Chapter 14: The Book

"You need our help?" Hugo asked, "What for?"

Amhar wrote another note, "Jared's in trouble. There's a book in his house that I think is turning him evil. He won't let anyone go near it, so I need your help to take it so we can see what's freaking him out, and then destroy it."

"Which Jared?" Aelin asked, "Because depending on the Jared, this could either be easy or borderline a death sentence."

"Psychic."

"Damn," Catra muttered, turning to a very annoyed Roxas, "He's asking us to steal a fancy book from Jared, the Psychic. I mean, you're obviously gonna have to do this, Roxy, since you can phase through things."

Roxas looked in Amhar's direction, "Amhar, how is this a good idea? And before you reply, please talk in my mind if you can, because notes are not effective for me."

"What else are we supposed to do? Kill Jared? For the record, I might ask you to do that if it comes down to it."

"Friendly reminder that Jared is my uncle."

"I'm just making a point about how bad things could get."

"Oh, wow. That isn't very good. So what's the plan?"

Aelin sat down, "Okay, so if this book really is essential to Jared, he's not going to leave it alone, especially if he knows Amhar knows about it. We also need to take into account that Jared may attack Amhar while looking for it, so this means Amhar must have an airtight alibi. So, Amhar, I suggest you spend the evening with my Mom. If anybody isn't afraid of an angry Jared, it's Mom."

Catra nodded to herself, "Seeing as Roxas is completely immune to psychic attacks, he will be able to get in undetected, but how will he get out with the book? Even then, how will we hide the book? I should be able to quickly destroy it, but who knows what would happen if Jared lost that book that might be slowly turning him evil."

"If we destroy this book," Hugo said to Amhar, "Jared will hunt us for the rest of our days."

"Then you and I will have something in common, won't we?" Danielle replied, "Besides, I like having powerful enemies. It makes me feel important."

"Says you," Elaine said calmly, "Because you're the one with uncontrollable luck. But we have another problem in the form of Gina—who Kagami basically locked in Jared's house, probably to protect her from all the people who would want to kill her. Why don't we throw her under the bus?"

Amhar hadn't actually noticed Elaine was here, and his eyes widened at what his reading from her was, and the blackness surrounding her.

Clearly he couldn't have her as part of the plan, especially if her idea involved killing Gina as a method of distraction. Getting someone to kill Gina wouldn't be hard, per se, it would actually be ridiculously easy, but that didn't mean it was the right thing to do.

But it wasn't like the others would listen to him if he said that Elaine needed to leave this project. And it was entirely possible that Elaine would betray them to Jared and then they would all—except Roxas—die horrible deaths.

So, keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

"So..." Catra frowned, "I can...make her disappear?"

"If by disappearing you mean disintegrate," Hugo turned to her, "then yes, that would work, and I suppose that is a perfect crime if she is reduced to dust which could be blown away in the wind... well given her reputation..."

"Oh, for the love of God," Roxas threw his hands up, "We are physically thirteen at the oldest. We should not be plotting the murder of Uncle Jared's friend!"

"Have you met our parents?" Elaine asked, "This is normal."

"No, it's not!" Roxas snapped back, clearly the only child to not have the violent side of a Carpenter personality. Aelin didn't seem to care,

"As long as Uncle Jared doesn't come for our parents or us, I don't really care what happens to Gina. Can't we call Alexa and be done with it? She's the assassin."

"Guys! Stop it with the murder!" Roxas stood up, "I'm taking charge here. Hugo, you shapeshift into Kagami to get Gina out and on a walk with you. Joselyn is already going to be attempting to spend an evening with Jared tonight, so I can sneak in while he's busy. Catra, can I trust you to use your kwami form to keep watch and make sure nobody gets in the way? Dani, keep Aunt Camille distracted."

"Tonight?" Danielle asked, "Sorry, no can do. I've got some Hanyou stuff tonight. Tomorrow morning will be fine, though."

"Hanyou stuff?" Elaine asked, and Amhar frowned at the momentary predatory smirk.

"Yeah, Hanyou stuff. It's something about the half-moon and our powers. I don't really know, but whatcha gonna do about it?"

"Nothing."

Roxas ran his hands through windswept golden hair, "Alright. So we'll save Felix tomorrow. He'll be able to help us decide what to do with the book. Let's go get that book."

OoOoO

Roxas crept into the bungalow with no trouble, phasing through doors and walls, using echolocation to move around, and feeling for the magical signature of the book. If this thing was really as dangerous as Amhar seemed to think it was, it had to have a way to track it.

Eventually, he did find the book, holding it in his hands. But then he heard the sound of Jared outside and cursed under his breath,

"Aelin!" He called to his twin down their twin-bond, "Jared's back! What do I do?!"

"Did you even have a plan if this happened?!" Aelin asked, equally panicked.

"I thought adrenaline would take over, but it did not!"

He felt for a window and opened it just enough to slide the book through before phasing through the wall and running in any direction until he heard Elaine next to him.

"My cottage, hurry!"

He followed her, stumbling on the occasional stick. At some point, he felt someone grabbing his hand and assumed it was Elaine. There was a small hint of fear that maybe it wasn't Elaine, and he was being kidnapped, but he could quickly phase through any prison he was put in, so he wasn't too worried.

"Alright," Elaine said, and Roxas relaxed when he felt himself inside her cottage and touched the walls to be sure. This was the right place, "Now we need to translate the book."

"Translate it?"

"Yeah, it's in some weird language I can't identify. I'll call Hugo. But for right now, you should just relax."

Roxas then felt something pressed against his mouth, dragging him into unconsciousness before he could react. The last thing he heard was Elaine's laughter.

OoOoO

Amhar had been cuddling with Zoe when they heard Aelin scream from down below in the courtyard. He ran to the window and looked down, seeing Aelin was carrying Roxas on her back. He was floppy and lifeless.

"Roxas!" Ignoring her lousy leg, Zoe ran to the transporter, and Amhar teleported to the ground, seeing a frantic mother trying to wake her son, "Roxas, baby, wake up!" Eli came running out too, seeing what had happened to their child. He looked to Aelin,

"What happened to your brother?"

"I-I don't know! I found him like this in the woods."

"What was he doing in the woods?" Zoe asked, holding Roxas tightly, shifting into Stardust to carry him more effectively.

"Don't know, and I don't think it matters." Aelin replied, "What's wrong with him?"

Amhar looked at Roxas, his stomach in knots, knowing this wasn't going to be good. He turned to Aelin, slipping her a note asking where the book was. Aelin sighed, pulling the book out of her backpack subtly.

"I've got it. We'll see if Felix can translate it in the morning."

I've got a bad feeling about this.

OoOoO

Felix had been laughing and spending some quality time with Kyra when he got an alert from Hatsune that his family was here to see him.

He walked to his room and saw Aelin was sitting with Danielle and Amhar, all three looked sad and scared. Felix also noticed Amhar had more blue in his hair, and one of his eyes was gold.

"What happened to Amhar?"

"Don't know, don't want to know." Danielle replied, "Oh, and Roxas was poisoned."

"Poisoned?! By who!?"

"We don't know who, but he inhaled pieces of ground-up Phoenix eye, which rendered him so sick he can't wake up for longer than a few moments. But anyway, we haven't looked inside yet, but Amhar says it's turning the psychic Jared evil."

Felix looked inside, recognizing the language within a few moments, "Hey, Amhar, you're gonna want to read this yourself." He sat down next to Amhar. Judging by his shocked expression, he too could read it.

"What does it say?" Danielle asked, looking over their shoulders, "I wanna see!"

"It says that in eight years, Amhar is gonna turn evil and kill Joselyn. But here's the thing, the contents of the book up to Jared's death are all perfectly accurate, but this future is all kinds of weird and doesn't mention anything that's going on right now."

"So, you think someone created a fake future and gave it to him for that purpose?" Aelin asked.

Felix shrugged, "No, I think someone gave it to him to turn him evil."

"That's what I just said."

"But mine wasn't in the form of a question," Felix replied, "so it came from a place of power."

Danielle rolled her eyes, "True, but what do we do with the book now, if it is telling Jared fake things?"

"Well... I think the most logical conclusion is to destroy it. However, Jared's probably memorized it," Felix crossed his arms, "But he's a psychic, so making him lose his memory of the book. Unless..."

"Unless?"

"Well, I suppose one hell of a head injury would fix the problem."

Aelin then started crying, "I-If Roxas was here, h-he'd say we can't h-hurt people." Felix held both his younger sisters close,

"I know, girls. We'll think of another way. And I'm sure Aunt Eden can heal him." His eyes then widened when he realized he'd messed up because Amhar was reading the book, tears in his eyes.

Then he vanished in a puff of sparkles.

OoOoO

Eden had been humming to herself, working on healing a man with a broken spine, succeeding.

Amenity smiled with pride, "Excellent, Eden Imelda. It seems your time with the Queen has been helping you focus."

Eden smiled a little at the mention of her new friend. She had to admit Liana was good at stress relief, and joking around, all while still managing to rule a massive kingdom benevolently. Honestly, Liana might be the one in need of relaxation.

She finished with the procedure and walked into her room, but froze when she saw Amhar was there, looking at her coldly.

"Amhar? What are you doing here?" She asked, trying to hide the fear in her voice at the sight of her secret son.

Amhar walked up to her and held up a page of a book. Eden paled when she read what is said. About the truth of Amhar's parentage.

He looked at her, and she stared at him with wide eyes, waiting for his reaction. Until a wide grin blossomed on his face and he hugged her,

"Mom..."