Chapter 48
Julie
Alone In This World
RealTunesStudio
After receiving this message, I had opened the chat immediately. I hadn’t realized that I had lost the bracelet that Grace had given me for my fifteenth birthday. I knew he missed me. And even though I had just drunk Salma when I had been staring at the chat, the blush had risen to my cheeks. And then my world had crumbled a little further.
I had forgotten to breathe, cursed myself for my carelessness, and now I had to live with the consequences.
That had been the moment when my heart had finally slipped out of my chest.
Panic had spread through me. My feelings, my heart, everything was screaming for him, wanting him to find me, but my mind knew there couldn’t be a worse scenario.
My heartbeat had been about to escalate.
Damn.
I couldn’t let him put it anywhere, either. He would be waiting for me. There was only one way...
My hands had been shaking badly, and my fingertips had turned blue.
And I knew I couldn’t ask Bayla or Larissa for it. They already knew too much. And Grace... never.
And then I had made the second-biggest mistake of my life.
He had read it, but didn’t react for a long time. Then he had finally started typing.
Every message had made me die a little more.
Another long pause.
The chances of him ever noticing me were small, but just thinking about it made my fragile heart race.
He knew me... had seen me before... And he didn’t know that I was the girl he had exchanged countless messages with, even slept with.
He didn’t know that I was carrying his child.
I had suppressed it, still hadn’t dealt with it. And by now, almost seven weeks had passed since we had slept together. I had hoped that this problem would go away on its own. In vain.
My skin felt clearer than usual, but for the past week I had been feeling nauseous every day, hardly keeping down any of the food I had shoveled into me after sudden hunger pangs. It usually happened after breakfast, so I waited to eat until everyone had left the house and skipped my first seminar.
After throwing up, I usually felt dizzy and slept for two hours straight, as if it had taken me so much energy to throw up all that food. I had also done some research and these symptoms were atypical for the first trimester, rather rare. But at some point, I had stopped researching because it didn’t help me to calm down. Quite the opposite.
It was a shame that I was living with it instead of doing something about it. But I knew what was to blame for my inability to do anything about it.
That inside me was Erik’s child. And something about it fascinated me immensely, made me feel less lonely when I cried myself to sleep every morning.
And whenever I saw my slight, barely visible baby bump in the mirror after showering, my hand would almost automatically rest on it while this warm tingling sensation ran through my body.
But what was I doing by allowing myself to be manipulated by these feelings when I knew full well that I would be a miserable mother? The thought alone overwhelmed me and brought tears to my eyes, despite the Salma.
What did he mean by that? Did the mayor’s family already have such a bad reputation?
Pause.
Erik hadn’t texted anything, but had stayed online.
Now he had surprised me.
And then I had surprised myself.
Pause. As if he had to think.
If he knew what kind of trouble I would get myself into just to get Grace’s bracelet back.
Office Talk
Christopher Tyng
Now I was frantically running around the kitchen trying to calm myself down.
How could I have been so careless? Erik would be looking for me at the Winter Ball in a few days and would want to give me the bracelet.
Neither did I want to go to that stupid ball, nor did I want to be confronted with who Erik was. Just seeing him again would probably break me entirely.
“No, Amber, I can not just wear my prom dress. I absolutely can’t!”
Vivienna made herself a salad. Except that by now all the ingredients were flying around the kitchen – thanks to her elemental magic – and I was struggling to make my meal without a lettuce leaf flying into my bowl.
It had always been like this when Vivienna was upset. Things just flew around... and usually hit me when I was there. Even though she was wearing her crystal.
“But we won’t make it to Vancouver before the weekend,” Amber tried for the thousandth time. To no avail.
“I don’t care. I’ll find something. And you two...” She suddenly looked at Bayla and Larissa, who had been following the conversation for ten minutes, grinning. “Stop staring at us like that, you creeps!”
The two of them looked at each other with wide grins, and Vivienna rolled her eyes in annoyance. Then she mixed the salad.
“I’m telling you, if we don’t have anything by the Winter Ball, I’m going to freak out!”
The Winter Ball was coming up and since the beginning of the week, in which nothing exciting had happened so far, you could hear girls talking about this event on every corner.
