12. Chapter Twelve
Chapter Twelve:
~Keida~
It is said that Avaris bestows her most trusted clerics with visions.
Her paladins are blessed with strength, constitution, a divine weapon, and many other things.
Clerics received magic, and a select few are given divine foresight.
I’ve never heard of any who were not Cardinals or higher, but the moment moonlight brushed my sleeping face, I knew My Lady spoke to me directly.
Most nights my dreams were empty. I floated in an inky stream of unconsciousness till my body left oblivion by my internal clock…
or fucking roosters. There’s always one outside my window, the little bastard.
However, for the first time, I awoke from inside a dream.
One that was not mine. I stood in the mess hall, my presence like that of a specter.
I floated forward till I loomed over Melrose.
She giggled, speaking with Ramone and Delainey in a playful hush.
They looked happy, clinking mugs of coffee.
A normal morning that seemed like every other.
Then I saw the glint of armor and a familiar face.
Peony Bernstein. The knight schmoozed Melrose away from the table and the breakfast hall faded away.
Replaced with an empty church, all the pews turned over and dust collecting in every corner.
I only saw a shadow, dangling from beyond a window by a rope, but the message was clear. Death.
I jerked forward in bed, the cool brush of ghostly fingers down my back.
Death. That was all My Lady Avaris spoke to me before her moonlight faded into sunrise.
I glanced out the window, watching the feathered bastard land in my windowsill.
Hazy light was slowly snuffed out by the heavy snow clouds.
The rooster looked through my frosty windows, deep into my soul, and crowed.
Tossed his head back and screamed into my windowpanes.
Usually my ire would cause me to crawl out of bed and throw the beast off the window ledge…but my mind kept going back to the vision. Peony Bernstein would lead to Melrose’s death? It would ruin Leonardo St. Augustine. The church would crumble. My heart hammered in my chest as I scrambled to dress.
If I’m fast enough, I can meet her at breakfast.
The journey to the mess hall felt like an out-of-body experience.
Why me? My Lady, why bestow this image to me?
Or was Leonardo not able to intervene? Reeling with the reality that my goddess blessed my dreams only to tell me the woman of my desires was in danger.
Better to know than the alternative. I followed the sounds of life toward the mess hall and stopped to stare into the warm cluster of my clergy.
Something like fingers picked up my chin and pulled my attention away from the crowd.
I saw the shimmering metal of three knights in full armor.
I jumped into motion, rushing into the mess hall.
Melrose’s back was to me, Ramone and Delainey leaned in close as if they were in deep conversation.
However, all those serving food and a handful of others froze to find me in the room.
I took an offered plate and mug of coffee without another thought, scrambling for what the vision meant.
I saw someone dangling by the neck by a rope, but I had no idea if the vision meant that was Melrose… or me.
I pushed open the door to my actual office and motioned for Melrose to walk in.
She stepped inside and I shut the doors hard with my palms. The heavy wood groaned, trying to resist but I didn’t let it.
I put my full weight against it, then sighed.
Melrose spoke first, “You want to explain what that was about?”
Do I even know the answer to that?
I straightened, turning toward her once more. “Peony Bernstein means you harm.”
Melody scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Please, she’s a showboat and a meat head, but she’s a knight. She’s sworn to protect the innocent.”
“Ah, yes, because all those who are sworn into an oath keep it,” I rebutted with a sharp narrow of my eyes on her.
Melrose scowled, arms crossed under her chest. She sank her backside onto the edge of my desk.
Unlike her father’s office, mine was barely breathable.
It was stuffy, packed full of bookshelves, and any piece of wall not covered with shelving was pinned with papers.
Wanted posters, maps, letters—anything and everything relevant to my job as Lunar Cleric.
“Why would Peony want to hurt me?”
“Maybe because for the last six years, she was exiled to the farthest reaches of this kingdom by your father. Meant to toil away in the ice and snow?” I tossed my hands out to the side in exasperation.
Melody sputtered, “That can’t be true. Why would Papa do that?”
“Because of you,” I growled, crossing my office to get to my desk.
Pulling out my journal, I flipped through the pages to the start of my residence at the Cathedral.
I kept meticulous notes on the daily goings-on.
And as I returned to the first day I ever met Melrose, I spun the journal toward her.
With a solid thump the leather-bound tome hit the desk and she furrowed her brow in response.
Melrose leaned over it, studying my words and devouring them quickly.
“What? But…but you walked in on us. You stalled my father. Why would that get her…she’s still a knight?”
“Your father’s jurisdiction is to the church. His reach is with the queen. He may not be able to strip someone of their position, but he can make them miserable all the same.”
“All because what? I fooled around with her once? I know my father, he’s not that ridiculous.
” Melrose rolled her eyes, pushing the journal across the page.
“A stern talking to about safe sex and the importance of waiting till you’re with a partner you can trust with your most vulnerable parts, but exile because we made out on his desk once? That seems a bit extreme.”
I squinted at her suspiciously. “You do know the rumors surrounding your father’s protectiveness of you, correct?”
Melrose snorted, shoulders trembling. “We’re talking about the same Leonardo St. Augustine, correct?”
I sputtered, head shaking. Of course she doesn’t see him the way others do. But, I didn’t want to change a daughter’s view of her father. No matter how delusional her image of him was, that was her father. She deserved to see him as a soft teddybear if she so wished.
I exhaled, “Listen, regardless of what Peony did to get sent off to live in the worst bunks in the kingdom, watching a mountain side, she’s back now. She means you harm.”
“How?” That’s when Melrose narrowed her eyes on me and I wished she wasn’t so perceptive of me.
I tried to focus on closing up my journal, tying it shut, but a hand snapped out to stop me.
