The Heart of a Monster: The Complete Series

Chapter 5

Quinn

Vera appeared to have decided to give me the rest of the day off. When I returned to the enclave in the early afternoon, neither she nor any of the other sorcerers rushed over to give me a new assignment. So I drifted into the library to conduct some studying in line with my personal interests.

I’d set the records I wanted to return to on a specific shelf so that I could find them again in the vast chaos of the library. It didn’t look like anyone had disturbed them. Probably no one could tell they’d ever been anywhere else, unless there was some bizarre system of organization to this place that was beyond my comprehension.

I skimmed through the journal accounts of the sorcerer who’d made it his mission to attempt to enslave the most powerful shadowkind he could encounter, but found that it was full of a lot of self-aggrandizing with no real details about how he’d supposedly accomplished the feats. I kind of wondered if he’d even managed to pull off everything he claimed or if he just liked to pretend he had for an ego boost.

Some notes I’d set aside on tracking shadowkind were a little more useful, although mostly we’d been trying to avoid having our enemies track me rather than trying to track them. But you never knew when we might need to find them to enact a plan. Unfortunately most of the methods reported in the records hadn’t worked. Dowsing, radio waves, and various other approaches the industrious sorcerers had experimented with hadn’t shown any signs of being effective.

You must rely mainly on your sorcerer senses and the threads of commonality between you and the beasts, their finishing paragraphs instructed. Wonderful. Well, Crag was pretty good at picking up on the presence of other beings in the area and even identifying those he was already familiar with.

The thought passed through my mind in an instant and set off a fresh flare of loss. I closed my eyes for a second as I automatically choked up.

It was better that the gargoyle wasn’t involved in anything to do with our powerful foes. That was the whole reason I’d sent him away. I just had to keep remembering that.

The last of my stash was the book on suppressing magical energies. As I flipped through it, a tingle of excitement rippled over my skin.

ThisI could really use. It was mainly focused on strategies for dampening or shielding against the effects of shadowkind magic, but they included the basics like using silver and iron to repel their powers, which had also worked to stop the beings from picking up on my powers. I was still wearing my custom vest for that exact reason.

Maybe some of the other tactics mentioned in the book would give me new options for deflecting shadowkind attention. It’d sure be nice to be able to take a shower without having to wash around the vest, or to have an alternative method of protection if I needed to go somewhere that required the kind of clothes I couldn’t hide the vest under. No one here at the enclave had noticed my unique undergarment so far since I could hide it under baggy sweaters and sweatshirts. The temperature in the building was tolerable but hardly cozy.

I glanced around, confirmed no one else was in the library, and then surreptitiously tucked the small leatherbound volume into my messenger bag, which I’d carried with me for exactly this reason. Now I’d be able to examine the book at my leisure, maybe even show it to Rollick to get his input on the contents. There were so many books haphazardly stuffed into the shelves around me that it seemed unlikely anyone would notice one missing anytime soon.

I browsed through the library again, but I’d already done some pretty thorough circuits during my earlier assignments. Nibbling at my lower lip, I slunk out into the hall. My sneakers rasped faintly over the dark wooden floor.

No one had told me I couldn’t go exploring. Vera had simply instructed me to stay out of any rooms that were locked. What else might there be around here that could tell me more than the human inhabitants were willing to?

I wandered through the halls, passing the laundry room and a couple of what looked like meeting rooms, and then another larger room with smudged chalk marks on the floor but no other sign of magical practice. The chill in the air thickened enough that I shivered. I had the impression that I was walking deeper into the hillside the building was constructed into.

Turning a corner, I found myself facing a door that appeared to lead into a wing of the enclave I’d never ventured into before. Another sorcerer was just unlocking it with a twist of a key. I halted, holding perfectly still, as she tugged the door open and slipped past it without noticing me. Then I darted forward as quickly as I could move without making a racket.

I grabbed the door just before it clicked shut. There. It wasn’t currently locked. I wasn’t breaking any rules.

Ha. I’d still better not get caught, no matter how well I was obeying the letter of the law.

I eased the door open slowly to peek past it. Another long hallway lay beyond. The woman I’d seen entering was just disappearing through a doorway up ahead. I darted into the hallway, afraid someone would come up behind me and notice my transgression, and let the door close behind me.

Where to go from here? I padded carefully over the floor, which I realized was stone here rather than wood. Another indication that I’d come right into the hillside. The walls were the same smooth, pale gray as the rest of the place, but I couldn’t tell whether they were painted stone or the same material as the rest of the building.

It was definitely a feat of architecture. I wished I’d been in the right headspace to enjoy studying that aspect of the place.

I passed a couple of closed doors that I was too nervous to open in case someone was on the other side who’d accuse me of trespassing. Then a faint rattling sound reached my ears.

