My head snapped around just in time to see the doors ricocheting from the aftereffects of a magical hit. Reinforcements had arrived.
My blood sang the thought of another brawl.
“Go. Jericho will help you,” Decima said, pulling my attention back to her.
“That’s not the only reason why I came here.”
A spark of understanding flashed in her eyes. “I thought you wanted nothing to do with him.”
“Can I borrow a computer?” I asked her.
By way of answer, she gestured to a row of them that lined the wall. “I’m not going to hold off the authorities,” she said as I moved over to one of the computers, “and I don’t know how much longer that spell of yours will hold,” she said, eyeing the door.
I’d woven a spell?
“It’ll hold,” I reassured her.
I slid into the seat and shook the mouse. The home screen was already up. I clicked onto the Internet and typed a single name into the search bar.
Asiri.
“If you wanted information on Asiri, you should’ve just asked.”
“Stop reading over my shoulder,” I said, not looking away from the screen.
“I’m not,” she said to my back, and I could hear the amusement in her voice.
Fate, my mind whispered. She could see my future better than Leanne did. I searched and searched, but all that came up were links to nonsense.
Lydia handed a book over my shoulder. “This you’ll find more helpful.”
“Thanks,” I muttered.
The Book of Forgotten Names, Vol. XXVII
BOOM!
The broken doors shook again, and I funneled a bit more of my power to them.
The book was thin and clothbound, the color a washed-out black. I thumbed through the yellow pages and skimmed the table of contents for what I was looking for.
There it was, third chapter. Asiri.
I flipped to it and read the first paragraph: Asiri was an ancient Egyptian name for Osiris, the god of the Underworld. Aside from his proper name, the god was also referred to as “Lord of Love,” “He Who is Permanently Benign and Youthful,” and “Lord of Silence.”
I reared back from the text. “‘Lord of Love’?”
“That is why I remain undecided,” Lydia said quietly.
I glanced up at her.
“There once was virtuousness in him. Apparently, there still is. That he shared this name with you is a good sign. Every time you invoke it, you lend it power, restorative power.”
“What are you getting at?” I tightly clenched the book. Two sentences was all it took to unbalance me completely.
“Even gods are malleable. Bad to good, good to bad, they strengthen and weaken based on our belief in them. And,” she cupped my chin, “your belief in him is especially important because he will rise or fall to it.”
Just like what Morta said all those weeks ago.
I held her gaze for several seconds. “You mean he really is capable of good?”
“Yes.”
“And what happens if he … changes?”
“That is what the world is holding its breath to find out. ‘The future is yours to claim.’”
Chapter 13
Gabrielle
I was so, so troubled.
Leaving a monster, that was one thing, but leaving a being so capable of good he was once considered the Lord of Love? And I might have the power to coax that love out of him?
I’d seen hints of this side of him, I just hadn’t trusted them. Should I trust them now? What would it mean for the world to have a god like Osiris reigning hell?
I ran a hand through my hair and drew in a shuddering breath. I pushed all thoughts of him away as I dropped my spell and the broken doors of Peel’s library collapsed.
Outside, supernaturals were losing their ever-loving shit.
Someone had released the professors I’d pinned to the earth, and since I’d visited Decima, the number of men and women waiting for me had tripled.
Helicopters hovered overhead, circling and circling, their search lights directed on the school’s lawn. The patrol cars and tanks had returned. The Politia was back. Apparently they were gluttons for punishment.
Gingerly, I stepped over the splintered wood.
A spell slammed into me, knocking me back into the doorframe. Another followed on its heels, and another. My eyes fluttered at the onslaughts, and I gripped the doorframe until wood splinted.
I could taste magic in my mouth, bitter and acrid, and feel it sizzle against my skin. They’d upped their game this time, adding spells against me.
I was going down. They’d finally found a way to incapacitate me. I drew in a raspy breath when something changed.
Like flipping a switch, the pain that assaulted my body turned into a current, and the current became power. I clenched my jaw as I pushed myself up, ignoring the sharp burn I felt on the pads of my fingers when I cut myself on a jagged edge of the debris.