It was traditional for Vanderwood to host this ball every few years, usually in December, the last weekend before Christmas. Girls wore pompous prom dresses, guys wore fancy suits, and there were even horse-drawn carriages from the founding times brought to campus.
Basically, these were all things I wanted to avoid, but Larissa had already decided to pick out the most beautiful dresses that could be found in Blairville for all of us.
He would be there. I would meet him again.
I sighed and cut the fruit smaller and smaller until I wondered what I was actually doing.
Vivienna gave me a snide look. Basically, I was just waiting for her to finally disappear and for me to have enough space in the kitchen. At the same time, her busyness was a welcome distraction.
“Oh my God! Don’t come near me!”
Buddy pranced down the stairs, past Amber and straight toward me and Vivienna. He’d run off a few weeks ago, but luckily, I’d found him again, although in the proximity of Mr. Suspicious, which had thrown me completely off track.
I had successfully repressed the fact that he had asked me about Buddy, and that wouldn’t change now.
Buddy had grown a little, but he was still a puppy. I had spent more time with him over the last few weeks, and now he was even sleeping in bed with me, resting his head strangely on my stomach as if he knew about the baby.
Whenever he did this, I softly pushed him away from me, which fortunately didn’t bother him, but rather encouraged him to cuddle up to Emely in bed.
Emely slept here more often now. Whatever it was that made her do it.
And just at that moment, she came down the stairs.
“The dog should be more afraid of you ,” she joked annoyed and when Buddy realized that she had entered the kitchen, he ran to her wagging his tail as if they hadn’t seen each other for years.
Grace sat in the dining room corner at the large glass table, her laptop in front of her, and watched Emely suspiciously. It was the same look she always gave Larissa.
We had talked less, and the longer I spent with Larissa and Bayla, the more she seemed to avoid me.
Emely went to the fridge, not without staring at me like I was sick and about to die. Another thing she had been doing for two weeks now.
She knew that I hadn’t aborted the embryo yet. And with each passing day, my worry grew, as did what was inside me. It was still small, but you could already see the growth in the mirror. I had googled what you look like in the seventh week of pregnancy and my belly was definitely bigger than the ones in the pictures. And that scared me.
How much longer would I be able to hide it? And why was it still alive?
“Disgusting,” Amber hissed, standing by the stair railing with her arms crossed.
I’d never met an Earth Quatura like her before. Normally, they were all friendly, open-minded, and very calm. Amber was different. Conceited like Vivienna, selfish like no one else, and cunning like a snake. Even back then, she had always hurt other people. Especially Madeline or Grace, who had hoped to make friends with this bitch and had shared the Barbies with her – which, it should be noted, had been so popular among Quatura children back then.
I had seen Amber – when Vivi and I had been homeschooled by Gloria – visiting Vivienna and ripping the heads off the dolls Grace had lent her. I’d never told Grace to avoid drama... until Amber had.
“Go away if it bothers you,” Emely hissed in return, just coming from the fridge to the kitchen counter with three packages of fresh meat – supposedly from a hunt with her family.
Vivienna was overcome with a gag reflex and I couldn’t look any longer either, otherwise I would have forced down my Saturday breakfast for nothing.
Vivienna quickly reached for her lunch box and filled it with the pasta salad, which didn’t smell too bad. Then she put the box in her bag and headed for the door, together with Amber.
“Take care, you freaks. And don’t fuck up.”
The door crashed shut, which was not uncommon with Ruisangor and Senseque housemates. And the Quatura who lived in this house probably wanted to live up to the standard.
Satisfied that there was now more space next to me, I slid into the middle, and Buddy immediately came to me and snuggled up to my leg. I petted him, washed my hands, and fetched a bowl from the cupboard. Then I returned to the kitchen counter, where Emely was busy with her meat on the other side.
From Eden
Hozier
“We should also start thinking about where we’re going to get our dresses,” Larissa said from the couch area. “I mean, does Thursday work for you guys?”
“I still have to look. There’s a lot to study,” I said briefly.
Larissa laughed. “Julie, you study 24/7.”
“Reasonable.” Emely snorted almost inaudibly.
I knew she valued her academic education a lot.
“Maybe she just doesn’t want to go shopping with a Ruisangor.”
I looked at Grace, who said something for the first time today.
“So, you’re not coming either?”
It sounded so serious from Larissa, like she was really expecting it. She already had to refrain from asking Mady because that weird Miles DeLoughrey was afraid she might kill the Campbell girl. Bayla had asked her, too, but she had never answered the text messages or the following calls from Bayla.
Grace just laughed. “I’m going with Vivienna and the girls.”
“The girls...” I said in surprise and looked at my cousin, who glared at me defiantly.
Was she trying to get back at me?
“At least with them, there’s no risk of being bitten.” Larissa wanted to protest, but Grace was quicker. “And no, I don’t believe you that our blood doesn’t attract you. I don’t attend temple classes for nothing.”
I looked at her, in thought, while I put the fruit salad and nuts into the bowl.
Grace had access to knowledge that would forever be denied to me, and I envied her for that.
“Fine, then don’t,” Larissa said annoyed, and I noticed how Emely listened to the conversation intently.
I went to the couch, to Bay and Larissa, sat down opposite Larissa and began to eat in peace. Something that was rarely possible here.
Just at that moment, Grace rose to her feet and took her bowl to the sink, not without keeping the greatest possible distance from Emely. As she passed the couch, she stopped and looked at Bayla.
“Your next rite of passage is after the Winter Ball. The first weekend of the new year. Until then, you should say goodbye to your friend, because from then on, you’re officially part of the Circle.”
Bayla froze.
“I’m not going to mess it up this time because Grace has chosen someone else to be her right hand and Gloria doesn’t want me there until I can... control my own powers,” I said as if Grace wasn’t present.
She had started it. And I was just as good at it. Even though I felt like a child every time.
“Haven’t you been part of it forever?” Larissa asked, genuinely interested.
“Yes, but my powers have changed,” I replied quickly.
I hadn’t found a way to bind Bayla’s white crystal to my elements, and now it was lying in my drawer, untouched.
“Is that normal?” Larissa leaned back in thought.
“No,” my cousin snorted. “Nothing about her is normal.”
And then she turned away and left the house.
Bang.
I winced, as I always do when someone slammed the door.
The 3 rd Door
Jay Varton
“Who’s her new right hand?”
Bayla said something for the first time. Behind her, further away, Emely had moved to the other side of the kitchen island so that she had a perfect view of us. Buddy was sitting next to her, wagging his tail as he looked up at Emely with a tilted head.
I looked back at Bayla. “Vivienna.”
Bayla’s eyes widened. “What? No. That... Can’t I decide?”
I shook my head and Larissa rolled her eyes. “Chill now, you’ll get superpowers after this ritual. It can’t be that bad.”
“It hurt. How many more times do I have to tell you?”
I saw Emely jerk her head up. “They’re going to hurt you?”
Larissa and Bayla spun around. And I thought I saw unease in Bayla’s gaze.
“I swear to you, if I feel anything next weekend that forces my body to seek you out, you and I are going to have a huge problem.”
What, why would Emely feel anything?
Larissa raised an eyebrow. “You’ll have to explain that to me in more detail.”
“Your friend put a spell on me and Julian. And don’t you dare deny it again.”
Emely looked seriously angry and... scared?
“That’s not possible,” I said with suspicion. “Quatura can’t interfere with the consciousness of others and...” I drew quotation marks in the air. “Bewitch them.”
Emely stared at me. “Then what did she do? Explain it to me. So, I can get rid of it as quickly as possible.”
“I’d like to know what Bay did in the first place,” Larissa said, confused.
“Whenever something happens to her, when she gets hurt or attacked, Julian and I feel it and something makes us go to her. Julian even has visions. And Senseque can’t do shit like that.”
“That can’t be...” I insisted on my Quatura knowledge.
But why would Emely lie? What reason did she have?
“Oh, yes. Because when you two were attacked, we, Julian and I, sensed it, and see, you two had in fact been in trouble and Bayla was almost bleeding to death because someone from your clan had sunk their cursed fangs into her neck.”
She looked at Bayla and Larissa again before putting down the kitchen knife.
“You were bitten too?” Larissa looked at Bayla.
“Yes, but I somehow survived.”
“Which is also a mystery to me,” I replied, and more and more questions arose.
What if I really didn’t know enough? What if I was denied so much knowledge about Quatura magic simply because of my low position within the Circle?
Emely reached for the knife again. “Same here! But what the hell. I trust your magic even less now. Back then it was just the elements. Now she comes, smells like nothing, randomly manipulates Senseque and survives a deadly Ruisangor bite.”
I hadn’t thought of it like that before. It could all be coincidences. The weak scent, because maybe she was an ungifted... but the manipulation? If that was true, what did it mean?
“I wish I could undo it. I really wish I could, Emely. You have to believe me.”
Bayla looked desperate. I would be too if I were her.
Emely just snorted. “Whatever. And as if that wasn’t enough, you show up everywhere and mess up the system, break into my uncle’s office with your friends that you’re not supposed to have, and...” Emely threw her arms in the air, the menacingly large knife in one hand. “I don’t know what your intentions are, but I don’t trust you.”
No one said anything and Emely continued to cut. A piece of meat slid down the counter and my dog snatched it greedily.
“Shit, we should get back to the Alice case,” Larissa finally said, looking at both of us.
“Alice is dead. She screwed up,” it came immediately from the kitchen.
“We need confirmation that she’s dead,” Larissa said and jumped up. “Let’s go to the cemetery.”
“Seriously?” Emely laughed, and it sizzled as she put the raw pieces she had just marinated into the hot oil.
Larissa crossed her arms. “Yes, if someone dies, that’s probably where they’ll end up.”
“And what if she was murdered and never buried there?” Bayla murmured darkly.
Her best friend looked her straight in the eye. “Then I want to find out who would do such a cold-hearted thing.”
Bad Blood
Bastille
We had called Julian, which Emely had – of course – commented on with “You should finally leave him out of your crap” and he had picked us up in his rusty red five-seater pickup truck without further ado. Bayla, Larissa, Miles and me.
At first, I thought there was going to be a huge discussion, but Bayla didn’t seem to have anything against Larissa’s brother and Julian accepted him as long as he didn’t sit in the passenger seat or directly behind him.
And so, we drove – Bayla in the passenger seat, Miles DeLoughrey behind her, Larissa in the middle and me on her left – to the Blairville cemetery, which was located in the Quatura neighborhood. Not downtown, but near Moenia, behind the Blair neighborhood, which meant we had to be extra careful.
“If I had known I would ever be in the same car with a Senseque and two Quatura, I probably would have slapped myself in the face.”
“You can still get out of the car,” Larissa said, more than annoyed with her brother.
He just laughed and shook his head. “I’m only here because of you.”
“Of course,” Bayla said with a sarcastic grin and the two of them looked at each other in the side mirror.
“You’re curious yourself. If you were really interested in what I do, it would bother you that I sleep in a house with the other species.”
“I would never voluntarily go to one of the girls’ houses where all hell would break loose.”
Bayla and Larissa smirked again, and Miles propped his head on the hand held by his elbow on the window.
“My family would lynch me if they knew about this,” I said tonelessly and Miles’ head turned to me.
“Then why are you doing it?”
“Because I hope to find out valuable information about my father,” I said impatiently, but more honestly than I had in a long time.
And immediately he was back. The pitying look from Bayla.
“Please don’t do that,” I said, and she looked at me, caught off guard.
“He’s your father.”
“He’s dead.” I tried to end the topic, but Miles picked it up immediately.
“Lucky you.”
“Miles!” Larissa looked at him with what seemed to be a mix of shock and frustration, and he just shrugged his shoulders before looking back at me.
“If not, you can always join the club of fatherless children.” He pointed forward at Bayla, who widened her eyes. “Oh, right, I almost forgot, you all only have mothers.”
“At least something...” Larissa mumbled and Miles immediately looked at her.
We were silent for the next three traffic lights until Julian started talking at the fourth.
“Just to be clear: I’m only doing this for Bayla.” Immediately, her face turned red, and she pulled her legs in the front seat closer to her chest. Interesting. “So if any of you are planning to make me look stupid in front of anyone, please say so now, because I don’t want any stress with your power-hungry families afterward.”
“We’re all in the same boat. Anyone who jumps off now doesn’t have the best cards,” I said, wondering where this self-confidence came from.
It was easier to talk in front of these people than in front of those in the Circle. I didn’t have to be particularly careful not to say the wrong thing, even though their gestures and facial expressions were different to Grace’s, and I sometimes struggled to interpret them correctly.
“Why does that sound like I’ve joined a cult?” Miles asked.
Bayla laughed without turning to face him, her face still a little red. “If you want to meet a real cult, come to Moenia.”
She really hadn’t had any good experiences.
Moenia could be an educational and mysterious retreat. I had already found so many hiding places and secret doors on the first floor that I was beginning to wonder whether Amara herself knew them all and whether there were just as many hidden rooms on the temple floors and in the library. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to enter most of the lower floors.
“Is it true that you kill cats to sacrifice them to the gods?”
Everyone except Julian, who was concentrating on driving, looked at Miles.
“No,” I corrected him right away. “We don’t do blood sacrifices. It’s forbidden.”
It was part of dark magic.
No doubt there were many myths about us that the Ruisangors told their children. They feared elemental magic because it was unfamiliar to them.
“What was that stuff your aunt put on my head back then... at the ritual of passage?” Bayla asked, turning to me.
“Clay, mixed with herbs. Part of the Earth magic.”
She nodded, and her expression changed noticeably.
Bayla had told us that her mother made a secret of everything.
“When it comes to our families, I think we all don’t enjoy the best positions within the hierarchy,” Miles suddenly said, earning questioning looks. I understood him immediately.
“Sometimes it’s better that way,” I replied without emotion and Bay and Larissa eyed me with strange looks.
“Right, we can actually do whatever we want,” Miles laughed and ran his fingers through his loose hair, which framed his angular face in a heart shape.
He was like all the other Ruisangors. Pale, elegant and very attractive.
“Every one of you has at least one person in mind right now who would never sit here in the car because they are under constant surveillance by the clan... or in your case, the Circle or pack.” Larissa laughed with amusement, and I wondered who it was they were thinking of. “Or someone who is completely devoted to their family.”
Julian’s and Miles’ eyes met in the mirror and within a few split seconds they were both staring at each other before Julian’s gaze slid back to the roadway.
“That means you’re supporting us?” Larissa looked at Miles in surprise.
“I didn’t say that… I’m just interested to see how this turns out.” He glanced at the rearview mirror again. “I mean, I’m in a car with a Senseque, and we’re both still alive.”
“I don’t really intend changing that either,” Julian murmured darkly. “Keep me out of your clan affairs and away from the pack, and we won’t have any problems.”
“A lone wolf, huh?” The corners of Miles’ mouth turned upwards playfully.
He seemed to like provoking people.
“Miles, please,” Larissa warned him and leaned back, rolling her eyes.
Her brother raised both hands.
“It’s okay. I’ll shut up.”
Taken by the Night
Petri Alanko
We crossed the Blair neighborhood, one of the first to be established in this town. The one where the wealthier ones and the few Council members lived. The rest of the Council members, who thought they were even classier, lived in the neighboring Council District, which had been built in the late seventies.
I didn’t like being there. Everything seemed noble and well-kept, but statues of the wind goddess or the R of the Councils on the ornate street lanterns everywhere reminded me of the elitism that the Councils wanted to represent.
However, here in the Blair district, I felt at least a little bit at home.
Old, noble Victorian mansions were located on a higher area of the town center, surrounded by woods and with enough space between each house that no one knew what the other was doing in their garden. The further we drove, the fewer and more expensive-looking cars we encountered and the more mysterious the houses looked.
Finally, we drove past Moenia and I noticed Miles and Larissa staring out of the window at the tall Victorian tower of Moenia, which was just visible through the hedges of the gateway.
“So, this is the lions’ den?” Miles asked.
“Something like that,” I replied tonelessly.
We drove on, and the houses became a little smaller again, but they were still built in the same style and were more magnificent than those downtown.
Here, some were uninhabited and from the clean main avenue, small roads led further into the forest to more secluded streets and houses where Quatura and humans had settled in their ancient family legacies.
“Somehow this place looks familiar…” Bayla said.
She surveyed the street, then the houses, but said nothing more.
Julian immediately paid attention to her. “Maybe you’ve been here before with your mother?”
Bayla seemed to memorize every detail. “On the street, maybe, but it had been dark then... mh…” She shook her head. “I don’t remember.”
We drove further along the main road and approached the cemetery, which was surrounded by bare trees and high walls, protected from inclement weather.
Julian parked the car in the parking lot, and we all got out.
Wind Blowing Sounds for Sleeping
ASMR Tinnitus Relief
“Considering it’s December, I’m really surprised it hasn’t snowed yet.” Larissa looked up at the gray sky, from which not a single snowflake had yet fallen.
It was chilly, and Bayla and I seemed to be the most warmly dressed.
“Aren’t you guys cold?” Bayla asked, looking at the other three, and Larissa and Miles grinned at each other.
“Cold doesn’t bother us,” Miles said and Bayla snorted enviously, her eyes on Julian, who was still wearing a T-shirt.
“The body temperature of a Senseque is higher, which is why it takes a long time for the cold to bother us.”
“Come here, Julie, they really are freaks,” Bay laughed softly and hugged me, which was unusual at first, but then somehow felt good.
Bayla and Larissa treated me as if we had known each other for years, which took some getting used to.
Bayla and I walked ahead until she whispered something to me. “Are there any elements other than fire, air, earth, water and... ice?”
I looked at her and there was something in her gaze. Was it uncertainty? Confusion?
“Don’t worry about it. You’ll know your element after the ceremony.”
I was terrible at calming people down.
“What if it doesn’t work out? What if something bad happens?” She sounded desperate, and I felt the need to reassure her.
“Nothing like what happened to me will happen to you, believe me. Unless your father was a powerful Quatura, which is pretty much out of the question because male Quatura are so rare that they get documented and pretty well known. Secret relationships are next to impossible for such people. Besides, you would smell strongly of Quatura to the other species and we Quatura would notice your pure magic more, most of the time at least.”
I had to think about myself. About how I had gone unnoticed as the daughter of a male Quatura.
My words had the opposite effect, because now Bayla seemed much more nervous.
“Julie...”
She widened the gap to the others a little more, pulling me along with her.
Miles and Larissa seemed to be engrossed in a conversation about the island, but Julian noticed... I could feel his gaze.
“Something strange has happened to me that I haven’t told anyone about.”
“What do you mean?”
I looked at her with interest. Everything was strange with Bayla Adams, even if it was perhaps a coincidence.
“I don’t know… I’d like to talk to you about it, but not here.”
I knew immediately that she meant the presence of the others and nodded in understanding.
Bayla managed to make me feel empathetic, even though I wasn’t at all. She was open to others... but not like Larissa, from whom all the information bubbled out.
As we opened the large steel cemetery gate, with its ornate metal sign indicating that we were now entering The Blairville Cemetery, the ornately forged but rusted iron gate rattled, and I struggled to push it open. Then, out of nowhere, it gave way and Larissa, who also had her hand on the gate, grinned at me.
She was stronger than me. Of course she was .
We entered the huge abandoned cemetery, where no one was to be seen today.
I hadn’t been here for a very long time...
“This cemetery can actually compete with ours,” I heard Miles laugh behind me.
“You have a cemetery?” Bayla asked.
“It’s an old family graveyard somewhere in Fogs Forest,” Miles confirmed.
Larissa sighed. “Is there anything else besides your well-hidden estate and a damn family graveyard in your territory?”
The corners of Miles’ mouth twitched upward again, and he took his hands out of the pockets of his black felt coat to play with a blade engraved with lilies.
“There’s quite a bit.”
Larissa wheeled around. “What? Really?”
“You think we were just a clan of nine back then?”
“There are nine of you?” Bayla gasped, startled.
“For now,” Miles explained.
“What did Adrian mean yesterday?”
The Ruisangor seemed to know immediately what his sister meant but looked at me and Julian first, as if the answer wasn’t meant for our ears.
Larissa shook her head. “I will find out sooner or later, so don’t make a big deal out of it now. And Julie knows everything anyway.”
I couldn’t help but blush and started moving again, looking for the graves that would confirm the existence of the two people who were probably the only ones who could have helped me with all of my questions.
Behind me, Miles groaned. “Whatever,” he began to explain. “We’re expecting guests after New Year.”
“Guests?” Larissa looked at him with suspicion.
Miles patted her on the shoulder. “Let’s just say students... Nicolaj has gathered a lot of Ruinouveaux in Sacramento. Transformed, who would otherwise be running around clanless and causing chaos.”
My blood froze in my veins when I heard the name of the head of the Ruisangor clan. We were taught that he was very dangerous, powerful and – according to the stories – very old.
“To prevent them from joining the Tenebris Order, he decided without further ado to bring them to Blairville and have them trained.”
“What is the Tenebris Order?”
Larissa was one of them, but she seemed pretty clueless. Even I knew what the Tenebris Order was.
“An ancient alliance of those Ruisangors you should really be afraid of. They know no mercy, drink directly from their human prey and kill them in the process... for fun,” Miles explained, his jaw moving strangely.
Bayla didn’t seem to be informed either, which was Grace’s and my fault.
“You guys too… right?”
“We don’t kill uncontrollably.”
“What your clan head is planning sounds like something the pack or Circle wouldn’t approve of,” Julian finally voiced my thought.
I looked around at the others, who had now stopped.
Julian’s expression darkened drastically.
“It’s not my idea and I honestly don’t want anything to do with it.”
Miles started moving and walked past me, which made me keep walking too.
“Who’s going to train them all anyway? I can hardly imagine Bastien, Laurent, Camille and... Tristan having that much time on their hands.”
Why did it sound like a whole armada was coming? Larissa, who appeared at Miles’ side, seemed just as confused as everyone else present.
“How many are there?” asked Bayla, who was now walking behind us with Julian.
“I don’t know, but the local DUIO staff from the DLSC should be enough.”
“Okay, I’m out.” Bayla raised her hands in surrender. “Too many things I need to inform myself about.”
However, I had not yet learned enough, so I glared at Miles. “The DUIO is your unofficial family business, isn’t it? You work with the FBI, MI6, and other important agencies.”
“Just like you’re discreetly involved in North American politics,” Miles laughed.
I would have loved to deny it, but the fact that we Quatura had become so influential was definitely not just due to the maple syrup business. Quatura from the Councils sat in all kinds of offices and political institutions.
Larissa asked one question after another.
“What does DUIO stand for anyway?”
“DeLoughrey Underground Information Organization,” Miles and I answered simultaneously, and he eyed me for a few seconds as if I were an attraction at the circus until I raised my eyebrows, and he turned his attention back to Larissa.
I looked at the tombstones. The reason we had come here. Only I didn’t know where to start. These graves could be anywhere.
As if Bayla had read my mind, she asked aloud. “Do the Blairs have something like a family vault?”
“Right,” I mumbled, realization hitting me like Gloria always did with her spontaneous practice sessions. “Follow me.”
We made a turn to the right, across the cemetery, where the graves were getting bigger and more weathered. Back then, people had apparently been more interested in the deceased.
Finally, we reached a garden surrounded by a gothic black and silver fence, in the middle of which was a small pool with water lilies, surrounded by a tiny path with various gravestones around it.
I opened the small door and motioned for the others to follow me.
“Your family really gets the best of the best,” Miles remarked with amusement and I saw him run his hand over the not yet rusted decorations in admiration and immediately withdraw his hand.
“Damn,” he cursed, stopping Larissa from touching the metal. “Don’t touch that. It’s real silver. A protection against us.”
Bayla listened and immediately stretched out her hand toward the fence. Of course, nothing happened. What was supposed to happen? She was one of us.
“Silver,” I sighed when Julian couldn’t resist bringing his hand closer to the fence. “Better not do it. There’s a wolfsbane protection on it too.”
I knew that such protection was only possible with crystals, which ensured that the essence of plant substances remained in place for centuries. And then I also discovered the crystals that had been melted into the metal on the corner pillars of the fences.
“You’re so paranoid that you’re even protecting a graveyard against us?”
Miles sounded annoyed and rubbed the spot on his hand where I could see a red burn.
Yes, my families were paranoid. And yes, I didn’t just mean the Blairs, but the Westcodes as well. Two families that couldn’t be more different.
“You have a separate cemetery for yours,” I reminded Miles with a shrug and turned back to the graves.
“Look, here’s a grave of a woman called Rosalynd Blair. Does her name mean anything to you? She died twenty years ago.”
I joined Bayla, who had stopped in front of a very pretty grave. I immediately recognized from the three-part circle placed in the middle at the top of the gravestone that it belonged to an Earth Quatura of high rank. And then I remembered the symbols of the other elements.
“This woman had been a Domini... maybe... my grandmother...” I whispered, rummaging for memories, in vain. I hadn’t even seen any pictures of this Rosalynd, although there were plenty of portraits of our ancestors on Moenia’s walls.
“So she was most likely Alice’s mother too,” Bayla murmured and immediately looked around at the other tombstones.
“There really are men who can control elements...” Miles laughed and pointed to a gravestone. I hurried to it, my hopes higher than usual, then I read the name. Beckett Blair.
Disappointment spread through me. There didn’t seem to be a single gravestone here that could take us any further.
Beckett had been the first male Blair in Blairville, one of the founding fathers thanks to whom the Quatura had managed to survive the harsh practices of the conservative humans. Even though, as a result, the Quatura society had been part of a Catholic cult for far too long.
“Guys, I think I’ve found what we’re looking for.”
Larissa waved her hands. She stood in the corner of the private cemetery. The tombstone was tiny compared to the others and almost hidden under all the ivy.
“She’s really dead,” she sighed in disappointment and I read through the inscription.
Alice Blair. Born 11/20/1978, died 11/2/1998 .
Miles ran his fingers through his hair. “Holy shit, she was about to turn twenty.”
“Not scary at all,” Bayla replied and squatted down to run her fingers over the edges of the stone triangle. A single one.
Suddenly Larissa looked at us in shock.
“Do you think she was killed by her family?”
In thought, I shook my head. “That doesn’t make any sense. If we don’t want someone to know about us, or if the Councils want to banish someone, we use a potion that makes the target forget.”
Miles just laughed. “You guys are really starting a competition against us.”
Larissa raised one of her beautifully curved eyebrows.
“The Circle had no reason to kill her,” I emphasized again.
Bayla was not satisfied with that. “And the others?”
“The pack?” Julian looked at her in disbelief.
“What if someone found out that Alice had had something to do with the son of the former Alpha, and they got rid of her?” It sounded like Bayla was accusing the former Alpha... Alarik’s and Nickolas’ father.
“Then a war would have broken out,” I said.
Everything about the story was strange. Alice was actually dead, but no one had an obvious reason to kill her...
“What if she just died,” Miles said, shrugging his shoulders and earning an annoyed look from his sister.
“Yeah right, just like that.”
I moved away from the others to read the other gravestone inscriptions one last time.
He was supposed to be dead. And with every gravestone I skimmed over, I was overcome with a sickening feeling.
I walked around the water lily pond, in the middle of which was placed one of Moenia’s rather atypical statues, that of Amphetrite, the goddess of water. She was kneeling in the water, holding a water lily with both hands and the scales on her waist, legs and arms made her look like a mermaid.
I stopped abruptly.
There was another gravestone, as small and unremarkable as Alice’s.
My skin began to prickle as I read the name.
Alaister Westcode.
“We haven’t found her record in Alarik’s student files yet. What if he killed her?” I heard Larissa say behind me.
“That thought gives me the creeps,” Bayla said.
“Alarik isn’t like that,” Julian finally said.
“Julie, what if... Julie? ”
I couldn’t turn to the others, only stare at the single stone square on top of his gravestone. He had been a Water Quatura?
But something else made me stare in alarm at my father’s gravestone, who had indeed died.
Larissa was the first to notice where I was standing. “Oh no. She found him.”
I noticed everyone slowly gathering behind me, and then I felt Bayla’s hand on my shoulder.
“I’m sorry.”
But even that I was only distantly aware of until someone else finally confirmed that this wasn’t a bad dream.
Miles’ serious voice reached my ear. “The date of his death is the second of November 1998.”