A Lost Light (The Bestiary #4)

19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Bis

S omething felt not right. I tried to ignore it so I could concentrate on reading the book about familiars I had found in the third smallest library. The earthquake earlier had made us all a little nervous. But nothing had happened afterward, so eventually we all went our separate ways. I was probably just still nervous about that. I took a deep breath to focus myself, sneezed at the snoot full of dust that got me, and went back to my reading.

The library was on the third floor, where Andy had put River. The jaguar shifter carried me up here after our game in the garden. Everything up here was all dusty and it made my nose itch. But there were a lot of interesting books. The big libraries on the first and second floor were filled with spellbooks, bestiaries, witch history, and grimoires—most of them full of nasty stuff. But up here in the smaller library were all the books that most of the previous Lovells probably thought were useless. These books weren't full of crazy spells and dangerous Lovell ideas or inventions. They were books that didn't seem to belong. Books about the humane treatment of familiars, or why non- witch creatures were more than servants or spell components. Somone, long ago, had not had the same moral compass as the rest of the coven. Must have been someone important, if they were allowed to keep these things.

Up here, I found stuff that interested me. This current book was about me. About familiars who were bound to a witch and what to expect from the relationship. I bet Andy would want to see this when I was done with it. She was worried about our bond, worried that she was using me. I knew that even though I told her I was fine, she wouldn't listen. This book, though, outlined how familiars should be treated, and how the relationship between familiar and witch could be loving and beneficial to them both. Maybe reading it would help her understand that I wanted to be her familiar. Sometimes I called her momma. Because she felt like a mother to me. But we could also be a team. Equals in her magic working.

I carefully turned a page, soaking up the words about all the benefits a familiar got from being bonded to a witch who understood them. But my concentration was interrupted again by that feeling of wrongness. This time it was followed by an ominous rumbling. The house shook. A couple of books fell off the shelves behind me, and I scampered off the dusty old desk to hide underneath, where I'd be safe from falling objects.

The shaking was brief, only a few seconds. I cautiously stuck my nose out from my hiding place and tasted the air around me, part of my awareness going, as always, to my witch's magic. The bubble that held the pocket world sort of… wavered. Then it settled down. It was almost as if something had hit the barrier.

That thought gave me a shiver. The kind of shiver that I couldn't really explain to the others. The kind of shiver that told me I was right. Something had hit Andy's magic. I abandoned my book and scurried across the dusty floor, down the hallway, and to the stairs. River was there, and he paused at the head of the stairs when he saw me.

“These quakes aren't normal, are they?” he asked, his yellow cat eyes wide.

I let out a peep of frustration. “No. Something's wrong with the barrier, I think. I need to see momma.”

He smiled softly and squatted down, holding out his hands. “Come on, I'll carry you. Save you the trouble of managing all these stairs.”

I huffed. I didn't like to be treated like a baby or a pet. But stairs were hard. And there were so many of them between here and the ground floor. I hurried over to River and let him pick me up. He cradled me against his chest with one arm, not minding my prickles. I enjoyed the feel of the soft sweater he was wearing. It was pink. One of my favorite colors. I probably shouldn't be able to see colors. Or read, for that matter. But I had long ago stopped questioning why I could do all the things I could do. I was me. And that was that.

River hopped down the stairs two at a time, at a speed that made me nervous. But he didn't even come close to tripping or losing his balance. It must be a cat thing.

When we reached the ground floor, everyone was out in the courtyard again. Andy had her hands on her hips, glaring up at the sky. River sat me down and I ran to my witch, tugging at her pant leg so she would pick me up. Once I was stationed at my place on her shoulder, I shook out my spines and settled into the peace and rightness that came with being in close contact with her aura.

“What do you think?” she asked me as she continued to stare up at the sky. “Is the barrier breaking again?”

I held onto a lock of her deep green hair as I took a moment to feel out the magic she had created. “No. I don't think so,” I said slowly. “But I felt… it felt like something bounced off the barrier when the shaking happened.”

She turned her head to glance at me out of the corner of her eyes. “Something bounced off? Like… void debris or something? Is there such a thing?”

I shook my head. “No. This seemed… purposeful?” I didn't know how to put it into words, how to explain how I knew that. I just knew.

Andy sighed. “So someone is trying to break in,” she said, her voice flat and tired.

I peeped in sympathy at Andy's statement. “Maybe?”

“Can you sense anything else?” she asked evenly. “Like a magical signature or anything that might tell us who is out there knocking at our door?”

I hummed as I thought about that. “Not on my own. But maybe together?”

She heaved a sigh that made me sway on her shoulder and clutch her hair tighter to steady myself. I knew what she was thinking. That she didn't want to use me. I huffed.

“Stop worrying about me,” I demanded, giving the lock of hair I held onto a little yank for emphasis. “You're not going to hurt me. I was made for this. And if we don't see what we can figure out, everyone here is probably going to die when the barrier is breached.”

She gave me the side eye again. “I hate how you're always right.”

I bared my teeth at her, my ears forward, in my version of a smug smile. “Which is always, if you'd just listen to me.”

“Kids,” she grumbled. “You give them a voice and suddenly they think they know it all.”

But she stopped resisting and opened up her aura to me. I used the link between us as a sort of… bridge. A path I could follow that linked me to all of the magic she had worked, to all of her spells that were currently active. I could touch the magic that fed the garden. I could sense the threads that connected her—us—to all of the others around us, except River. I could sense the little things she had worked, like the healing tea she made not long ago, or the tincture she had activated and placed on a small scrape on her finger from something she'd done in the garden.

And I could feel the wards. The massive bubble arching up overhead and down below, enclosing the entire mansion and the grounds around it, and all the rocks and soil below us. An iceberg of land afloat in the black sea of the void between realms.

And… there. A nudging. The ground rumbled again, softer this time. Andy's consciousness followed mine as I directed her to where I felt the difference, the magic that didn't belong. The aura that wasn't hers.

“Holy shit,” Andy breathed, her hand coming up to touch my feet, to steady me as we both swayed. “Is this real?”

I peeped. I couldn't really form words to assure her that yes, this was real. We were seeing beyond the barrier. My eyes took in the usual scenery of our current home. But my mind was filled with something else entirely.

A being. Several of them. Hovering outside our home, tapping curious “fingers” of energy against the barrier as they tried to figure out what this was.

One of the beings suddenly stilled. They weren't shaped like any creatures I'd ever seen before. They had no bodies, or appendages, really. They were gigantic, irregular oblong masses of swirling golden energy, shot through with iridescent rainbows of color, occasionally reaching out tendrils to touch the barrier around our pocket world.

“Can you hear me?” Andy said, her voice nearly a whisper, filled with awe and trepidation.

The being who had stilled moved again, a ripple flowing through its shape. The others also seemed to be paying attention, as if they could hear or see us. “Weee hearrrr,” a strange, humming voice said in my mind. “Whaaat?”

What were we? What was the barrier?

I felt the connection that was allowing us to see beyond the barrier wavering, and I used my ability as a familiar, boosting Andy's magic, drawing a bit more energy from those who were connected to her to steady this strange connection.

“We are beings from another realm,” Andy said, as if she spoke with strange void creatures every day. She had a talent for pretending to be calm when the world was falling apart, but I knew inside she was trembling with dread. “From Magea. We're hiding here, in this pocket world I created to get away from some bad people. People who would kill us. It's our sanctuary. It protects us. Please don't destroy it.”

A strange, bone rattling hum filled my being, and probably Andy's too. We were sent… not images, exactly, but… ideas. Concepts. These beings were…

“Cleeeeanerrrs,” the voice said in my mind.

Cleaners. They fed on any debris, or formations, or anomalies that didn't belong in the void. They had discovered this pocket world, this anomaly, and had come to devour it.

“Please,” Andy said, her voice shaking. “If you are going to destroy our sanctuary, then at least let us leave first. We'll die without the barrier you're trying to destroy.”

“Ssssssanctuary?” the voice hummed, as if considering. Weighing the meaning of that word.

After a few terrifying heartbeats, the voice spoke again, and the creature reached out a tendril of energy, caressing the barrier this time, rather than poking at it. There was no earthquake. “We will leeeeeeeave. Forrrr now.”

I let out a sigh of relief. Andy's mental voice was just as steady as ever. Somehow. “Thank you. I promise I will try to get us out of here. We are trying to go back home. It's just that it's not safe for us there right now.”

“Peeeeace,” the voice hummed.

Then the creatures winked out of existence.

The connection fell away, and I blinked my eyes, trying to adjust to seeing only what was before me once more.

“Fuck,” Andy muttered.

The others were all standing around us, staring.

“What just happened?” Aahil demanded. “Who were you talking to? Have you finally lost your mind, witch?” Agitated licks of flames danced along his fingers before he shook them out, extinguishing his fire.

Andy rubbed her forehead. She took a deep breath and let it out on a long exhale before speaking. “Interdimensional void beings? I don't fucking know.” She started pacing. “Bis helped me see beyond the barrier. There were giant energy creatures out there wanting to eat the pocket world because it doesn't belong here.” Stopping abruptly, she faced the others with wide eyes. “I told them we kind of needed this place to live at the moment. They said they'd mosey on by for now. Leave us in peace. But I have no idea how long 'for now' is. And also, I'm about fifty percent sure this is a hallucination and I'm lying in a diabetic coma right now. Either that or I ate the wrong mushrooms.”

She stopped speaking to take a breath and everyone was silent.

I patted her cheek. “It was real, momma. We just spoke to void creatures ! Now that the danger had passed, I was excited. We had just encountered a new race of beings that no one else even knew existed! I needed to go get my journal and write this down while my memory was fresh. I scurried down Andy's arm and she obligingly put me on the ground while everyone started asking questions.

Void creatures! I should write an essay. Maybe one of the witch publications back on Magea would want to know this. Or a university. But I paused on the bottom stair. Should we share this knowledge? What would the magical community do with it? Would they harm the beings? I sat down on my haunches as I thought about the implications of first contact.

“Bis? You okay, buddy?” Andy said as she sat down on the step next to me. “Using your magic that way didn't hurt you, did it?”

I shook my head, still partially lost in thought. “No. I'm fine.” Then I looked up at her. “How do you do it, Momma? How do you make all the hard decisions you make?”

She huffed a laugh. “Dude, I have no idea. I just… do what I think is right, I guess. Or what I have to do to survive and to keep my family safe.” She petted my head. “My real family. Not the ones related to me by blood.”

I chirped in consideration. “Should we tell other people about the void creatures?”

She thought about it for a moment. Then she shrugged. “What do you think we should do?”

She was asking me? It seemed silly. But it also made me feel good about myself. My witch trusted me. She treated me like an equal. Like a person, not a pet. “I think people would want to know. It's just so interesting. But I also think we shouldn't tell. People can be cruel. Or unthinking. They might hurt the void creatures. Or make them angry. Which might be even worse.”

She nodded along, but waited for me to come to my own conclusions.

“I think… maybe someone should know. But only the right people. The careful people who will keep it a secret, but will be on the lookout if there's ever an issue related to these creatures.”

“I think you are very wise,” she said with a fond little smile. “If that's what you think is right, then it probably is. We won't tell anyone. Except maybe someone who could safeguard the knowledge. Someone in power, if we can ever find anyone like that who is trustworthy.”

I nodded, feeling relieved. Being a person was amazing. But it was also very hard work sometimes. “Can I still write about it in my journal?”

She ran a finger lightly over my spines in a friendly caress. “That should be okay. But maybe just keep things vague, so only you know exactly what you're referring to. Just in case anyone ever reads your journal.”

“Yes,” I said happily. “That feels right.” I started to climb the stairs, but paused on the third one to look back at her. “Oh! I found a book you might want to read. About familiars.” I sighed and glanced up the stairs. “It's all the way up in the third-floor library, though.”

She quirked a wry look at me. “That can't be fun for you with those little legs.”

I shrugged.

She narrowed her eyes in thought. “There is a dumbwaiter. It's old and I've never checked to see if it works. Maybe we can fix it up and make it into a Bis-sized elevator?”

I chirped happily at that idea.

She held up a hand though, quieting me. “No using it until we're sure it's safe, though, okay?”

I nodded enthusiastically. “I understand.”

“Until then, you ask someone for a ride, okay? There's no reason to be self-conscious about it, and everyone here would be happy to help you. If they give you any attitude, tell them I said I'll turn all of their meals into slugs. I saw the perfect spell in one of the family grimoires the other day.”

I squeaked a laugh and stood on my hind legs as she reached for me. Scooping me up, my witch stood and carried me back to the library.

This was what a familiar relationship should be. A partnership. We were powerful together. Probably in more ways than either of us realized, since we hadn't really practiced using our connection. But we were also family. I felt loved. And I loved my witch. And that was how it should be.

Still… interdimensional void creatures! What would come at us next? I couldn't wait to write in my journal.