Third POV.
“Do you think that this is related?” another elder chimed in.
“It all makes sense. The kidnapping and the ambush,” Matthew said.
“You are all right but can’t you remember Josiah saying that it was written in another language and that even his adoptive parents couldn’t understand anything? If I am not wrong, it might be an ancient language,” Elijah said, making the people who thought it was related to keep quiet.
On the other hand, Josiah clenched his hands when he had that, he wished that he could kill Elijah but still blamed himself for knowing what he knew about the book. He had thought that he could easily fool everyone but he had to admit that with the presence of Elijah and Amanda things were a little too hard since he didn't explain everything in a very convincing way. Leila, Marcus and Elana looked at Elijah with admiration since they never thought that someone could remember that and even say it out loud.
Seeing that her childhood friend might be labeled as a liar or even worse, a mole, Lisa frowned a little before deciding to speak up.
“Yeah, he did say that but it is a different language. It wasn’t said that it can’t be taught,” she said.
The family of three looked at her and knew what she was about to do but they had to wait to hit Josiah where it hurts the most. The others remained silent since they had to admit that what Lisa had said had a point. Josiah was shocked since he had not expected Lisa to speak up for him. He had thought that if it turned out that he was a liar, she would not want anything to do with her but it seemed that he had mistaken her.
“Wow, what a convincing statement you have there but do you think that we will fall for that? The others can but we can’t!” Marcus said as he glared at Josiah.
The elders and the former king frowned when they had that. To them, even though Marcus was a god, he had to be respectful to the elders since he was younger than them. Elijah, Amanda and Mike noticed the sudden change in Josiah when Marcus said that, making them frown. They knew that Marcus had to be right.
They wanted to question Josiah but upon seeing the look on both Elana and Leila and remembering that they had not yet spoken after Josiah talked, it occurred to them that they had no right to speak. All they needed to do was to wait and watch what would happen.
“All I said is true,” Josiah said with a frown as he looked at Marcus. ‘How could I forget the arrogant kid when he was thinking about who would make things hard for him?’
“Yes the language is indeed different from the others but what you failed to say was that it was written by our ancestor in a family language,” Leila said.
“You said that you read the book even without being taught the language but as far as I know, that can only happen to that ancestor's descendants. Now my question is, are you part of our family and we have never heard of you?” Elana said.
“You also said that your adoptive parents opened the book and tried to read it but failed in doing so due to the unknown language. You had also opened the book when you were small,” Marcus said.
“And now, you just said that the book was stolen last week making it the assumption that the person who stole the book knew the language, he opened it, and read it before proceeding to kidnapping the witch,” Leila.
Listening to all these, everyone wondered what the family of three was up to. Josiah didn't feel good at all since he could tell that whatever they were up to was not good but remembering that he was told they would let him go even without the book, he relaxed a bit. He also wondered whether he had said a bad thing about the book but after thinking about it for some time, he couldn’t pinpoint what was really wrong thus, he let out a sigh of relief.
“I said all that,” he said as he nodded his head agreeing with their statements.
“Well, you all heard what he has just said. No one has forced him to say that. Actually, no one even asked him to answer us but he did,” Marcus said with a smirk on his face making Josiah frown.
“If you really open the book and even read it after you were a small boy, then why do I remember my grandfather telling us that to open that book, one needs any person’s blood from our family?” Elana said while looking at Josiah coldly.
Hearing this, Josiah was shocked. He closed his eyes as he wondered why he had never seen that part before or heard about it.
“Surprised?” Leila asked with a chuckle.
“Bet he is wondering whether he had never had such a thing from the people who told him about the book before,” Marcus said as he shook his head.
“Your lies were quite convincing but it was stupid of you to think that we will end up falling for your lies. Also, you are so foolish to come back here thinking we will let you off when you don’t come with the book as per our agreement. Many people know about the book and try to steal it but after discovering it is of no use to them since they can’t even open it, they return it or throw it away for the next enemy to take it,” Elana said.
The others were dumbfounded. Even though Mike, Amanda and Elijah knew that the family of three was up to something, they had not imagined something like this. Lisa wanted to defend Josiah but she couldn’t find the right words. She also knew one wrong move from her, she would end up being labeled as his accomplice and she didn’t want that.
“We will never do as we are told when it comes to you! Oh, and don’t even think of doing anything dirty out there,” Leila said as she stared at Josiah deeply.
“Guards, take him away.”