Norns of Fate_A New Adult Urban Fantasy Novel by S. A. Ashdown

Author:S. A. Ashdown [Ashdown, S. A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Amazon: B07CYKNSZL
Goodreads: 40277139
Publisher: Brooker Press Ltd
Published: 2018-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

The attic felt empty without Ava. I grabbed my phone, which I had left on the bedside table, and sent her a message.

Are you both okay? Xx

By the time I located Raphael’s clue, tucked away in the chest’s hidden compartment, she had replied.

We’re both tired. Visions come every hour. How did the meeting go? X

A bit weird but no major problems. See you soon? I unfolded the note. The screen lit up.

I’ll call you. X

I tapped the screen. I’m not very good at this boyfriend thing, am I? Then I deleted the message and sighed, tossing the phone on the bed. Ava was emotionally mature. She knew what she wanted. She’d dated, had boyfriends, while I had tended the vegetable garden with my uncle and filled up endless sketchbooks.

Ava was a lit match under my tinder, but we needed time to get to know each other again. She’s the only friend I had, I thought. In our childhood games, Ava had led, made the decisions. We’d argued over toys but dried each other’s tears. Now I was a man, I wanted to protect her, even though she was her own woman.

Akhen might use her to get to me.

What if I failed her?

I read Raphael’s clue again. He’d left it, shaped as a dove, leaning against the mirror on the dresser in my bedroom at Hellingstead Hall. ‘In the seed of Jupiter’s Acorn, life holds balance, let the pendulum swing, let the ancient fruit rot or bloom.’ It made more sense now after our conversation; the ancient fruit must be the Gatekeeper, and the pendulum probably referred to a judgement. Raphael had hinted he would return the amulet if I made the right choice – about what? I had so many to make. Or did he mean the outcome of the trial?

In the seed of Jupiter’s acorn…

I leant back and retrieved my phone, bringing up the web browser. The search results for Jupiter’s acorn consisted mainly of cocktail recipes, but at the bottom of the page I found a reference to walnut trees. It must be that. The seed must be the walnuts themselves. That was far too easy.

The note sat creased beside me. No one other than me knew what the script meant. I realised that Raphael didn’t intend to make it difficult. I needed to be able to find it. But he left the note before he was warned of Frigg’s prophecy, so why did he think he might not be able to return the amulet? He seemed so sure that temptation headed my way. Everything about Raphael contradicted itself. Does he sense future events like Ava? He could turn into wind – why not be clairvoyant too?

Besides, there were millions of walnut trees on the planet. And none of the English ones bore nuts until later in the year. Except in Hellingstead Hall, I thought, Uncle Nikolaj’s Elvish magic keeps them ripening. We had a black walnut in the south side of the garden, in the orchard. Not far from the redwood where Raphael had stayed.

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