Chapter 13 Bechora
It was strange being alone in my bed, but I’d meant it when I said I needed space to process.
That didn’t mean I didn’t still feel a pang of loneliness without Zypher and Gabriel climbing into bed beside me.
It was clear our bond was deepening, by the way I’d so easily forgiven Zypher before he’d even left Magus House.
Part of me wanted to dress and race over to Daemonium House and beg him to come back with me.
The rest, though, was still trying to process everything.
The prophecy, the expectations of demons, simply trying to survive at the Academy, all of it felt like too much to handle.
I lifted my head and slammed it back down on my pillow with a huff before turning over on my side.
“Good evening, little sister.”
I screamed. The sound was not remotely dignified or brave, and I flipped over onto my other side to find Geordie leaning against my desk with a grin. I snatched the first thing I could reach, my pillow, and threw it at him with all the force of a woman startled enough to defend herself.
“Planning to murder me with bedding?” Geordie laughed, clicking on the bedside lamp.
“Geordie!” I hissed, clutching my heart with my other hand.
“You can’t just lurk in here like some kind of cryptid and scare the life out of me!
What are you even doing here? How’d you get on campus?
You know what, I’m glad you’re here. I have a bone to pick with you about your damned visions.
Why the hell didn’t you tell me there were six males in my future! ”
I hastily snatched my pillow out of his hands as I stared at him, waiting for an answer. He just grinned and moved my legs so he could sit on the edge of my bed.
“It’s good to see you too, B,” he smirked. “I see you’ve figured out three more mates.”
“Oh, fuck you and your visions,” I snapped.
“You could have warned me I’d be juggling a God damned sports team instead of being so cryptic about this mate shit.
Six mates, Geordie!” I hissed, sitting up beside him as I let all my irritation show on my face.
“I’m gonna need a damned weekly calendar to deal with them all. ”
“Actually, you’re going to need to double up on a few days,” he replied with that smug, fae-who-knows-everything smile. “But a schedule is definitely a good idea.”
My mouth flapped open and shut as his meaning hit me full force. “No. You’re lying. There can’t be anymore.”
Geordie just shrugged.
“Tell me you’re fucking with me, Geordie, or I swear to God...”
“For someone with so many mates, you sure are wound tight,” he laughed. “I’d have thought they’d be keeping you too satisfied to be stressed out about everything, but I guess not even I can foresee everything.”
“That’s not an answer,” I snapped.
“It’s the best you’re getting,” he shrugged again. “Besides, I didn’t come here to chat about your mates. I came to take you somewhere.”
“Take me where?” I asked, scrambling from my bed as he stood up again.
“You’ll see,” he replied, lifting a hand.
A portal burst into existence, tearing reality wide open beside my desk. It pulsed and rippled with colors I’d never seen before, ones I couldn’t name if I wanted to, and magic crawled across my skin, causing goosebumps to rise along my arms.
“What… what the hell, Geordie! You can’t just go opening portals in my dorm room.”
“Strange, it seems I just did,” he smirked before holding his hand out to me. “Come on, little sister.”
“No! What’s on the other side?”
“You’ll see.”
“That is not comforting.”
He didn’t bother trying to explain anything.
He just waited, hand out as if he already knew the exact moment I’d give in.
And he probably did with his abilities as a seer.
Huffing out an annoyed breath, I took his outstretched hand.
The portal snapped wider the second we touched and pulled us through.
Cold wind slammed into me, magic twisting around my ribs, as the world yanked us sideways.
Then my feet hit solid ground so hard my knees wobbled.
Unlike the only other time I’d been pulled from a portal, I didn’t feel the need to vomit.
Instead, I straightened as my legs returned to normal and sucked in a sharp breath.
We stood inside a massive foyer that might’ve once been grand but was now a hollowed-out corpse of what it used to be. Peeling wallpaper. Broken windows. Moonlight leaking over dusty floors. Silence heavy enough to choke on.
“Where—” My voice cracked. “Where are we?”
Geordie stepped forward, his eyes scanning the ruined estate with a sad familiarity that made my stomach twist.
“Home,” he said quietly. “Yours. And mine. I thought you deserved to know where you come from.”
