Chapter Twenty-Two
Leonora
Emerson and Novalie were in bed when I knocked. Novalie answered the door naked, cheeks flushed and hair rumpled.
“Mid-day nap?” I smirked at her and she bared her fangs.
“Sure. Do you want something? Or can I get back to napping ?”
“Be in my room in ten, okay? And bring Em.”
The door shut in my face and I laughed as I turned away in favour of my own room opposite theirs. My bed sheets were still unmade and the lingering combined scent of me and Hayes made the bond purr in satisfaction. Things with him were... good. Surprisingly so. I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for another secret or betrayal, and the longer that passed without one, the tenser I felt. Despite that and myself, I'd missed him.
“You're so sweet when you think nobody's listening.”
I jumped, not having heard Hayes creep into the room behind me. “Bite me.”
“I intend to,” he growled, the challenge there making my body perk up.
“That's quite enough of that,” Cal said and I swore, springing away from Hayes as I took in the mage now leaning against the desk I’d been using as a vanity.
“Why doesn't anyone know how to knock?” As if on cue, Novalie sprung into the bedroom, now clothed, pulling Emerson along behind her, and I gestured vaguely in their direction.
“This better be good, I was having very sweet dreams,” Novalie huffed and I rolled my eyes as Emerson closed the door, looking between us curiously.
“Gross,” was all I bothered to reply, voice peppy. “Actually?—”
“I was hoping to get some help from you, Emerson.” Hayes cut in, as if he knew the meeting was about to be derailed. He wasn't wrong, but I frowned at him anyway.
Em raised an eyebrow. “I'm happy to help, but what—Oh. You want me to try and see something for you.”
“Yes.” There was no demand in Hayes' voice, just fact, and something about the control in his tone had me suddenly feeling very distracted. “I need to know how to get into the royal chambers. Nora could sense magick in the walls, but we don't know how to bypass it.”
The floor creaked as Emerson sat down with her legs crossed and a steely glint in her eye. “I can't promise it'll help, but I'm willing to try.”
Maybe most people wouldn't have noticed it, but I saw the tension leave Hayes' broad shoulders at Em's words. “Thank you.”
She nodded before gesturing to the spot in front of her, nodding in satisfaction when he sat down. “Tell me more about the place where you and Nora felt the magick most strongly.”
Hayes recounted as Emerson nodded with her eyes closed until she lifted her eyes and in place of her brown irises, there was only darkness and blood.
Her voice echoed slightly, as if multiple people were speaking at once through her mouth. “Every lock has a key.”
Novalie wrinkled her nose. “She's like a creepy fortune cookie.”
I stifled my laugh and Cal threw us both a bemused glance. What we really needed to know was how to find the so-called key—and ideally whoever had sealed the chambers in the first place.
“Where can we find the key?” Hayes asked, leaning closer to Em as his eyes roved her closed-off face.
Emerson cocked her head to one side, like she was listening to something, and then nodded. “You are on the path.”
Novalie groaned. “If I didn't know Em, I would think she was faking it.”
I couldn't disagree. Emerson's gift was unpredictable, but this had passed that and moved straight into the territory of unhelpful.
“He'll find you,” Emerson continued and I fought a shiver as her unseeing eyes locked onto me. “He'll guide you.”
“To the key?” I had no idea who the he was that Em referred to, but I had the feeling that asking Em would only lead to more questions.
Her head bobbed slowly, one of her dark curls brushing her forehead with the movement. And then she blinked and suddenly, she was Em again. “Any luck?”
“You don't remember?” Cal's hands were clasped in front of him and the look on his face made my eyes narrow as Emerson shook her head.
“What?” I demanded and Cal hummed, still watching Em like a bug he wanted to dissect. “Cal.”
He pulled his eyes away from her to look at me, reading the protectiveness in my stance immediately. “It's just... I don't think Emerson is the one having these visions.”
Novalie frowned, offering Em a hand as she helped her up from the floor. “What does that even mean?”
Hayes looked both intrigued and something else I couldn't understand, something like dread. I raised an eyebrow and he nodded to Cal in explanation. “You think she's tapping into something else?”
“It's possible,” Cal said softly as he continued to study Emerson, making Novalie growl. “I’ve never seen it before—I don’t have much experience with seers in general, but… we’ll have to explore your power more to be sure, but it seems more like you're channelling a seer rather than a seer yourself.”
“How are those two things different?” I walked to Novalie and placed a calming hand on her arm, releasing her when she stopped baring her fangs at Cal.
“A seer has individual power that they draw upon to consult the future, or sometimes the past. A channeller draws on a larger collective, rather than their own power.” At our blank looks, Cal sighed. “Emerson's gift allows her to act as a conduit for a higher being.”
“Are you trying to tell me that God is real?” Novalie looked like she was torn between shock and laughter, but Emerson seemed unphased.
“Until a few months ago, I didn't think vampires were real,” she explained and I laughed.
“Not necessarily a god,” Cal interjected. “Just... a well of power. It could be a coven of the dead, a god, a witch—or even just the universe, depending on your belief.” Cal took a deep breath and I held up a hand to cut him off before this could turn into a full-on lecture.
“So basically, you don't know who or what the power is, just that Em isn't drawing it from herself?”
“Yes, at least I think so,” he said reluctantly before brightening. “Think of it like she's being possessed by the universe.”
I recoiled at the word, the connotations not exactly giving me the warm-fuzzies.
Hayes shook his head. “No wonder her answers were so vague.”
“Let's not shoot the messenger.” Em rolled her eyes, but I was more inclined to agree with Hayes. The universe had never hesitated to fuck me over before—it made sense that it wouldn't be any different now.
“Maybe there's something else we can try to work out who has this supposed key.” Cal straightened from his spot against the wall and sat on the floor in front of my bed, where Em had been moments ago. “You said you could sense the magic in the walls, Nora?” I nodded and the sheen in his eyes looked surprisingly like pride. “Good. Remember the letter you got when we first arrived here? How you probed the energy?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. So you know that magick leaves traces, kind of like a signature.”
The breath caught in my chest as I realised what Cal was saying. If we could match the signature from the chambers to a person, then we would know who'd sealed them up. My elation faded and I frowned. “But there must be hundreds of mages?—”
“One step at a time,” he said gently and I placed my hands in his when he reached for me. “We'll use me to practise, okay? Close your eyes and focus on the magick in the room. Taste the individual flavours, visualise the notes.”
If I hadn't been able to picture exactly what he was talking about, I'd have thought he was full of shit. “I see it.” Cal's magick had a purple tint, like lavender in the moonlight, rimmed in darkness. Though, really, the colours were more of a feeling, a complex symphony that wove together into an unmistakable pattern.
“Now cast your net wider. Guide me. Show me where to find the magick that sealed the chambers.”
It was strange to be able to see without my eyes, like a new layer of the word I hadn't known existed. Until— “I found it.”
But it couldn't be right. Was this truly what I'd sensed earlier? It was familiar, its song the same but not. My eyes flew open. “Hayes?—”
“No.” Cal sounded breathless and I held my tongue, prepared for an explanation and my emotions swelling when it didn't come, the tidal wave threatening to drown me as my rage crested. The last person to betray me like this had wound up with his heart in my fist.
I shook my head as I stood, towering over the mage’s form on the ground.
“You,” I said, my voice as quiet as death and Hayes fell still.
“No,” Cal repeated, eyes squeezed shut. “My brother.”