Chapter 11 #2
Nina made a small sound beside me, and when I looked at her, she was looking at her Gammy with awe. "That was—" She shook her head, unable to find words.
"Terrifying," I finished. "And incredible. And exactly what we needed."
Everyone began talking about how incredible that was as we climbed back up the stairs together. I had the vial clutched carefully in my hands. When we were halfway up, we heard the chiming from Nina’s laptop. She raced up ahead of us.
When we reached the kitchen, Jean-Marc's face filled the screen. "I found something," he was telling her. "I’m not sure if it will help or not, but I found it interesting."
I set the vial in one of the cabinets where we kept potions. By the time I turned around, Aidon, Stella, and Tarja had joined us around the island. “What did you discover?” I asked my son.
"I hacked deeper into the Corvus server," Jean-Marc said, pulling up files on his end. "Employee records, specifically. Dr. Parker has been with the organization since its founding in 1982."
"We knew that," Stella said.
"But his personnel file shows a birth date that would make him only thirty-five years old." Jean-Marc's expression was grim. "That's impossible. Either the records are wrong, or—"
"Or he's been using stolen essence to extend his own life," I finished, my blood running cold. "Is he one of them? One of the original Thessmark. I thought they looked like monsters." The image of the gray skin, long fingers, and black fingernails flashed through my mind.
There was also the fact that we'd assumed the Thessmark were external to Corvus. Basically, demons who had infiltrated a legitimate organization. But what if we had it backwards?
"What if they are Corvus?" Aidon voiced my thoughts.
"What if the entire medical collective was created specifically to identify and harvest children?
And they knew they needed legitimate doctors to stay in business.
After all, no parent would trust them. Any being touched by the Underworld has a distinctive feel. "
"No, the organization isn't infiltrated." Nana bobbed her head decisively. "It's one of their weapons."
Jean-Marc nodded. "That’s disturbing. I also found financial records. Corvus receives significant funding from a private foundation called the Taverner Trust. It was established in 1980, two years before Corvus was founded."
He pulled up documents, scrolling through them. "The trust's charter says it's dedicated to the preservation and advancement of magical bloodlines. Sounds benevolent until you realize what they mean by preservation. The founder is listed as Audrey Taverner."
Stella was already typing on her phone, her fingers flying. "Audrey Taverner was a healer in the 1970s. Brilliant, respected, and dedicated to helping children with magical illnesses."
She kept reading, her expression darkening.
"Then she lost her twin daughters to a magical plague in 1974.
Both were dead within a week of each other.
" Stella looked up. "According to this, she became obsessed.
Started researching ways to preserve magical essence, to prevent other children from dying like hers did. "
"Wait." Aidon's voice cut through the room like a blade. "I don’t recall a magical plague in 1974. What if it wasn't a plague at all?"
"What if her daughters were victims?" I breathed. "What if the Thessmark killed them, and she never knew?"
Tarja's ears went flat against her skull, her fur bristling.
"I remember her. I didn’t know her personally, but other familiars spoke of her.
She was expelled from her coven in 1976 for experimenting on children without consent.
Trying to extract and preserve their essence before death, claiming it was to save them. "
"Two years after her daughters died," Stella said slowly. "Jesus. What if the people who killed her children approached her afterward? Offered her a way to bring them back?"
"It’s more likely she never knew who killed them," Nana began, "and the Thessmark saw an opportunity. A grieving mother, a talented healer, and someone they could use to build their empire?"
Mom's face had gone pale. "She could have been working with her daughters' murderers this entire time without knowing it."
"When was she expelled?" I asked Tarja.
"1976," Tarja said. "There was a fire at her laboratory in 1978. A terrible one. Witnesses said nothing could have survived. Everyone thought she died in the flames."
"But she didn't." I couldn't imagine hiding for so long. "She survived and founded the Taverner Trust in 1980. Then Corvus in 1982."
"There were two years between the fire and the Trust," Aidon observed. "Enough time to be found by the right people. Or the wrong ones."
"The question is," Stella said quietly, "does she know? Does Audrey Taverner understand that the organization she built, the system she created to 'preserve magical bloodlines'. Does she know it's run by the same creatures who killed her daughters?"
"Does it matter?" Nana's voice was hard. "She's been harvesting children for decades. Eighty-three families were destroyed that we know of. Whether she knows who killed her daughters or not, she's become exactly what they are."
"It matters," Mom said softly. "Because if she doesn't know, if she's been manipulated this entire time—"
"Then she's both victim and monster," I finished. The thought made my stomach turn. "And that might be the worst part of all."
The scope of it was staggering. A woman who'd lost everything, twisted by grief into becoming the architect of the very horror that had destroyed her own family. Whether she knew the truth or not, she'd built an empire on murdered children.
"The essence she's been stealing," Stella said, her voice carefully controlled. "Where does it go? What's she doing with it?"
"Extending her own life, probably," Nana said. "Fifty years of this—she'd need stolen power to survive that long."
"Or she's still trying to bring her daughters back," Aidon suggested, his voice dark. "Necromancy on that scale requires immense power."
"Either way," Tarja projected, her tail lashing, "she's built an empire on murdered children. The Trust funds Corvus. Corvus identifies targets. The Thessmark collect power and kill innocent babies."
"She turned her daughters' deaths into justification," I said. "In her mind, what she’s doing is probably noble. She might even believe she is saving magical bloodlines instead of destroying them."
"The worst monsters always do," Mom said quietly. "They convince themselves they're heroes. That the ends justify the means. That their grief, loss, and pain matter more than everyone else's."
Jean-Marc cleared his throat, drawing our attention back to the screen. "I found video footage of her if you’re interested."
He pulled up a grainy video, timestamp showing it was from three weeks ago.
The camera angle suggested that it was security footage from inside the Corvus medical offices.
A woman walked down a corridor. She was tall, slender, with dark hair going silver at the temples.
Her face was lined with age but animated with purpose as she spoke to someone off-camera.
"That's her," Tarja projected. "That's Audrey Taverner. She looks older, but it's her."
We watched as she entered a room at the end of the corridor. The camera angle didn't show what was inside, but I didn't need to see. Somehow, I knew the Scythe was in there.
"She's actively involved," I blurted as surprise washed through me. "Not just funding it from a distance."
"Which means she might have sanctioned the attack on our babies. I know she’s there tonight," Aidon growled.
"I want her to see us coming," I said. “I want her to know that her empire is burning down around her. And if she doesn't know the truth about her daughters—if she's been a pawn this whole time—maybe it's time someone told her."
Stella grinned, fierce and sharp. "Now you're talking."