Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 130619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
No wonder Micah has me locked up in this cage and wants me out of his garrison. The question is, why not just cage me or kill me if he’s that concerned? Maybe that’s his intent, and our destination is a prison of some sort, but I don’t feel as if that’s his intent. I’m not certain I can trust my character assessments at this point, not after I judged Jeremy as a sweet man in need of help. Micah claims a Crystal Seer has the ability to read the intent of another Crystal Seer.
I believe he saw good in me.
Until I saw the serpent and confessed as much.
His reaction to me and the serpent had been stunned shock and, dare I say, terror? He’s a warrior who faced off with Jeremy, and he reacted with terror.
Now, he, too, distrusts his instincts. And me.
With a heavy sigh, I decide knowledge is still my biggest asset. I scan several more pages of the book and land on a passage that references a way to communicate with your familiar. Okay, I think. This is good. It’s really good because there is no way my familiar is a serpent. The book, and Micah, too, for that matter, both state a familiar is not a reptile.
I must have another familiar. It’s the only answer, but I struggle more on the topic, and with a rumble of my belly, I’m motivated to pause and hunt down a snack that isn’t the sandwiches offered earlier. I store the meat and cheese before it goes bad and start surveying my options. To my delight, I discover a bag of chocolate in a kitchen drawer, and I’m more than a little pleased to conclude that my new life as a Nephilim still includes at least this one human pleasure. I’m strangely pleased at the idea of Micah enjoying the same treat. I decide it creates a façade of humanity. And the fact of the matter is that humanity is far more comfortable to me than an Overseer of a garrison of demon hunters.
With a spellcast book in hand and my candy bag, of course, I settle onto his leather couch, abandoning my reading material to unwrap a piece of the chocolate. I slide the candy in my mouth and allow it to slowly melt. The deliciousness is an escape I crave, a way to feel like me when I’m being told I don’t know who I am anymore.
I begin flipping the pages of the book, and in the process, I eat half the bag of chocolate. It’s true. I have no shame at all. I don’t even have a bellyache from it, and this tells me I’m deserving of my splurge. The only reason I stop eating is that a spell catches my attention. Bingo. Just what I was looking for: How to Communicate with Your Familiar.
There are risks to acting on the instructions, of course. If my familiar is the snake, I’m evil, and I must be cautious not to make it stronger. But what if Jeremy did something to bind my true familiar, and I can set it free? I need to try. And I need to know the truth. We need to know. And perhaps if I free my true familiar, together we can fight the enemy within me? It’s a good plan, and I truly can’t understand why Micah didn’t suggest it in the first place.
Per the book, the process requires a specific crystal—the blue agate, which appears to be quite similar to the color of a Crystal Seer’s eyes. I’m supposed to hold the agate in my bleeding hand as I chant several specified words. Good Lord, why do I have to bleed for this? But I quickly remind myself that it’s better me than someone else.
First things first, I must locate the crystal. I push to my feet and begin my hunt, which proves easier than one might expect. There on a bookshelf to my right is a box filled with crystals. I carry the entire container back with me to the coffee table, compare each to the photo in the spellcast book, and easily find the one needed. That leaves the blood requirement.
With the stone in hand, I walk to the kitchen, grab a knife, and convince myself that slicing my palm won’t hurt all that badly. Time matters. This needs to happen sooner or later, and I suck in a breath and just do it. I cut my hand open, and, oh my God, it hurts. And it bleeds in excess, but I’m committed to this path.
I place the crystal in my palm and grimace with the realization that I don’t know the chant, and the book is in the living room. I’m fretting about all the blood I’m going to get all over the floor when I hear, “What the hell are you doing?”