Chapter 13 #2
Her ink-dark hair hung loose and tangled about her face, half undone, and what I’d taken for robes was nothing more than a thin, gauzy nightdress, ill-fitting and carelessly arranged, the pale angles of her body too visible beneath the fabric.
Hamish averted his eyes at once, but she seemed utterly unaware of her state.
She stopped a few paces away, confusion pulling her delicate features tight. “Dannis?” she said again, less certain now.
Her eyes were dark and hollow, glazed as though whatever part of her that should have been present had slipped just out of reach.
Her face was all sharp lines where there should have been softness, her cheekbones pronounced.
Deep furrows marked the corners of her mouth and the space between her brows.
At her chest, one hand clutched a necklace so tightly the pendant disappeared entirely within her fist.
Hamish bowed deeply, though his eyes never left her. “Lady Levinica,” he said again.
I attempted a curtsy beside him, unease settling deeper in my chest.
She felt… wrong.
Not entirely here. Not entirely gone. Something in between.
“Have you seen him?” she whispered, and her eyes welled with tears. Hamish didn’t respond, but his shoulders tensed. “Please—where is he?”
I swallowed. “Who?”
She scanned the burned shelves before returning to me. “He loves to read. He loves his uncle’s library. I thought I saw him come in here.” She tucked her pendant back underneath the collar of her nightdress and patted the bulge, a gesture so loving that it was almost disturbing.
“No, my Lady,” I said carefully. Did she not see the library as it was now, but as it had been? Not in ruin, but in all its splendor and former glory? “There’s no one here but us.”
She made a strangled sound in her throat. “Dannis!” she cried, thin and reedy. “Dannis!”
“Let’s go, Elowen.” Hamish reached for me again, but I pulled free of him, taking a step closer to the anxious female before me.
“Who’s Dannis?” I asked.
“Elowen—” Hamish’s warning came low and edged, but I ignored him.
Her eyes snapped back to mine, and the despair in them hit me like a blow. “My son,” she whimpered, the single word breaking apart as it left her lips.
Something inside her gave way. A keening wail tore from her throat, raw enough to make every hair on my arms stand on end. She collapsed to her knees, a cloud of soot billowing up around her, her slight frame folding in on itself as the sound of her grief deepened, her shoulders shaking with it.
Before I could think better of it, I dropped in front of her, the distance between us closing without hesitation.
“It's alright.” My hand lifted of its own accord, hovering uncertainly between us. “We can look for him.”
“Elowen.” Hamish warned. “Do not get any nearer.”
She lifted her head, peering at me through her fingers, her breath hitching.
“My son… gone,” she whispered. “Taken.”
“Taken?”
Her expression twisted, her lips pulling back from her teeth as something darker moved through her. “Fire and flames,” she rasped. “Lord of light—lord of hell.”
Her words struck something loose inside me.
The boy from Rìan's memory. Bloodied. Screaming.
Rìan standing over Aedric, rifling through his memories, hunting for something.
No. Not something. Someone.
Dannis? Had Rìan been looking for Levinica's son?
Her gaze locked onto mine, fastening on whatever she found there. “Where is he?”
Without warning, her eyes flooded milky white. Fear seized me.
“Where is my son?”
Her hand shot toward me with startling speed, fingers outstretched—
Hamish caught me just in time, yanking me backward so suddenly that my feet left the ground, her grasp closing on empty air as a howl tore from her throat, wild and furious.
Steel flashed as he levelled his sword, stepping between us. He reached back, catching me and pulling me in close behind him.
“Hamish—!” I struggled, but his arm locked around me, unyielding as he forced me back with him.
She watched us through the pearly film of her eyes, a low, animal sound building in her chest as her body tensed again. She lunged.
Something struck her mid-motion, violet threads of light snapping around her body and ripping her backward.
Layne stood in the doorway, gloved hands splayed before her, her face sheet white.
“I’m sorry, my Lady,” she whispered, her voice trembling.
Levinica’s scream of rage tore through the space, unravelling into a desperate, breaking plea as Hamish forced me backward toward the door.
“Please!” she shrieked. “Please let me see him! I just want to see him!”
The fury left her as quickly as it had come. Her body seemed to fold in on itself, every trace of strength draining away at once. Her head dropped forward, her voice dissolving into soft, shattered whimpers. “My baby… my baby…”
Slowly, the milky white receded from her eyes until only their natural darkness remained.
Layne went to her immediately, dropping beside her and pulling her into her arms, rocking her gently as she wept.
The door shut behind us. The thud echoed through the corridor, final and heavy.
I tore free of Hamish’s hold and turned on him, the anger rising too fast to contain.
“What did he do?” I hissed.
Hamish said nothing, only looked down at me, somber and unreadable. I shoved him as hard as I could, pouring everything I felt into the blow, but he didn't budge.
“What. Did. He. Do?” I demanded again, each word lancing into my heart.
His gaze passed briefly over the faint silver glow beneath my skin, my magic responding to the swell of emotion inside me. His expression sombered.
“I think you know,” he said quietly.
I stared up at him, my teeth grinding hard enough to ache, my lip curling despite myself. “Take me to him. Now.”