7. Chapter Seven
1448 Palabras
7
Chapter Seven
Bryar Rose
I slide into Knox’s jacked-up Mustang and worry my thumbnail with my teeth. Please let Elle be okay.
Knox slips into the driver’s seat. Instantly, his massive frame overpowers the car’s snug interior. It’s more than that, though. The guy has some kind of energy vibrating around him. It’s hypnotic and irritating all at once.
He pops open the glove compartment, pulls out a phone, and hands it to me. “For your friend.” Meaning he wants me to call Elle.
Those are the first words either of us has spoken since Knox agreed that he’s an ass. I swipe the phone out of his hand. “Thanks.” But the way I say that word? It sounds more like a version of screw you.
I dial Elle’s number and drum my fingers on my kneecaps. Knox revs up the engine and peels out onto the darkened street.
The line rings five times before Elle picks up. “Hello?”
“Elle, it’s me.”
“Hey.” She has a lazy, happy tone in her voice.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m great. Why?”
“Well, some bad things happened tonight.” Specifically, I killed our group therapy leader and burned your cabin down. “Maybe it’s best if I come over and we talk about it face-to-face.”
“Sure.” There’s a voice in the background. A male voice.
“Is someone there?”
“Oh, that.” There’s a rustle as Elle places her hand over the microphone. A muffled “Be quiet. I’m on with Bryar Rose” sounds in my ear. “It’s nothing.”
“It sounded like something.” That particular male voice registers in my memory. “Is Alec there?”
“Him?” She’s acting super-suspicious now.
“Yes, him. Alec LeCharme, the guy you’ve been not-stealing from for years. Knox already told me that he was going over to your place.”
“Um, sure. He’s here.” She makes a humming sound, which is something Elle only does when she’s really happy.
“And?” I know I shouldn’t have a snippy tone in my voice—especially since I just killed our group therapy leader (the first time, anyway) and burned down her cabin—but I can’t help it. An evasive Elle is an annoying Elle.
“And what?” asks Elle. More evasiveness. Grr.
“What’s going on?”
“He’s giving me a backrub.”
“Oh.” Elle is getting busy with Alec right now. I can’t believe it. Mostly because Elle is in the same club as me: the “sweet seventeen and never been kissed” club. We were supposed to tell each other the minute we smooched someone. And now I have to drag it out of her that she’s getting backrubs? This is not good.
“Oh?” Elle asks.
“Oh.” It’s another single word that I say in my screw-you tone.
“Don’t ‘oh’ me.” Another rustle sounds as Elle cups her hand over the mouthpiece of her phone. “It’s not like that. We’ve been talking. That’s all. He and I have some big things in common. We haven’t…you know.”
“Oooooh.” This time, my word is laced with relief. I’ve had enough shocks for one day. I don’t need to add my best friend holding out on me to the list. “You can tell me all about it when I get there.”
“I’ll try.”
That’s another totally evasive answer, but at this point, I’m done attempting to figure out what Elle is up to. This is the kind of conversation that’s best had face-to-face. “See you soon.”
“Bye.”
I end the call and hand the phone to Knox. He nods toward the dashboard. “You can put it back in the glove box.”
“Say please.” I’m still not done being testy with this dude.
Knox looks at me over his shoulder and, damn it, he’s smiling a little. That melts my heart a touch, which is something my brain did not authorize. He follows it with a sincere reply. “Please.”
That gets me right in the ticker. I toss the phone into the glove box, fold my arms over my chest, and turn to Knox. “We need to talk.”
The headlights of an oncoming car highlight the chiseled planes of his face, a detail I wish I didn’t notice. He sighs. “Sorry about being an ass before. You got questions. Let’s talk.”
A little more of my resistance slips away, damn it all. “What happened back there? Who are the Denarii really?” I’m starting to think my initial impression of them protecting magic wasn’t exactly accurate.
“Denarii are coins from ancient Rome.”
