15. Chapter 15
Chapter fifteen
SAGE
So many things were finally making sense. Things I didn’t even know to question in my past. Not just the hunters I’d allowed this demon to kill, but all the times I’d thought my intuition had gotten me out of tight spots. The times when I couldn’t quite remember how I’d managed to do something. Because it was never me in the first place.
Did I have any control over this thing at all? Was it able to just take over during every moment of weakness? Every time I was scared, or panicking, or hurt?
Was I strong enough to keep it from killing again?
That was laughable. Didn’t I have all the proof I needed that I wasn’t? I didn’t have the luxury of ignoring facts in my line of work, and that one was staring me in the face.
“Maybe you were strong enough for this, but I’m clearly not,” I said angrily to my grandmother’s headstone. “What were you thinking? Why didn’t you tell me? Maybe if I knew…”
If I’d known it would have changed everything, but would it have been better? I would have lived in fear of this thing inside of me my whole life. Would I even be the same person? But even if I could objectively understand their reasoning, it did nothing to calm the anger boiling under my skin.
I knelt on the grass and let my forehead rest against the cool stone. “You should have saved yourself. What if Mars returns to Eastbend one day? Now that you’re gone, there are no witches strong enough to defend it.”
I sighed. One thing at a time. I’d better worry about the hunters before I borrowed trouble from a future that may never come.
There was no time to sit around thinking about my life when everyone else was counting on me. Besides, it was only a matter of time before my mother or Luca caught up to me, and I wasn’t ready to talk just yet. But there was one place they’d never find me.
I ran to my car and made a call as I headed for a little lake at the edge of town.
“Thanks for meeting me on such short notice.”
“We must leave for Prescott manor soon, so it is best to do this now,” Alwin said.
Declan rolled his eyes. “We’re not going. Screw them and their stupid plans, I’m not risking my ass for this crap and neither are you.”
Alwin ignored his outburst and pulled a delicately intricate charm out of his pocket. “Elliot has been busy with the child, so I wove your glamour.”
Declan eyed the charm with a furrowed brow but said nothing. I knew the man had his issues with magic, but he spent enough time around it that a glamour charm shouldn’t be anything to worry about.
Elves didn’t have the type of magic that they could cast on the fly, but they could imbue some kinds of magic into the items they crafted. Typically it was used to make the pieces they crafted perfectly beautiful and impressively strong, and for that reason elven wares were quite valuable, but they also had skill with glamours and sometimes minor healing or elemental magic.
“Thank you,” I said, accepting the piece. The metal was so thin and intricate it looked fragile. Like it would bend and crumble if I just closed my fist, but I knew with the magic woven into it the thing could probably take a bullet.
“Let us go,” Alwin said, leading the way to the gate he took between our worlds.
When we stepped out of the disorienting break, the world had changed drastically. The lake and trees were gone and we stood in a huge expanse of endless land. Mountains sat in the distance behind us, and what looked like a forest on the horizon to what would have been the south if we were still in Eastbend, but who knew how anything worked in this world.
Alwin released his human glamour revealing the unusual leather armor and weapons he kept hidden, along with his pointed ears, much longer blond hair, and an indescribable kind of otherworldly glow. He was undeniably beautiful even in his human glamour, but it was usually muted in a way I couldn't quite put my finger on. Part of me wondered if it was just easier to shed his glamour while here, or if he really thought he might need those weapons during this little excursion, but I decided not to ask.
The elf led the way toward the nothingness straight ahead and Declan and I hurried after him. The horizon was oddly hazy and it was a little disorienting that on all this flat land, it was still hard to see all that far ahead. In fact, it was impossible to even judge distances and “far ahead” sometimes seemed closer than I’d estimated, and sometimes further away.
“Do not expect this world to work the way yours does,” Alwin cautioned. “Many things are different. This world has much more magic than your world and it can be disorienting the first few times you visit. Do not get separated.”
It was pretty much impossible to get separated on wide open land, so I didn’t pay his words much mind. The horizon was dizzying and the terrain rocky and uneven and I found myself watching my step more than anything else. But not ten minutes later we’d somehow wandered into a rock outcropping. Their jagged shadows stretched beneath my feet and I immediately turned, finding nothing but massive rocks behind me. How had I ended up so far inside when I’d looked up the moment I’d stepped into the shade?
Alwin and Declan couldn’t have gone far so I stopped and pressed a hand to the rock to get my bearings. A hand wrapped around my arm and I let out a breath when I realized they’d found me already. Only when I turned to apologize, it wasn’t a hand that had me.
Root-like vines squirmed out of the cracks in the rock to coil further up my arm, tightening its hold on me. I yanked back, trying to run the other way and only straining my shoulder in the process. Whatever that thing was it wasn’t letting go without a fight. With nothing on me to cut them away, I used my free hand to tear at the roots. That turned out to be a mistake and it quickly tangled my other hand up as well.
“Shit! Alwin?” I called out, but the words echoed back at me strangely as if I was locked in a small room.
