Chapter Twenty-Three
Neith
“E leven?” Raiden asks. “We thought it was thirteen.”
She smiles, “It’s usually around two weeks since the Choosing is called that it actually happens, but that’s just a rough guess. We always know the exact time frame so that we can prepare adequately.”
“Except for this time,” one of the others says, her eyebrows drawn down into a confused frown.
“I’m so sorry,” I mutter. Feeling like I should apologize to them because we’ve obviously just thrown their schedule off.
They all smile, and the woman who has done most of the talking shakes her head.
“It’s not your fault. We learned long ago that the Choosing does what it wants and often switches up the rules,” she says kindly. “Let’s get you all settled. I imagine that the other team will be here fairly soon if they aren’t already.”
“Thank you, we really appreciate it,” Reed says.
“Of course,” she replies. “I’m Mabele, and I’m in charge here. This is Rita and Jeremy. I’m sure you’ll meet many of us while you are here, and we’re here to help. If you have any questions, please ask. We will answer them if we are able to, but obviously, there are some questions that we can’t answer.”
“Understood,” Doc replies.
Her eyes scan us, “I am aware of the situation. We all are. So we know that Neith is on your team and that the Choosing was called somewhat maliciously.”
“You know that?” Ransom asks, sounding surprised.
“We know everything that is important to the Choosing, and that includes the circumstance that it’s been called. Yours is not a unique situation, and often those that go through the Choosing have similar circumstances,” she explains.
“That doesn’t surprise me, actually,” Van replies with a thoughtful expression.
She nods with a smile as she continues to explain the situation to us, “You are free to explore the castle, and you will not be being broadcast while you are within the walls. This time, we have been made aware that it includes the courtyard garden. Any further afield, and you will be broadcast. We suggest that you remain vigilant if there are things that you don’t wish the majority of the supernatural world to know. Remember, it doesn’t just get broadcast to the supernaturals on Earth, but in all of the realms.”
“Holy shit, why hadn’t that occurred to me?” River asks, sounding as shocked as I feel.
“I don’t know, but it hadn’t occurred to me either,” Griff adds with a frown.
“Don’t worry, for many people, it doesn’t occur to them that it’s not just shown in their realm,” Mabel replies with understanding. “Neith, when it is time for your own tasks, your attendants will give you a warning unless specifically directed not to. You all have your own rooms. To prevent fighting, the teams are housed on opposite sides of the castle, and Neith is housed in the middle. You are able to be in each other’s rooms but not sleep. The teams have their own living spaces as well as small, well-equipped kitchens, and Neith, you will have the same. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be served in the common area that you all have access to. If it turns out that you can’t get on, then everything will be held separately. We have healers should you need them, but if you would like to use your own healer, that is fine. We ask that you respect us all. Everyone is very excited to have you here. We haven’t had a Choosing for a long time.”
“Of course,” Evander replies, although he has a frown on his face. “Will both of the teams know where Neith’s room is?”
Mabel frowns slightly, “Usually, yes, but since you don’t know where it is, we can switch things up slightly and ensure that no one knows where it is. If you would prefer?”
I nod, “Yeah, I think that’s probably the best idea.”
“Okay, that’s fine. I’m sure you have a lot of questions, but let’s get you all settled in your rooms, and then you can meet in the common area, which is the second door on your right down here for dinner,” she suggests, pointing to the door that she’s talking about. “I imagine that the other team will be arriving shortly. Neith, you can come with me, and Jeremy will take the others.”
“I’m not sure I like the idea of you being separated from us,” Ransom says with a frown.
I smile and wrap my arms around him, “Don’t worry, I can take care of myself, and we’re safe here. I’ll just drop my stuff off in the room, and then I’ll meet you down here. I’m hungry, so I’m not likely to get distracted.”
He nods, and I can see in his eyes that he wants to kiss me, but he doesn’t, and while all of the other guys give me hugs, none of them kiss me like I have already become used to them doing, and I’m guessing that it’s because we’ve got an audience. It’s best not to push things right now, at least not until we know more about this place and the people in it. Having said that, they seem nice enough, the voices aren’t warning me, and my instincts are somewhat quiet.
I’m excited.
For the challenge that the Choosing presents and also because being here means that I can get Coen away from the Draconian Team, or at the very least figure out how they are controlling him.
“We’ll meet you in the common area,” Evander says.
“Yep, I’ll text you when I’m on the way in case I get lost,” I reply with a smile.
“Unfortunately, your phones won’t work here,” Mabel says.
“Oh shit,” I reply. “Okay, in that case, if I take any longer than an hour, something is wrong.”
“An hour?” Doc replies with a frown. “That’s quite a while.”
I shrug, “I don’t know how far away the room is, and since the castle is so massive, I don’t want to risk it taking longer and you guys panicking for no reason. Plus, I don’t trust myself not to get distracted by something, so I thought an hour was safe.”
Doc’s eyes sparkle with amusement at my explanation, and he nods, “Fair enough, that makes sense.”
“An hour then,” River says, his expression serious for a change as he waits for me to nod in confirmation.
“Yep,” I reply.
We all head up the stairs and then split up, the guys going one way as Mabel leads me up another set of stairs. My gaze moves around me as we walk, and I vow to come back to study some of the huge paintings on the walls. As we get to a hallway that has fewer tapestries and artwork on the walls, I can’t help but reach out and run my hand along the stone, and I’m surprised when the stones buzz with a soft and ancient kind of magic.
It feels almost comforting, and I realize that it’s because it feels similar to the way that House does. My eyebrows rise slightly. Well, that thought certainly needs exploring, but perhaps it would be best to do that when I’m alone so that no one thinks that I’m crazy when I talk to the castle walls like it can reply to me.
I pull my hand away from the wall as we get to a painting, then carry on following Mabel. I catch her looking at me out of the corner of her eye, and I wonder if she caught my expression when I touched the wall or if she thinks that I’m absolutely crazy for touching the wall in the first place.
It’s probably the second thing.
“Here we are,” she says with a smile as she opens the double doors.
My mouth drops open. The walls are all exposed stonework like the rest of the castle, but the floor is covered with thick rugs that add a sense of coziness to the huge room. It really is big. Directly opposite the door that we have just walked through is a set of glass doors that seem to lead out to a balcony, and I can’t wait to get out there and get a good look at the realm that we’re in.
It was something that I had planned to look into over the two weeks that I thought we had to prepare for the Choosing. I wanted to find out as much as I could about the realm itself and the people that come from here. It is hardly ever mentioned, and yet I do know that there are supernaturals that originate from here. I want to know if it was always the place where they held the Choosing or if it was somehow chosen for it.
I suppose I can look into it when we get back if I get the chance.
The rest of the room is made to feel cozy and the giant fireplace is helping to keep the place warm. There’s a soft and squishy-looking couch placed in front of the fire with a large coffee table that has some interesting-looking books placed on it. Honestly, I can’t wait to look them over. There’s a big space between the couch and the ginormous four-poster bed. The space is perfect to clean my weapons and do some yoga, which I will need to do at the end of each day if I’m hoping to avoid epically sore muscles the next day. I can’t really risk that when all of my days are set to be physically tiring.
The bedroom area has thicker rugs on either side of the bed, which will be nice and soft when I first get up, and all of the usual bedroom furniture. Opposite the bedroom is a door that I’m hoping is going to lead into a bathroom and a small but beautiful kitchen. I have to admit that I kind of fall in love with it. The countertops are made of a wood that looks similar to oak, but rather than the edges being straight they’re curved and natural like the tree, and weaving through the bark is threads of emerald green and gold. It looks like it’s such a part of the piece of wood that it makes me wonder if it naturally grows that way.
It’s beautiful.
“As soon as I’m gone, no one else will be able to get into this room apart from you,” Mabel explains. “It will adjust to you specifically. The magic is built into the room. So, unless you invite them in, no one else will be able to enter.”
I nod, a somewhat relieved smile on my face, “That’s more reassuring than I thought it would be.”
Mabel’s expression is serious as she replies, “There are rules that are designed to keep all the contestants safe. If at any point you feel threatened or like you’re in danger, then you tell one of us. We are more than capable of taking care of any issues that may arise.”
I grin, “Oh, I have no doubt about that.”
Surprise flits across her expression before she returns my smile, “Thank you. I will leave you to unpack. Although your phone won’t make calls as this realm is far outside of your operation zone, it will still work for other things.”
“Thank you,” I reply.
She heads back toward the door and as she opens it, turns back to face me, “I think you will probably find some of the paintings on the third floor, the level above this one, quite interesting.”
“Oh?” I ask, hoping that she will explain a bit more.
She nods and smiles, secrets in her eyes as she leaves the room without explaining anymore. Well, now I have to check out the next floor before I go and find the guys. Who knows when I might get the chance to do it again? It didn’t take as long as I thought it was going to take to get to my room, so I’ve got plenty of time to check out the paintings on the third floor and see what she is talking about.
I dump my bags on the floor by the couch and then head back toward the doors that I’ve just come through. When I step through them, I pause before I head down the hallway to find the staircase to the next floor. Mabel said that the doors to my room were locked and that only I could get in, and although she gave me no reason to not believe her, I’m still not comfortable just leaving the door without knowing for sure that no one can get in there and mess with my stuff or the room itself.
With this in mind, and because I am too paranoid to just risk it, I open the door again and then head back inside, finding Asael. I walk over to where I put him and Betty down with my bags.
“Okay, I know this is slightly different than how we usually approach things, but I’m not entirely sure that this door actually locks. If anyone tries to get in here, can you make sure that they don’t touch anything,” I say. “By any means necessary unless they are one of ours.”
Asael’s magic buzzes in the air, and I smile. That was definitely a confirmation that he understood what I was saying and was going to do what I asked.
I hope my extra caution is unnecessary.
It’s times like this when I wish that I had some magic of my own that I could actually wield. If I did, then I would be able to set up my own security and know if anyone has tried to get into my room. I don’t know whether I’ll know if anyone has attempted it unless Asael stabs them.
I imagine that might be quite difficult to explain.
As I head back out of the door and pull it closed behind me, I blink in shock at what I see. I could have sworn that there wasn’t a key and a lock, in fact, I am one hundred percent sure that if there was a key there, I would have seen it. Mostly because I would have felt comfortable locking and leaving my stuff in the room, or at least more comfortable. I mean, locks can be picked. Not only that, but magic is capable of all sorts of things. I’m sure a locked door is of absolutely no consequence to the right kind of magic.
So, the key in the lock that definitely wasn’t there before is a mystery.
As soon as I wrap my hand around the key, the buzz of magic that I am beginning to associate with the castle warms my hand, and when I turn the lock and hear it snick into place, a ripple of golden magic covers the door, and seals it with magic too.
That is so fucking cool.
It occurs to me that the castle must have heard me talking to Asael and realized that I was worrying about it, so it’s given me visual confirmation that the room is safe.
I smile and move to the side slightly so I can place my hand on the wall, “Thank you.”
The wall warms beneath my hand, making my smile widen even more, and then I turn back around and set off on my original task. I need to make sure that I’m fairly quick because although I have just under an hour before I have to meet the guys in the common area for food, I don’t want to leave them waiting for too long and make them worry.
I pick a random direction and hope that I’m going the right way. It doesn’t take me very long until I find a much smaller but no less impressive staircase. When I get to the third floor, I frown in confusion, the hallway up here is long, the ceilings just as high, with side tables and fancy looking shit that’s probably ten times my age and worth more than I could ever hope to see in my lifetime, but something is missing.
The paintings.
Mabel specifically said that I would find the paintings on the third floor interesting, well if the thing I find interesting about them is the lack of them then she was right. I walk down the hallway, just in case there is one here that I can’t see standing at the top of the stairs, but there really isn’t. There’s just a lot of doors.
“Huh,” I say out loud.
The floor buzzes under my feet and then surprises me when it lights up as well, only faintly, but it’s there, and it’s leading me back down the hallway the way that I came. I figure that there’s no harm in following it, the castle has just locked my door for me, so I think it’s reasonably safe to assume that it’s going to be okay if I follow it now.
The glowing floor leads me to a set of double doors that are next to the staircase that I came up from the second floor. I hesitate. Mabel did tell us that we could explore the castle, but I’m not sure she meant that we should open doors that are shut.
It’s a bit hypocritical of me that I was worried about someone opening my door and going into my room, and here I am, standing outside of a set of closed doors, wondering whether or not to go in.
What if there is someone in the room? How am I going to explain to them that the castle led me here via glowing lights on the floor? Unless, of course, they’ve been led places by the castle and glowing lights. I’ve just arrived here. For all I know, it could regularly do this to people.
When I simply stand outside the doors looking at them curiously, the castle clearly gets bored of waiting for me to decide what to do because the doors suddenly burst open. An apology is on the tip of my tongue since I have absolutely convinced myself that there is someone in here, but it dies pretty quickly when I see that the doors open up onto another set of stairs. The sight of them is so unexpected that I don’t move.