41. Hailon
Chapter 41
Hailon
I ’d barely managed to wash my face before the gargoyles arrived back the following morning.
It was just Lovette and Imogen, and I felt a bit as though I was intruding on a private girls’ morning when I came out of the bathroom to find them all huddled around breakfast on the low table in the living room.
“Hailon, good morning!” Lovette got to her feet and came over to me, ushering me back to join them. “We brought a little bit of everything. Do you prefer coffee? Tea? There are muffins and some fancy pastries. Imo and I had a lovely time running through the market right when everything opened. We got first choice of everything we wanted!”
“Coffee would be quite welcome, thank you.” My stomach growled as I took in the veritable buffet they’d set up. They chatted and laughed, nobody shy about grabbing and sharing the food. I felt an odd mix of being included and like I was watching as an outsider.
“Did you fly here?” Ophelia asked.
“We did, and do you know what’s interesting? It wasn’t until we hit your wards that we were stopped.”
“Really?” I asked, perplexed by that.
“Hmm.” Ophelia poured herself a cup of tea that was half whiskey. “My wards are many layered. I’ve had the benefit of decades to get them to where they are. Perhaps they are just containing your power.”
“Was it like that with Coltor?” Imogen asked.
“I’m not sure. Seir couldn’t fly yet. But within the wards at the ruins, neither Coltor nor Seir could shift.”
The sisters looked at one another and got up from their seats, each standing behind a separate part of the U-shaped furniture arrangement. They each released their wings, both moving carefully so that they didn’t knock into any of Ophelia’s things.
“Oh,” Lovette said, surprise in her tone. “That’s very strange.”
“Yes, it’s like that part of me is empty.”
“Well good, that’s something we know for sure now, anyway. Sit down, girls.” Ophelia turned to me. “Tell me about yourself, Hailon.”
I choked on the bite of cinnamon muffin I’d eaten. After I’d successfully chased it down with some of the strong coffee, I asked, “What would you like to know?”
“Tell me about your abilities. As best you can.”
I explained my healing power, how I could feel the bad with my magic and remove it.
“She fixed some little things on my hands in the carriage like it was nothing,” Lovette attested, showing her hands.
“Have you found limitations to it?” Ophelia asked, very obviously looking at the fresh pink marks on my own hands. I suspected very little got past her.
“I don’t think it works on anything inanimate,” I added. “I tried to mend a cracked mirror, and nothing happened.” Though that wouldn’t stop me from trying with my little horse when I had a chance. “And something big, like a broken bone or deep sickness, requires lots of focus and energy. I’m often not really aware of my surroundings when it’s like that.”
“Mmm. You didn’t know about the other part?”
“No, not until we met Coltor in the ruins. We knew Seir couldn’t shift or fly, but not why. It wasn’t until we met up with Coltor that we had an explanation. I’d never heard the term null before he said it.”
“And your eye? What happened to cause the color shift?”
I took a deep breath, the sting of what Sal had said still fresh. “I was very, very angry.”
All three of them made thoughtful, understanding sounds in their throats, heads nodding as though this was the most logical thing in the world.
“It’s interesting that you don’t have any feeling as far as that power is concerned,” Lovette said, dusting muffin crumbs off her fingers. “How are you supposed to control it when you can’t even tell it’s there?”
Ophelia turned to me, eyes squinted with thought. “Hailon, have you tried on that necklace yet?”
“No, I put it away.” In truth, I’d been a bit afraid of it. Too much about my mother was a mystery, I didn’t know what such an object might do.
“Would you mind getting it?”
“Of course.” I retrieved it from my pack in the guest room and held it out to her as I sat back down.
“No, no. Put it on.”
I did as she asked, the stone somehow warm against my skin despite the fact that it had been nowhere with outside heat. Now that I was wearing it, I could feel a low vibration tingling just under my skin. I plugged both ears with my fingers and wiggled my jaw, trying to gently rub away the itchy sensation there.
