Chapter 14 Bechora
My teeth chattered, and a shiver shook my hands as I turned the pages.
I wasn’t exactly dressed for cold weather in my thin pajama pants and t-shirt when Geordie pulled me through the portal, but I’d been too overwhelmed by everything to notice.
That was until we started skimming through the journal my mother left behind, searching for anything I could actually read.
“It looks like it's entirely written in Elvish.” Geordie frowned before glancing up at me from the most recent indecipherable page. “B, your lips are turning blue. Why didn’t you say something? Come on, let’s get you inside.”
I mumbled my agreement and let him tuck me under his arm, grateful for his body heat as he led me back toward the manor. Warmth washed over me the moment we stepped back inside, and I let out a sigh of relief.
“How is it so warm in here?” I asked.
“When she gifted the manor to our parents, Lilith included a few handy spells tied to unfulfilled contracts. One to keep the temperature comfortable, one to help keep the place tidy, and one to keep it from falling into disrepair.”
“The first two are clearly working, but I’d say the third isn’t pulling its weight,” I replied, tilting my head toward the slanted floorboards.
“The contract it was tied to was probably fulfilled,” Geordie shrugged. “Once that happens, there’s no magic left in them to fuel spells.”
“Oh.”
“There’s one more thing I’d like to show you before I take you back to the Academy,” he said, changing the subject.
“We can talk about what you plan to do about your mate situation on the way.” He shot me a mischievous grin and motioned for me to follow him up the grand staircase.
“You know, your wolf or your prince, either one, would be able to help you translate the journal.”
“Which prince?” I snorted without thinking.
“Oh, so you’ve figured that much out then?
When you said six, I suspected as much, but I didn’t want to say in case you found one of the other ones instead.
” He snickered. “You know, you really should forgive them. They have their reasons, and as futile as it is for any of you to resist the pull, they are being quite noble.”
“Fuck them and fuck being noble,” I snapped.
“Oh, you’ll fuck them alright,” he replied, cringing hard. “That was a vision I really didn’t need to see. Made me want to bleach out my eyeballs. Eugh.”
I swatted his arm. “Stop it. Don’t be gross.”
“I had to suffer through seeing it, so you have to suffer hearing about it. It’s only fair,” he laughed as he drew to a stop in front of a closed door near the end of the hallway at the top of the stairs. “We’re here.”
Geordie carefully turned the brass knob and pushed the door open to reveal a wide-open room with large windows lining the far wall. There was an easel facing away from us in the center of the space, and what I assumed to be canvases covered in white cloth leaned against the walls.
“Come on,” Geordie said, motioning for me to follow him as he stepped inside and moved to face the canvas on the easel.
I held my breath as I moved to stand beside him, and it left me in a gasp when I caught sight of the painting.
It was a family portrait. A black-haired fae male sat on the left, his emerald green eyes the same as mine.
He had an arm draped over the shoulder of the fair-skinned, red-haired woman to his right.
Just behind them was Geordie. The way I remembered him from our first meeting in the human realm, except his ears were pointed instead of round.
And in the center of it all was a cherubic infant, wrapped in a white swaddling cloth, a lock of red hair curling around the top as they all gazed at her with love in their eyes.
“Is this…”
“It is. I thought you might like to see it. Mother painted it a few months after your birth. She had Father and I sit for it, and then used a mirror to capture herself on canvas.”
Tears welled in my eyes, threatening to spill over as I drank in the image of the family I should have known.
I’d been wanted… loved. And if everything I’d been told was right, the king had stolen all of it from me when I was barely a toddler.
I tore my eyes away from the painting to look at Geordie and saw the same grief and loss, threatening to rip my heart out of my chest, written clearly on his face.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I don’t think I ever actually said that out loud. It doesn’t change anything, but I want you to know that.”
“It’s not your fault,” I replied, reaching to take his hand with a gentle squeeze.
His shoulders lifted to his ears and dropped as he took a deep breath.
“I tried to change it. All of it. At first, I thought if I just tried hard enough, then it would all be different. That you’d grow up here and we could have the happy life we deserved.
I learned the hard way that prophecy doesn’t care about what anyone wants.
” He paused, his bottom lip trembling, eyes glassy with unshed tears.
“We should have gone through the portal to the human realm together, but I’d meddled so much trying to change the future that I made it worse.
Mother sent you through alone because the king’s soldiers were trying to knock down the door, and I just…
froze. I almost didn’t make it through at all.
She gave her last breath to push me in and close it so they couldn’t follow. ”
“You were just a kid, Geordie. Seventeen is still a child. You can’t blame yourself for what happened. Not here, and not in the human realm.”
“I know,” he sighed, blinking away the tears and straightening his shoulders. “But I still hate that it has to be you to end all of this. You’re my baby sister. It’s my job to protect you, even if I have done a shit job of it.”
“Hey,” I said softly, tugging his hand to make him turn and face me.
“Do I think you could have given me a better heads up about all the dicks I have to juggle? Sure. But as far as protecting me… Geordie, you haven’t done a shit job of it.
You’ve always had my back, even when I had things handled on my own. ”
He let out a surprised laugh. “I may have manufactured a few situations just to get close to you in the beginning, without telling you everything and having you think I was a lunatic. Those boys you beat the brakes off of at the shelter weren’t exactly real.”
My eyes widened, and my mouth fell open. “What the hell, Geordie!” I shouted, whacking his chest with the back of my free hand. “We got kicked out of that place because of that incident, and had to sleep on the street for two nights before we found room at a different shelter.”
“I didn’t mean to get us kicked out,” he grimaced.
“I figured you’d just befriend me, and it would give me a reason to stay close to you.
You weren’t supposed to go all She-Hulk on them.
Thank Selir Father taught me how to make a damned golem, or else who knows what would have happened when you started swinging.
An illusion spell wouldn’t have held up, and you’d have thought you were losing your marbles. ”
“You’re such an asshole,” I chuckled, shaking my head.
“Duh, that’s part of the big brother job description,” he grinned. “You forgive me, though.”
“I do… Unfortunately.” I smiled back.
“Look at you being all forgiving. You should extend that to a few wayward mates.”
I tilted my head back with a groan. “Ugh, not this again. If you’re going to launch into a whole thing about why I should just give in and let bygones be bygones with them, you can take me back to my dorm room.”
“I need to get you back anyway. But I am still going to give you the speech.” He smirked, waving his hand and causing a portal to burst into existence behind us.
“No. If you want to talk about mates, how about we discuss you dropping the mate bomb on Miles, and then vanishing.”
“Woah, woah, woah! Below the belt, sis,” he said, holding his hands up in mock surrender.
“It’s not like I can just go traipsing around wherever I please.
If the king finds out I’m back in the realm, it won’t be long before he finds out about you.
That’s not something either of us wants right now.
Trust me, if I could, I’d be stuck to my man like glue.
The way you should be with all of yours. ”
He stepped backward through the portal before I could respond. Growling to myself, I followed him through.
“You can’t just step through a portal to end a conversation,” I grumbled as I stepped back into my room.
“I’m pretty sure I just did,” he shrugged. “Besides, my love life doesn’t have the same impact on the fate of the realms as yours does. You should be focused on what you need to do instead of what I’m doing about Miles and me.”
“Geordie–”
“Seriously, B, I don’t want to argue with you.
” He sighed. “I came because you needed to find that journal, and you have. As much as I’d love to stay, I can’t.
It’s not safe for anyone.” He stepped around me, back toward the still-open portal and paused.
“Please… just listen to what I said and claim your men.”
He stepped through the portal once more, and it winked out of existence, leaving me alone in my room.