Chapter 80

“Where’s her voice!?” Anton shouts the moment we arrive back in my room, glaring hard at Nic. He moves close to me, cupping my cheeks in his hands.

“I – I don’t know,” Nic stumbles out, holding a hand up towards me. “Death took it – he can give it back – but –“

“Can you get it back for her!?”

“It’s not…a thing which he’s keeping in a box,” Nic says with an apologetic shrug. “I can’t just go get it.” I take a big breath, though, and begin to brush the tears from my cheeks, my horror and surprise quickly beginning to be replaced by my more typical rage.

I step forward, giving Nic a steady nod, letting him know that it’s okay and that he can go.

“Are you sure?” Nic asks, hesitating.

“What, can you do anything?” Anton snaps, glaring hard at my Herald.

Nic sighs and hangs his head before he nods once and disappears.

I turn to Anton, my mouth set into a thin line. He returns his hands to my face, his thumb stroking a line over the edge of my cheekbone. “Juniper, are you okay? Does – are you hurt, besides the voice? Is it painful?”

Quickly I shake my head, not at all lying. Then I take a deep breath in, my mouth pinching together in my anger.

Anton groans with relief, dropping his hands from my face so that he can wrap me, as best as he can, in a hug. “Oh god, June, I’m going to kill Orion –“

I step back from Anton and give him a hearty glare.

“Oh, it is too Orion’s fault,” Anton snaps, dropping his arms from me with a frown. “He needs to take more control in this competition!”

I snap my hand up, pointing at the sky, shaking my head – because Orion is clearly not the one we have to be worried about.

“I know,” Anton snaps, reading my mind or intuiting my answer, I don’t know which. “That jackass Death really fucked you over. But I think Orion has more power in this than he is willing to admit –“

I roll my eyes, putting my hands on my hips.

“What,” Anton says, still angry but smirking now. My heart fills a bit, glad to see him come back to himself after such a horrible event. “You think Orion gets a pass just because he’s pretty? And nice? And trying?”

I narrow my eyes, leaning forward towards my handmaid, forbidding him to misinterpret me like that.

“Oh, you meant gorgeous,” Anton says, grinning at me as he leans forward in turn, baiting me a bit. “Orion is too gorgeous to be blamed. Apologies, June, it’s very hard to understand you when you’re not using your words.”

Soundless, I snarl and whip my hand out, trying to smack at him, but we’re both distracted from my ineffectual blow when Orion and Laila suddenly appear in the room.

“Come on,” Orion growls, storming forward towards us and dragging Laila with him, his hand tight around her arm. “We’ve got shit to do.”

“What!?” Anton gasps just as I do, though obviously only his word is heard. “Where are we going!?”

Orion’s hand wraps firm around my arm as he turns his face to Anton, scowling. “We’re taking this into our own hands.” Then he vanishes us away.

When my feet hit the ground I look around in wonder at the incredible room around us, slowly turning to take it all in. We’re in an immense tower of some kind, the wall stretching so high that I can barely make out the glass ceiling. An incredible telescope takes up most of the view of the upper levels anyway, and every single inch of the rounded walls of the tower are covered in bookshelves filled with thousands and thousands of books, all reachable by spindly little ladders and rickety wooden staircases that climb up and up and up.

And on those ladders, and stairs, and landings, are Priests. Priests everywhere, walking around in long grey robes, either putting books back or reading books or taking books from the shelves. And here on the ground floor – where we are – there are desks everywhere, spread with books and scrolls and pens and notes.

Fascinated – immediately, I’m fascinated. One glance at Anton’s slack jaw and wondering eyes makes me realize that he feels precisely the same.

Laila, however, is not so taken in by it.

“Juniper, are you all right?” she gasps, ignoring the room and stepping close to me. It’s a struggle to pull my eyes away from the sight around me and concentrate on her face.

I shrug at her, attempting to let her know that while I’m not precisely all right, I’m not in pain.

“Do you still not have your voice?” she asks. And then, frowning, she turns to Orion. “Orion, can you fix her!?”

“Huh?” Orion says, turning to Laila and I. “Oh. Yeah.” He waves a hand at me and I feel something turn in my throat, like air, or a key. I don’t know how to describe it.

But when I cough in response to the strange tickle, sound comes out.

“Why didn’t you do that before?” Anton snarls, whipping his head to the side to glare at Orion.

“Because she wasn’t doing herself any favors with all that talking,” Orion murmurs, frowning at me and then turning towards the three Priests who come hurrying over when they realize that the four of us have suddenly appeared in their midst.

“Oh, he’s not wrong, June,” Laila says, taking my hand and squeezing it. “When are you going to learn to keep your temper? I don’t think you’d have been in the bottom if –“

“If I’d just stood still and looked pretty while Death murdered my friend?” I snap, frowning at Laila. “I’m not going to do that, even if it puts my life on the line. Silence is tacit permission for these injustices to continue! That trial was only designed to humiliate and frighten us, Laila, to cow us into good behavior. No one got any information about who would be a good Queen out of that one.”

