Chapter 14
The following day, Delphi was elbow deep in the piles of papers her parents had left behind. She had tidied them the previous day but hadn't gone as far as reading any of them.
Now she was slowly trying to piece together what they had done to Tenebrys and the others. One notebook was written in both of their handwriting. It was short entries on different tonics and poultices that they had been using.
Delphi could see examples of where Narcisse had been trying complete nonsense remedies that he had learned about from doctors in the cities, and then Cassia's hand would be crossing things out and correcting them.
It felt horribly familiar. Delphi had taken over cleaning up after him in more ways than one.
The plague itself seemed to only affect the shifters, not humans that came into contact with them. There was vomiting and diarrhea; they would get lumps and boils; their lungs would start to give out, and they began coughing blood before dying.
Those that had any fae blood in them, like Tenebrys, seemed to fare a little better. To have survived a brutal war only to waste away from sickness would have been heartbreaking.
Delphi read the dispassionate observations of different patients, and she could barely stand it.
How had they been completely unaffected by the suffering around them? Delphi had only been around Tenebrys and Felix for a few days, and she could never have written about them in such a way. Did Narcisse see them as nothing more than rich animals?
Delphi slumped back in her chair with a frustrated sigh. A moment later, a small 'mew' sound had her turning around. A sleek black cat was looking at her. It walked toward her, and Delphi gasped when she saw the two black wings on its back.
"Hello, little one. Aren't you a pretty thing?" she cooed at it, holding out her hand. The cat creature bumped its head against it and allowed Delphi to scratch it under the neck.
"How did you get wings? You must have been all tangled up in the magic of this place, too, huh?" That made it an ancient cat, but it didn't look old. Maybe there was something in the magic that kept it alive.
Delphi had found some odd references in the notebook about 'the heart' of the chateau. She couldn't be sure without confirming it with Tenebrys, but it sounded like the chateau itself had some kind of magic fueling it at one stage. Her parents left notes about how they could access it and use it.
The further she got through the notebook, the more she could see how they had begun to move toward magic rather than medicine.
The cat leaped onto her lap and lay down. It seemed content to stay there, so Delphi left it where it was. She went back to the book and turned another page. Her mother's neat handwriting had taken over from Narcisse's the further into magic they went.
N. is going outside of the wards tonight to try the summoning. It is a full moon, and we remain hopeful that we can access the power we will need.
Delphi frowned. What wards? What summoning? There had been no mention of a summoning before that, only needing to fight magic with magic.
On the next page, the arcane circles began, each discarded with a line through it. A cold chill trickled down her spine. She had only heard about this kind of thing in reference to demons.
"They can't have been stupid enough to try this. It's absurd," she whispered and skipped a few pages.
On it was a sigil that hadn't been crossed out. She had no idea what it did, but around the circle, there were symbols she did recognize as Narcisse's cipher. She had been reading it her entire life. The words spelled KAELIS. Was it a name? Or some kind of other nonsense word?
Underneath, in her father's writing, were the words: Full moon tonight. Has to work. Will take an offering. It won't be able to refuse.
Delphi turned the page. There was nothing after it. Pain throbbed behind her right eye. What could Narcisse offer a demon to get it to share enough power with him to curse the shifters? She swore under her breath.
"How is your research going? Everything you dreamed it would be?" Tenebrys asked from the doorway. She turned in her seat.
"My dreams don't contain such nonsense," she said primly. She looked him over. "When they aren't getting manipulated by you, that is."
Tenebrys grinned, unbothered by her jab. His golden eyes dropped to the cat in her lap. "I see Luna has introduced herself. I wondered why she hadn't come to me for her morning pats."
Delphi rubbed her under the chin. "Luna. Such a pretty name for such a pretty girl. You like your ears rubbed, don't you?"
"Who doesn't?" Tenebrys asked and then cleared his throat awkwardly. "I wouldn't trust her too much if I were you. She can tell me all your secrets."
Delphi wasn't sure if he was being serious or not. "Is it a cat thing?"
"My mother could communicate with animals. I have a little of that talent," Tenebrys admitted. He gave her a small smile. "Can I borrow you? I'd like to show you something."