“It feels … strange.”
“Lovette, do you mind seeing if you can shift now?”
Lovette got to her feet and stood behind the furniture again, putting her wings out and then closing her eyes. “Oh!” She beamed and transformed from her human self into a slightly larger version with a grayish-green stone skin and fierce claws where her fingernails were, fairly feline paw feet, and brutal fangs.
“Lift the necklace by the chain, away from your skin please?” I did so, and Lovette immediately shifted back into her human form.
“Ouch.” Her hand went to her forehead.
“Sorry!” I apologized.
“Not your fault.”
“Fascinating indeed. May I take a closer look at the stone?” I took the necklace off and handed it to her. She turned it over and around, up and into the sunlight streaming through the window. “Imogen, would you mind?”
Imogen reached for the necklace and did the same kind of thing, twisting and turning the quail’s egg sized stone around in the light. “It’s in the stone, not the setting. It’s mirrored.”
“Yes.”
“Care to share with the whole class?” Lovette asked, daintily sipping her tea as she glanced between the two.
“Whoever made this necklace inscribed a powerful incantation directly into the obsidian. It’s covered by the metal they set it in. They reversed the letters so that their power is turned the correct direction as viewed through the stone.”
“And that… stops me from blocking magic?”
“Would seem so.” Ophelia smiled. “It’s something to get us started at least. Now, you can go into the city, if nothing else. Just don’t lose that necklace.”
Imogen handed it back to me. “I’m sure there’s an apprentice or two at the conclave I could conscript to craft a duplicate or two. We’d need Rylan to do the incantation though.”
“It can’t be that simple, can it?” I blurted, unexpectedly angry about how easy that seemed. “If it were that straightforward, why was the necklace hidden in that horse? Why didn’t anyone know? I’ve had it with me since I was a child but couldn’t make use of it. What if I’d lost it? It was taken from me not all that long ago, I’m ridiculously lucky it wasn’t thrown away or sold off for the gold on the hooves.”
Ophelia patted my hand in an effort to soothe me. “Hailon, would you look at me, dear?” I snapped my head her direction and her eyebrow went up as she took a good scan of my face. “Safe to say anger’s a trigger then.”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Your eye. The color has shifted a bit more.”
I jumped up and went into the little bathroom, staring at myself in the mirror in stunned disbelief. The colors were now somewhere in the middle between vertical and horizontal.
“What happens when it gets to completely opposite where it started? How and why is that happening in the first place?”
“Good questions, but I’m afraid I don’t have any answers for you.”
“What about my hair. Any idea why it’s turning white?”
Her head tilted to the side. “When did it start?”
“A few days into our journey.”
She shrugged. “Perhaps a side effect of your mating bond waking up. Access to more or new powers can cause changes like that.” Her eyes went squinty. “Was there anything else left for you like the horse?” Ophelia asked.
I retrieved the strongbox and brought it into the living room. Imogen gasped when the box opened and the obsidian blade dagger was revealed.
“May I?”
“Sure.” I handed it to her. “It’s not mine, I took it from the place I’d been held captive when we escaped.”
“Oh, I disagree.” Imogen smiled widely. “It’s definitely yours.” She handed it back to me and I accepted it by the handle. The weight felt off though, the grip too large.
I shook my head. “It’s not comfortable.”
“We can work on that. If you don’t mind parting with it for a bit, I can take both this and your knife back to the forge with me.”
“I have no attachment to it.” I set the dagger in the box and moved around some of the papers, pulling out the sheet that Seir had taken from Sal. Under the paper was the little obsidian chip ring I’d told him I liked. Sneaky demon. My heart squeezed, and I allowed myself a little private smile as I looked at it.
“Seir said someone can help me with this? It’s the letter my mother left with my aunt.” That title for Sal tasted bad now. I resolved to finding something else to call her in very short order.
