Chapter Twenty-Five
Neith
“O h, wow, really?” River asks. “I haven’t seen a picture of them since I was little, and it wasn’t as detailed as this.”
“Same,” Ransom replies, still staring at the woman with his eyebrows drawn down slightly.
Doc shakes his head, his frown deepening, “No, that’s not why I recognize him.”
“What?” I exclaim.
Doc didn’t come with the others to my town, and I have no idea how he could have possibly seen Pete.
“How do you recognize him?” Evander asks, looking confused.
Doc frowns and then suddenly winces as he lifts his hand to his head. He replies hesitantly, “I’m not sure.”
“Are you okay?” I ask. I don’t like the way he just winced like he was in pain.
He nods but doesn’t say anything as he continues to stare at the painting.
“Doc?” Griff asks, his eyes narrowing on him in a way that tells me that he has noticed the same thing that I have.
“I’m fine. My head just hurts a bit, that’s all,” Doc replies, still wincing.
“That can’t be good,” Raiden says, also frowning.
“Maybe you should sit down or something?” Van suggests.
Suddenly his eyes get impossibly wide as his expression clears of pain.
“Fucking hell, he was at the house!” Doc exclaims.
Confusion rushes through me, “What do you mean he was at the house? In the past?”
“I don’t remember him being at the house,” Reed says with a frown as he studies Pete closer.
“No, no,” Doc mutters, seeming to still be in a state of shock. “Do you remember when we got back from fixing the hole in the barrier? I said that I thought I was forgetting something?”
I frown, I have absolutely no idea where he is going with this. I was there, and I didn’t see Pete. I definitely would have remembered if I had.
Echoing my thoughts, Ransom says, “Yeah, I remember, but he wasn’t there.”
Doc nods, “That’s the thing though, he was. That’s what I had forgotten when Neith tripped . . .”
“I didn’t trip, the tree root rose up, and fucking pushed me,” I exclaim indignantly.
The guys stare at me incredulously for a moment as they try to absorb what I’m saying.
“Wait,” Raiden starts. “Do you mean that it literally lifted up and pushed you back into the barrier, or do you mean it like someone who was really clumsy would say the floor tripped them?”
“I mean literally,” I reply.
“What the hell,” River says.
I had completely forgotten to mention that to them after it happened again, other things got in the way.
“That might make sense actually,” Doc says and then frowns, “or maybe not.”
“Alright, we’ve gotten a bit derailed and off track,” Evander starts, “Doc, finish telling us where you have seen him?”
Doc nods, “When Neith fell into the barrier, everything suddenly clicked into slow motion, I thought that it was a reaction to the situation or something, but I’m beginning to think that it was more than that and that time really did slow down for a moment.”
“Our magic has been misbehaving lately,” River says.
Doc nods, “Exactly. Anyway, time slowed, and I saw, standing in the forest beyond Neith, and the barrier was a man. He looked a bit more unkempt than that, but there is no doubt that it’s the same man.”
“Was he being threatening?” Reed asks.
Doc immediately shakes his head, “He wasn’t threatening at all. He smiled at me. He definitely seemed like he was happy watching us, I don’t know how to explain it, and he wasn’t worried that Neith fell into the barrier.”
“Oh,” Raiden says. “So, maybe he caused Neith to fall into the barrier?”
“Why though?” I ask with a confused frown.
River smiles, “It seems pretty obvious to me.”
When he stays silent, Griff rolls his eyes, “Care to share?”
“Think about it, Neith falling into the barrier at our place made the barrier so strong that nothing can get to us when we’re inside it. It protected her. If he is related to Neith, then it would make sense for him to want to protect her,” River explains.
There’s silence.
He actually said it out loud. I don’t know why I’m shocked; I mean, I know who they are to me, but they have quickly come to the conclusion that the people in the painting are my parents.
“There’s something else you should know about him,” I say.
“Yeah?” Ransom asks curiously.
I glance at Raiden, “Do you remember me telling you about Pete?”
He nods, smiling as he replies, “The regular at your bar and the one that helped you to buy your house?”
I nod, pointing at the painting, and I add, “Meet Pete.”
“No fucking way!” River suddenly exclaims, his eyes wide as he bounces on his toes, “This is nuts.”
I nod, “Yep.”
“So he’s been keeping an eye on you then,” Van says.
“Only since I have been in the town. I never met him before then,” I reply.
“Your eyes match theirs,” Raiden mutters, shock coating his tone, and all of the guys turn to look at me and then glance back at the painting a couple of times.
“Holy shit, you’re right,” River adds.
“She was the last of her kind, an angel,” I say, and all of their eyes widen slightly as they continue to put the pieces together.
“Sully said you take after your mother,” Raiden says, and I can see the wheels turning in his mind, “and an angel was on the list of creatures that Winston told us to look at. We sort of breezed past it because they were so rare when they weren’t extinct that it just didn’t occur to us that it was possible.”
