Chapter 18 Ash
Ash
I pressed my back against cold stone and reached for the next handhold. I was four and a half floors up the wall of the north wing where the Order of the Sacred Grove housed their garrison and offices, and almost at my destination.
Unfortunately, the north wing was all function with uniform square blocks that blended naturally into the Great Tree’s supporting branches. It barely had any of the ornamental bullshit like the rest of the Divine Residence, and that made climbing it that much more difficult.
My fingers found purchase on a narrow ledge barely wide enough to hold onto with nothing but empty air below.
If I fell… well, I’d send my spirit back into my body, jolt awake with a massive headache that would last for days, and have to start climbing from the bottom again since there was magic preventing anyone but the Lord Commander of the Order and his captains from manifesting inside the north wing.
And I really didn’t want to start this climb all over again.
The decorative edge was worn smooth by centuries of rain and wind and time, and I hauled myself higher as the familiar burn spread through my arms and shoulders.
Good. That was something to focus on besides the churning in my gut, a way to concentrate on my mission, because I couldn’t think about her.
Red. Sage.
Goddess. She was in her suite in the opposite wing of the Residence — if she was still manifesting into the Garden at this hour — safe and protected by one of my brothers-in-arms while I was clinging to a wall.
According to Rider, they’d worked out a rotation so someone was always in her suite when she manifested. Even Talon had volunteered, which just spoke to how compelling the stunning, shy, redhead really was, since he couldn’t afford to be anywhere near her.
If she accidentally bonded with him and found out about his shadow it was all over. No one would understand the truth about his shadow.
Except someone had.
A too-small novice who’d made one hell of a mistake when he first entered the Gray. Talon’s shadow had attacked him and he’d understood the entity wasn’t evil.
It had taken years for me to accept the truth and stop being wary of Talon, and I’d known and trusted Talon for over a century.
The memory of Sage looking at me with kindness, desire, and not a hint of fear despite my hideous appearance flashed through my mind’s eye.
If anyone else could accept him, it would be Sage.
Except that desire she’d had for me had been because of her marks, not because she knew or cared about me. I had to keep reminding myself of that. I couldn’t forget the truth of my reality.
My chest ached at the thought, and I hung on the wall for a moment, letting the wind cut across my face, reminding me of who I was and what I did.
She was perfection and compassion and strength and everything I’d ever yearned for in a woman, and Wells and Crane had tried to break her. If Sage hadn’t killed Wells, I would have. I would have protected her.
Except I’d already failed her in that respect. Crane, Addax, Thunder, and one other had escaped and the only way I could protect her now was breaking into Yarrow’s office and learning everything I could about his investigation.
I found my next grip and pulled, my muscles straining. Yarrow’s office was still another floor up, and Sage, on the other side of the Residence, was even higher.
For a stupid, ridiculous moment I thought about climbing to her suite, embracing her, and ensuring with my own eyes that she was safe.
But that was a fool’s dream. The guest suites in the south wing were on some of the higher branches, and a fae with magic that could manipulate trees had ensured that no one could climb that high.
Not that it mattered. Even if I could reach her, I shouldn’t.
The irony made me want to laugh. I was barred from the Divine Residence because of my scars, and yet here I was, scaling its walls anyway. Just not the part that mattered.
I gritted my teeth and focused on the climb.
The Garden meetings with others had been tense lately, and not just because one of the guys was always missing and a constant reminder that they got to be with Sage. Things in the Gray hadn’t eased up, and I had no idea when we were going to be shown a reprieve.
Kit’s team was off the roster for at least four rotations unless Reef had any extra magic he was willing to donate when his rotation ended, and the attack only made it more obvious that something was wrong with the shadows.
They weren’t behaving the way they used to, and I shuddered to think what that might mean.
On top of that, things with Sawyer were still uncertain.
Sure, Mikel had convinced Durand and the others that the best way to teach the boy his lessons was to isolate him.
It drove him crazy that Kit and Payne were still talking with him, but he couldn’t do anything about that, and all the other guardsmen had agreed with the next tactic.
Thank the Goddess for that at least, since ignoring him ensured no one was trying to kill him.
I reached the window ledge to Yarrow’s office and hauled myself up the last few feet. The office beyond the clear glass was dark, everything still and silent.
Mindful of my balance, I examined the latch. It was pretty basic, nothing a slim stiletto couldn’t tip open, and conveniently in my spirit form I could manifest one with a thought.
With a flick of my wrist, I released the latch then pushed the window open.
