Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
“Can I see?” Kierse asked. Schwartz passed her a paper, and her eyes widened in shock and appreciation.
The security around the cauldron was like nothing she’d ever seen. Top-of-the-line vault with a card reader, user-specific codes, and multiple biometric sensors needed to deactivate. If she managed to get through all of that, then she’d have to deal with the anti-tampering technology—cutting-edge equipment intended to deter brute-force attacks by destroying internal components before the thief could get inside. Not to mention an entire team of mercenary monsters, Schwartz included, to guard the thing. Their best bet would be to get it when it was being transported, but it would be shipped in essentially a bulletproof tank with yet more armed guards. It even made her pause.
“Fuck,” she said, passing it back. “Exactly how big is the thing?”
“Dimensions are here,” Schwartz pointed out to her.
Kierse held her hand out to measure the estimated size of the box that would hold the cauldron. It wasn’t that big. A two-foot cube with all that security wasn’t holding a very large item.
“I don’t know why I thought it would be bigger.”
Gen snorted. “You’ve said that before.”
Kierse laughed. “I almost always say that.”
Laz guffawed, and Schwartz shook his head. Kierse glanced up at Graves and arched an eyebrow. He was definitely the reason she said almost always.
“But seriously, isn’t some ancient cauldron supposed to be large and impressive? To like, hold ingredients and shit?”
“Apparently not,” Graves said. “There are legends that suggest it isn’t a cauldron at all, but a chalice.”
“Like a cup?” Kierse asked.
“Indeed. In some iterations the sword is a ‘torch,’ as well. It lights the way for the truth,” Graves said. “We’ll see what iteration of the cauldron we get when we steal it.”
Gen raised her hand. Graves’s expression filled with amusement. “You don’t have to raise your hand.”
“Oh,” she said with a shrug. “Sorry. That is a lot of security for one item. What exactly does the cauldron do?”
Kierse would have laughed at her directness, but she appreciated it. Gen had a way of cutting through all the bullshit to the point.
“The cauldron is an ancient Celtic artifact created by the Tuatha de Danann,” he told her simply. “There are four, and each was created as a means to help an advancing army. The spear that could never be defeated. The sword that revealed the truth to help any strategy. The cauldron to feed an army and heal their injured. And the stone to proclaim the true king.”
Kierse had read all the tales of the objects back in Ireland. She knew this much, and she wondered if Graves was going to expound on his hypothesis. The spear had been more than a spear, after all.
When he didn’t immediately, she decided to test him. “And what happens if you bring them all together?” she asked with a lift of her chin.
Graves’s eyes went dark. “Together they can do great magic.”
“Like a spell?” she pushed. The last time she’d asked him why he was trying to collect all four objects, he’d said that he was preparing to perform a very powerful spell but hadn’t elaborated.
“The legends may be hyperbolic, but they suggest you could do great, great magics, the like we haven’t seen since the gods left this plane.”
“Shit,” Laz hissed.
“Don’t get them all together,” Gen said. “Check that off my list.”
Kierse snorted. She wondered which of those “great” magics Graves could ever want to do. “And you just want them ceremonially.”
“Something like that,” he said before glancing away.
“Okay, now that we know to not bring them all together, what exactly does the cauldron do?” Gen asked again.
Graves lifted one shoulder. “I’ve never touched it, Prophet Genesis. Read the cards and tell me.”
“You have theories,” she argued.
“He always has theories,” Kierse agreed.
“Is ‘feed an army and heal the injured’ not enough to go after it?” Laz asked. “That’s treasure to most.”
“It is,” Gen agreed. “But we have food, and we have healers, doctors, nurses. I just thought it would be more…magical.”
“It is,” Kierse said at once. “Isn’t it?”
“There are rumors, legends,” Graves began slowly.
“All legends have a kernel of truth,” Kierse whispered.
Graves inspected one of his gloved hands. “It is a grail, of sorts, but it was around before the more notable one. There are stories that say if you drink of its power, it can give magic where there is none, heal magic that has been broken”—His eyes lifted to Kierse’s—“even change the makeup of your blood so that a half blood becomes a pure blood.”
Kierse’s breath caught. Was he suggesting that the cauldron could turn her fully Fae? That would solve many problems if her magic truly was broken, as Graves and Lorcan had both suggested. At the same time, she didn’t know if she could ever give up the humanity her father had given her. She had just gotten used to the idea that she was half Fae. She wasn’t sure she was ready to be fully Fae.