The sadness that tinged his voice caused my heart to squeeze in my chest. I didn’t know what to say. I had no recollection of the home we now stood in, but it was clear that Geordie had plenty of memories here.
“Welcome to Knightvale Manor,” Geordie spoke, forcing a smile onto his face.
“Knightvale… I know that name. I heard it in the first trial.”
“It’s your true name, Bechora. I’m not surprised the mirrors told you.” He shrugged.
“Okay, one, how did you know it was mirrors, and two, what do you mean it’s my true name? Not ours?”
“One,” he grinned, tapping his temple. “Seer. Two, I have our father’s name, Fenrithiel.
You carry your mother’s name. And before you ask why, yes, it’s because you are of the Starcaller line.
Your mother told me the name evolved from the first Starcaller being dubbed ‘Knight of the Vale’, after she erected it to separate the realms and keep the Elves from ever returning.
Now… if you’re done with questions, I want to show you around. ”
Before I could question him further, a small red-haired toddler ran across my field of vision.
I turned to look for Geordie to ask if he’d seen her, but he wasn’t there.
When I looked back toward the child, I realized the foyer was now filled with sunlight and no longer in a sad state of disrepair.
The toddler’s laughter rang out just as a woman came into view from around the corner.
“Shall we find Geordalis and play another game?” she smiled softly down at the child.
I stumbled backward under some unseen force as everything shifted back to the way it’d been when we arrived. I felt, rather than saw, Geordie grab my arm to steady me.
“What did you see?”
“Me, I think…” I frowned, pursing my lips together. “And my mother? But how is that possible?”
“I touched you to bring you through the portal. You copied my ability. I suspected you might see something once we arrived, but beyond knowing there was something important for you to find here, and just wanting you to see our home, I wasn’t sure.”
“I thought you only see the future.”
“Usually,” he shrugged. “Sometimes I see the past, but not often.”
“So, it was real then? That actually happened?”
“Yes,” he said in a tone that made it clear he was done with the discussion of my vision. “We should get moving. I want to show you around before I get to the real reason I brought you, and we don’t have much time.”
He released my arm and moved further into the house, leaving me to follow along behind him.
His steps carried the ease of someone who’d walked the halls thousands of times, while I moved with the hesitant steps of someone who didn’t remember any of it but still felt the weight of memories pressing in.
Even as dilapidated and run down as the place was, it was strangely clean.
Almost like it had been preserved, untouched for years, waiting for the people who called it home to return.
A dustless parlor with cracked mirrors and a couch that looked ready to crumble if I breathed on it.
A long hallway lined with faded portraits whose eyes seemed to follow us.
A dining room with a massive table set for a meal that never happened.
It all felt suspended, waiting for a family that would never return.
Geordie pointed out things quietly as we passed.
“You used to hide in that cupboard when Mother wanted you to nap.”
“You always hated this rug. Said it smelled like old people,” he said it as though he was giving me memories to borrow, little pieces of a past I’d never gotten to keep.
He led me deeper into the house, past creaking doors and peeling wallpaper, until we reached a room at the far end of the second floor.
The heavy door groaned when he pushed it open, revealing a large office filled with shelves, old scrolls, and a massive desk that dominated the center of the space.
“This was our father’s office,” Geordie said quietly.
I stepped inside, the air colder here, heavier.
Something about the room felt important.
Final. As if, whatever he’d brought me here for lived in these walls.
Geordie circled the desk with purpose. He didn’t hesitate, didn’t search.
He already knew exactly where he was going.
He reached under the top drawer, pressed a hidden latch, and a narrow compartment slid open with a soft click.
My breath caught. Inside lay an aged envelope, edges yellowed, seal cracked from time.
Geordie lifted it with a kind of reverence I’d never seen from him.
“This,” he said, turning toward me, “is the reason I brought you here.” He placed the letter in my hands. “It’s from your mother.”
The aged paper crackled as I unfolded it. My breath stuck in my throat as the inked words came into view.
My Little star,
If you are reading this, then I am no longer among the living. I wish I could soften that truth for you, but honesty must come before comfort. I pray you remember only my love, not the moment that stole me from your side.