There was something different about him. He didn't ask for things. He usually just growled and grumbled at her.
"Sure," Delphi said, rising to her feet slowly to give Luna time to jump off her. "It's not your dungeon or oubliette or something, is it?"
Tenebrys's eyes narrowed, and his grin widened. "Not today."
Delphi relaxed. That was more like him. She pulled on her boots and met him by the door.
"How are your wounds feeling?" she asked. When in doubt, be polite.
"Healed," he said and began to walk away. It gave her a moment to see his back. He was right. Only scars remained.
Delphi hurried after him. He wasn't wearing a cloak, only trousers with a hole cut in them for his tail. She might have looked at his perky, muscular ass, but only for a moment.
"Wait. How is that possible?" she asked, catching up to him.
"Shifters heal fast. I told you last night I would be fine, but you insisted on the yarrow."
"You could have told me you heal like this," she said, falling into step beside him. "Wait, if you heal so quickly, then the plague you all got would have had to be fighting that ability the entire time."
"Yes," Tenebrys answered and slowed his pace to match hers. "Does that matter?"
"It wasn't in the notes I read this morning, that's all. I don't know why my parents would think such a detail wasn't important enough to write down."
Tenebrys made a rumbling sound. "Could be that they didn't need to because shifters' rapid healing abilities are well known. It's why the humans wanted us to fight their war for them. We are much harder to kill."
Delphi stayed silent, her mind ticking over the plague symptoms and adding the healing into the mix. The plague had been made with some kind of fae magic, but it would have had to be something special to fight off the shifter's innate healing magic at the same time as infecting them.
They fell into silence as they moved through the halls. Delphi couldn't help noticing they were looking tidier than when she had first arrived. Had Felix or the others she hadn't met been cleaning? She tried and failed to imagine Tenebrys with a mop and bucket.
Tenebrys opened a set of double doors that led to a luxurious apartment. The furniture was covered in white cloths, but by the paintings on the walls and ceiling, she knew she was in a royal room.
"Is this your bedroom?" she asked, suddenly nervous.
"No. It belonged to my parents."
"Ah. That makes more sense."
"Why?"
She pointed to the picture on the wall. "You don't strike me as the type to have paintings of pretty garden parties on the walls, that's all," she said, unable to stop herself from teasing him.
"No? What would I have instead?" he asked.
"I don't know, something super manly like shields or weapons. The heads of all the fae you killed. That kind of thing."
Tenebrys actually chuckled, and Delphi was strangely happy that she managed to make him laugh. Maybe he wouldn't kill her in the long run if he found her amusing enough.
Tenebrys gestured to a door. It was painted a dark purple color and had geometric designs on it in gold.
"Ladies, first," he said and waited.
Delphi shot him a quizzical look before she placed her hand on the golden handle. The cool metal tingled against her palm as she turned it and opened the door.
She walked into the room, her heart beating faster. There was a comfortable-looking day bed by a tall set of glass windows, and the rest of the room was filled with shelves of books.
"What... What is all this?" she asked, eyes wide.
"This was my mother's personal library," Tenebrys replied, sounding reverent. "You said you needed books last night and thought you might find something useful here."
Delphi turned to face him. He was looking at her with a wide-eyed, dazed expression. "Are you sure that's okay?"
"More than sure," he said. He moved closer and cupped her face with his big paw-like hands, making her still in surprise. "Delphi, no one has been able to open that door since my mother died."
"I don't understand," she said, not daring to pull away from him. "How is that possible?"
"The chateau wouldn't let anyone in here. It's been changing since you arrived. I brought you here to see if it would..." Tenebrys let her go and stared around him. "I never thought I would see this again."
"What do you mean the chateau wouldn't let you in here?" Delphi asked, her cheeks still too hot from having him touch her.
"The chateau used to have magic to help keep it clean and maintained.
It used to power protective perimeter wards too.
The day your parents cursed us, the magic in the house died," Tenebrys explained.
He reached out and touched a robe on the window seat, as if its owner had tossed it there and never come back for it.
"Did you use to call it the heart? Or something along those lines?" she asked, moving to look closer at one of the bookshelves.
