Chapter 4 #2
As we made our way toward the room that had become the bane of my existence—which I had begun calling the reading room in my head—the sight of myself in the looking glass in the laundry room resurfaced.
What did the gold rims in my irises mean? And why did Adis, Markus, and Syrus all have them now? I knew it had something to do with my reading, the problem was, I didn’t know what. And I didn’t know how to find the answer either.
If only Collum were here.
Within moments, I was shoved roughly into the room, Markus releasing my arm just as I lost my balance and fell to the floor in a heap.
My knees protested as they scraped against the stone I was forced to kneel on day after day, but my lips stayed shut.
I had learned to save my every breath for reading.
Even though I was reasonably certain the bruises on my knees were now permanently etched into my skin.
Today was no different than the rest, and the black book was shoved into my hands with force, nearly knocking my frail body over, but they didn’t seem to care.
I flipped through the pages, finding the one where my voice had gone out the day prior, biting my lip as I realized it was near the end.
We would finish reading the black book today.
Adis waltzed in, his hands clasped behind his back, his outfit impeccable as always, his lips pressed in a thin line. He never offered any pleasantries, and I wasn’t sure he even knew my name anymore as he would only say “Begin, Reader,” before turning his back as my words rolled over him.
Today was no different, and soon my voice filled the room as I recited page after page after page.
I tried to discretely understand what I was reading, but it was hard to maintain the chanting, reading, and comprehension at equal levels.
My mother had always said the Seid language was about passion, and without passion, the words meant nothing.
Now, I only wished I had paid closer attention on the dark nights when she had dragged me into her room, teaching me to read by candlelight even as I protested.
I blinked the memory away—no time for that now.
To my surprise, it didn’t take long to finish the book, and soon I was speaking the last note, the sound of it hanging in the air as I pushed the book closed and held it out in Adis’s direction, ever obedient.
“Hmm,” Adis hummed, keeping his back to me, his hand on his chin as he stared at the dark painting. “Markus, Syrus, do you feel any different?”
I kept my eyes focused on Adis’s back, though, out of the corner of my gaze, I could see Markus and Syrus inspecting various aspects of their bodies, even flipping their hands over and back.
“No, sir,” they reported in unison.
I wondered why the Viscount Adis had been asking, but it didn’t take long to find out as a phantom breeze brushed my long hair past my ears.
A force of habit, I reached up to replace the errant hair only to realize we were in a room that had glass windows—meaning there was no way for wind to enter. Craning my neck out of habit, I spotted Markus, eyes wide as he stared down at his hands.
“Do it again,” Adis commanded, his voice seeming to echo off the walls.
Markus flicked his wrist, and air whistled by my ear.
My jaw dropped.
In the next instant, I fought to compose myself, turning back to face Viscount Adis, who now studied me with a raised brow. He flicked his own wrist, and wind again whistled by my ear.
“Air magic,” he whispered to no one in particular, before trying it again.
The puzzle pieces suddenly clicked together in my mind. The rings around their irises, the air magic when the book was done.
The book held magic.
And by reading aloud, I had given it to them.
A whisper of something ancient breathed in my ear, a stone sinking in my stomach.
I couldn’t help but feel I had done something wrong.
As the three men in the room flicked their wrists, sending bursts of air back and forth over my head, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had the same magic. If I did, was Viscount Adis aware that whatever they had been gifted, as a result of my book reading, I might now have been too?
Unfortunately, as I came to the realization, so too did Adis, who crossed the room in three large strides, before pulling a knife from his belt and using it to lift my chin, peering into my eyes, one after the other.
I fought the urge to squeeze them shut, the intimidation of this position almost too much for my stressed heart.
“Don’t you be getting any ideas,” he hissed after several seconds. “If you so much as try to escape, or use the power against me, I will ensure you, and everyone in your family line, dies.”
I gulped, images of Collum bleeding in a pool of her own blood filling my mind. Not wanting him to realize I had already considered that fact, I nodded, agreeing, “Yes, sir.” My voice was rough, even to my own ears, but he appeared to buy it.
He flicked his wrist and something hit me from behind, causing stars to explode behind my eyes. “That is just an inkling of what I will do to you, and your cousin, if you so much as breathe a word against me, do you understand?”
I gritted my teeth. It took all my energy to keep my voice low and breathe through the pain as I muttered out a, “Yes, sir.”
Silence filled the room.
“That’s enough for today. But tomorrow, I expect you to read me the red book, understand, Reader?”
“Yes, sir.” I hadn’t yet figured out the red book in its entirety, but I had been able to decipher at least the first quarter of the book during my study time. Whether I would be able to read it out loud was yet to be seen.
“That is all.” He said as he flicked his wrist, and then Markus and Syrus were there, dragging me back to my room.
Unlike the previous days, I wasn’t nearly as tired, allowing me to walk myself back between Markus and Syrus as they alternated flipping their wrists at one another, releasing small puffs of air.
They were distracted the whole way back to my room and it wasn’t until they pushed the door closed behind me that I finally chanced a glance down at my hands.
It was there—the black book was gripped in my fist.
I knew I couldn’t get caught with it, and although the consequences were likely to be vast, I immediately searched my room for a place to hide the book.
Not knowing what else to do, I debated briefly on shoving it back in my pack, but I knew that would be the first place they would search if they suspected that I stole it.
No, that wouldn’t work.
That’s when the idea came, and soon enough, I was clearing the grout from the edges of a brick usually concealed behind the pot in my room. It took considerable effort to remove only the grout for the one brick and not those around it, but soon I was wiggling the brick loose.
Nails blackened, I finagled the brick from its resting spot, before reaching my hand into the dark cavity revealed in the wall. There wasn’t much space, but it would work.
I shoved the book in as far as it would go before wiggling the brick back into place.
Then I stood, brushing off my hands and trying to use what little remained of my cracked nails to clear the dirt out from my other nails.
It didn’t work quite as well as I had hoped, but at the same time, it was likely enough that the viscount wouldn’t notice.
Satisfied with my work, I placed the chamber pot back in place before lying in the cot and looking at the ceiling.
I breathed for a few moments, trying to come to terms with everything that had just happened.
Raising my hand, I flicked my wrist as I had seen the guards do and sure enough, there it was, a small puff of air.
Ecstatic, I rose from the bed to cross the room to the soaking cloths I had left there to dry that morning. They were still damp, but with a few flicks of my wrist and my newfound wind power, they dried almost instantly.
Overwhelmed with shock, but also somehow happy, I returned to reclining on the bed, pondering the small black book in the wall.
If I read it to someone else, would they gain the wind power too?
I pinched my eyes shut, fighting to picture some of my last lessons with my mother before her death. Had they known about this? Is this why they had taught me the words of the Seid?
Or was this just some sort of horrible coincidence?
My eyelids shot open.
Collum was ten years older than Milo and me. If anyone knew about what was going on, it was her. After all, she had been the one to press the book into my hands.
But how could I speak with her without creating suspicion?
My brain swirled with plan after plan, trying to come up with a way to talk with my cousin, but none were possible. They were all too dangerous, involved asking Adis for permission, or risking blowing Milo and my cover.
No, I was on my own now.
I would have to figure out the way the Seid magic worked, and why Adis wanted it, on my own.