Laila shrinks a little, shamed by the truth in my words. “You don’t know what they were measuring, Juniper,” she says, quiet, looking down at the floor. “I’m not saying you’re wrong but…shouting at the God of Death? I’m not sure it’s ever going to give you the results you want.”

I clench my jaw, knowing that my friend is right and hating it. Anton stands close at my side, letting me feel his support. I sigh, frustrated, and glance up at him before I hold out a hand to Laila.

“You’re right,” I say. She lifts her head and takes my hand. “It’s more complicated than I’m making it. But…I’m not sure I regret shouting at him.”

She smirks a little, squeezing my hand. “You’d probably have a different opinion if Orion hadn’t been able to return your voice.”

“Yeah, well,” I say, turning towards the Prince as he finishes delivering orders to the Priests, who all hurry away. “Luckily I’ve got friends with the right magical powers.”

Orion turns back to us, his face stern and his hands planted firmly on his hips. Honestly…he looks bossy and mean right now which…well. It’s certainly working for him. My wolf perks up quite a bit at the sight of him.

“What are we doing here?” Anton asks, looking again around at the magnificent room. “Also…where is here?”

“This is the Astronomy Tower,” Orion says, his voice still a little angry, though obviously not with us. “This is where my father’s Priests work, watching the stars, consulting the…books.” He waves a hand around at the thousands of them. “And from all of that they divine their prophecies.”

Orion sighs harshly, closing his eyes and pressing the bridge of his nose between his fingers, clearly frustrated.

“Whoa,” Laila breathes, looking around perhaps for the first time. “Such dedication and technology – this is far beyond anything we have at home. It’s incredible.”

“Yeah, well,” Orion murmurs. “About time I got here.”

“You haven’t been here before?” I ask, confused.

“No, I have,” he replies, dropping his hand from his face and looking at me evenly. “This is just the first time I’m here to look at the prophecies myself.”

Anton’s jaw drops open as my eyes flit to the Priests, who come hurrying back towards us, their arms full of scrolls. “Wait,” Anton says, putting a hand out towards Orion. “You…haven’t even looked at the prophecies yourself?”

“Nope,” Orion says, turning towards the Priests, attempting to cover up a great deal of embarrassment with pure bravado as they begin to lay the scrolls out across a desk. “They are long and boring and confusing so…I kind of just left it to someone else.”

“Oh, Orion,” Laila says, stepping to his side and looping her hands around his arm, shaking her head as she looks up at him. “That was…that was a little foolish of you, wasn’t it? To leave all knowledge of your future bride in another’s hands, trusting them completely.”

“’A little foolish’ is putting it very nicely, Laila,” Orion says, looking down at her with his voice full of regret. “But…if you will all help me?” He looks over at Anton and I as well. “Maybe we can make some headway with them?”

“Cool, I’m in,” Anton says, nodding to Orion with a smile before looking down at me. “Want to be my library buddy? I need someone to help me turn the pages.”

“You sure you don’t want Beatrice to help you with that?” I snap, narrowing my eyes at him.

Anton’s face breaks into a teasing smile as he leans closer to me. “Sure, I mean, if you don’t think you can handle it –“

But I just snarl and stalk away to the far side of the table from Orion and Laila, grabbing a scroll and starting to unroll it. “Get over here, Tony,” I sigh, patting my leg like I’m calling over a puppy dog. “Let’s see if you can read.”

Anton barks out a little laugh as he comes to my side, and then turns to Orion, his eyes shining. “All right, highness,” he says, leaning over the scroll I’ve unrolled for him. “What is it that we’re looking for?”

“Answers,” Orion says, rather unhelpfully, as he unrolls a scroll of his own. But I can tell that he’s pissed so I forgive him. “Tonight we search here for answers, and then tomorrow,” he lifts his eyes to meet mine. “We go find your boy in the Underworld and seek some answers there. Because I very much want to know why my aunt is keeping him from being reincarnated.”

I go a bit cold as I stare at Orion, who shifts his eyes back to the words on the scroll.

Because honestly, after the day we’ve had…is it the best choice, to go running off into the Deadlands to ask my fiancé if he was just dating me for the royal clout?

I mean, now, after everything it just seems so…trivial.

“Get to work, Princess,” Anton murmurs, giving me a tingly little nudge on my shoulder.

I turn to look up into his face and scowl when I see the smug look of pleasure there.

Because even if I have hesitations about going to see Blythe?

Anton, he definitely wants to go.

“You’re so annoying,” I mutter, grabbing at another scroll and getting started. As he so often does, Anton just grins, keeping his opinion to himself.