Blue Blood (Series of Blood Book 3) by Emma Hamm (books to read this summer .txt) 📕

on him. He wanted a real bath. Not a dip in a freezing cold river before tromping through the woods. Just having hot water on his skin would change him into a different man.

He couldn’t until Mercy was here. Then they could share the heat of that shower, since he hadn’t managed to get her into the fire as he had promised.

Jasper shook his head to clear his thoughts. “She’s the next part of the prophecy. Mercy is.”

There was a pause before Lyra blinked and said, “You’re sure of that?”

“As sure as any of us can be.” He pointed at Wolfgang. “Did you know immediately with him?”

“I’m still not sure about him,” Lyra replied with a smirk.

The subject of their conversation scoffed loudly. “I don’t think anyone questions what I’m capable of.”

Jasper wasn’t going to argue with him there. They had all seen what the Magician could turn into. Part Black Magic, part Lich King, there wasn’t a sane person in the world who would challenge Wolfgang.

“I think it’s in the power,” Jasper said quietly. “We’re gathering people capable of doing things that no one else can do.”

Wren leaned forward. “It makes sense. E has more knowledge than anyone in the world. Wolfgang can raise the dead into an army, and his power is almost limitless in his other form. If Mercy truly is another part of our prophecy, then what is she capable of?”

“She’s a Phoenix.”

Wren’s voice warped into that otherworldly voice of thousands as her eyes turned white. “I thought they were all dead?”

“There was one left. Ignes was a baby when the dimensions combined. They grew up together, in a way. But there’s more.”

“More?” E’s voice deepened. “What is she capable of?”

“It’s not quite what she’s capable of but what she can be ordered to do.”

So he told them. He told them everything that had happened from the moment he had woken up in a cell, to the massacre that had happened in the camp. He told them of impossible creatures, Giants and great winged beasts. And when all the words had finally tumbled out of his mouth, Jasper looked up to find them all staring at him in disbelief.

“What the hell have you been smoking?” Lyra was the first to speak.

“I’m not smoking anything.”

“What you’re saying is not possible. Humans can’t grow twenty feet tall. And they absolutely don’t have horse halves. What did she do to you?”

Jasper held his hands up. “Nothing. I swear that’s really what happened.”

He didn’t expect any of them to believe the story. Hell, if he’d been listening to one of them tell it, he would have laughed and called them crazy. But he’d seen it all himself. His life had been changed by meeting those magical creatures.

Wren’s eyes flipped back to their normal coloring. “E says it’s possible. Apparently there’s some small chance that magic may be changing this world.”

“I’d have to see it to believe it,” Lyra grumbled.

Surprisingly, it was Wolfgang who came to Jasper’s rescue. “I exist,” the Magician said. “And if that’s possible, then I would very much like to meet this woman who is not entirely human.”

“She’s not the nicest of people,” Jasper said with a smile. “But she’s got a good heart. She has a great capacity for love. I’ve seen how she was with those creatures, her people. I believe she is the one we’re looking for in the prophecy.”

“If you believe it,” Burke spoke up for the first time since Jasper began his tale, “then that’s good enough for me.”

“Now we just have to ask Pitch to bring her back,” Wren said with a laugh. “I’m certain he will. He’s a painfully secretive person. I can only imagine the look on his face when he realized she went with him. I would have given my left hand to see that.”

They would have all laughed if Pitch’s quiet voice hadn’t echoed from the shadows.

“I’ll keep that in mind for the next bet I make with you,” Pitch said as he stepped from the corner of the room. “I’m not sure what I’ll use your left hand for, but I think it will be an entertaining new toy.”

Jasper looked at the corner, but no one else emerged from the shadows. Mercy should have been with Pitch.

He had always thought Pitch looked out of place inside Haven. His shadows stuck to the walls like inky tentacles. The golden walls and red ceiling did little to compliment the man’s natural shade of pale. In fact, it made him look sickly.

“Where is Mercy?” Jasper asked.

Pitch remained silent.

“Where is Mercy?” he repeated as he slowly stood.

“I believe she may be with Malachi.”

Anger darker than he had ever felt before stilled the blood in his veins. Jasper straightened to his great height and squared his shoulders, fists clenched.

“She was with you. She was supposed to be safe.”

“Even I cannot stop Malachi.”

“She was supposed to be safe!”

Jasper was a vessel filled only with rage as he charged towards Pitch. His wings flared out behind him, and Bluebell did not dissuade him from the fight.

On the contrary, she shrieked her own little battle cry. “Rip out his teeth!”

Jasper planned on doing so, until a wall of blue light stopped him in his tracks. Wolfgang held a hand out, guiding his runes in their aerial dance. Try as he might, Jasper could not push past the magic. Pitch hadn’t moved.

“I’m going to kill you,” Jasper growled. “You should have been watching her. Instead you gave her back to that monster!”

Pitch shrugged nonchalantly. “Just thought you’d like to know.”

The shadows reached for him, and he disappeared into their loving grasp.

“Jasper!” Lyra screamed. “Jasper, what has gotten into you?”

“He should have been watching her.”

“Because she’s part of the prophecy? This isn’t the first time someone has been kidnapped because of that. Wren was too. Remember? Jasper, we’ll get her back.”

His wings clacked together in agitation. “We almost didn’t get Wren back.”

“But we did. Wolfgang, drop the damn shield.”

“He might hurt you.” The Magician kept his