I roll my eyes. “You know what I mean.”
Knox huffs out a breath and runs his hand along his jawline. “How much do you know about the Book of Magic?”
“I’ve been collecting bits of it. I’ve got about a quarter of it put together and translated.”
“You do?” Knox stares at me.
I make shoo fingers at the windshield. “Eyes ahead, Knox.”
Slowly, Knox turns his attention back to driving. “That’s why Alec and I have been getting those bits of papyri. We’ve been trying to do the same thing.”
“You mean, put together the Book of Magic?”
“Yeah. We haven’t gotten anywhere near assembling a quarter of the text. We just got a small part put together.”
“About what?”
“Nothing.” He stares at me again like I hung the sun and moon. “You really assembled a quarter of it? I mean, the way you talked in Alec’s office, I thought you were just putting together bits and pieces of Alec’s papyri. Maybe you knew a phrase of two. I didn’t think you knew all about the Book of Magic.”
“I did, I do, and eyes front.” I point at the windshield again.
“What does your part say?”
“Nuh-uh. You answer me first. I asked you who the Denarii really are. The woman who attacked me in the cabin—she called herself a true Denarii.”
Knox sighs. “There’s no way to tell you about the true Denarii.”
I roll my eyes. “Sure, there isn’t.”
“You’ve assembled part of the Book of Magic. So you know about wardens and the fountain?”
“Yes. Wardens guard the three types of magic, all of which come from the fountain.”
“The stuff about the wardens and fountain, that’s all in the first half of the book. It’s easier to read and translate. What’s hard is the second half. It looks like—”
“A bunch of words strung together with no rhyme or reason.”
“Yeah. Alec thinks that if you rearrange the hieroglyphs in a certain way, then the words will make sense. It’s a hidden code. Whatever is hidden in those glyphs, that’s the most important part of the Book of Magic. It’s what the true Denarii want.”
I sink into the leather chair and contemplate this bit of news. “So, we’ve both translated parts of the book. If we merge our stuff together and then run it through some decoding programs, I might be able to find the pattern quickly enough. What does Alec think the code is about?”
Knox grips the steering wheel tighter. “It’s about how to find and activate the fountain. And how to bring back magic, or at least stop it from disappearing.”
I don’t like the way he’s grabbing that steering wheel for dear life. “Why do I get the feeling you’re holding back on me?”
“Because I am. Look, I don’t know you all that well, and this stuff, it’s between Alec and me. I’m telling you all I can.”
This is disappointing, but I get it. We’ve known each other less than a day, and he’s told me a lot. “I understand.”
A long minute passes before Knox speaks again. “Take the internship job with Alec. There’s a room in the LeCharme building that explains the Denarii.”
“Okay, I will.”
“Good.”
“Just answer me one thing. Am I still in danger from the Denarii?”
He frowns. “Yeah.”
I tap my lower lip with my pointer finger. “I lied. I have another question about the Denarii. Are all of them evil? Because the girl who works the front desk of the Midtown League seems really nice.”
“No. Someone that low level is probably fine.” There’s a world of experience behind that answer, but I get the feeling it will need to wait until I start my internship. All of which is cool with me. This night has been far more than I bargained for already.
“Okay. Thank-you.” And this time, there isn’t even an edge to my voice. “Not that you still aren’t an ass.”
“I get that a lot.” Knox tilts his head like he’s listening to someone else speaking.
I look around the car. “Do you hear someone?”
“Sort of. Sometimes my wolf...” Knox huffs out another breath. “He talks to me.”
“Oh. I didn’t know they did that.”
“Not all of them do. I’m lucky, I guess.”
I stare out the window and watch the lampposts fly by. The cityscape appears on the horizon. We aren’t far from Manhattan now. I think through everything Knox said. The fountain…the Book of Magic…and the three. I can’t wait to get back to my papyri with all this in mind.
But first, I have to tell Elle that I burned her cabin down. That won’t be easy.
- Autor