In the dim moonlight, I scanned Yarrow’s severely organized office. Everything lay in precise place, not a paper out of alignment nor a book unshelved. The desk sat centered a few steps from the window and the chair was pushed in. Even the inkwell sat in what I suspected was a measured position.
With no personal effects, no paintings, no mementos or trophies, the room told me everything I needed to know about my cousin if I hadn’t already known him all my life. He despised anything that wasn’t ordered or controlled.
I slipped inside, easing the window shut behind me, and letting the night settle around me, comfortable in a way I never was in daylight. Here, my scars didn’t matter. Here, I was just another patch of shadow.
I crossed the two steps to the desk and brushed my fingers across its bare surface, studying the drawer just under the desktop and the three stacked drawers on the righthand side.
Yarrow’s investigation notes would be here somewhere.
He was too methodical to keep them anywhere else, and he’d never take them home, that went against protocol.
The first narrow drawer under the desktop probably had quills, charcoal sticks for quick notes, and other miscellaneous stuff, that and — unless Yarrow had suddenly become lazy — his notebook would be too thick for that drawer, so…
I turned my attention to the first of the stacked drawers on the right. It was locked, but the lock was almost an insult and easily picked with a materialized lockpick.
With a soft click of the lock and a gentle pull, I slid the drawer open, and there, on top of a pile of folders lay Yarrow’s leatherbound folio where he kept all his notes for his current investigation.
Carefully, I untied the leather thong securing the pages and opened it.
Somewhere in these pages was a name, a witness, something that would lead me to Crane and the others who’d escaped. Something that would let me protect her the only way I could right now.
Goddess! All I wanted was to hold her again, to feel her warmth against me and know with my own eyes and body that she was safe.
Instead, I was alone in the dark, searching my cousin’s notes for scraps.
The first few pages were his observations about the sacred pool’s chamber and what he knew about the attack. The next pages were his interviews with Rider, Talon, and Quill, a note with each of them indicating that Wells had had a dagger but no dagger had been found.
I hadn’t been interviewed because I wasn’t considered noteworthy despite having been there and being a Captain of the Black Guard.
I quickly flipped through those pages, already familiar with the information, until I reached his notes on the magical artifact, the bracelet, that had trapped Sage’s spirit in the Garden.
The first few pages were a list of every measurement taken, every detail about the craftsmanship, and every failed attempt to determine how its magic worked and trace its origin.
At least the Order’s magisters had examined it, even if the magisters at the White Tower hadn’t.
Except they hadn’t found anything and they weren’t as studied as the Head of Artifacts at the White Tower.
I turned the page. This one had Yarrow’s thoughts.
Bracelet. Enslaving magic.
Construction seems familiar.
My pulse lurched.
He recognized it?
He had a good memory, and his magically enhanced gaze meant he noticed details others didn’t.
Checked archive.
Found a note about a similar item documented twenty years prior with a number of other unusual artifacts secured during an investigation.
Requested ledger.
Case ledger missing.
No record of checkout. No transfer. No destruction order.
Well, shit.
If the bracelet indeed belonged to the group of artifacts secured by the Order, that had far-reaching implications, not to mention the fact that the case ledger about the twenty-year-old case was missing.
I read through the rest of the pages, committing them to memory while keeping their order intact. Yarrow’s handwriting shifted subtly as the pages progressed. Heavier pressure on certain words. Shorter sentences toward the end. He wasn’t used to dead ends. He didn’t like being blocked.
Sure, there was a chance the twenty-year-old ledger had just gone missing, but neither Yarrow, nor I liked coincidences, and this felt too much like a coincidence.
I closed the folio, replaced it exactly as I’d found it, and double checked the drawer to ensure I’d left no indication that I’d been there. Then I returned to the window, opened it, and stepped on the ledge.
Yarrow’s notes raised more questions than they answered.
He held pride in his role as the Order’s top investigator, so he wouldn’t lie in his notes. If he’d known anything about the bracelet beforehand, he wouldn’t have mentioned the missing file, which meant he wasn’t directly involved in Sage’s attack. But I’d already known that.
That didn’t mean he wouldn’t bury his notes or at the end of his investigation file a case ledger conveniently missing all suggestion that the Order might have originally had the bracelet in their possession if he was ordered to by the Lord Commander of the Order of the High Priestess.
But right now, Yarrow’s notes were complete.
And those notes made it clear that someone with access to the Order’s archives had removed the case ledger from a previous case. Which strongly implied that the bracelet from that case was the bracelet that had trapped Sage’s spirit in the Garden.
Did that mean the High Priestess was involved or just an Order clerk?
Whatever it was, I would learn the truth, and I would ensure Sage’s safety. I had to.