As Kade nodded, Violet clapped her hands together. “I was in the newly unsealed magic library when you called,” she said, her voice trilling with excitement. “I might have actually found some information to help with that.”
She took off. I was right behind her, and even though he was quiet and graceful, a two hundred and fifty pound male couldn’t follow without making some noise, so I knew Kade was there too. My guards fell in next to him, all of us chasing the magic born. Violet’s hair whipped around her as she ran, and more than one surprised face turned in our direction. When they saw me in the midst, most of them averted their eyes, but some couldn’t seem to turn away. Couldn’t really blame them. We were an odd bunch. Especially the blood-spattered bear king.
Violet let us up three flights of stairs, past the late queen’s private storeroom and into the small room filled with magical tomes, most of which were unreadable for all except magic born.
Jesabele and Seamus were already in the room, both of them with their heads bent over studying books, white hair reflecting off the magical light they must have all created. The room was very well lit, much brighter than the lighting originally in here. Everything was actually really clean too, which had to be their doing since this room had been sealed under the Red Queen’s reign and only just now was opened. Walking deeper in, the room was much larger than I originally expected. At least ten by ten foot, shelves lining each wall from floor to ceiling. There were thousands of books. Some small, others huge. The moment I crossed into the room I felt a heavy pulse of magic; these books had old magic hidden within their words, I could sense it dancing across my skin.
“Are all of these about the Otherworld?” I asked, my voice breathless. “All fae magic?”
Violet shook her head. “Not directly. Most of these books are the long lost magic of the witches, but many of those spells are still fae in origin.”
“Not so long lost after all,” Blaine said, staring around. He’d fallen back with my other dominants near the doorway, all of them peering in to get a better look.
Violet’s expression went dark then, shadows crossing over her. “It annoys me greatly that they have kept all of this information hidden. This is the rightful domain of magic born shifters. We’re the descendants of witches.”
The gene which triggers a magic born shifter to be born runs in a few specific family lines. They were the long-ago children of shifter and witch couples, and even though witches have not been seen since the dark war, random magic born continue to be born. Genetics are a funny thing.
“So tell me everything of importance you’ve learned.” I took control of the room; the other two magic born were on their feet now, staring at me. “I want to know absolutely everything which might help us defeat the fae in battle.”
Seamus crossed in front of me, and I wondered what he was doing as he disappeared behind a bookshelf. He was back in moments, dragging this huge white board across the room so we could all see it. I focused on the writing, recognizing my friend’s messy scrawl. The words Operation Nuke Fae were up the top, underlined five times. I shook my head at Violet; this was typical of her, completely not-politically-correct. Beneath the title were dozens of bullet point notes. I started from the top:
Tuatha de Danann are thought to be immortal. They do not age and die, but can be killed by magic and by weapon. Never underestimate them, they’re very difficult to kill.
Weaknesses – they can burn out on mecca if they are forced to absorb too much of it or if they have too little of it at their disposal. Their magical objects of power are tied to all of their lives, and having one in your possession can control the mecca power of the court it originated from.
They cannot lie, but do a very good job of telling half-truths.
They struggle to produce young. Their long lives have slowly lessened the amount of Tuatha young that are born.
Their magical essence can be trapped during a special binding process, weakening them considerably. Iron can hurt them, as well as some manmade plastics and metals.
The five boroughs when divided are weaker. They must be joined to be at full power.
This point gave me a moment’s pause. What did that mean? Could Kade and my friendship, the first royal alliance in hundreds of years, actually be a thing that helped us in this battle? Did we just have to figure out a way to join our powers? How did we do that? Shaking my head, I read a few more points.
The mecca is a blanket of energy which zaps constantly between the many mecca stones, on both sides of the veil. It flows between the two sides, keeping balance.
The mecca can easily move between both sides. All of the stones are joined.
Holy crap. I stopped reading at this point; this was information which could be vital in our battle against the fae. Kade, reading over my shoulder, his heat wrapping around the back of me, moved closer as he said: “So if all of the stones are joined, it stands to reason we should be able to move the energy between them.” He had reached the same conclusion as me.
Violet jumped in then. “Yes, so now that you know you can tap into the mecca energy, see and feel it through the stones, we just need to figure out how to move it around. Visualize where it needs to go and restore the balance.”
“When I touch it, I feel this massive consciousness,” I said slowly. “Almost like there are thousands of different facets to the stone’s energy, but maybe it’s the other stones I’m feeling. How did the energy move here in the first place though? What did the Red Queen do to make that happen?”
Had she used the mecca stone to start this pull of energy? It was too big a coincidence that the mecca energy changed the night she died. We already knew she’d done something to it. Now it was about figuring out what.
Jesabele was still holding her book, clutching it tightly to her chest. “It’s almost as if the Red Queen had some sort of trigger in place. Upon her death the mecca would shift toward the Earth side. It has to be a spell, but so far we haven’t found anything with that sort of power.”
I let deep breaths calm me. Not only was the queen’s death upsetting, the mess left behind for me to clean up was getting harder and harder to crawl through.
“Keep researching, I’m going to go and speak with someone who might be able to help.”
I’d been thinking since the night I found myself in the brownstone across the city, that there was another reason Calista had sent me to the secret house with the special key. Like she wanted me to know there was someone with vast knowledge who I should be utilizing. Sir Baladar. After all of these years, he had to know some information which might help us.
Chapter Eight
All that glitters is a gold mine of information.