Damn. I waffled, but he looked determined. “All right. Tomorrow. Can you tell me a little more about the scroll?” Maybe if he told me enough, I could find it tonight.
He nodded and leaned back in his chair, long and lean muscles stretching out. I sagged a bit, grateful he didn’t suspect me.
“The scroll was written over a thousand years ago by monks who lived on an island off the coast of Ireland,” he said.
Nerves prickled along my skin. That was the third time today that Ireland had come up. First I raided a tomb there, then Aidan, who owned an estate there, showed up, and now these monks. I didn’t like it. I worked all over the world. Today was my first job in Ireland in years. And it had come complete with a demon who knew I was a FireSoul and a handsome, dangerous stranger who wanted me to find a scroll that could spell my death.
Yeah, it was weird.
“The monks are still the only ones who live on the island,” Aidan said. “They’re supernaturals, but they choose to rely on study and contemplation rather than magic. They’re called the Holy Order of Knowledge. Their entire purpose is to record every bit of knowledge about the supernatural world that they can. The Scroll of Truth was created by their greatest seer before his death. He used his power to write about the future, which is why my name is probably in it even though it was written long before my birth. But it was stolen.”
“By whom?”
“I don’t know.”
“If it’s been missing for so long, how do you even know about it?”
“I keep a seer on retainer. She scries for threats to me and my enterprises every year. This year, she sensed a threat in the form of the scroll. She thinks someone else is trying to find it. But all she could see was the name of the scroll and that the Order of Holy Knowledge created it. I want to find it before the other person does.”
Oh hell. This had just gotten worse. Someone else was after it? Seers couldn’t see every aspect of the future, but they were infallible about what they could see. “Do you know anything about who is hunting it?”
“No. Just that someone is.”
“Know anything else about it?”
“That’s it.”
“It might be enough.” I’d gone on way less in the past. I had its name—the Scroll of Truth—who’d made it and what it was made of. I’d found the Chalice of Youth with just a name and the knowledge that it was made of gold. But then, it was really, really easy for me to find gold.
I closed my eyes and tried to envision the scroll. I focused on the names—Scroll of Truth and the Order of Holy Knowledge. My mind reached out, seeking the thread that would tie about my middle, but pain slammed into me.
I gasped and slumped forward in my chair, my head pounding. I reached up and cupped my forehead. This had never happened before. Why did this scroll make me feel this way? First in the stairwell and now here.
Was it because it contained information about my past? It made me even more determined to find it. No question, it involved me. Any time I tried to think about something important from my past, the pain came.
“Are you all right?” Aidan asked.
“Fine, it’s just been a really long day. Trying to find things with my mind is really draining,” I lied. “Can we visit the monks? I need a bit more information.”
“Yes. We’ll take my plane.”
His plane? He had a freaking plane? I didn’t want to get on his plane. I wanted to use a transportation charm and get there now, but I’d used my last one in the temple earlier today.
If the monks lived in Ireland, his plane was my best bet. I could catch a commercial flight, but then I’d have to ask where exactly they lived, and by the time I got there, he would most likely be there already.
It looked like I wouldn’t be sneaking off on my own after all. We’d do this together, and I’d figure out the rest later. And I didn’t hate the idea of hanging out with him, even though I knew it was a bad idea.
“All right. When can we leave?” I asked.
“Tonight. There’s a bed on the plane.”
“A bed?” He had a plane with bedrooms? I quirked a brow at him, suspicious. “For?”
He grinned. “Sleeping. Just sleeping. You’ve got to be beat after destroying the temple in Murreagh.”
“Good. Don’t get any ideas.”
He put up his hands. “Wouldn’t dream of it. I want that date first.”
The look he gave me was pretty obvious. He liked what he saw. I blushed. I really wouldn’t say no to a cup of coffee with him under different circumstances, even though it was a really dumb idea. If I hung out with him too long and got into a situation where I had to use my power, he was strong enough to suspect what I was.
I stood. “Business only, pal. But let’s get started. Ireland’s far away.”
Aidan paid our bill, which I had no problem with. I was on the clock now. It wasn’t a date. He met me by the door, dwarfing me with his size.
“I’m going to grab a bag, okay? Wait here.”
He looked like he wanted to offer to come up to my place, but no way was that happening. I ran out before he could say anything.
The scent of rain was on the air as I raced down the sidewalk and let myself into my building. Nix burst out of her apartment door as I ran by.
“What’s the deal with Aidan Merrick?” She followed me up the steps. “You suddenly start dating one of the richest, most powerful hybrids in the world and don’t tell me?”