I followed the noise to a smaller side hallway that ended with a narrow doorway. This door was unlocked. Opening it, I stared into a room so brightly lit I had to blink several times before I could start making sense of its contents.

It was some kind of menagerie. Cages lined the walls, a few larger ones and many small ones stacked on top of each other, almost as haphazardly as the books in the library. Orderliness was obviously not something that went hand in hand with sorcery.

I could guess what I’d see inside the cages before I’d even squinted. Even more lights beamed from the tops of the cages, which were solid metal on all sides except the barred fronts. Those were held shut with latches and locks. Within the lights, blurs of shadows quivered and shuddered.

The enclave had its own shadowkind collection.

That wasn’t surprising. Obviously most if not all of the sorcerers here were using their magic, which meant they’d all have at least one being enslaved. But Vera had indicated that most of those creatures were being put to work: guarding the enclave in various ways, hunting for food, luring fellow beings that the sorcerers wanted to trap closer to the building. These were simply being contained.

Maybe they hadn’t been “harnessed” yet, if the sorcerers meant to at all. The assortment in front of me felt more like a set of collectables on display.

The thought made my stomach turn. I had no idea what creatures were trapped in these cages, but they were obviously miserable surrounded by all that toxic metal and pinned under the searing lights. Who knew if any of them had ever harmed another being? They might have been roaming around not much different from mortal animals before they’d been snatched up and shut away in here.

I walked closer to one of the larger cages. As I took in the details, my teeth set even more on edge.

The contraption, which came up to my shoulders in height, was obviously designed not just to hold the shadowy being inside it but also to hurt that creature if the sorcerers decided it was necessary. Maybe even to kill it.

Sharp blades that must have been silver, iron, or both poked from the walls on mechanisms that looked ready to propel them toward the creature hovering in the center of the space. A few crystals dangled from the top of the cage, the light beaming through them. Would they also move on command to concentrate the light even more painfully on the captive shadowkind?

My fingers itched to try to open the door and free it, even though I knew I couldn’t break the padlock. I raised my hand, about to set it against the bars as if I could indicate to the prisoner that I sympathized with its plight, when the door squeaked open behind me.

I jerked back, my heart stuttering. God only knew what the sorcerers of the enclave would think if any of them saw me showing any kindness or concern to the beings they considered nothing but monsters.

I found myself staring at the pale, shaggy-haired guy I’d passed in the hall yesterday—the one Vera had told me was studying for his rites. He peered at me, looking briefly puzzled. “You’re the new arrival, aren’t you?” he asked with a mild British accent. “What are you doing in here?”

“I, um—” I groped for an easy explanation. If he was coming into this room, presumably the place was related to the rites in some way. “Just trying to get prepared,” I finished with enough vagueness that it’d be hard for him to challenge me.

My answer must have made some kind of sense to him, because he hummed to himself. His gaze slid away from me as if he hadn’t really wanted to be paying me all that much attention anyway.

He meandered farther into the room, focusing on the smaller cages along the back wall. “Have you picked one?” he asked.

Picked one? For what?

“Not yet,” I hedged. “I figure it’s a big decision. Better to take my time.”

He nodded. “True. I’ve given it a lot of thought.” He stroked the bars of one cage almost lovingly, with an avid gleam in his eyes that set my skin crawling. “I’m claiming this one, so take it off your list of possibilities.”

“Oh, I hadn’t even been considering that one,” I assured him quickly, though I still wasn’t sure what we were even talking about. The first shadowkind he’d enslave? That would seem to make the most sense. I was surprised that the sorcerers would simply hand one over rather than having him prove himself by capturing one from scratch with his new powers, but maybe the first “harnessing” was part of the rites.

“You’ll be going through with it pretty soon, then?” I ventured.

An eerie smile curved the guy’s lips. He stroked the cage again, gazing at the shadowy creature flickering within.

“Three more days,” he said. “It’s scheduled now. I can’t wait.”

Even as his tone sent another uneasy quiver through my nerves, I committed that number to memory.

“It’s further off for me,” I said, hoping I was keeping my tone appropriately casual. Like I was just shooting the breeze with a fellow initiate, not digging for info. “I’m not even sure where I’ll be having my rite.”

The guy’s gaze flicked to me, and my pulse stuttered at the thought that there might be suspicion in his eyes. But he just chuckled in a slightly patronizing tone. “I think it’s always done outside in the same spot. They lead us to the ceremony area. Wouldn’t be fair to get an early look at it.”

I made myself laugh in return. “Of course not. I can’t help speculating, that’s all. Lots to imagine. It’ll be an intense experience, for sure.”

He rubbed his hands together, his smile coming back. “I bet it’s even more intense if you have a rite in the winter, when it’ll actually be dark at night. But I wouldn’t want to wait that long when I don’t have to.”

So the rites were held outside at night. This guy would be having his in just three days.

And I’d have to find some way of being there so I could find out exactly what it was he couldn’t wait to experience.