Chapter 43
Much to her chagrin, I don’t allow Theo’s posse into the sickbay.
Getting one student in is hard enough.
Healer Vane raises an eyebrow as we enter.
“She missed the healer last night, so I’ve sent her back for a visit now.”
“Ah, yes. I saw the report. Come in, Ms. Wilson.” Vane turns to me. “You needn’t stay.”
“Thanks, but I will. I’ve a pile of paperwork to do, thanks to this student.” I sigh, like Theo is the most annoying thing that’s happened to me all year.
He shrugs. “Then come.”
With Theo acting dazed, she follows Vane and lies down on the examination table. “I’m going to place my hands on your head now, Ms. Wilson.”
The healer looks up at me. “She’s an AUA I believe?”
When I nod he smiles. “How interesting. My first.”
Gods.
Vane closes his eyes and frowns. “Curious, it’s almost as though there is a shield between me and her spark.”
“I’ve heard that before,” I tell him. “A genetic flaw and probably the reason her spark never ignites.”
“Where did you learn that? Can you send me the research?”
I give him a puzzled look. “I’m not sure where I saw it. I’ll check through my files.”
“Thank you. Anyway, to the patient. How do you feel, Ms. Wilson?”
Theo blinks her eyes. “Dizzy, not quite right.”
—Pulu, what if he can sense your Lumina?—
—It’s OK, Lex…I’ve got this…and if I don’t…you’ll just have to break his neck—
—Wow…blood thirsty…but for you, I’ll do…—
—Shh…I have to focus—
Even though Vane waves his hands around Theo’s body for several minutes, she tells him none of her symptoms have changed.
“Then all I can suggest is a sleep tincture and rest. I’ll give you one to take back to your room.”
—Alexis?—
—On it—
“Would you consider keeping her on the ward for a couple of hours, just to make sure there are no complications?” I let out a frustrated sigh. “If not I’ll have to perform hourly checks to her room—new regulations for my role of dorm supervisor. You’ll be doing me a great favor.”
Vane doesn’t look convinced.
“And I’ll have time to find that research paper on AUAs.”
He straightens up and arches his back. “Very well, I don't see why not. It’s not like our other patient will disturb her. I’ll let the night-nurse know.”
Walking across the room, he pulls a brown glass bottle from the cabinet then places it on the table next to Theo. “Drink the whole thing in one go.”
She rubs her eyes, then blearily smiles. “Yes, sir.”
Theo picks it up and unscrews the cap.
I step forward, hiding her from his view, then shake his hand. “I appreciate it, Vane. Working together is the best way to make these new regulations run smoothly.”
He presses a fist to his heart. “May the Conclave guide us.”
Huh, this must be new.
I repeat his gesture. “May the Conclave guide us.”
Then I pull up a chair. “Might as well stay here to do my report. Less foot traffic than my office.”
Vane chortles. “My lips are sealed. Goodnight, Feniks.”
After he exits, Theo sits up, a mischievous light in her eye. “May the Conclave guide us? What bollocks. Might as well say ‘Hail Satan’.”
“You’re telling me.” I take her hand. “You didn’t drink that did you?” I ask, nodding to the tincture.
“Of course not.” She shakes the bottle, showing it’s still full. “I’m no dummy.” Springing up, she pads over to Wes’s bed.
“Hey, babe, I’m back,” she says, snuggling up to him on the mattress. “Thanks for getting me in, Lex. Are you going to stay?”
I look at her cuddled up with her first love. “Do you want privacy?”
“No, Lex, I’m happy to have you here.”
“Then I’ll stay and take you back to your room in a couple of hours.”
Time passes, and my heart hurts as I watch Theo struggle to bring Wes back to the land of the living. Eventually she looks up. “I think that’s all I’ve got for tonight. It’s never enough, never.”
Pulling her into my arms, I feel her body shaking. “You’re exhausted, let’s get you to bed.”
“Can you stay with me?”
