Chapter Twenty-Six
Neith
A gain, she raises her eyebrows in surprise, which I expect to be honest, since sentient houses are pretty fucking rare.
“I did wonder if maybe the castle would lead you to it or not,” she says.
My eyes narrow slightly, “You were testing me?”
She winks at me, “It’s been boring here. It’s been a long time since a Choosing was called, but the castle still needs to be looked after and needs company. I had a hunch, and I wanted to see if I was right.”
“Why do I feel like you know more than you are letting on?” I ask.
I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me before. She obviously knows something because why would she send me to look at the painting in the first place?
She grins, “Because I do.”
With those words, she turns and heads to the doors. I shake my head, a slight smile on my lips. I would push her to know more, but quite frankly, I’m done with the revelations for the day. Which I know sounds odd considering only yesterday I was wishing that I had more answers. I didn’t expect to get two very big answers at once.
“Oh, I met Ribbit while I was up there. She actually gave me a lot of information that I needed,” I start.
Mabel interrupts, and her expression once again looks surprised, “You spoke to her?”
I nod, “Yeah, I don’t think I made a very good impression on her though because I was too busy freaking out. If you see her, could you please apologize for me? I would love to hang out with her at some point, but since what she told me was somewhat of a shock, I think I came across as a bit of a weirdo. I mean, I am, but,” I sigh, realizing that I’ve started rambling and making myself stop talking before I embarrass myself even more.
“Ribbit won’t mind. I imagine that she was probably just as shocked as you were,” Mable says, her words confusing me more.
“What? Why?” I ask.
“Because she’s dead. I am assuming, since you didn’t say otherwise, that she just looked like a normal supernatural to you?” She asks, and I nod, somewhat in shock about what she’s just told me. She smiles, “I thought so. No one has ever seen Ribbit fully or even heard her speak. She whispers, and she likes moving things around too. The only thing we really know is her name and that she would rather be here than move on.”
“Oh, I had absolutely no idea,” I reply.
I almost add that I shook her hand and that she felt normal and not ghostly in any way, but the voices that are now completely back to normal, and start to mutter louder in warning, so I decide to keep that little bit of information to myself.
I can only assume that it has something to do with the fact that my mom was an angel and that I hear the dead, thousands of dead. I must be able to do more than just hear them. Maybe interacting with them like they are alive is something else that I can do. My magic is building, so perhaps this is a part of it. I haven’t seen the dead before, at least I don’t think I have. I didn’t realize that Ribbit was a ghost, so for all I know I interact with ghosts all the time.
Holy fuck.
What if Pete is a ghost, and I just didn’t realize it? A storm of conflicting and confusing feelings rushes through me. But before I can completely derail in front of Mabel, I realize that Bobby saw him, he used to shoot the shit with him all the time, in fact, they were friends. So Pete isn’t a ghost.
I am incredibly relieved about that.
“You must be special,” Mabel says, thankfully interrupting my inner spiral.
I shrug, “Maybe, or maybe I was just in the right place at the right time.”
She smiles and then bids me goodnight once again, this time warning me that I should get as much sleep as I can.
As the door closes behind her, a shimmer of that same magic that I recognize as Castle’s disperses over it, and I instinctively know that the door is now locked, and no one will be able to get in.
“Thank you,” I say to the room as a whole. It’s really important to me that I acknowledge what the Castle does for me, and I don’t take it for granted, just like I do with House.
The castle doesn’t respond, but that’s okay. I’m starting to feel tired, and I need to take a shower if this place has showers. I know it has got a bathroom, and it must have some sort of plumbing because I can see the sink. Rather than standing in the middle of the room debating it, I move over to where I’ve dumped my bags and rifle through them until I find an entirely new outfit. No pyjamas for me for a while.
When I make my way into the bathroom, I’m relieved to find what sort of looks like a shower. It's one of the really fancy ones that you see in some multi-billion-dollar houses, except it’s built entirely into the ceiling, and I can see no panels on how to turn it on.
Of course, in my exuberance at finding a shower, I immediately stripped instead of waiting to work out how to turn it on, so now I’m standing naked in the middle of a thankfully warm bathroom, with my hands on my hips as I stare at the shower thing like it’s verbally assaulted me.
It would be just my luck if I got called into a trial right now.
As soon as that thought crosses my mind, I wrap one arm around my boobs, and the other moves to cover my vagina. I wait for a few moments with a suspicious look on my face before I am willing to admit that I’m probably not going to get pulled into a task right now, but it probably would be a good idea to shower as quickly as possible, just in case.
