Thrall of the Vampire King (Blood Fire Saga Book 4) by Bella Klaus (elon musk reading list .txt) 📕

I hadn’t given the firestone any thought since Kresnik had stolen my power. “How—”

“Remember what I told you about items sinking into the skin of fire users like you?”

I chewed on my bottom lip. Aurora had mentioned in the hallway that Gail used to have the same problem until she had learned to control her magic. It had sounded like a dig at the time because Aurora hadn’t offered to teach me how to stop my flesh from absorbing items.

“You still have the phoenix feather from Father Jude?” she whispered.

“Yes.” I showed her the tattoo on the palm of my hand.

She nodded. “Good. Go to my room and take the stone from under my pillow. If you draw upon its magic and concentrate, every ounce of your power that it absorbed will return to you.”

“Is that a lot?”

“Enough to power your transformation and fly you out of the wards.”

“Don’t do it,” Hades whispered.

My throat dried. Of course he would dissuade me—he needed me to free his jars, not fly off into the sunset. There was no reason I couldn’t do both.

“Why did you keep the firestone if it was full of power?”

She squeezed her eyes shut. “A keepsake of what I never got to have for myself. We spent so long trying to perfect your soul and bring you to life, and it took such a toll on my body that Father Jude forbade me from having any other children of my own.”

My heart sank. Aurora had hinted that she had sacrificed a lot to bring me into being, but I’d been too angry with her to ask for details. “Thank you for telling me. When I get the magic, I’ll come back for you—”

“No.” She squeezed my hand. “If I flicker in this condition, there’s no telling what it will do.”

I glanced at the Dharma salt on her back. It had already absorbed a lot of the heat and was turning a pale yellow. With enough applications of the substance, we might get Aurora’s burning flesh under control. I kept this information to myself, waiting to see how the treatment went.

“Where do I find your room?” I asked.

“It’s next to yours.”

A wave of surprise swept through my insides, making me hold on to the edge of the treatment table. I lowered myself into the seat at her bedside and caught my breath. Everything Aurora had said indicated that she wanted to stay close to me.

My throat thickened. “You said Kresnik punished you for failing to get something from the realm of the gods. What was it?”

“A specific eagle,” she replied, her voice bitter. “Father Jude has been searching for it since before I was born, yet Kresnik chose to vent his frustrations on me.”

I squeezed her hand. “I’m sorry.”

“Miss Griffin,” Hades whispered into my ear. “A team has arrived from the Supernatural Council with a bracelet devoid of phoenix flames. If you want to know about the eagle, I will tell you all about it, but we must leave, now.”

Aurora closed her eyes, and I checked on her dressings. The salt remained pale, indicating that it could extract no more heat. After I murmured goodbye, I rose from the seat and headed out of the room.

Healer Calla was no longer in the reception area, so I continued to the refectory and grabbed a chicken, mayonnaise, and sweetcorn sandwich still with the Marks and Spencer labels. I slipped a raisin and biscuit Yorkie and bottle of apple juice into my pocket before following Hades’ directions to the grounds.

Outside, only the barest misting of clouds hung low within a sky the shade of lapis lazuli, and the setting sun colored the horizon a glorious haze of scarlet. The cool wind swirled around my hair, blowing red strands into my face.

The pyre continued to burn on the lawn beyond the trees and with only a pair of men stoking the flames with long branches. Hades directed me to a section of the gardens containing gigantic fennel plants with umbrella-shaped clusters of tiny yellow flowers.

“Why would anyone put your ashes in there?” I asked.

“That’s the plant he used to siphon fire from the phoenixes and inject it into humans,” Hades replied. “I expect it has sentimental value.”

My brows rose. I was pretty sure that in the stories, Prometheus stole the fire from the forge of a blacksmith, but Beatrice once mentioned that the internet contained fake news. I couldn’t trust everything I read on the internet.

As I approached the fennel, licorice filled my nostrils, and magic pulsed against my skin, making my steps slow. Pausing ten feet away from the shrub, I crouched low and peered at something moving about within its dense foliage.

“Hades,” I whispered. “Do you know what’s causing—”

Something small and furry shot out of the bushes and jumped into my arms. I fell onto my ass, wrapping my arms around the warm little package.

“What is that?” he hissed.

I stroked Macavity’s back, brushing the dried leaves and fennel seeds from his fur. “What were you doing under there?”

He purred and batted my neck with his warm head.

“Valentine said you were out hunting…” My arms closed around his small body.

“Does that hellcat belong to you?” Hades asked.

“Macavity’s attached to the Royal House of Sargon,” I said, not wanting to confide in Hades that the cat had returned from Hell to take care of the children I would have with Valentine. That was none of his business.

“Order him to fetch the jar,” he said. “It’s half-buried within its base.”

I rubbed the spot of fur between his pointed ears. “Macavity isn’t a servant.”

“Then you crawl on your belly beneath the fennel leaves and get it out,” he said with a sneer.

I narrowed my eyes. Hades hadn’t been this testy while we were retrieving the jar from Kresnik’s room. Had my mother-daughter bonding session triggered him? If he was really the Greek god, his father would have been Cronos, who had swallowed him after he was born. A shudder ran down my spine.