The Silverwing's Sorceress: THe Shadow Slayers, Book 2.5 by Cassi Carver Read Free Book Online

like spring rain on a parched field, and something desiccated inside her soaked it up. Her ex, Tray, had always tried to keep her as far removed from magic as possible, and at the deepest level, she’d never really felt accepted by him or loved for who she was.
    She tuned out Jaxon’s sexy smile as she stepped back and reached her hand toward the threshold, trying to get a feel for what spell had been cast there. Thrusting her consciousness into the magic, she fumbled for something recognizable and caught on the familiar thread. Her family’s blood.
    She didn’t know the spell to use, but here in the mountain, she felt so connected to her father that the words seemed to come to her of their own volition. She took a deep breath and said slowly, with expectation that it would work, “This ward of my blood, this barrier fine, open for me and reveal what is mine.”
    Jaxon’s brows rose when the soil around the threshold trembled and shook free, raining down on them a steady spray of dirt and gravel. “It worked?”
    She didn’t need to reach her hand through to know she could enter. The magic in the small room had changed, now welcoming her in. “It worked. But you need to wait here. I think only someone with Sellers blood can get through.”
    “I’m always amazed to see witches work. You have great power at your disposal—if you can just find the words.”
    “I wish it were that easy, but it’s not just about the words.” She inched into the room, scanning the stone pedestals that lined the curved wall. Five pedestals, and each had a single, leather-bound book displayed at its center. She almost picked up the nearest book, but she felt a restrained presence in the air. The ward to the room wasn’t exactly turned off. It seemed to be…waiting.
    She stepped back, and Jaxon sidled closer to the barrier. “What’s the matter?”
    “Nothing. Everything’s great.” Her gaze fixed on the red symbols painted on the wall. If the lines and squiggles were words, she was in trouble. “Hey…you’re good at languages and deciphering stuff, right? Does that look like something to you?”
    The top of the doorway only came to his collar, so he bent down to get a better view. “I’m not fluent in every language—I’m not even two hundred years old.”
    “I know—” she started to say, but before she could finish, he interjected.
    “One.”
    “One?”
    “Yes, the first word of the top two lines is one . One…book. One…thought. No—choice. One choice.”
    She swallowed. “And the last line?”
    “Choose wisely.”
    “Oh. Super.” Somehow she couldn’t imagine her father making these tunnels and writing these strange words. Maybe this place was older than she’d imagined.
    Looked like she couldn’t stack the books this time and peruse at her convenience. No, she had to choose, and she only got one. “Do you think if I choose the wrong one I can come back later and exchange it?”
    Jaxon laughed under his breath. “I’m not a witch, dove, but even I can tell that whoever set up this ward and this warning took it fairly seriously.”
    She couldn’t bring herself to agree out loud. With any luck, he was wrong. She stood back, inspecting each book from a distance, but she couldn’t decipher the symbols on the front. “Can you help with the words on the covers?”
    “I can’t see them from here.”
    “Maybe I could tilt them up without actually taking them from their spot.”
    “Maybe, but be careful,” Jaxon answered. “What are we looking for?”
    She circled around the pedestals like she was stalking the books. “I have no clue.”
    When she reached for the first book on the left, her fingers prickled right before she touched it, like its energy was reaching up to her, ready to glom on—but the energy felt all wrong. She snatched her hand away. “Shoot. I’m not going to be able to lift them. It’s like their energy is sticky. But I can tell you it’s not this one.”
    Energy fields were