I suppose I could go and find someone who works here and ask them to help me with the shower, but I’ll have to get dressed again, and it’s going to take more time, and honestly, I want to get some sleep.
Plus, I’m stubborn.
To my absolute relief, it turns out that it’s not really that complicated at all, and as soon as I step closer to it, hot and steamy water pours from the ceiling. I waste absolutely no time jumping in, and despite my earlier need to get the shower over and done with as quickly as possible, it feels so nice, and the products that Mabel left me are so amazing that I end up spending far longer in there than I planned.
When I eventually do get out, the last thing I want to do is get dressed into my fighting gear. I want to stay naked or put some super soft pjs on, but the fact is we aren’t at home. I’m not safe. So, I get dressed. I even make sure that I put my boots back on. As I move toward the bed, I grab Betty and Azael, who are going to be sharing the bed with me. I know that Azael will come when he’s called, oh shit, I don’t know that? In theory, he should come when I ask him to, but I never got around to testing it because we got pulled in here far sooner than we thought we were going to.
I really need to figure it out, just in case I let got in the night and we get pulled in, and because I can’t take my weapons to dinner, well, I could, but if I bring mine, the Draconian Team might bring theirs, and I will find it really difficult not to shoot Kylen in his fucking face.
With this in mind, I put both Betty and Azael on the bed where I was going to put them originally and then move across to the other side of the room.
“Alright, Az, I know that you come when I need you, but I need to know that you will come when I call for you, and I’m going to try it a couple of different ways,” I say out loud. Once I’m standing near the fireplace, I say, “Azael.”
I’m keeping it simple, putting my will behind it like I did with the kelpies and reaching for that place of magic too. It’s beginning to come a lot easier, and I really hope that it’s because my supernatural side is getting closer to the surface and is going to make an appearance soon. Although now that I’m here in the Choosing, I’m hoping that it won’t happen in the middle of a trial because everyone is going to then know who I am and considering I am supposed to be extinct unless you count my mother, who may or may not still be alive, that wouldn’t be a good thing.
Let’s not think about that.
My point is that people will most likely put two and two together, and everyone has told me that I’m in danger if people figure out who I am and that my parents left me at the compound with Evander’s parents because it wasn’t safe for them and me. So I can only imagine that me transforming into an angel in front of God knows how many supernaturals would be a bad thing.
The heavy weight of Azael appearing in my hand brings me back to the present and I say a silent and very heartfelt thanks that he didn’t decide to test me then, because I absolutely would have failed. I’m too tired to be doing this right now, but I don’t really have a choice.
This needs to be done so I know what my limits are and what I can and can’t do while we’re on a task.
“Thanks, Azeal,” I tell him. “One more experiment because I’m tired, and I want to sleep.”
He buzzes in my hand, and I’m going to assume that it’s because he’s agreeing with me. Walking over to the bed I place him next to Betty and then head into the bathroom, closing the door between us. Once I’m in there. I fight a yawn and then do a similar thing. Except this time, I think of my weapons and call them in my head.
To my complete surprise, not only does Azael appear, but Betty does too.
“How the fuck did that happen?” I ask aloud. A small buzz of magic, barely noticeable, buzzes in the hand that’s holding Betty. It’s nowhere near as strong as it is with Azael, but it’s definitely there, and it wasn’t there before. “Azael, is Betty somehow becoming an enchanted object?”
Azael buzzes strongly in my hand, and I know that he’s telling me yes.
I don’t know if it’s because I’m tired and a lot of shit has happened today, but I hug Betty as tears start to well in my eyes. She has been through so much with me and has often been the only thing that I can confide in, and now she’s going to be able to communicate with me too. In a limited way, but still so much more than she has been able to. It will also give her a level of protection. She will always be able to find me.
Holy shit, maybe that’s why she has had bullets in the past when I know that she shouldn’t have had any in her.
I need to go to bed. I can think about this at a later date and definitely talk to Raiden about it because he probably knows loads of stuff that I don’t and will be able to explain to me how this has happened and if there’s anything I can do to speed up the process and get her to the same point that Azael is at.
Tomorrow.
Now I need sleep. Holding them both tightly, I head back to my room; before I leave the bathroom, though, I grab a towel to place under my boots; I can’t risk not having shoes on, but I also don’t want to mark the bed with my boots. Setting everything up, I lie down, with Betty in one hand and Azael in the other, now not because I think that they won’t come if I need them, but because they make me feel safe.