"Yes. How did you know?" Tenebrys asked.
"I kept finding references to it today in my parents' notes.
They were going to use the magic somehow to either create a cure or summon a demon.
Their theories were all a bit ridiculous by that point," Delphi replied, brushing the dust off some of the spines of the books.
So much knowledge, right at her fingertips.
"They were going to try and summon a demon?" Tenebrys asked, his voice flat.
"Apparently, they were getting that desperate.
I couldn't follow it exactly, but they were going to ask for more power.
" Delphi couldn't hide the derision from her voice.
"I repeat, it was fucking ridiculous. If they managed to summon a real demon, provided they actually exist, then I highly doubt it would be willing to share its power, no matter what they offered to it. "
"They must have succeeded, at least partially. The day in the infirmary, Narcisse had magic where he'd had nothing before it," Tenebrys said and moved to join her. "Come, the books on magic were kept over here."
Delphi left her spot to follow him. "Why did she have so many? Was it because she was fae?"
"Your parents make notes on that, too?" Tenebrys asked.
"Only to comment that your blood reacted differently because of it. It must have been quite the love story if you were all fighting the fae, and yet, your mother was one."
Tenebrys stopped in front of a large bookcase. Symbols Delphi didn't recognize were carved around it, and unlike the other shelves, it had doors that were made of a pale violet glass.
"My parent's marriage was meant to stop the war from happening at all," Tenebrys said with a sigh. "She was sent as a bride to my father to help foster some kind of peace."
"And he bought that? Sounds like a trap to me," Delphi commented.
"It was," Tenebrys replied, his mouth twitching in the corners. "She was meant to be a spy for the Lord of Plagues. Unfortunately for him, my parents were mates. She told my father everything she was sent to do."
"And he still married her?" Delphi asked, shocked.
"She was his mate," Tenebrys answered simply. "The gods and Fate had chosen them for each other."
"What does that even mean?" Delphi pressed. "Is it a shifter thing?"
"Yes. Mates can't hide anything from each other for long.
My father only wanted her from the day he saw her.
It didn't matter who she had been, what The Lord of Plagues demanded of her.
She didn't belong to him anymore. Her loyalty was to my father completely," Tenebrys replied and looked away from her.
"Not even a fae lord can fight Fate. Neither can a shifter, no matter how hard he tries. "
"Didn't think love at first sight was real," Delphi admitted. "Maybe it's only real for you shifters. What happened after that?"
Tenebrys folded his big arms, and Delphi tried to focus back on the books around her and not the heat creeping up her throat.
"My mother joined our side of the war and told them everything she knew about the fae lords plans and helped us plan a strategy to win the war."
"No wonder the fae hated you so much." Delphi laughed softly. "They clearly haven't gotten over the humiliation yet, if your wounds last night are anything to go by."
"They live long lives and can hold grudges like no other creature," Tenebrys replied with a small smile.
Delphi's magic warmed inside her chest. She quickly looked away and tried to find something else to keep him talking.
"Do you really think the house is reacting to my magic?" she asked eventually.
Tenebrys nodded. "I don't know how, but yes. Getting access to the Queen's library proves it. When you said you wanted to try and help undo what your parents did, I wanted to laugh in your face, but now..."
Delphi looked up at him. "Now?"
"Now, I can't help but wonder if maybe you can," he replied. His hand reached out to touch the end of her braid. "All this red in your hair that you like to hide must mean the power is there somewhere."
"Or it could be a pretty color. One that would get me killed on sight if I ever left here," Delphi replied, bitterness back in her voice.
Tenebrys chuckled, low and dangerous. "Oh, I'm not about to let you go anywhere, little flower."
Delphi's heart skipped a beat, but she raised her chin. "What if I break your curse? What about then?"
"If you manage to do it..." Tenebrys let her braid slide between his fingers. "Maybe I will think about not putting you in my oubliette after all."
Delphi knew not to push her luck before she had produced results to bargain with. She stepped back toward the shelves that contained the magic books, ignoring the dangerous thrill that rushed through her every time he touched her.
"Here's hoping that one of these books is for beginners," she murmured and opened the glass doors.