Melrose pushed my journal back to the top of my desk and my gaze rose slowly.
Her lips parted with a ragged breath. “You had a vision.”
“I do not know what exactly I saw,” I murmured the truth.
As I didn’t actually know. I was not trained in divination.
Being the vessel in which the goddess bestowed her knowledge was beyond my position.
But that didn’t stop me from being worried.
Death. I replayed the hiss of air that was vaguely feminine, that Our Lady Avaris spoke into my ear.
“All I know is that if Peony Bernstein walked away with you today, it would have meant you harm.”
“What was the vision exactly?” She grabbed my journal and flipped to a fresh page.
“Melrose—”
Her gaze darted up to me, narrowing her eyes on me.
I dropped any fight in my soul and allowed her to whisk the journal out from under my fingers.
Taking a deep breath, I centered myself then proceeded to explain the details.
From sitting in the mess hall, to watching her talk with Ramone and Delainey, to Peony Bernstein, then to the shadow beyond the window.
I could still recall the sound of rope groaning under the weight.
“And you’re sure she said death?” Melrose asked, pencil going across the page rapidly.
“Certain.”
Melrose tapped her pencil tip against the page with a soft frown, “She’s not often pessimistic. She’s only forewarned Papa of one other death before.”
“Which one?” I blurted out like the fool I was.
“Cardinal Porter,” she confessed, and my heart sank.
Not your mother. I could have slapped myself for walking right into that brick wall.
However, instead, I nodded in acknowledgement as she continued to speak.
“We couldn’t save him, but we were there to see the bandits who killed him.
They were attempting to clear out the temple’s vaults.
All the carnage and barbed vines. I remember Papa speaking about how she even prepared him for the inevitability that he wouldn’t be fast enough to stop it.
Which makes me think that maybe there’s more going on. ”
“I agree,” I cleared my throat. “Which means, you cannot leave this cathedral.”
“What!” she squawked, pushing her sketch across the table.
It was in three parts, one of her with her back to the observer, Ramone and Delainey speaking with her.
The second was just Peony, looming over her with that easy grin that was slightly too perfect.
And then I looked at the third, a haunting image of the cathedral window, and instead of the moon I was used to peering at through it… there was a hanging body.
“Obviously, you’re in danger. Peony Bernstein is a knight captain, and therefore, capable of bringing you into custody if necessary.
They can’t touch you inside the Cathedral.
So, it is imperative you stay inside.” I stated point blank as I tucked the journal back into my drawer.
I didn’t bother locking it, as there was nothing in there that wasn’t verifiable by others.
And…well…the things I didn’t want getting out, didn’t go in there.
All that stayed up in my head, replaying on repeat. Like last night.
“I have lessons!” Melrose blurted out. I stared at her in disbelief. She even harrumphed, looking away from me. Even you think that was a hard stretch.
“Look, Trouble, I do not like to keep any songbird caged. But…” That’s when I felt the emotions choke me.
The terror of the vision still fresh in my mind.
I rounded the desk to take up her hand. Melrose straightened, concern knitting her brows.
I lifted her knuckles to my lips and kissed them hesitantly.
“Please, behave for once in your life and do as you’re told. ”
As I rose from the slight bow I’d given her, I found her gaze lingering on me.
Soft, warm, hazel orbs roamed my face. I couldn’t help tugging that warm palm still entangled in mine.
Melrose stumbled forward till her other hand found its place against my shoulder.
Her body radiated heat in the bitter, winter chill.
I scooped my other hand under her arm, resting my palm flat against the small of her back.
“I will take care of this, and you, Melrose St. Augustine.” I brought her knuckles to my lips once more, kissing them more confidently the second time. “You have my word.”
“You just keep cleaning up my messes, Keida,” she exhaled. “I can’t stand here and watch you break another person’s nose over me again. Or worse.”
“You’re welcome to sit, Trouble,” I teased, pulling her that last inch closer.
Our lips brushed and I descended into oblivion.
Beyond my body, beyond my mind, I was no longer corporal.
With the slight curl of her lips against mine and the feel of her fingers curling against the front of my robes, I floated out of my skin and into the snow filled sky.
When I pulled back, gasping for air, I spoke with a raspy voice, “But you are going to watch.”
“Why is that?” she snickered, nipping at my lower lip.
“Because I can’t stand to not feel your eyes on me at all times, wicked girl.
I want to be the only thing you look for.
” I kissed her again. And again. And again, till I couldn’t anymore without spending the rest of the day in the comforts of her bedchambers.
I promised her I’d figure out what was going on, and with her safely nestled in the cathedral, I could do that.
It pained me to pull away, especially with that coquettish whine she produced.
“You cannot just leave after telling me you want to be the only thing I look for, Keida. That is cruel and unusual punishment!” She stomped a hoof. I chuckled, walking away backward from her.
“One you are more than in your rights to punish me for tonight…after dinner.” My breath hitched as her eyes widened.
“Are you serious?” she murmured.
“Tonight, just you and I. Dinner in your chambers?” I offered her a smile, my hand on the doorknob. Her face illuminated a bright, eager red as she nodded vigorously. With a bow of my head, I pulled the door open. “Then I shall see you for dinner.”
I slid out into the cathedral halls, only to stop, rip around on my boots, and jab a hand immediately back into my office. “And do not leave this cathedral!”
She groaned in response like the petulant brat I adored, but couldn’t stay longer to teach her manners.
I needed to speak to the Knight Commander, and I needed to see who really was pulling the strings on Peony Bernstein.
Then, I’d treat myself for my dedicated work by eating dinner with Melrose…
and maybe a few other things if she’d indulge me.