Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 29381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 147(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29381 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 147(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)
Moments later, I stride into the library. Ronan sits in the room’s cozy armchair, studying Tabitha like an intriguing puzzle. I would be jealous if I didn’t know how crazy my twin is about his mate. And since Ronan is ridiculously happy with Kari and believes every wizard should follow in his footsteps, I’m convinced Ronan is plotting my downfall into an equally harmonious state.
Unfortunately, that’s not possible. Ronan somehow overcame the family curse. I never will. I don’t deserve Tabby anyway.
“Did you find anything useful? Or shall I take over preparing my family for burial?” she asks as I step farther into the room.
I send a glare my brother’s way. “So much for secrecy.”
“They’re her family. She has a right to be involved.” Ronan’s gentle chiding chafes.
I hate when my slightly older brother is right. “You may go.”
“I’m quite happy to. It’s painful to sit here and watch you make an ass of yourself.”
“Bugger off,” I say with mock cheer.
Ronan salutes and teleports away.
“Where are their bodies?” Tabby prompts.
“Let me worry about this. You have enough on your plate, dealing with grief and—”
“I need something to do to take my mind off the pain. I’ve been trying to figure out this puzzle so that my father’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain, but—”
“Tabby…” I sigh. She isn’t going to bloody let this go. “I found nothing except your father’s final update to The Peers and People of Magickind. It should be published next week.”
Tears pool in her hazel eyes. “He finished the update hours before he died.”
Her father’s work, primarily keeping said volume up to date with all the births, deaths, and matings of magical families has always confused me. “Everything he recorded was public knowledge. Why keep track of it? For posterity?”
She shrugs. “The older generations care about such things. Father loved his work passionately, enjoyed marking the passing of time by recording every magical family’s momentous occasions.”
“I can’t imagine sitting down to read page after page of someone’s family tree.”
My last word hangs in the air. We both freeze. My thoughts start whirling.
“Tree?” she chokes. “Father kept family trees for a living. Maybe…”
“…we’re not dealing with a real tree.” I rush across the room and grab her shoulders—and try to ignore the sting of desire that overwhelms me every time I touch her. “Do you know of any family tree your father kept secret?”
“No. He took care to correspond with all families, no matter how Privileged or Deprived. Most people volunteered their family changes. Deaths, while sad, were always promptly reported. Matings, usually happy occasions, as well. He didn’t always hear of a mate-breaking right away, but often within a few months.”
“Can you think of any circumstance in which that wasn’t the case?”
“No.” She pauses. “Wait! Just one. That same trip when my father took me to that mysterious office in London I mentioned. The evening before, he took me to a human hospital.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t remember. It was quite late, and I was so young. I just remember meeting a human couple. The woman had just given birth. She held her daughter once, cried, then gave the child to other humans. Her husband pleaded with my father to strike the child’s name from his books. I remember asking him who the family was, why he would ever record a human birth, and why they wanted to keep the baby a secret. He never answered except to say that I was never to repeat the incident to anyone. He never spoke of the humans again. That’s the only secret I can recall.”
I pace the airy room. “You went to the hospital before he took you to the office?” At her nod, I go on. “We must find that building. Do you remember anything? A street name? A landmark nearby?”
She frowns in concentration, then shakes her head. “Beyond a few vague memories, there’s nothing. “Sorry.”
I shouldn’t expect more now. She’s grief-stricken and overwrought. I don’t dare heap more on her while she’s hurting. More than anything, I wish I could hold her, soothe her, love her.
She would only push me away—with good reason. The best I can do now is find the “tree” her father died trying to protect and conceal it for good. That may be the only way to keep Tabby safe.
“If we can find that office, perhaps he left something there,” I suggest.
“Perhaps. But I wouldn’t know where to start looking for it.” She frowns. “Why would Mathias have a sudden interest in a human baby girl born roughly a quarter century ago?”
“I don’t know. But if there’s a connection, I’m going to find it. And deal with it. I don’t care if it takes my dying breath. Mathias will never come near you ever again.”
Tabitha
Raiden makes a call to Bram Rion in low, secretive tones that infuriate me. This is about my family and my future. Yet he intends to keep me in the dark?