“Sully knows the King and Queen. We saw that in the vision, and all of the others too,” Griff says, his expression as shocked as mine was when I was first making the connection.
“It would make sense in a weird way,” Van adds.
I nod, “I mentally asked if it was possible that they were my parents, just in a holy shit could they be my parents, kind of way, and the voices said yes.”
“The voices? Your voices?” Raiden asks.
I nod, “Yeah, so I wanted to ask again without any room for interpretation of the answer, and they said yes, they are.”
“That’s what, the second time that you have actually heard them?” River asks.
I nod, “Yes.”
“Holy fuck, your parents are the King and Queen of Trieneliea,” Griff says as if the implications have suddenly hit him. “I mean, I know that we just sort of said that, but it’s just hit me.”
“And you’re an angel,” Doc says, his eyebrows raised in shock.
“I know absolutely nothing about angels,” Raiden adds with a deep frown. “I can do some research though and we can figure it out from there. I’m also wondering if, now that we know who your parents are, whether Sully and everyone else who is under the silencing spell will be able to talk to you without being stopped by it.”
“Huh, you know, I hadn’t even thought of that. It would be really nice to be able to ask questions and for them to actually be answered,” I reply.
“I get the feeling that Sully would probably like that too. He’s clearly having a problem with not being able to tell you stuff,” Reed says.
“We can’t do anything while we’re here, even though we have some massive questions answered it has left us with so many more,” Ransom points out, still staring at the painting.
I nod, “As much as I want to get stuck into all of this, the fact is we can’t. We’re at the Choosing, and that needs to be our main focus for the time being. It’s not going anywhere, we’ll still be able to look into it after the Choosing.”
“Agreed,” Evander says.
“I vote that after the Choosing, our first stop is back in your hometown to talk to Pete. He has a lot of explaining to do,” River suggests.
“Oh, absolutely. Besides everything else, he is the King of Trieneliea, and we know that he didn’t come over when they closed the gates, so how did he get here? How did Neith get here? I have so many questions,” Raiden replies, and it’s obvious that his mind is going a mile a minute trying to put it all together.
“Tell me about it,” I reply with a smile.
“Are you okay?” Doc asks me. “You’ve had a lot of things unexpectedly thrown at you. Not only have you found out what kind of supe you are, but you’ve found your parents, and they’re the King and Queen. That’s pretty fucking insane.”
I smile, “I’ll admit that it’s going to take me a while for me to wrap my head around it properly, but honestly, I’m doing okay. I want answers, but I can’t get them right now. So, we’ll focus on the Choosing.”
“Alright, I think that’s the best that we can hope for right now,” Van agrees.
My stomach suddenly growls, and I chuckle, “I guess I’m hungry. We haven’t missed dinner have we?”
Griff shakes his head, “No, they said that they would give the Draconian Team time to settle in before they served dinner.”
“Awesome,” I reply. “Let’s go and get some food then.” I realize that the stones around the painting are still glowing, so I pat the wall, “Thank you for keeping it safe.”
“What?” Ransom asks.
Before I can answer, the stones flare brighter for a moment before disappearing completely.
“No way,” Raiden grins.
“The castle is like House?” Griff asks with an intrigued smile.
I nod, “Apparently so. I noticed it as soon as we arrived, if I’m honest, it just had this ancient kind of magic about it. Then I was worried about not having anything to lock my door properly, and when I came back out after telling Asael to stab anyone who came into my room, there was a key in a lock that didn’t exist there before, and when I locked the door, the magic shimmered across it. So, I started talking to the castle like I talk to House, and it responded.”
“It makes sense,” Doc replies. “There have been a lot of supernaturals with really strong magic that have stayed in this place for as long as memory serves, that’s a lot of residual magic that gets left behind and builds up.”
“Is that how enchanted houses become sentient?” I ask curiously as we head back down the stairs.
I’m kind of glad that we’re focusing on something else for the moment. Thinking about my parents and everything that entails is just too huge for me right now, and we can’t risk talking about it and having someone we don’t want to know overhear us.
“Sometimes that’s how it happens,” Raiden replies. “But sometimes they just are, they naturally develop a conscious or just come into being after some time or even they are always that way. There isn’t much known about them since they are notoriously difficult to get answers out of; most people have given up and are just classing it as a mystery.”
I chuckle, “Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me at all, knowing what I do know about House.”
“I wonder if the castle talks to everyone?” Griff asks.
“Well, it didn’t talk to us, but then again, none of us were really paying attention. We wanted to get to our room and dump our stuff so that we could get back to the common area as quickly as possible,” Doc says.
“That’s true,” Griff replies.
As we walk back down the stairs to the foyer where the common area is, I hope that guys know where we’re going to get food because I have absolutely no idea where we are, and I’m hungry.
“I was thinking that it may be a good idea if we sleep in what we’re wearing or at least sleep in clothes that mean we’re ready to go at a moment’s notice. We have no idea how these trials work, but if we get pulled in like we did when the Choosing brought us here, then I would rather ensure that we’re ready and not half-naked if we get pulled into a task in the middle of the night or something,” Reed suggests.
