“You know I can’t do that.”
“Let me see her, and I’ll give you the mirror.”
“As you’ve already discovered, you can see your sister in the mirror,” he says.
I don’t even want to know how he knows that. Images of his spies watching me in my chambers flash through my mind and make me shiver. But no. Surely he’s just guessing. “That’s not good enough.”
He shrugs. “It will have to be. It’s all I can offer. Have you enjoyed that this past week? Having the image of whatever you ask at your fingertips?”
I shake my head. “I want to see her. In person.” It’s been too long, and her absence is a constant awareness at the back of my mind.
“Have a seat.” Mordeus waves and a decanter filled with dark red liquid appears in his hand. “Let’s drink to your success.”
Drink faerie wine. Hard pass. “No, thank you.”
“I insist.” He pours two glasses and nods to the empty chair beside him. “We drink, and then I will tell you of the next relic I need you to retrieve so that you may see your sister in person all the sooner.”
Games. He’s playing games with me. Clinging to the last of my patience only because I have no choice, I enter the room and sit. When he passes me a glass, I accept it, hoping to speed him along.
Mordeus lifts his glass. “To power,” he says. I arch a brow, and he pauses with the glass halfway to his lips. “No?”
“In my world, power means the ability to cheat someone out of their life, their choices, and their free will.” His piercing gray stare burns into me, and I feel like he sees too much. I roll the glass between my hands and study the liquid. “I don’t care to toast to power.”
“To what would you like to toast?”
I meet his gaze and let the silence hang heavily for a beat before I raise my glass. “To promises kept and delivered.”
“Ah, yes. Your concern is still your sister.” He nods. “I will toast to that, as I look forward to you delivering on yours.” His smile sends an uneasy chill up my spine as he taps his glass to mine.
I watch him drink and sit with my wine untouched for several long minutes before he releases an exasperated sigh. “We won’t be discussing the information you’re waiting for until you drink, girl.”
I want to argue, but what’s the point? Everything’s about power to this male, who’s stolen most of his. He will not stand for even this small defiance. I take the smallest sip possible. The wine is sweet and velvety, and it spreads warmth through my chest. “The second relic?” I prompt.
He smirks. “Such a taskmaster you are. Don’t you want to enjoy your wine for a moment?”
I glare at him. Hard.
Mordeus leans back in his chair. “The second relic is called the Grimoricon, and it will be much trickier to retrieve than the mirror.”
Of course it will. I can’t expect Sebastian to hand over everything I need to get my sister back. Though I’m beginning to believe he would—for me, for Jas. If only telling him wouldn’t void my bargain with Mordeus. “What is the Grimoricon?”
“You may know it as the Great Book. It’s the sacred text of Faerie, and it contains the earliest spells and magic from the Old Ones.”
“A book?”
He takes another swallow of his wine. “Of sorts. Something that powerful cannot be contained by pages alone, so like all the greatest magical texts, it can change its shape and appearance.”
“Into what?” I don’t feel any ill effects from my sip of wine, so I brave another. It is truly delicious. Besides, if he wants me to retrieve this book, drugging me senseless won’t help.
“Into anything, my girl. It can and will turn itself into anything if it senses danger.”
A book that senses danger and changes form. Looks like we started out with the easiest of the relics. “Where is it?”
“That I cannot answer. The Seelie Court stole it during the war and has guarded it since, though it belongs to my court and its magic cannot be used by the golden fae.”
“Then why did they steal it?”
He takes another sip and stares off into space, as if flipping through millennia of memories to find the answer. “The same reason they’ve taken everything else. To weaken us.”
“You’re saying you want me to find a book that could be anywhere in the Seelie Court and that could look like anything?” It’s worse than a needle in a haystack. At least when you come across the needle, you know you’ve found what you’re looking for. I could be sleeping next to the Grimoricon each night and never know it.