Ophelia leaned in for a better look. “Yes, our lovely Greta is part fae and understands the language very well.”
“She can go to d’Arcan, right? Since the necklace works?” Lovette asked.
“Yes. And I think she should, after we try a few things.” The smile on her face made me nervous for the first time since we’d met. “Would you mind sitting here in front of me, Hailon? On the floor. Take the necklace all the way off first, if you please. I’d like to use my hands on you, if you don’t mind.”
I did as she asked, both stone kin sisters leaning in with curiosity as the older woman gently put her fingertips against my scalp. There was no sensation from her touch other than warmth. She tapped and pressed, frowning in concentration as she stared into my eyes.
“Put the necklace in your hand.” I obeyed, clasping it tightly. “Can you send out your healing magic with the stone against your skin?”
I closed my eyes and tried what she suggested. My magic was right there waiting when I went to draw on it, full and vibrant. I pictured it like a glass of water, and this time, it was so full it was mounded over the rim but somehow not spilling. I’d never felt it as clearly or as fully before.
“Do you need any healing, Ophelia?” I asked, the hum beginning to irritate, like there were bugs wriggling under my skin.
She chuckled, the sound raspy and dry. “Of course I do, my dear. Comes with the territory for my age.”
“It feels like I need to purge some of my magic. I’ve never felt it so full. Do you want me to use it?”
“Not yet. Drop the necklace.”
I did, and the relief was immediate. My magic felt normal, no more overwhelm. The hum was gone, and I felt like I could take a deep breath. “Feels like it usually does.”
“How odd.” She frowned and picked up the stone herself, examining it again. “It’s an amplifier, but it needs to be tempered. Perhaps it was calibrated for whatever null came before you. Imogen, the dagger please?” Ophelia put the obsidian dagger in one of my hands and the necklace in the other. “Try now.”
Heart pounding, I closed my eyes and reached out again but immediately pulled back. It was as though I’d been burned, my power a pan on a hot stove I’d grabbed the bare handle of. I dropped both items, unable to speak and panting.
“Sorry, sorry.” Ophelia put her fingertips back on my head and soothed the sting away. “Not together then, noted.” She thought again. “If you don’t try to access your healing ability with the dagger, what happens?”
Lovette hopped up again, and I held the dagger loosely in my hand.
“I can’t find my magic at all,” Lovette frowned. I set it down again, and she shifted with ease.
“Odd indeed,” Ophelia said. “One item to enhance each power.” She nodded, as though this made perfect sense. “They just need some calibration. That’s all,” she muttered, mostly to herself.
“But the dagger was in a city on the other side of the realm. How could it possibly have been meant for me? If I hadn’t been kidnapped and taken there, then what? I stole it when we left because it looked expensive, no other reason.”
“It found you.” Imogen’s words were clear and intense, despite the low volume of her voice. “It would always have found you, eventually.”
“That’s her gift,” Lovette explained, seeing my blank expression. “We don’t argue with Imogen about anything to do with blades.”
I still found myself resistant to accepting the ease with which such things were coming together, but perhaps that was the most reasonable explanation after all. I had long since stopped trusting in the fates, but given the last few weeks, there was enough evidence to make me reconsider.
Ophelia tried several more things to trigger something inside me, some kind of sense that would allow me to feel and control the nulling ability. Morning spun into afternoon, and after a break for lunch, she had me trying a new set of things, including reading off spells from an ancient tome. The absolute lack of success there proved, if nothing else, that I was not a witch, even if I did have some witch blood in my veins.
“I’ve tried everything I can think of for something like this. The girls will take you to d’Arcan. The demons can help, and Greta is there. She can read your letter. There will be good guidance there, I’m sure of it.”
I gathered everything Seir had suggested I take to his brothers, and we started toward town.
Answers were closer, but still felt far away, and as we made our way down the road, my thoughts inevitably strayed to the demon I couldn’t help missing.