Chapter 7 Relations
Relations
“Cousin.” Valor stopped me around ten meters outside the doors to the Hall, right after the sound inside resumed and gradually grew louder.
His deep voice sounded painfully apologetic.
“I must apologize. I should not have come for you in the main hall like I did. I confess… I did not consider how it would look.”
Something in my chest hitched, then jerked sideways.
My heart, which I must’ve been strangling with my magic, fought to start beating again. I expelled a slow breath, fighting to keep my expression still.
He wasn’t telling me he was arresting me.
He hadn’t pulled out handcuffs, or the Magique equivalent.
My cousin glanced back towards the tall doors we’d just walked through. A faint anger shone in his eyes where they caught the torchlight.
When his head turned back, those stunning eyes met mine.
“I do feel very bad for this, cousin,” he repeated, his words even more apologetic. “It’s clear you still arouse a certain amount of…” He hesitated. “Curiosity? I haven’t helped in that, have I?”
“It’s all right.” I felt that intense fear in me, the part that’d been sure I was about to go to Magical prison, still struggling to relax. “I doubt it’s made anything worse,” I lied.
His skepticism shone clearly in his eyes.
Even with that, he still looked like a fairytale prince.
“It’s all right,” I repeated. I tried to smile, then to change the subject. “Did you go to school here, cousin?”
His eyes met mine in surprise.
I felt my face warm.
“Never mind,” I said hastily. “What is it you needed to tell me?”
He exhaled, still looking guilty, and now openly frustrated, maybe at himself.
He glanced at the six guards who accompanied us, who now stood in a half-moon formation between us and the tall doors into Eustacia Morwormer Hall.
Their current positioning looked almost protective, which might have been funny if the entire school wasn’t inside, speculating gleefully about why I was about to go to prison.
After another bare hesitation, Valor jerked his head, indicating he wanted us to move further from that warm, fire-lit opening, and away from the lingering smells of spiced mead, freshly-baked lemon tart, and mulled wine.
He took me past the foyer, and into a long, stone corridor with tall, arched windows along the right side.
I felt my insides clench as soon as I recognized it.
I hadn’t been in that particular corridor since the night of the Eleusínia Myst?ria dance. That same night, my aunt tried to kill me as part of a ritual to bring back my great-great-grandmother, and to gift my body to replace the one sitting in a La Fey crypt somewhere.
Thanks to Bones, that hadn’t happened. Instead, I saw my aunt’s insides splattered all over the walls of her sitting room. And all over me.
I pushed the memory far, far to the back of my mind.
My gut clenched more when my cousin opened the iron and glass doors that led out onto a stone terrace I also recognized, even though I’d been pretty out of it the last time I stood there.
It was the same one where Bones found me that night, and demanded to know which of our classmates had drugged me.
I’d somehow managed to avoid this part of Malcroix Manor for the entire second half of last year. Now, my first day back on campus, here I was again.
Objectively, it wasn’t a bad place to talk.
The warm, September breeze cooled the sweat on my face, still smelling of the dregs of summer, and the view from the terrace overlooked the main grounds of the mansion, including part of the Promenade, the Fountain of the Furies, and the extensive gardens just above the Great Lawn.
I looked out over rose bushes, hedges, and trees tinted blue with moonlight, and a sky awash with stars wherever the moon didn’t penetrate.
I lost myself in the beauty of it for a few seconds, taking deep breaths, my hands gripping the stone railing.
I closed my eyes and smelled freshly cut grass, roses, lavender, and jasmine.
Once I felt marginally calmer, I leaned my hip against one of the wide, stone columns that encircled the terrace.
I turned towards Valor, and adjusted my hip on the stone.
I assessed him a little shyly, and tried not to feel intimidated.
His formal manners didn’t exactly help, making me feel like I didn’t fit in the same era as him, much less the same family.
He looked a lot taller now that I stood right next to him, and regal in the black cape, his long black hair curling the slightest bit at the ends.
He really did look like a storybook prince.
“It’s okay,” I said, when he continued to look hesitant. “You can tell me, whatever it is.” I made a lame attempt at a joke. “Is someone dead?”
He flinched and my stomach dropped.
“Is someone dead?” I asked, feeling the blood drain from my face.
He shook his head at once. “No.”
Something about his answer only made my panic worse.