Tempted though I am, I know it’s a bad idea. “I wish. One day we’ll be able to sleep together every night.” Hopefully. “But for now, I think I’m going to go find a quiet place to shift. Maybe being shifted will enable me to find information on the void.”
She smiles wearily. “Wish I could watch, I love your gryphon.”
“He and I both love you, forever.”
“Love you more.”
“Doubt it.”
As I leave the third floor, the guard stationed there looks curiously at the ridiculously large grin I have on my face.
Like a barn cat sitting on the butter-churn, as my grandmother would say.
My plan had been to go to the library, but the beast inside me disagrees. He’s pulling me towards the lake and I don’t see a reason to induce a struggle between us.
It’s a beautiful night. The stars out. Theo loves me. And we have a plan, albeit incomplete, to end the ascension.
Something at the back of my brain nudges, telling me it’s very unusual for me to have this level of optimism, but still I walk on. Within fifteen minutes, I can no longer see the academy, and I’m walking along the path alongside the lake.
The water is still, and the moon reflection glimmers on the surface.
Here is where my gryphon wants to be.
I cannot wait to transform. The need to fly, to learn, to see, is overwhelming. And so I shift.
It’s a violent, beautiful metamorphosis. My bones lengthen and snap into place, fur erupting along my forearms as the heavy, powerful wings of an eagle take shape on my shoulder blades.
The cold air over the lake is a tonic. I spiral upward, my eagle eyes cutting through the darkness to see the heat signatures of small creatures in the brush. But the beast isn't hunting for food. He’s scanning the ley-lines that converge on this water, looking for something.
What?
We circle the area, diving low then climbing high again. Suddenly, I bank hard left, my talons itching. My instinct is screaming that there is something I need.
Something to learn from.
The dock of the old boathouse.
A figure is standing there.
I’ve been spotted, and for some reason, that’s the way my gryphon wanted it. So I accept the fate that awaits me and glide down, landing with a heavy thump that makes the planks rock.
Silhouetted against the silver water is a woman wrapped in a heavy charcoal coat. I pad closer but I already know who it is.
Dean Crankshawe.
Her mouth is wide open with shock.
I don't keep her waiting. Having her run off screaming will do neither of us any good. So, within a breath, I let the shift pull me back to my human form.
“Professor Feniks," she gasps after several beats, finally finding a voice. “Alexis.”
She looks at me as if I’ve just stepped out of the pages of a storybook. And indeed, her next words confirm that. “I thought it was the thing of myths and legends, the ability to shift into the form of your inherited DNA. The Conclave... they believe it’s impossible.”
“The Conclave do not have as much knowledge as they think, Dean.” And then, given the circumstances, I remove the honorific. “Larissa.”
“My hands are shaking.” She holds out her fingers and I see the tremble. “Awe. I’m in awe. If this is happening in the world, what else do I not know?”
My instinct is always to teach, to inform, but not right now.
There are more pressing issues. “My gryphon led me to you. He seems to think you’re holding onto something I need.
An object?” I cock my head to one side, listening to my beast. “No, not an object. Information. You have information for me.”
She plunges the shaking hands back into her coat pockets. “Information. Well, there is only one thing that I can think of and it’s not something I thought to share. What I know is painful, not helpful.”
“Painful and not helpful to whom?” I ask, but I think I know.
“Theodora,” she sighs. “Dear Theodora.”
Irritation builds up in my chest that this woman thinks she can make decisions on Theo’s behalf. “That is not for you to determine. Tell me,” I command. “Now.”
Her shoulders slump, and she indicates a bench further up the dock. “Then may we sit?”
I stifle my impatience and nod. “Go ahead.”
The way she tries to skirt around my body, avoiding contact, would be amusing if I were not burning with frustration.
She has secret information about my pulu.
As she sits, Larissa exhales a shaky breath, the trail of steam vanishing into the night.
