Hail to the Queen (Witch For Hire 2)

“I’ve never seen it before. It looks old, kind of like the Norse Runes our seer uses,” Marcus says.

“Girls?” I wave the piece of paper.

“No, but at least we have a starting point,” Fel says.

“It’s more than we had before we walked in here,” Sacha shrugs.

“What are you going to do?” Carter asks.

“Search for answers.”

***

“Reina, you’ve been locked up here all day. What is it you’re looking for?”

“Cristobal.” I set aside the worn brown leather volume, remove my white gloves, and rise. I rush across the wooden floor of the library into his waiting arms. With the impending coronation, he has had his own duties to perform. It’s been a long time since so many courts have gathered; egos need to be stroked, and treaties need to be revisited and confirmed.

“Miss me?” he asks against my temple.

“More than words can express. When did you get in?”

“A few hours ago. You were so focused on your research, I shielded to keep from interrupting you.”

I peer up. “Maybe you’ll know this sigil.” I leave his arms reluctantly, twine our fingers, and guide him over to the table. The re-sketched symbol stands out against the thick, beige drawing parchment. Cristobal frowns.

He traces the sigil with the tip of his elegant forefinger. “This is old.”

“You know it?”

“No, nor the language it derives from. Though, I feel confident in saying it comes from the Middle East.”

“I thought the same thing. I’ve been trying to look in the oldest tomes we have focused on that area.”

He picks up the book I’d been studying and thumbs through it gently. Unlike humans, vampires don’t sweat or release oils from their skin, so there’s no danger to protect the book from.

“I don’t think you’ll find the answers you seek in any books we have access to. Which means you will need someone who would remember this ancient dialect, provided it’s human.”

“You don’t think it’s human?”

“I do not know enough about Arabic to say definitively one way or another, but in those days, it was much easier for magical things to walk the earth. In those times, there were more others than humans. You believed in the magic and in turn … in us. This was all before my time. Yet, people still talk.”

“What do they say?” I ask, intrigued.

“That left unchecked, we would have run the world, devoured humanity, and eventually each other. It was before the laws and the reconnection with rationality and what was left of our humanity. They were brutal times. Think of it as your caveman period. We had much evolving to do. There is a reason why we focus on control and hold ourselves to a much higher standard than humans. We stick to the old ways because there was refinement, restraint, and a code of honor and order. You play it fast and loose in the twentieth century. It’s a freedom we can never know. At the very core lies an insatiable hunger we must always remain in total command of.”

His words freeze the blood in my veins. I’ve never felt our differences as keenly as I do at this moment. “But we all adapt and grow, no?”

I nod my head, still mulling over his history lesson.

“Do you know someone I could ask about this symbol?” I ask.

“Not personally, but I can ask around.”

“Thank you.” I rest my head on his shoulder.

“How long have you been at this?” He closes the book and replaces it on the shelf.

“What time is it now?”