He invited her to take a seat at his desk; she sat, taking note of the frames on it. Some were of his family and wife. But one in the corner was a black-and-white picture of four schoolboys, each of their arms resting on each other’s shoulders. She thought about how rare it was to see people smiling in a black-and-white film photo and how precious something like that was. She was about to ask but—

‘Did you know Dana was searching for the grimoire?’

She inhaled a sharp breath at the mention of her sister.

She nodded. He looked surprised by that, his bushy brows furrowing.

‘I must admit, I was not aware until she came in here a week before she died.’ Lenovik spun his chair to face out the window. ‘I don’t think it was an official search approved by the Council.’

And that breath she was holding was released at the drop of her jaw.

‘What was she after?’ She cursed her forgotten memories, cursing the Trine for taking them away.

‘I’m not entirely sure how she found this out, but she wanted a paper I did about twenty years ago on the Antiphonus.’

Someone slammed a locker from outside the classroom, its sound vibrating off the walls. She flinched.

‘I was looking for it the other day to actually give to you,’ he said. ‘I thought it would be useful for your own search. I forgot she even had it.’

An awkward laugh escaped his lips. ‘I suppose it is your possession now, like the rest of her research.’

Bethan read every page of Dana’s papers and journals on her search, even the ones for the amulet. She also read every resource Dana had used. She had not come across anything by Lenovik.

‘Is the paper not in the museum archives?’ she asked.

Surely, there would be a copy.

‘It was never published.’ Lenovik eyes darkened. ‘My superior at the time read over it and deemed it unpublishable. He said my findings could not be proven.’

‘If you don’t mind me asking, what were the findings?’

‘I only suggested that the First Grimoire was not just a book of family spells, but a book of spells for the Blood Witches.’

She nodded, biting her nails. Blood Witches were a lost lineage. According to The Complete History of the Realm, Blood Witches’ powers deteriorated gradually due to unions with Small Witches. Small Magic was a more dominant gene than Blood Magic.

‘And you got this from the Antiphonus?’

‘I know it is deemed as an inaccurate source, but that is only because of the Rennigan family.’ His voice rose. ‘Kahn Rennigan was my superior; he was the one who dismissed my work.’

She nodded again.

‘If I had access to the old registry, maybe we could track the different lines of Blood Witches; the grimoire could still be in an ancestral home.’

Lenovik shook his head and laughed.

‘You’re not the first historian who thought of this.’