The vines coiled further, pulling me closer and closer to the cracks in the rocks. And then it was officially time to panic, though my struggling only seemed to make it easier for the root monster to drag its scrawny meal closer. I whimpered and squeezed my eyes closed.
My ass hit the ground and I sucked in a breath, blinking and scrambling backwards, but there was no point. I was somehow ten feet away from the root monster, huddling in the shade of another rock. A few broken pieces of the vines were on the ground and the rest had apparently retreated back into the cracks in the rock.
A chill ran up my spine. This time, I knew exactly what happened. The demon inside of me had protected its vessel. That answered that question. It could take over whenever it wanted. So why hadn’t it taken my body completely? Was it still too weak to maintain control for long periods of time?
What was the point in asking these questions right now? I forced myself off the ground and carefully avoided the rock as I turned back the way I came. I’d walked straight into the rocks, so going straight back should take me right back out. Except I’d barely put that plan into action when I came to a dead end.
“I hate this place already,” I grumbled.
“There he is,” Declan said from behind me.
I turned, finding the two of them coming my way. “Thank god, this place is a maze.”
“You are not meant to escape,” Alwin explained. “You’ve wandered into the belly of a beast. Do not touch the walls, they will devour you.”
“Uh, yeah. I figured that out. How do we get out of here?”
“Stay close,” Alwin said, turning right and heading into what I would have assumed was deeper into the rocks.
“So I wandered into a monster, and you guys came in after me?”
“Alwin came after you,” Declan corrected. “I was just dragged along for the ride.”
Alwin glanced at Declan, though his expression gave nothing away.
“Don’t give me that look,” the sorcerer complained. “If we don’t get out of here it’s on you two.”
He wasn’t wrong. “I’m sorry. You’re right, this was my fault.”
“Fault is irrelevant,” Alwin stated simply. “Regret does not change where we are, nor is it an efficient use of your energy. Focus your attention on your surroundings.”
Alwin’s pep talks could use some work, but his point was made. It was too late to change anything, so the least I could do was make sure I didn’t fuck up again.
“Got it.”
We walked for a while as the walls grew uncomfortably narrow. To my surprise, Declan didn’t question it at all even though he was usually the first one with an unhelpful complaint. When we were practically sliding sideways to avoid touching the rock I started to get nervous.
Declan reached out to snag the hem of Alwin’s shirt, telling me he wasn’t completely unaffected by the situation, but he still said nothing. I didn’t want to be the one to speak up and question our guide, but Declan didn’t seem to trust anyone about anything, ever, and yet he faithfully followed behind Alwin without a peep. What the hell?
Eventually Alwin stopped and looked back at us crammed between walls so narrow we barely dared to breathe. He held up a hand, telling us to stay and Declan reluctantly let go of him. It would have been impossible to try to see what the elf was doing as he took another step past the curving walls, but a resounding crack shook the ground and Declan and I were thrown into the stone.
The back of my head smacked hard against the hard surface as I was wrapped up in those roots again. Declan suffered the same fate next to me and we were slowly pulled toward the gaps between the stone as the sounds of an assault continued just out of sight.
This time around, vines from two different sections had wrapped around me, pulling my body in different directions. I yanked against its hold as the stretching of my limbs grew painful. At this rate, I was going to be torn apart before Alwin made it back.
“Try to hold your ground without struggling,” Declan said without a hint of the panic I was feeling. “He’ll just need another minute.”
“How could you possibly—?”
But in the next second, the sound of metal striking stone drowned out my doubts and the walls around us began to crack apart. The vines stopped pulling and I let out a breath, craning my neck to get a look at our predicament.
My eyes snagged on a splash of red on the rock next to Declan and I realized I hadn’t been the only one about to be ripped apart after all. One of the vines had him by the elbow and had dug into his skin as it tried to pull his arm into a gap just overhead. He was pinned at an awkward angle, practically hanging by one arm. He’d remained so calm I hadn’t even realized.
“Shit, is your arm broken?”
With one final echoing snap, the rest of the rock crumbled, dragging us to the ground in a heap with the roots. They might be dead, but we were still tangled and the fall didn’t change that.
Alwin stood in the middle of the crumbled stone holding a gleaming sword. He turned to see us lying around on the rubble and began to cut away the vines without question. He felt up Declan’s arm and shoulder before looking my way.
“Are you injured?”
I stretched out my sore limbs. “No, I’m fine.”
He picked up Declan and set him on his feet like it was nothing and then stepped over the rock piles with a cat-like agility. “Then let us keep moving.”
Declan and I stumbled after the man, tripping multiple times before we finally made it out of the mess and back on flat land. I’d never given it much thought before, but while Alwin’s elegant beauty and lithe frame made it easy to overlook, he was quite impressive and extremely strong. Though, it seemed Declan had already figured that out. Must be why he had so much confidence in him.
We finally reached a tall carved wall covered in flowering vines, luckily not the kind that seemed likely to eat us. We followed Alwin to the intricate gates and they opened instantly for him.
A human stood just inside. “Welcome home,” he greeted Alwin, though he glanced our way curiously.
“You may speak freely,” Alwin told the man who seemed to be some kind of personal assistant.