“Is it Arcturus?” I asked, voice taut.
He exhaled and turned slightly away from me. He placed his hands on the stone balcony next to where I leaned.
The bluish-silver wolf looked at me from where it lingered by his feet.
It was small compared to a real wolf, and this one’s eyes were green, not dark blue like Ankha’s, but I still watched it warily.
It stuck to Valor La Fey like a guard dog that knew it had one job, and took that job extremely seriously.
“It is about your brother,” Valor admitted.
My throat closed, my magic tightening around me like a shield.
Valor must have seen it. He held up a hand, his voice tilting back to reassuring.
“He’s perfectly fine, Leda,” he said. “He’s completely unharmed, I promise.
However, there were…” He hesitated.“Well, there really isn’t a good way to say this, so I will just say it.
Someone attacked him last night, cousin.
They attempted to break into his guardian’s house.
Had they succeeded, we think they’d intended on abducting him. ”
Valor winced, his green eyes studying mine.
My mind must have fuzzed out for a few seconds after that.
I didn’t hear anything he said for the next however-long he spoke.
I stared at the moon, and the glow of the lake in the distance, as I fought to make sense of his words.
When my vision clicked back into focus, Valor La Fey was still talking.
His voice sounded worried, and I could feel his magic whispering around me, possibly trying to ground me back in my body.
“…part of some wider scheme by those behind it,” he was saying.
He exhaled, gazing out over the same view as me.
His hands gripped the stone.
“There were over twenty disappearances that night, Leda,” Valor added grimly.
“All of them human, all of them involving evidence of magic. But we haven’t discerned any pattern, apart from the inclusion of your brother, and elements of similarity with the magic used.
For this and other reasons, we suspect the intention was to abduct your brother, as well. ”
“You think those disappearances were abductions?” I asked, startled.
Valor looked at me. “We do,” he said.
“But why?” I asked. “Why not assume they’re dead?” Still thinking, I added, “Why would a Magical be abducting people, alive, from Overworld?”
Valor’s emerald eyes remained grim.
“The Praecuri are looking into possible motives,” he said. “We have reason to believe those successfully abducted were taken out of Overworld altogether. Alive, as of the dimensional crossing.” He gave a cautious shrug as he studied my eyes. “Right now, we have only theories as to why.”
“Such as?”
He gave me a pained smile. “I cannot share those with you, cousin.”
I bit my lip. “But you think they brought them here? To Magique?”
My cousin only returned my gaze, his stare empty.
I nodded, mostly to myself. I folded my arms, wrapping my fingers around my elbows, and squeezed. I fought to think about everything he’d said. Why would Magicals, even Dark Cathedral, be abducting humans? Or my brother, for that matter? He wasn’t even of age. He hadn’t even gotten to Magique yet.
Was this about me? Ankha?
I didn’t dare think deeply about Caelum, or what Alaric and I had been up to, but my fears skirted the edges of those topics, too.
Could someone have found out? Might it be blackmail? A warning?
Bringing captured humans to Magique, particularly in a way the Praecuri couldn’t track their whereabouts on the other side, had to be quite the magical feat. It also had to be exceedingly illegal. In fact, it might be more illegal than if they’d just killed them outright.
How in the world had they managed it?
They must have used a mirror, but the Praecuri had spells that informed them the instant a mirror got activated as an inter-world portal, from either side.
They would have known, wouldn’t they? Particularly bringing so many through?
That was why my aunt needed me to be the one to activate the mirror when she abducted me, wasn’t it?
Had this group done something similar? Set up some patsy to open the portal for them?
“But they didn’t succeed?” I asked, maybe needing to hear it again. “With Archie, I mean?”
“They did not.” Valor’s voice grew a touch fierce.
“Some of that was luck, frankly. The couple who took over guardianship of your brother had concerns for his safety, particularly in light of your aunt’s death.
They put a number of precautionary measures in place, well beyond those sanctioned by the Praecuri.
They also set a number of magical traps.
One got triggered in the attack, and we believe it wounded at least one of the assailants.
” Valor La Fey gave me a more meaningful look.
“Your brother’s guardians hadn’t informed anyone of the additional protections, cousin.
Which is extremely fortunate, since the kidnappers got through the official defenses with astonishing speed. ”
I heard the meaning of his words and stared at him.