Evander nods, “Yeah, I think that’s a really good idea. At least until we can find out how likely it is to happen or not.”
“Agreed,” we all say together.
River frowns, “I can’t sleep naked? That really sucks.”
My eyebrow rises in interest, “You normally sleep naked?”
He smirks and winks, “Yep.”
“I feel hard done by. Why the hell have you been wearing clothes when you slept in my bed?” I tease.
River stops, causing everyone else to stop too, as he pulls me into his arms, and his lips stop millimeters away from mine.
“Because I want to slide into your wet heat and feel you clench around me as you shatter, but I can’t do that and clothing reminds me of that,” River mutters.
“Fucking hell, man,” Raiden curses heat in his voice.
The others all groan or mutter something similar, but I don’t hear it. River finally closes the gap between us, and I get lost in his kiss.
When he finally pulls back, he smirks at my dazed expression and tucks me under his arm.
“You’re a fucker,” Reed rumbles.
River’s smile widens as we carry on walking, “What?”
“You know exactly what,” Evander replies.
River laughs, causing everyone else to do the same. Eventually he adds, “I guess it does make sense to be dressed and ready to go just in case.”
“It will be annoying for a while, but it’s only a week that we have to do it, and it would be a lot better for us to be prepared,” Ransom agrees.
We all fall silent, stopping our conversation as we walk into the room next to the common room that I found the guys in earlier. There is one long table laid out with food and enough chairs for both of the teams, which means that we’re going to be having a fairly intimate meal with them. I’m not sure that’s a particularly good thing, but there’s nothing that we can do about it, and they’re already here.
Standing around the edge of the room are a handful of supes that I’m assuming are only there to ensure that if a fight breaks out, they can control it. It’s smart.
At least it means that I get to see Coen, and I make sure that I’m sitting next to him, even if I have to pretend that I don’t know him.
I really fucking miss him.
He doesn’t look at us when we enter and take our seats, avoiding our gazes completely and staring down at his food instead and looking murderously pissed. All of the other team members however, do glance up at us. Glaring at us like it’s our fault that we’re here and not theirs.
We all choose to ignore them and just get on with dinner as we usually would, so while they all sit there silently and glare, we load up our plates and talk like we normally would.
Well, sort of.
We obviously don’t talk as freely as we usually would. That wouldn’t be very smart at all.
Halfway through the meal, Coen reaches for my leg under the table, and trying to be as subtle as I can, my hand dips under the table too. As soon as my hand touches his, he flips his hand over, threading his fingers with mine like it’s the only lifeline that he has, and quite honestly, I have to fight not to say anything.
Unfortunately, I don’t get to be close to him for very long, and soon Kylen is getting up, and for some reason, that means that the rest of them have to get up too, even if they haven’t finished their food. I’m not the only one frowning as we watch them leave.
“That was really weird,” River mutters.
“Their whole team is weird,” Ransom mutters.
“Good point,” River agrees.
We don’t waste any time finishing up our food and then head to our separate rooms. I’m not going to lie. After spending so long living in close proximity to the guys, being separated from them, and knowing that if I yell, they most likely won’t hear me is not something that I am fond of, and judging by their expressions and how tightly they hug me, neither are they. I don’t think any of us really thought through the whole them not knowing where my room is thing because, quite honestly, I would feel a lot better if they knew. Of course, if they know, then that means that the Draconian team knows, and I definitely don’t want that.
When I get to my room, I find Mabel waiting outside for me.
“Hey, Mabel,” I greet her. “What are you doing here?”
She holds up a small basket of little bottles, “You all arrived somewhat unexpectedly, so I didn’t get a chance to stock your bathroom.”
“Oh, thank you. Come on in,” I say with a smile, as I pull the key out from my pocket and unlock the door, making her eyebrows raise.
She follows me into the room and then walks over to one of the doors on the wall opposite the balcony doors. I barely spent any time here earlier since I was too excited to go and see what was on the third floor. Which actually reminds me, that I wanted to mention that to Mabel.
She must be thinking along the same lines as I am because as soon as she comes out of the bathroom, she asks with a smile that says she already knows the answer, “Did you find any interesting paintings on the third floor?”
I shake my head, and she looks momentarily confused before I explain, “I didn’t find any on the third floor, but I did on the fourth.”
Interest sparks in her eyes, “Did the castle help you find it?”
I nod, my smile widening, “Yeah, it did. It’s pretty smart, this castle of yours. It gave me a key to the door as well, just to give me some reassurance.”
She smiles, “Yeah, that doesn’t surprise me. It does surprise me that it spoke to you though. Most people either can’t feel the magic at all or just dismiss it.”
“I’m used to listening to things that other people can’t hear,” I reply, and then, on a whim, add, “I’ve got a House that’s similar; the magic felt familiar to me.”