Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
I was sitting at my desk when Theo walks out of his office. Tobias steps out of his a second later. I stand knowing it’s time to leave. “Ready?” Tobias asks.
“As ready as I will ever be,” I say, grabbing my handbag from under my desk and throwing it over my shoulder.
We make our way to Tobias’s car. As soon as the car starts, I know there will be no turning back, the seatbelt suddenly feels more like a restraint as we leave the City to meet the people who will decide when I die.
The drive takes about forty-five minutes.
When Tobias pulls the car over on what appears to be an abandoned school in literally the most deserted place, hidden amongst the trees.
We step out of the car and I peer around.
It’s an old school building, with trees going through it, the roof caved in and the place appears desolate and like it hasn’t been a functioning school in hundreds of years. No signage, no nothing.
“Are we at the right place?” I ask, glancing around in confusion.
There are broken swings in the distance and the gate out front is rusted.
Tobias and Theo nod before walking through the gate and suddenly vanishing into thin air.
I stop, shocked. Where did they go? Then Theo’s hand comes out waving at me on my side of the gate, his body invisible.
I take a step back; I must be tripping. What the hell was in that coffee?
Theo steps back into view, my heart skipping a beat as he materializes in front of me.
“Come on,” he says, holding out his hand, I nervously took it, and he pulls me through the gate.
I can hear a high pitch whistling and have to fight the urge to block my ears before a sudden feeling like I am being sucked through a vacuum, before finally feeling air again.
I suck in a deep breath. What I’m not expecting when I look around is the sight of the huge mansion in front of me, that can’t be the school I just saw.
I turn around and glance back at the gate I just walked through which is no longer there.
I can see the car and the dirt road, but the abandoned school is gone.
I take a step back and bump into Tobias.
I glance up at him and he smile. “Cool, huh?” I nod, not really knowing what to say.
I peer around seeing the place is huge as we head up the grand steps toward the huge archway for a door.
“How?” I ask, not understanding how this place was so hidden from the world.
“Witches put wards up, to humans and anyone else it just appears as an abandoned building, anyone walks past the gates they just feel uncomfortable and don’t understand why.
It’s for protection, to stop anyone from discovering this place; there are many around the City as well,” Tobias explains.
Theo strides over to the door and bangs on it.
A man—or should I say strange-looking goblin/elf looking thing—comes out, a snarl on his face.
He glances at me, then at Theo, his face lighting up excitedly.
“Theo, I heard you were coming to visit today, did you bring them?” he asks. His voice sounds really squeaky, kind of like listening to a mouse, he reminds me of Golem from the Lord of the Rings except he is dressed like a butler.
“Yep, sure did. Did Mom and Dad already head to the chambers?” he says, pulling a paper bag out of his pocket. The elf peers inside before pulling out some stringy red licorice. Biting a piece off with his sharp looking teeth.
“Yep, they are inside already, this must be your mate. I’m Percy,” he says holding his hand out, which is the size of a small child’s but with long sharp looking nails. I shake his hand.
“Josiah told me about you, you’re much prettier than I thought,” he says with a wink. I smile. I like him already. He shoves the doors open. It opens to a huge square room before we enter directly across to another set of doors. Theo opens them before placing his hand on my lower back.
“Don’t freak out and whatever you do, don’t stare, it will be awkward,” he says.
I wondered what he means. I don’t have to wait long to find out, though.
Stepping through the door, we are in some sort of quadrangle.
The place is bustling with people and creatures I have only read about in fairy tales.
Shops and buildings along every side, the place is like a little town.
I can’t help but stare when a centaur walks past me.
A fucking centaur. “You’re staring,” says Theo, whispering in my ear.
“How the hell does he hide in the human world?” I ask, not being able to believe my own eyes. “He doesn’t, his name is Bruno, and he lives permanently here at court; he is the last of his kind.”
Maybe there really is something in that coffee or maybe my mind has conjured up this delusion, or I’m dreaming. None of this made sense; first an elf creature, now a centaur. Was every mythical creature real?
“Not all, just some, where do you think the stories come from? Humans aren’t that imaginative to come up with that stuff on their own. There is always a little truth to legend,” Theo says, answering my thoughts.
I drag my eyes away from the half donkey looking man.
Theo’s hand on my lower back pushes me along, seeing as my feet just aren’t cooperating.
When we are halfway through the quad, I really look around.
Tobias takes my hand before bending slightly, blocking my view.
“What are you looking for?” he asks, an amused look on his face as I stare at all the people and half-people roaming around.
“I figured since all these exist that I should make sure Jebus isn’t here, too.
I might need to ask for forgiveness since every other mythical creature exists, I am assuming he does too and I need to make sure I cover all my bases if I’m gonna die,” I say staring past him and searching the faces of the many people passing by. Theo snorts.
“Ask forgiveness for what? And just so you know, Jesus or Jebus as you like to call him was human, not a supernatural creature.”
“What, so he does exist?” I question. Shit, I am going to hell for being an adulterer.
Theo obviously reads my thoughts. “Human, not supernatural, Imogen, and he was just some man someone wrote a story about, doesn’t mean what they wrote is real or not real, people just need to believe in something bigger than themselves to help them sleep better at night.”
Tobias and Theo both find my shock at this place amusing.
We stroll along for a few minutes, finally coming to the biggest building in the quad.
It resembles a sandstone courthouse. It’s a huge, imposing building with guards out the front that I can tell are vampires by their red eyes and godly looks.
We march up the steps and go inside. Caroline and Josiah are inside waiting patiently on some red velvet seats.
Caroline stands and saunters over to give me a hug.
“We have registered that we are here, so we shouldn’t have to wait long,” she says.
I sit next to her. This room is some kind of waiting area, lined with seats and pictures on the wall of scary looking men and women who definitely aren’t human, the huge paintings and photos leading up a huge corridor with doors running off each side.
I sit nervously twiddling my thumbs when Tobias puts his hand over mine covering my shaking hands. I instantly calm because the heat of his skin is soothing.
A tall woman in a black dress that runs to the floor sashays out, her red eyes indicating she is another vampire as her eyes roamed over all of us, before settling on Tobias and Theo.
“Alaric will see you three now,” she says brushing her long black hair over her shoulder and turning her back on us. Tobias pulls me up from my seat and my mouth goes dry. We head up the long corridor to the last door. She opens it and steps aside allowing us to enter.
I file in after Tobias and Theo. A man is seated behind a huge desk, wearing a suit. He peers up as we enter. “Tobias, Theo,” he says, standing and moseying around his desk. He shakes their hands before turning to me.
“You must be the human woman, Imogen,” he says.
I can hear the distaste in his mouth as he looks me up and down before escorting us over to some chairs and a table on the other side of the room.
The room is full of bookshelves and old looking scrolls dumped on different surfaces, the walls covered in old painted portraits.
One portrait—a portrait of the man from the photograph Josiah found—is hanging above the fireplace.
Only he doesn’t look the same, he looks demonic, with his red and slightly crazed eyes, the perfect predator, the sort of man you don’t want to bump into down a dark alley.
I swallow and freeze staring up at the picture.
Theo suddenly pulls me down on the soft gray armchair behind me.
The man, Alaric, glances over his shoulder at the painting I was so engrossed in before he growls, snapping my attention back to him. “Sorry,” I say. He cocks his head to the side, his beady red eyes boring into me as his lips pull back slightly revealing his fangs.
“Alaric,” Theo growls when he realizes the man is scaring me.
“Apologies, Miss, I find it hard being around your kind when you smell as delightful as you do.” I nod, not liking the way he’s staring at my neck.