章 50: The five souls of power (part two)

Ithuriel levies himself on his hind legs and bats the book, urging me to stop reading. I look down into his two toned eyes, studying him. His fluffy white tail twitches.

It has what you need. He insists in my mind, and that is all. I close the book. Ithuriel had never been wrong before, in all the time I knew him, he hadn't tripped me up before, and this time is no different. At least that is what I hope as I nod to myself, turning the books over in my hands, weighing them, and then nodding again.

"It's a start," I say aloud, and all at once the pendant around my neck begins to warm, throbbing against its confines, blood swirling in its glass seal. The hair on my neck prickles. Ithuriel growls.

"Good morning, Serena," a cold voice drawls next to my ear. "And what fascinating books have you got there?" A chilled air sweeps over me and my body breaks out in a cold sweat. Something whispers at the back of my mind, a voice lingering from the shadows: