You don't get to keep that kind of information from me," I said.
Artie looked at me and for a second, I was surprised by the look in his eyes. "I don't get to keep information from you? What am I? Just another extension of you? Don’t I have my own independence? A chance to make my own decisions?"
"That's not what this is about, and you know it."
I could feel the anger rising up in my chest. If I had members of my own pack lying to me, then what did I have turn to?
"Isn't it? I tried to help you and you still look at me like I'm your baby brother."
"Because you are."
I couldn't understand why he was acting like this. I couldn't understand why he didn't come to me with this information in the first place.
"Even if I had told you, it wouldn't have changed anything. You would have given me just one more job. I mean, sure, you would've asked for my opinion and thought about what I said for a couple seconds before telling me what to do anyway. Because that's all I am to you. Just another means of power and just one more person to order around," Artie snapped.
I recoiled. His words felt like a slap to the face. "That's not true."
"Yes, it is. Every time you have a problem, something that you can't fight your way out of, you come to me and tell me to figure it out. Then you and Eli go in and save the day," Artie said.
"Whoa, guys. I think maybe –" Dante said and stood up.
"Stay out of this. It's not fair that she gets to have her say and I'm just passed over like everyone's little pet. Say I did tell you," Artie said and turned back to me. "Say I did tell you everything I knew. What would you have done? I'll tell you. You would have told me to call all of the sentinels and asked for books like mine. I did. You would have told me to ask if they had any information. I did. I thought that Eli and I were doing you and Lou and Dante a favor by not giving you one more thing to worry about."
"You lied to me," I repeated.
It seemed the last defense I had. Everything else he said was ringing true. I would've asked him to do exactly as he said and it would've been just one more thing for me to worry about.
"Maybe I did. But you aren't the only one that's getting stronger here, Celia,” Artie said. Once more, his words brought me up short. It wasn't a threat, not quite, but there was something there that was definitely a warning.
“I can't read your mind, but you're hiding something from us too. But I'm not going to threaten you and force you to tell me because I trust you. I don't understand why that doesn't work both ways," Artie said.
Artie hadn't been able to do that before. He didn't know when people were lying to him or at least tiny them half-truths. I opened my mouth and I was about to lie to him until I realized that it was pointless now.
Artie nodded like I had said that out loud. "Exactly. And whatever it is that you know, you told Marcus. Not Eli. Not me. But the guy who called you a monster and left you heartbroken. You told him before you told us," Artie said and stabbed a finger in Marcus’ direction.
I heard the back door slam and knew Eli was gone.
"Artie, I don't know what to say. Neither one of us is right here," I said.
"Maybe. But at least I took my own brother into my confidence rather than some two-faced asshole that betrayed you and will probably do it again when it's most convenient for him," Artie said.
He pushed past me and the others and I heard him go out the back door too.
When I turned, the others were looking at me.
"I'm going to go," Lou said softly and stood up. He left through the front door and I heard his car back down the driveway. Dante didn't move.
Savannah was gone and Marcus and Billie were left staring at me.
"I should probably head to the airport. I’ll wait there for Clint," Marcus said softly.
Billie sat down next to Dante on the couch.
From above me, I heard Savannah opening her bedroom door and digging around in her room. Then I heard her come back down the stairs and when she came into view, she was holding onto a lead box.
"I think you guys should see this," she said.
She sat down in the middle of the living room and opened the box. It smelled like old paper and ink and dead things.
She reached in carefully and pulled something out. It was wrapped tightly in old gray cloth and she set it on the coffee table. She pulled out a switchblade and cut through the twine that was holding it closed.
She peeled back the gray cloth and then we were looking down at a book that looked exactly like Artie's.
Everything, except for the title.
Wolf Of The Saints.
"Celia, why don't you try to open it and see what it says," Savannah suggested.
I glanced at her and then Dante and Billie before doing as she asked.
The first page that I came to, the words were dripping off the page in every single direction.
I stepped away and shook my hand. "Nothing. I can't read it."
Savannah frowned.
"It says that this book was meant only for the powerful," Dante said and stared down at the book with wide eyes.
Savannah looked up at him and I spun around to face him.
"You can read it?" I gasped.
He nodded and reached out to turn a page.
"Go to the very last page that you can read. That's where you should find instructions on how to kill you and Lou," I said.
"Cheery," he muttered but did as I asked.
When he finally got to the last page, he frowned at it.
"What?" I asked.
He shook his head. "That's not what it says."
"What does it say?!" Billie, Savannah, and I all yelled at him.
He stared down at the book, horrified. "The Death Of The Queen."