Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
“I hope for all our sakes he is,” Sloane says.
“Me too.” But I can’t ignore the little voice of intuition insisting we should head south.
When I get the package back to my room, any hope I’d felt since finding Dad’s research slips into pure frustration as I unwrap it from its parchment to find the locking mechanism that holds the thick, leather-bound book closed. It’s a six-letter lock, and if I get the answer wrong, there are six vials of ink spaced equidistantly around the edges of the paper, ready to destroy whatever my father left inside. Even worse, there’s a rune in the center that looks suspiciously like the one that makes things end badly if magic tampers with a lock.
Definitely need to spend more time studying runes.
I pick up the scrap piece of parchment Dad had stashed in a roll beneath the lock and read his formal handwriting again.
First love is irreplaceable.
Fuck. Nothing Dad wrote was ever this simple. So what the hell is that supposed to mean?
• • •
“Are we wasting time by overthinking this? It’s obviously Lilith, right?” Ridoc asks as we descend the steps into the pit a few days later.
“Dad would have wanted me to overthink. And if I’m wrong, we ruin whatever’s in there.” I tuck my jacket under my arm and scan the bottom of the amphitheater in hopes of seeing Xaden.
“Maybe we’re not thinking fatherly enough,” Rhi muses.
“Good idea. So maybe it’s Bren—” Ridoc counts out on his fingers. “Never mind, that has too many letters. Mira is too short, but what about Violet?”
“Honestly, it’s not like my dad to make it about himself. Both Lilith and Violet are too obvious.” We pass by the infantry already seated in the middle of the terraced rows and spot Calvin, the squad leader of one of the infantry units we’d been paired with during RSC. I nod, and he returns the gesture.
“Fine, then who was Brennan’s first love?” Ridoc asks as we near the bottom of the steps.
“There’s nine years between us. It’s not like he was filling me in on his romantic exploits—” I pause as Ridoc shuffles into his seat beside Maren. “Though I do remember Mira saying he’d been in a relationship with a rider a year or two older than him.”
“Guess that runs in the family.” Ridoc shucks his jacket.
“Are you guys still trying to figure out the password to open that damned book?” Cat asks, leaning forward and earning a backward glance from the first-years seated ahead of us.
“Obviously, or they wouldn’t be talking about it,” Trager says, resting his elbows on the rise behind him and leaning back.
“Space much?” Neve shoves his arm off the rise with her boot. “What book?”
“The one Violet’s father left her that everyone seems to think might have some information about where Andarna’s kind went,” Cat answers. I shoot her a look, and she shrugs. “What? No one on the squad is going to hand you over, and you obviously need some more opinions before you’re comfortable enough to actually try and input a password.”
Fair point, but still.
“Fine, who’s Mira’s first love?” Rhi asks, her gaze darting between Avalynn, Kai, and Baylor, who are seated as far apart as possible.
I think, tilting my head and fastening the conduit’s bracelet over the raw band of skin around my wrist. An hour of wielding a day is definitely helping me pull down more precise strikes, but my body is over it. “I’m not sure she’s ever really been in love. Or if she has, she’s never said anything to me about it.”
“You hadn’t even seen Xaden when your dad met Malek—” Ridoc stares at me and sighs with complete exaggeration. “Hello, who is your first love?”
Oh, that’s not happening.
I set my hands in my lap and notice more infantry pouring in above us. Nothing like being humbled in front of an audience. “My father couldn’t stand the first guy I really dated and never knew about the second.”
Aaric turns his entire torso around to look at me. “How many letters?”
I narrow my eyes. “Six.”
He lifts two sandy-brown eyebrows. “I mean…it fits.”
“Absolutely not.” Heat stings my cheeks.
“Hold on.” Ridoc’s head swings between the two of us. “Is the first-year entitled to information we don’t have—”
“Good afternoon.” Xaden’s voice fills the amphitheater as he strides in from a tunnel on the right, dressed in sparring gear that immediately has all my attention. Surprisingly, Garrick is at his side.
“Ooh, Imogen is going to love having class today— Ow!” Ridoc reaches for the back of his head.
“Riders, if you’ll take your positions as you did last class.” Xaden motions to the rings of cobblestone outside the mat. “Hopefully no one gets performance anxiety, because as you can see”—he gestures to the seats behind us—“we have a full house today.”