“There have been no issues with the hunters, though they continue to look for a way out. You have two more mating contract requests from the North Forest Court and The Botanical Court. Both have pledged their daughters and would like to meet to negotiate a combining of the households.”
Alwin continued on through the courtyard as if multiple proposals was an everyday occurrence. “You handled them as usual?”
“Yes, I told them you were very busy, but The Botanical Court has been quite persistent. They’re insisting on a meeting.”
Alwin let us into his fancy house and turned to face his assistant. He said nothing, but the man lowered his head.
“I apologize. I tried to reason with them, but they were only interested in speaking with you.”
“You are not the one at fault,” Alwin answered.
“The Botanical Court is a sizeable household known for their treasures. I hear their oldest daughter is unrivaled in beauty as well. Perhaps it would be worth it to consider their offer.”
“Perhaps not,” Declan answered. “Way too pushy. Do you really want to be tied to that for the rest of your ridiculously long life?”
Alwin ignored the question and addressed his assistant instead. “I will be leaving for an extended trip. If they insist on meeting, it will need to be soon.”
“Understood.”
“Seriously?” Declan huffed. “You’re going to have marriage talks in the middle of all this?”
“It is better to take care of it quickly and relieve my household of the burden.”
“What a burden,” I snorted. “Everyone wants to marry you, that must suck.”
With Aiden for a brother, I was ninety percent certain that Alwin picked up on sarcasm just fine and was choosing to ignore me. He simply agreed and led the way down to his basement.
I looped the glamour around my neck before we headed down the stairs and felt a faint tingle of strange magic prickle against my skin. Alwin glamoured himself and Declan as well before letting us through a door into an empty room that looked like a simple human sitting room. We followed Alwin down a hall and into a larger area where the hunters were separated into cells that looked like bedrooms along one long wall. Some paced, some searched the room for a way out, some simply stared at the ceiling. None of them reacted to our presence.
“They can’t see us?”
“They see a wall between us. We can enter the cell, but they cannot get out. I will go in with you.”
“We’re going to tell them I’m a hunter sent by Sherman to check in on what’s going on in Eastbend. They’re not going to believe me until they’ve tested my knowledge and we’re going to have to use different tactics on each of them. We need to get as much information as we can as quickly as possible, so just follow my lead.”
“You have experience with this?” Alwin questioned.
“I’ve studied the most effective methods for extracting information from someone. Some of those techniques come in handy for my job more than you would think. Some are not especially ethical, but I think we’re past that point here.”
The elf gave a nod and led the way. “Declan will remain out here. He can step in if he notices anything.”
I knew almost nothing about the sorcerer’s past, but I almost felt like the two of us could have switched roles and he would have been just as capable of manipulating information out of these men. When it came down to it, Declan and Alwin were probably the best suited for this job. We didn’t have time to handle this delicately and the tavern crew had a habit of trying to play nice with people who wanted them dead. I didn’t want to admit it before, but August Lancaster had been right all along. There was a time to be passive, and a time to take a stand, and we no longer had the luxury of pretending we still had a choice.
Declan raised an eyebrow at me as I stepped out of another hunter’s cell. “Didn’t think you had that in you. Let me guess, you were president of the debate club.”
“Yes, you’re exactly right,” I retorted. “My high school debate club absolutely taught underhanded and manipulative tactics for extracting information, didn’t yours?”
“Wouldn’t know. Didn’t exactly have the typical high school experience.”
Jokes aside, I’d picked something up from that hunter that I hadn’t noticed with the others. He’d referenced the dark mage they worked with not as someone they simply bought spells from, but as someone they answered to. With that line of questioning in mind, I moved on to the next man and manipulated answers out of the others one by one. Some broke much easier than others, but I got something from almost all of them.
There was only one hunter who wouldn’t talk, no matter what I did. He was young. Not even close to the biggest, or the strongest, in fact, I didn’t even get the impression he was more than one of the lower ranked lackeys. But whatever reason he had for being with them didn’t waver with my words. That man had something the others didn’t. A bone deep conviction. He was after something, and until I learned what that was, I didn’t have the leverage needed to break him. Someone in his position couldn’t know all that much in the first place but until we found out what he was after, he was a threat.
When I came out of the last hunter’s cell, I couldn’t even guess how many hours had passed, but I was exhausted.
Declan was looking at me differently. “You could give my family a run for their money.”
“Coming from you, I doubt that’s a compliment.”
He shrugged. “I thought for sure I’d have to step in to tell you when to question things more or where to put more pressure, but you had it handled. You picked up something about the mage they’re working with, and only two of these guys are even high enough to recognize the name of the man at the top of their own organization. The rest of them don’t know enough to bother with.”
“The mage is not simply a supplier but aligned with the hunter organization,” Alwin said.
I nodded. “The question is why. He’s too powerful for the hunters to control, so what is he getting out of it? If I had a name, I could do some digging and see if I could find a motive, but I can’t ask for a name while pretending to be one of them.”
“Where are you going?” Declan asked.
“This one knows more,” I answered. “I’m going to have another chat.”