Chapter 11
Chapter eleven
Seraphina
Their footsteps echoed through the halls, an unnerving sound amid the silence of the officers’ wing.
This section of the barracks seemed to have been constructed similarly to the rest of the city.
White marble tiles on the walls, and skylights above let rectangles of sun shine on every coven emblem stamped into the floor.
It was understated compared to the chambers they had just left, but still beautiful.
Alistair opened his office door, and Sera stepped inside.
“Take a seat,” he said as he sat behind a desk that occupied most of the room.
There was nothing around the office that indicated it was his.
No trinkets or souvenirs, nothing. His father had died serving the Legion, that much she remembered.
She had attended the lighting ceremony with Dominick and Colton.
She still remembered the hollowed look on Alistair’s face when he lit his father’s pyre; he couldn’t have been more than sixteen.
She sat across from him, wondering how this was going to go.
“You seem nervous,” he said.
“Why would I be nervous?” she squeaked, then quickly cleared her throat. He smiled at her then, a real smile revealing a single dimple on his cheek. Heat rose up her neck. As if the warlock wasn’t handsome enough, he had that fucking dimple.
“Hmm.” He smirked.
“Dominick seems to think you should be placed with Colton. Why are you in the Citadel?”
Alistair leaned back in his seat, entwining his fingers behind his head, lounging.
Oh, he knew what he was doing all right, showcasing the lines of his muscled body, tilting his head so the light would bounce off his sky blue eyes.
But as he considered her question, his smile dimmed a bit.
“I was placed here.” He shrugged. “You wanna talk about it?”
“About what?”
He gave her a pointed look, and if she could have melted into the floor, she would have. “Sera.” He leaned forward over the desk, as if he were about to reveal her deepest, darkest secret. “I know you had a crush on me when you were younger. Is that going to be a problem?”
She scoffed. “I’m not a witchling anymore, Al.”
“The blush across your cheeks might say otherwise.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s a little awkward, okay. There, does that make you happy?”
“A little.” He shrugged, and that dimple lit up again.
“You’re a real ass, you know that?” She pushed her hair back off her shoulders.
Sure, she’d had a crush on him when she was younger.
Most of the witches did, and he looked half as good then as he did now.
He probably had women lined up for him every night.
“I was a witchling, and you broke my naive little heart when you turned me down for the solstice ball. Woe is me. Give me a break, Al.”
“Oh, come on, Minnow.” His jesting smile faded.
“No.” She pointed at him. “Don’t Minnow me.”
“Okay. Serious business only.” He held up his hands in surrender. She shifted in her seat and crossed her arms. “Now that we’ve got that out of the way, what is your magic again?”
She gritted her teeth, and as if the darkness had heard him, it awoke. She clenched her stomach to try and calm it.
“Barijara,” she said, and pulled her barrier forward. Her skin turned from brown to a shimmering blue light.
His face was blank. “You got to Dobro level with that?”
Sera launched from her seat and turned for the door.
What an entitled prick. He’d teased her relentlessly as a child, but she was done with this.
She’d almost made it to the door when Alistair hissed behind her, shaking his hand as if she had burned him. She hadn’t even felt his touch, but her magic must have done its job.
“All right,” he said, “I’m sorry. I guess it’s kind of useful. Would you please sit back down so we can finish the brief?”
She didn’t enjoy hurting people, especially after the incident in Feybury, but she couldn’t help but feel a slight sense of pride that washed over her. And how the smugness had been wiped clean from his face.
“I’d never thought I’d hear you apologize,” she said and returned to the plush chair, waiting for him to be seated again.
“One of my magical abilities is travel,” he said. “I’ve never been to Ironoak, so we’ll arrive near Crowpass tomorrow.”
“You’re a traveler?” Travelers were exceedingly rare. They could move at great distances within the blink of an eye. But she didn’t remember hearing that Alistair was one of them.
“From there,” he continued, “we will go to Ironoak on foot, or horseback if we are lucky. Once we find the oracle, I will bring her back to the Citadel.”
“Okay, sounds like a plan.”
“And your plan is?”
She scrunched her brows together.
“The doorways, Seraphina. Moons.”
“If I had been awarded a little more time, I would have done extensive research.” Sera crossed her arms. They had to be in the Deadlands or near it.
That was where Gehenna’s underground kingdom was.
The heat from below warmed the land above it, making it barely habitable.
At least that’s what the texts she had accessed said.
“Do you have the map Chair Renata mentioned?”
Al nodded and opened a drawer on the desk.
He unrolled the map, using magic to keep it in place as she reviewed it.
This was a more up-to-date map than the one Renata had quizzed her on.
The locations of the cities she had pointed out had been labeled, as had the human kingdoms. Sera placed her palms on the map and traced the border lines, searching for inconsistencies.
She didn’t know why, but even now, this felt like a test.
“What do you see, little fishy?”
Sera peered at him through her hair. He was staring at the Deadlands. “I see a map, you troll.”
He lifted a brow at her. “Troll?”
Seraphina smiled to herself and pointed at the area in the center of the Deadlands. “Ceasefall was the largest aboveground fortress the demons held in the first six centuries of the war. There had to have been a way into the fortress without moving their army across the land.”
Alistair sighed. “That’s deep into the Deadlands.”
It was. Deeper than she’d ever dreamed of going, but if Nora was being held there or below it, she had to try. There were more ruins besides Ceasefall. “Does the Legion know for certain that Ceasefall is abandoned?” Sera asked.
“No.”
She traced her nail down the line where the supposed forest met barren wasteland. “There are outlying ruins, yes?”
“There are a few, but I can get information on others.”
Sera nodded. “Then that is where we will start.” She’d never thought she’d be headed that far east. Digging up artifacts was a dream, yes, but in the ruins skirting demon territory? It took effort to pull in a lungful of air around the weight that seemed to be sitting on her chest.
“The oracle first, then your doorways.”
“Nora is down there. Don’t you get that?” He wasn’t smiling now. “I need to get this map back to the Council as soon as possible if I have any chance of getting her back here alive.”
“This mission, first and foremost, is to find Ophelia Fray and bring her back here. The doorways are a side mission, and frankly, not my responsibility.”
Fire burned through her. How could he not care? He knew Nora. Sure, she had been much younger than him, but he’d seen her play and tag along with Sera and Dominick for most of their youth. She was real, not just another casualty. “How dare you—”
“We leave at dawn. You’re dismissed.” Alistair’s face was a cool mask, one that said his word was final. It was written in the hard line of his jaw.
She wouldn’t fight him, not now. Not while she needed to calm down before she burned the prick alive. Exiting his office, she searched for a sign indicating the location of the sleeping quarters. Her skin was boiling. She needed to distance herself from him. His face, his smart mouth.
“It’s left,” he said. Sera couldn’t help the scowl as she stomped down the left hall.