Hidden Dragon (The Treasure of Paragon Book 7) by Genevieve Jack (best ereader for manga txt) 📗

Sylas kissed the side of Dianthe’s head. “This experience has definitely taught me that there’s nothing we can’t achieve together.”

Dianthe cradled his jaw, her eyes misting.

“Well, let’s see them!” Colin said.

Sylas dug in his bag and tossed him both the blue and the gold orb. Colin carried them to the center table where he added them to the collection in front of Leena and the scroll. Sylas led Dianthe to the buffet where they loaded their plates. They found a seat at a side table next to Gabriel and Raven. Charlie was sitting on her lap, eating something raw and meaty.

“You look like you’re going to gag,” Sylas said to Raven.

“She can’t get used to the baby eating meat,” Gabriel said.

“Why can’t it be cooked?” Raven stuck out her tongue.

Sylas and Gabriel laughed.

“I’ll hold her if it bothers you,” Dianthe offered, making gimme hands toward Charlie.

Raven handed her over, and Dianthe bounced her on her lap. All Sylas could do was smile. Dianthe was a natural. Dragons and fairies could not produce young together, but he’d always thought she’d make a perfect mother.

Colin and Leena dropped their plates on the table across from them. “Start talking. I want to know everything that happened from the time you left for Everfield until now.”

“Didn’t Tobias and Sabrina fill you in?”

“As well as they could. I want to hear your version of events.” Colin folded his arms and waited.

Beside him, Leena pulled out a blank scroll and a quill, readying herself for Sylas’s story.

Sylas gave Colin a rundown of everything, from the sprites in Solaris Lake to the raid of Nochtbend to how they’d found Aborella and she’d told them where the Paragonian orb was. He told him about Darnuith too. And when it came to Aborella’s death, he turned it over to Dianthe, who handed baby Charlie back to Raven and gave a heart-wrenching account of the fairy’s last moments.

“Aborella is dead,” Colin repeated, shaking his head. Beside him, Leena transcribed furiously. “I never thought I’d see the day. But she was right. Had she not sacrificed herself, Eleanor would have come for you.”

Dianthe wiped a tear away. “She told us how to find the Darnuith orb before she died.”

“Did she tell you anything else before Avery did what she had to?” Colin asked.

Dianthe glanced at Avery, and Sylas saw the witch shake her head. “That’s all she told me… Avery?”

Sylas wondered what had truly transpired between the three women, but then it couldn’t have been easy for Avery to kill Aborella under any circumstances. He supposed the witch had mixed feelings about it.

Colin shot Avery a quizzical look.

Avery cracked her neck. “Aborella told me she had a vision about us, the three sisters.” Raven’s and Clarissa’s heads snapped around. “She said that the reason we can’t translate the scroll is that when Medea laid the enchantment on it, she assumed we’d have access to the tanglewood tree.”

Raven shook her head. “But we don’t. Circe was burned at the stake over the remains of the tree in the early 1700s in New Orleans.”

Avery chewed her lip. “Yeah. I hate to be the bearer of bad news.”

Sylas suspected she was hiding something, but when he opened his mouth to ask, Dianthe shook her head. He leaned back. His mate would explain in time. Around him, the group shifted uneasily in their seats. Was this the end? Did their success depend completely on a properly translated scroll? Sylas refused to believe it.

Colin abandoned his plate and walked over to the center table. “I had hoped that putting them together would have a beneficial effect. Emerald from Everfield, crimson from Nochtbend, royal purple of Rogos, sapphire from Darnuith, gold from Paragon. Medea wanted us to find them. What are we missing?”

His twin’s frustration was palpable. Sylas threaded his fingers into Dianthe’s and snorted. “She didn’t want us to find them. She wanted her descendants to. You heard Avery. Medea intended this message for them.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

Raven’s stomach clenched. Sylas was right. He and Dianthe had risked their life for these orbs. Figuring out how to open and use them was up to her and her sisters. But so far the three of them had failed to contribute much to the cause. Despite their best efforts, they hadn’t even succeeded in translating the hidden message in the scroll.

She stood with Charlie on her hip and crossed to the orbs. Without so much as a glance in their direction, Avery and Clarissa joined her. They felt it too, the unspoken pressure to solve this riddle. They were supposed to be the most powerful witches that ever lived. Somehow they needed to figure this out.

“What do you think she was trying to tell us?” Raven asked her sisters.

“Obviously that all the kingdoms have to work together to defeat Eleanor. She wouldn’t have hidden them the way she did if she didn’t believe that,” Clarissa said.

Avery picked at the sides of her bandage. “She didn’t make it easy. Every step has been a test. Medea wanted to make sure that only her descendants could get this book.”

Raven sat at the table beside the orbs for a closer look. Magic swirled at the center around those oddly shaped metal pieces that winked at her in the light. They were supposed to form a key, but she didn’t see how.

Charlie slapped the table with her chubby palm, breaking Raven’s concentration. She reached for the golden orb. “Ba, ba, ba.”

“No, Charlie, that’s not your ball.” Raven grabbed her little hand and held it.

Colin, arms crossed in concentration, did a double take. “Really, Raven? The things are indestructible. I fished one out of a pool of acid in Rogos. I doubt a bit of chicken juice or a few teeth marks are going to hurt it.” He rolled the gold orb to Charlie with a chuckle.

Charlie squealed, reached out her little hands, and caught the ball. Only she didn’t. Her hands passed right through