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Mattheaited until the front door closed before he turned on Hubbard "Exactly what deal did you strike with my mate?" he dean, wanting to confess and get it over with
The table reverberated under the force of Matthew’s blow "Answer ed to her, even you," Hubbard said shortly In this respect he was a de Cler ahat he e?" Matthew asked sharply "You wouldn’tequally precious in return"
"Your le drop," Hubbard said, his tone resentful I’d tricked hi to the letter of his request rather than its spirit Apparently Andrew Hubbard held grudges
"Did you know then that I was your grandfather?" Matthew asked I couldn’t i slightly green
Matthew hauled him across the table so that they were nose to nose "And what did you learn from that one drop of blood?"
"Her true na ic to ue the word "witch" sounded filthy and obscene
"Never take advantage of ain, Andrew If you do, I’ll have your head" Matthew’s grip tightened "Given your prurience, there isn’t a va so"
"I don’t care what the two of you get up to behind closed doors--though others will, since your nant and there isn’t a hint of another man’s scent on her" Hubbard pursed his lips in disapproval
At last I understood Matthew’s earlier question By knowingly taking hts and memories, Andrew Hubbard had done the varandparents have sex Had I not found a way to slow its flow so he got only the drop he asked for and nothing ht have learned Matthew’s secrets as well as ainst the realization of the da murmur came from Andrew’s briefcase It re a lecture, when a student’s phone went off unexpectedly
"You left your phone on speaker," I said,a e"
Matthew and Andrew both frowned
"I don’t hear anything," Matthew said
"And I don’t own afro around "Did so in my briefcase is this" Hubbard released its two brass clasps and withdrew sorew louder as a jolt of power entered htened, and the threads that bound the world chi in the space between me and the sheet of velluers My blood responded to the faint vestiges of e from the Book of Life, and e filled the rooe so that it faced me, but I already knehat I would see there: two alcheether, the blood froures rose It depicted the stage in the alchee of the : conceptio, when a new and powerful substance sprang forth froht and dark, sun andfor Ashes, I’d unexpectedly encountered one of the room
"Edward Kelley sent it to me the autuht"
Hubbard slid the page toward limpse of this illumination in Rudolf’s palace Later Matthew and I had speculated that e thought were two dragons ht actually be a firedrake and an ouroboros One of the alches, and the other was a snake with its tail in its nition, its colors shining with possibility The i, and now that I had tions’ rapt expressions as they gazed into each other’s eyes, the look of wonder on their progeny’s faces as they e balance between two such powerful creatures
"Jack ue, fire, war--the boy never let anything touch it He claied to you, Mistress Roydon," Hubbard said, interrupting my reveries
"To me?" I touched the corner of the vellus to all of us"
"And yet you have some kind of special connection to it You’re the only one who has ever heard it speak" Andrew said "Long ago, a witch in ht it came fro through London said it was a page from the Book of Life I pray to God that neither tale is true"
"What do you know about the Book of Life?" Matthew’s voice was a peal of thunder
"I know that Benjamin wants it," Hubbard said "He told Jack as much But that wasn’t the first time my sire o--before hefor since before the er than Matthew had been interested in it
"My sire thought he ht find it in the library of an Oxford sorcerer Benjae for the book: a brass head that supposedly spoke oracles" Hubbard’s face filled with sadness "It is always a pity to see such a wise man taken in by vanity and superstition ‘Do not turn to idols or ods of cast metal,’ sayeth the Lord"
Gerbert of Aurillac had reputedly owned just such a ht Peter Knox was the ation as most interested in Ashue with Benjaht out Peter Knox’s help?
"The witch in Oxford took the brass head but wouldn’t relinquish the book," Hubbard continued
"Decades later my sire still cursed him for his duplicity I never did discover the witch’s naer Bacon--an alchemist and a philosopher as well as a witch" Matthew looked at me Bacon once owned the Book of Life, and had called it the "true secret of secrets"
"Alchemy is one of the witches’ many vanities," Hubbard said with disdain His expression turned anxious "My children tell land"
"He has Benja my lab in Oxford" Matthew made no mention of the fact that was currently a few blocks away frorandson, but that didn’t land, hoe keep hiently
"Jack will return to London My sire is no more welco as he is with me, Jack will be safe"
"No one is safe fro back to London" The note of command was back in Matthew’s voice "Nor are you, Andrew Not yet"