“Enough eye-fucking and whatever else you’re doing.” Ash adjusted himself again. “I may not see it, but I can feel it. Just stop.”
Warwick lifted a brow, drinking his coffee, while I still sensed his hands and mouth moving down to my thighs.
“Warwick,” I chided. “Stop.”
He grinned mischievously, going back to his pastry.
“Think I’m going to be wishing for the days you two still pretended to hate each other.”
“Oh, we still do.” Warwick’s eyes caught mine through his lashes so intensely my lungs stumbled for air.
“Hate fuck me later.” Warwick’s link nipped my ear.
I slammed down the link between us, producing a chuckle from him.
“Hey.” Ash waved his hand in front of my face, pointing to the book. “Focus.”
Taking a deep breath, I shook off the lust still clinging to me, putting all my attention on the book.
The energy pulsed off it, zeroing on me immediately. I felt it yearn for my touch. My hand tentatively curled away from the power.
“I have you.” Ash laced his fingers with mine, moving closer to the book. “A tether to reality if you need it. There is a wall behind you, so you can’t fall this time.”
Nodding, I tightened my fingers around his warm hand, feeling secure and safe.
“Do I just go in? Will it know what I want?”
“Yes, the book knows your desire, but it’s always nice to ask for permission. They are of the old ways, where manners and etiquette go far. But be clear and concise... they are known to twist interpretation if it is not exact.”
“What am I asking again? Where this nectar is?”
“Yes, what has happened to it.” Ash squeezed my hand again, probably sensing my nerves. “You ready?”
“Yep.” I nodded, my throat tightening. To others, the book showed them the past, but I became part of it and could be trapped in there forever.
“Close your eyes and clear your mind,” Ash spoke softly, his sexy voice soothing and calming. He took our joined hand to the pages.
“Brexley Kovacs,” the inhuman raspy voice boomed into my head. “The girl who challenges nature’s laws wants more from me? Have I not shown you enough?”
“Yes.” I swallowed. “You have been most kind and helpful. Thank you.”
“But you want more?”
“I was hoping you would show me what happened to this substance called nectar. What happened to it after China? It was last with a Dr. Novikov.”
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“That you should be asking me.”
“Why is that?”
“You only get one question,” the book replied robotically. “And you already asked it.”
“No—wait! Let me ask again!” I knew I hadn’t been clear enough, my question way too general.
“Too late, child of the gray.”
A blast tore through my body as images whirled in my mind—visions and scenes of the past, like I was scrolling through time. This time from past to present, moving through time so quickly, my stomach heaved with bile.
Coming to the final written page, everything stopped. The page I landed on was blank, and I could feel with every breath, ink was scrolling over the sheet, writing the moment in present time.
A cool, damp chill shivered over my skin as I took in the carved rock walls and low ceiling, man-made archways forking off into a labyrinth of passages. Only a few fire bulbs flickered on the walls, creating ghostly shadows. Nerves twisted in my gut, the familiar dank smell sparking a deep-rooted fear in my body. The taste of adrenaline on my tongue tripped me back to a time Killian’s guards were hauling me through an underground tunnel to my doom.
Intuition told me this location didn’t just remind me of the maze underneath Killian’s palace. It was the same place.
A pull moved me toward a mostly empty vestibule. There was a lone table in the middle—an altar with items spread over it. I couldn’t decipher what was on it from where I was, but I knew it was not of the old human religion which used to dominate this area. I noticed a discolored shape on the wall where a cross used to hang but was no longer.
Stepping closer to the altar, the sound of a dry hacking cough behind me spun me around, my heart thumping in my chest. A shadowy figure shuffled down a dark passage near me. I couldn’t see any features, but it appeared feeble and old, each step slow and uneven.
Then it stopped. Awareness prickled at my spine.
“Hello? Is someone there?” The low, crackly voice clicked something in the back of my head, gnawing on my subconscious. “Show yourself! I can feel someone there.”
Before I could figure out why it felt familiar, the book yanked me out.
“No!” I screamed, not ready to be taken away yet.
Whoosh.
Darkness shrouded me, everything spinning as the book hurled me out.
My head slammed back, my lids bursting open, but instead of hitting stone, a hand cushioned my skull. Warwick’s large, warm palm cupped the nape of my neck, like he sensed my head was about to hit the wall before it happened.
“Brex?” Ash’s worried green eyes were in my face, his brows furrowed. “You okay?”
“Yea-yeah.” I licked my lips, my mind still swirling, my stomach rolling with nausea.
“It kicked you out really fast.” Ash squatted down in front of me. “Did it show you anything?”
“I don’t know.” My forehead wrinkled with the flashes and images. Warwick’s hand didn’t move; his fingers threaded softly through my hair, easing down my shoulders. “It was strange. Doesn’t make sense...”
“What?” Ash prodded.
“I think it took me to the tunnels underneath the palace.”
“The tunnels?” Warwick dropped his hand away, tilting his head.
“Yeah, but they weren’t the exact ones they took me down to get to Halálház. This felt like a different area.” I rolled my lips together. “Someone was there, and... they sensed my presence.”
“They sensed your presence?” Ash’s eyes widened.
Nodding, I added more. “It was in real time... not the past. I was there right now.”
Ash’s brows shot up. “What? Right now, as in this moment?”
My head bobbed again, watching Ash pinch his nose, confusion and astonishment mixed on his face. Everything about my interaction with the book defied the rules.
“I could feel the book recording every step and movement,” I stated. “Writing present history.”
“Fucking hell.” Ash scoured his face, muttering under his breath.
“Did you see them?” Warwick asked.
“No... they were in the shadows” I started to shake my head, though a prickle of something kept dragging across my gut. “It showed me what looked like some underground room... an altar, I think. I got the feeling it was once used for the old religious practices.”
“An altar?” Ash’s eyes widened as he stood up. “In a cave?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Faszom,” Ash muttered, tipping his head back.
“What?” Warwick rose warily.
“I know exactly where the book showed her... and neither of you is going to like it.”