“I know...”
“Know what?” He rose, leaning on his forearm, watching me get dressed, his free hand rubbing his nose. “Why do I smell lube?”
Chirrrp? Bitzy peered around innocently, her ears going down, eyes wide, motioning to Opie.
“That was all her!” Opie pointed back at her, his head waggling. “I just used it to warm my toes.”
Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! She flung her fingers at Opie.
“I did not stick my toes in Fishy’s ears!”
“What?” My hands went up, rubbing them.
“She’s kidding.” Opie swished his hand.
Bitzy looked at me deadpan, her head shaking in “no, I’m not.”
“Seriously, gross.” I used my shoulders to rub my ears as I yanked on my boots.
“I swear, imp...” Warwick growled. “If those bony fingers get anywhere near me again... I’m biting them off, using them as toothpicks, and then showing you where the thing on your head is really meant to go.”
“Warwick!” I stood back up, dressed, yanking his attention back to me. “I know how to break my father’s code.” I tossed his pants to him. “Get up.”
He shoved the blankets away, jumping out of bed.
Even in this moment, I couldn’t help but gape at his unbelievable physique, his muscles flexing and moving under his inked skin. The memory of how it felt over me... inside me.
Chhhiiiiiiirrrpppp. Bitzy let out almost a breathy whistle.
“Yeah...” Opie sighed. “That is the largest and thickest vacuum hose I’ve ever seen.”
Warwick snorted, his heavy gaze on me while he yanked up his trousers.
“Keep looking at me like that, Kovacs, and the only thing we’re gonna do is break the bed into more pieces.” He strolled up to me, tucking strands of tangled hair behind my ear, his heat and lust encompassing me.
He laughed at my hesitation, kissing me quickly, and twisted me around, pushing me for the door. “Later, I’m fucking you in the shower.”
My chest expanded, my thighs tightening at the idea, but I had to shake it off. This was far more important right now.
The clock on the wall read 9 a.m. The hallways were sprinkled with people moving around, the workout room and dining area buzzing with life as we moved to the operations room.
Ling sat at one of the stations, the journal in front of her, scribbling something on a piece of paper next to it. Her head rose when we neared.
“I have not solved it,” she replied. “I have been through every type of encryption out there.”
“I might know. At least one line.” I swallowed nervously. Was I right? What if it came to nothing? Just a strange dream. “Can I?”
She shrugged, shoving it to me.
I looked over the markings on the page, my heart thumping in my chest. The song echoing in my brain. The symbols were the only thing on the page that didn’t correspond to a letter—they were numbers. It might take longer to figure out the rest of the encryption if he used another code, but at least I was certain I had one part of it.
Perspiration licked at my lower back, my hands shaking as I wrote down the memory still strong in my mind. The dove, rose, forget-me-nots, violets, and a boat.
Dove=47°, rose=46’25, forget-me-nots=18°, violets=59’06.
But what did the boat mean?
Ling’s head snapped up as her dark eyes filled with guarded curiosity.
“The code is based off a folksong he used to sing to me.” I tapped the page. “But I’m not sure why the boat is there?” It didn’t fit. Was it to throw people off? Was I wrong?
Ling moved, tapping the numbers into the keyboard, her body stilling, her mouth parting.
“What?” Dread slithered down my throat, wrapping around my stomach.
She twisted the screen to us, a place on the map highlighted.
“Shit.” Warwick breathed out, his head tipping back, his palm rubbing his scruff.
“What?” I looked at him then the screen, not understanding both of their dreaded reactions.
“High Castle.” He wagged his head. “Visegrád.” He said the name of the area as if it was a feared nemesis. I had heard of the site a few times from teachers. It was an area not too far northwest of here, following the Danube. We didn’t give it much interest as it was known to be hallowed ground to the fae.
“It’s sacred land to you guys, right?”
He licked his lips, taking in my puzzled expression.
“Sacred is one way of calling it. But I’d say it is more cursed. Haunted and feared. No living fae enters that area anymore. Ever.”
“Why?”
“You don’t know?”
“Should I?”
Warwick huffed, his arms crossing.
“Visegrád is where we fought the fae war twenty years ago.”
Chapter 25
“The High Castle in Visegrád?” Andris’s mouth opened, his eyes rising up to Warwick and me in disbelief. “You think the nectar is hiding there?”
“I don’t know what’s there.” I stepped up to his desk with the journal, coming straight over here from the operations room. Ling took a photocopy, working from that. “Ling is trying to figure out the rest based on the song, but he could have used another keycode. All I know is there’s a reason my father wrote down those coordinates. Something is there he wanted to protect. And his statement about ‘I understand now’...” I stared at the man who knew him best, who understood my father more than even I did. “I have to go and see.”
Andris’s shoulders lowered, peering back down at the markings, his fingers trailing over the pages. “I wish he’d talked to me.” He tapped at the book sadly, then put his focus back on me. “Do I want to know how you figured it out?”
“It’s... complicated.”
“With you, my dear,” Andris chuckled lightly, “I have no doubt.”
Warwick snorted at Andris’s response, causing me to shoot a glare at him.
“The one thing that doesn’t make sense is the boat.” I went back to the journal, pointing at the symbol. “It has no reason to be there. It doesn’t seem to represent anything.”
“Actually, it does.” Andris pinched his brow, glancing at Warwick.
I twisted to Warwick, his fingers tugging at his lip, his head bobbing.
“The night of the war, all roads there were pretty much destroyed by the surge of magic, the castle on the hill left in ruins. Afterward, no one wanted to rebuild or be anywhere near that area. The land was avoided; people went around, found other ways. There were whisperings about it being haunted by the fallen. Cursed.” Warwick flicked his chin back at the journal. “The lone way in and out... is by boat.”
“I’d like to cross the Tisza by boat. By boat, only by boat.”
In this case, it was the Danube.
“We need a boat to get there?” Their heads affirmed my question. “I’m certain I can steal one of those.” I picked up the journal, pressing it to my chest. “Can’t be much different from a train.”
“You are going there tonight?” Andris’s eyebrow curved up.
“Yes.” I nodded. “Every second is crucial.”