I stepped up to it, placing my palm flat against it and bypassing all of the spells cast upon it, which would send anyone other than me or her scurrying away from this place long before they got close enough to touch the stone like this.
I pushed my magic into the rock, summoning the treasure buried within it and drawing out the gem hidden there until it sat shimmering in my hand.
I glanced around once more before pushing a flare of magic into the white opal gemstone, letting it read my magical signature and knowing it would alert my mom to my whereabouts.
I prepared myself for a long wait, not knowing what she might need to do to set up a cover story for her absence, but she appeared in a flash of stardust barely a heartbeat later, her arms flying around me as a relieved sob spilled from her lips.
“Oh my darling boy, I’ve been so worried,” she gasped, her head buried in my shoulder as I wound my arms around her in her grey dress. She looked like she’d been doing something official if her outfit was anything to go by and I got the feeling I had far more reason to be worried about her than the other way around.
“I’m fine, Mom. How about you guys?” I asked, concern lacing my voice for my family.
“Making the best of it,” she said, the anger in her tone clear as she drew back and wiped the tears from her face. My mother was a loving woman and she wasn’t afraid of her emotions, but she knew how to lock them down when she had to for her job and I could see that professional facade slipping over her now. “Don’t tell me anything about where you are. Just tell me the other boys are okay so that I can pass the message along to Tiberius and Antonia.”
“Yeah, we’re all good, Mom. I swear, you don’t need to worry. The Vegas are safe as well.”
She nodded, relief spilling through her eyes which were the exact same navy shade as my own.
“Good. I only have a few moments - I’m in a Council meeting with the so-called king and I just excused myself to the bathroom.”
“What the fuck, Mom?” I exclaimed, fear of them catching her out making my heart race.
“It’s fine. Much easier to slip out from under his nose than to try and do anything when I’m at the house. He has spies on all of us and though I’m confident I could bypass them if necessary, it is far simpler to do it this way. Now, take this.” She handed me a small journal bound in brown leather and I flipped it open, frowning at the empty pages.
“It’s linked to my scribing stone. Whatever I write on my stone will disappear from my end and reappear in this. We will pass you whatever information we can.”
“Why not just join us?” I begged but she was already shaking her head.
“We have to be close to him. You need people working against him from the inside and we’d never manage to get everyone out anyway. He will come for anyone we love or even just like if we try to turn from him. So far, in his arrogance he believes we are all content to serve him as we did the Savage King. We can let him go on believing that while you gather the strength you need to face him.”
“But what if he uses a Cyclops on you or Dark Coerces you or something even more powerful?” I hissed, clutching her hand like she might be about to leave me already.
“I’m not afraid of Lionel Acrux,” she scoffed. “He may have cheated his way into gaining command over the shadows, but he isn’t any more powerful than me. In fact, he’s barely an echo of the man his brother would have been if he’d come into his power instead of dying the way he did.”
Everyone knew the rumours about the apparent accident that had seen Lionel’s older brother Radcliff into an early grave, and there had long since been suspicions that Lionel was the one who was truly responsible for killing his brother off so that he could take his place without ever having to face him like Fae. His father had crushed the rumours at the time, but if the Lionel we now knew was anything to go by, then I was willing to bet that Radcliff’s death was nothing beyond cold blooded murder.
“Are you certain?” I asked, unwilling to let her go even though I could see her mind was set on this and there was never any changing it once she got like that.
“Yes, Caleb, don’t worry yourself about me. Just keep hold of that ledger and we will figure out the rest as we go along. Now unless you want them all to think I’m taking the world’s longest shit, I need to go.”
I breathed a laugh and let her pull me into a tight embrace once more.
“Keep the gemstone with you. Activate it if you get any information which leads you to believe my life is in danger or if Antonia or Tiberius’ lives are at risk then activate it to warn me of that too. Just press your power into it once if it’s my life that is in danger, twice in a row if it’s Antonia’s family and three times for Tiberius. If you do it four times then we will know that we all need to run. I’ll make sure we have plans in place if it comes to that.”