∞∞∞
Azael and Betty buzz violently in my hands, and that’s the only warning I get before I feel the same sensation as before when we got pulled through the portal. I land in a crouch, feeling really super proud of myself that I didn’t land on my ass.
Instantly, my eyes scan my surroundings, looking for danger and assessing the situation. We appear to be in some kind of desert, and it’s hot, really fucking hot. Unfortunately, by we, I mean the Draconian Team and I.
“Great,” I mutter, and they all send daggers my way.
My eyes scan them, and I smirk when I see that the only one of them who thought to do the same as the guys and I is Coen, he’s fully dressed, including boots, and even has some weapons strapped to him. He looks hot as fuck, but I don’t allow my eyes to linger. I don’t want Kylen to figure out that we know each other before we can figure out how to break the control he has over Coen.
“Give me your shirt,” Kylen demands, glaring at Coen.
Coen’s expression tightens as he unbuttons his shirt and hands it over to Kylen. I’m briefly disappointed by the fact that he’s wearing a shirt underneath. Coen’s tattooed chest is one of my favorite things in the world.
My attention moves to Kylen since if I stay looking at Coen for any longer, I’ll get all hot and bothered with memories playing through my mind, and that would definitely give away our relationship.
Oh, and we’re in the middle of a task for the Choosing, and I probably shouldn’t be thinking about that sort of stuff right now.
I can’t help but snicker, “Oh, you look like you just put on Daddy’s shirt.” Adding sarcastically, “It’s just a smidge too big. Aw, I see your hand grew back. Was it as painful as they say?”
Rage fills Kylen’s eyes as he rushes toward pulling his fist back, I don’t move, I just carry on smiling. Before he can get to me though, Coen steps in his path.
His voice is rough as he mutters, “You’re being filmed.”
Kylen clears his throat and straightens his shirt, which makes me snicker again. I know I’m playing with fire, but am I really? I mean, would it be a great loss if I accidentally cut his head off?
I don’t think so.
The voices rise in warning and the smile that graced my features while I was thinking about killing Kylen drops. My eyes move to our surroundings.
Coen proves just how in sync he still is with me as he picks up on my change in mood immediately and becomes just as alert as I am, his eyes scanning around us just like mine are.
Kylen, of course, is completely oblivious, “You’ll learn manners soon, little girl.”
I scoff but choose to ignore him as the threat becomes bigger.
He continues, “You think that you . . .”
Coen interrupts his voice sharp, “Shut the fuck up, something is coming.”
Rage once again flares in Kylen’s eyes, but he listens, and finally, the rest of the team starts to pay attention as well.
I grip Betty and Asael tighter as I drop down into a fighting stance, from this position, I’m ready to fight or jump. Hell, even run, the point is I’m ready, and Coen is in the same position as I am while the others are just looking around bewildered. How the fuck are these idiots still alive?
It wouldn’t surprise me if it was purely Coen keeping them alive.
The ground rumbles, and I plant my feet. I get the sense that it would not be a good time to go down. Out of the dunes bursts an enormous figure.
The creature is big, maybe twenty-five feet tall, it blends in with its surroundings almost perfectly apart from the completely black eyes and shockingly bright red tangled hair that cascades down its back. It’s human in shape, although it has an extra arm on the left side and a long lizard-like tail that has three spikes on the end and is extremely powerful.
As I understand it, from what I can remember anyway, they are souls that have been lost to the desert and succumbed to the elements and creatures here. They then get turned into these sand creatures. Their bodies are almost completely made up of sand, with only a small part of them that is solid enough that you can kill them. All they want to do is pull the water from you until you turn into what they are, and they ensure that they do it in the most painful way possible. They feed on your pain.
It releases a gurgling kind of roar that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I glance at the team, they all look ready to fight, but Kylen turns to me and smirks.
“This one’s for you,” he says.
His team looks at him questioningly, and Coen’s expression darkens.
I raise my eyebrow, “Seriously, you realize these are tests to test us as a team?”
Kylen shakes his head, “The way I see it, they’re to test you and see if you’re good enough to be on my team.”
Even his teammates look at him like he’s losing it, but none of them argue with him.
Not even Coen.
“You’re fucking crazy,” I comment, but I roll my eyes and focus my attention back on the creature.
I don’t have time to deal with him. He’s absolutely lost it if he thinks that making me fight this creature on my own is going to mean that I get put on his team.
Idiot.