Page 93 of Elysian

The Sanguine Stone remembers what the blood forgets.

Two truths the stone holds.

To open the realms. To know the power of old.

Where realm is sundered from realm, the stone will open.

If the eye rings scarlet, the old power dwells within.

What the stone cannot open cannot be crossed. Whom the stone does not crown was never meant to wake.

Born where the blood of the woken met the waters of making, the stone carries both gifts of that dying.

The passage that caught my focus was the crossing of different realms. Liadan was the only person I knew who had done this. When we parted, he had left me to retrieve something. Could it have been this stone? I closed the grimoire and carefully set it under the journal to arrange them into the satchel. With Cassiel here, there was not much of a risk of it falling into the wrong hands. I left it on the settee. None would enter where Cassiel slept.

I stood, stretching out my hunched-over spine. Cassiel remained deep in slumber. Quietly, I slid on my slippers and tiptoed from the chamber. I left the door the slightest bit ajar and shuffled out over the rug stretching down the hall. I went in the direction I had come before, crossing the foyer, and walked through the entrance where the girl had shattered the porcelain. There was no sign of any shards. The hall led down an identical one. Light from a gas lamp led me to a door. Voices came from inside.

“I do not trust that monster,” Morak’s clear voice echoed.

“We haven’t a choice,” Duke Deveaux said.

“We do⁠—”

“Sycarians respect his leadership. He makes them feel safe. You are talking about removing the monarchy.”

“It has not been a monarchy under who we believe. The king is a figurehead.”

“Exactly,” I said, nudging inside.

All those inside whirled. Morak grabbed his pommel, and Liadan stepped forward. But my attention caught on the woman from earlier who had dropped the porcelain. She had stood and jolted backward behind the Duke.

“Lady Draven,” Liadan began.

I waved him off. “Amara is fine. Cassiel is slumbering.”

The collective exhale could be felt.

“And that,” I motioned my hand toward them, “is why it is important we all cooperate. Has the council spread any news about Cassiel yet?”

I looked at Liadan. “The newspaper went out informing Sycarians that the Warlord King’s conditions had worsened.”

“He is direct evidence of their lies.” I met Morak’s eyes. He did not turn away. This was the first time we truthfully took each other’s measure.

“I believed you were nothing but his plaything.”

“You thought incorrectly,” I said haughtily. “I have made a deal with Lord Draven in order to help the Resistance. Do not make my efforts more difficult by insulting him.”

Liadan crossed his arms. “You have done a lot in effort to help us, Amara,” he murmured.

“What have you offered him?” Morak asked abruptly. The manner he watched me was piercing, but not much could affect me.

“Myself,” I said.

Morak’s brows furrowed. “We should kill him and be done with⁠—”

“I welcome you to try,” I interrupted. “But I have no doubt he will end everyone here if you attempt it.”

“If what you say is true. How can we trust you?”