“So this is the truth of it. My brother is a thoroughly unlikeable man, and has been so all his life. Going back twenty years, he was rude, crude, and arrogant. I avoided him as much as I could, but that was not possible for the young women that worked at our estate.”
She swallows, looking sickly.
“I believe he raped, or at least sexually assaulted several of them over the years. Our parents paid them off. But there was one girl, a sweet little thing, who’d come to do a work internship when she was sixteen.
The child was a northerner, and this was her only path into an academy.
Thomas became obsessed with the girl. I was already away at college, so didn’t see much of it.
I just know she was badly abused by him.
One morning, over the summer break, I found her clutching her stomach, pale and vomiting. She was pregnant with Thomas’s child.”
She looks up at me. “You must guess where this is going.”
I think I do, but I indicate for her to continue.
“I helped her escape. I was at an academy in the British Isles, so took her with me, secretly of course. I was only nineteen, and pretty clueless, but I had money, so found her an apartment close to my campus, and there she stayed until after the baby was born. In my naive state, I thought mother and child could live happily ever after. But she ran, abandoning the baby at a hospital in London. My friend Annabelle had just got engaged to Kevin Wilson, so the very next day, Annabelle and Kevin went and sought out the baby, eventually adopting her.”
“Theo,” I whisper.
“Theo,” she confirms.
“Theo is your niece.”
“She is. With a devil for a father. He must never, never know of her existence….he’s twisted. I dread to think…” Larissa clutches her stomach. “Oh Gods, Alexis. He’s so evil.”
“And Theo’s mother?” I ask, gently.
“I have no idea. I decided to leave her alone, hoping she could find some peace.”
I place a hand on the grieving woman’s shoulder.
She turns her tear-stained face to me. “If the Conclave realizes who she is, it will be bad. Very bad. She’s my flesh and blood. I don’t know how to help her.”
My gryphon lets out a low, mournful thrum. There’s more I need to know.
“Tell me the name of Theo’s mother.”
“Her name was Opal Mowbray.”
Opal? Opal Mowbray?
My mind spins then settles.
“It’s late, Larissa. We should get back to our quarters. Shall I walk with you?”
“I only wish I could fly with you, Alexis. Will you tell me about it?”
“Flying?”
“Shifting. How? Have you always?”
“There may come a time when I can tell you more, but not today.”
She inclines her head in acceptance. “I understand. And I realize you’re already placing your trust in me, just allowing me to exist after witnessing this miracle. Does Theo shift? Wait, don’t tell me. You’re right. The less I know the better.”
She’s correct.
“There is something you can help me with,” I say after we enter the forest path. “I feel there is a hole in the academy's library records. Barely any information on dark energy. Do you know why?”
“Mr. Quilin doesn't have an answer?”
“When he started work here, fifteen years ago, that section had already been pared down to just a few benign tomes.”
Larissa pauses, then draws in a breath. “Alistair Singleton-Smith famously brags of an ancient artifact and document collection. A whole wing of their home is dedicated to it. I wonder…”
So does my gryphon. His interest is definitely piqued.
“Thank you for that information.”
“Have care, Alexis. These are dangerous people.”
“I am very aware.”
We part as she walks to the dean’s cottage, and I make my way back to Electus, mind tumbling over what I’ve just learned.
Maybe I can sleep with Theo tonight. Hold her in my arms while I tell her of her parentage.
It’s not my secret to keep.
First, I send off a text to Drakeward.
ME: Can you find out if S-S has section on dark energy in his personal library?
DRAKEWARD: I’ll try
ME: It’s important
DRAKEWARD: I said I’d try
ME: need info asap
DRAKEWARD: you’re getting repetitive
Dick.
I pause outside Electus and light a cigarette.
Learning the truth about her parents isn’t going to be easy for Theo to hear. Inhaling furiously, I work the smoke down to the butt then grind it out with my heel.
No more stalling.
I’ll go now and tell her.
Then hold her while she sleeps.
If fucking Donovan or Max haven’t gotten there first.