by Sarah Noffke
It dawned on Sophia what the magitech Thad Reinhart had sold to Talon Sinclair was.
“Of course!” she exclaimed, clapping a hand to her mouth. Talon Sinclair had bought very powerful magitech he’d placed on the top of the Matterhorn to broadcast a signal to all mortals. It was this signal that after this day in history made it so mortals could no longer see magic, and combined with serious spells, changed the world forever, putting it into the dark ages.
Everything suddenly came together for Sophia, weaving a picture of history she could not change that made perfect sense. Of course, Thad Reinhart was behind mortals not being able to see magic. He knew it was the best way to make the Dragon Elite obsolete.
And who better to instigate the whole thing than Talon Sinclair, who later would be discovered to loathe mortals, thinking they undermined the House’s mission? It was he who’d shoved them out of the House and turned it from Fourteen to the House of Seven, which was how it would be known until the true history was unearthed.
It was hard for Sophia to stand there and watch the old Dragon Elite line up, exuberance in their every movement. They thought they were going to waltz into battle that day and swiftly win. They probably returned later and celebrated a momentous victory, believing they’d ended the reign of Thad Reinhart and the Rogue Riders.
Tomorrow they’d awake to the reality mortals couldn’t see dragons. They couldn’t see anything connected to magic. The Dragon Elite would be useless overnight.
Sophia’s heart sank.
She was about to rush down the stairs to continue to watch more of the history unfold when a figure appeared beside her. It was the groundskeeper. She had to look down to take in the gnome.
Quiet, like the others in this reality, was black and white. Unlike the others, he was looking straight at her, as if he knew Sophia was there.
As if that wasn’t enough, he pointed at her hand, a determined expression in his narrowed eyes. When he spoke, she couldn’t hear his words, but she could read his lips.
Very clearly, she saw him mouth, “Go home.”
Chapter Fifty-Eight
Sophia held the gold token in her hand. She had a whole host of questions when she returned to the present day at the Castle. She blinked, feeling like it had been an eternity since she’d seen color.
She was standing in the same place—on the first landing of the stairs overlooking the entrance hall. She searched around, thinking she’d see Quiet or Ainsley or any of the Dragon Elite. When she turned around and saw the large painting of Adam and Kay-Rye, her heart leapt. Then she realized they were just an image, and they didn’t exist in this time.
Her mind was racing with so many questions she nearly forgot the Castle hadn’t delivered on its end of the bargain to give her The Complete History of Dragonriders.
Quiet could see her at the reset point, but why?
Then there was Ainsley, who didn’t appear to have been a housekeeper several hundred years ago.
Even stranger were the hushed words Ainsley had shared with Adam. They seemed to know something about Hiker no one else did. They were reserved when they should have been aggressively going into battle. The Dragon Elite had all but celebrated a decisive victory.
It pained Sophia’s heart to think about it. Seeing the past hadn’t been as illuminating as she thought. It was like watching a sad movie, knowing how it all ended and unable to do anything about it.
“The answers to all these new questions…” Sophia mused to herself as she climbed the stairs, something building in her.
When she was back in the hall where the portal door had been, Sophia halted, looking around. The door was still gone, but she knew that wasn’t entirely true. It was there, but the Castle just had it hidden because otherwise she’d go through and undo everything.
She still had her plan of how she could ultimately deal with the Castle if brute force and ranting didn’t work. Sophia felt betrayed.
She was enraged.
Maybe it was because she’d just watched the happy Dragon Elite before they were erased. Maybe it was because her heart ached for Hiker, who’d known something horrible was coming and had tried to warn the House of Fourteen and been dismissed. For whatever reason, Sophia wanted someone to take her anger and frustration out on, and the Castle seemed like the perfect entity.
“The answers I want are in that damn book!” Sophia yelled. She turned around and threw her hands down at her side. “Give me what you promised me! Give me The Complete History of Dragonriders.”
The Castle could have answered her, she realized. It sometimes spoke to Ainsley. The shapeshifter had often told her it spoke in mysterious ways. It had communicated to her with the drawings in the condensation on the window. However, the Castle remained quiet.
“I’m warning you, you’re not going to like me when I’m mad!” Sophia bellowed. “We’ve gotten along in the past. You’ve been good to me, but you’re not going to like me if you don’t give me what you promised.”
She waited, listening to her heaving breath and not hearing any reply from the Castle.
Vibrating with anger, Sophia tried one last time. “You can try to kill me. You can send chandeliers down on me and suits of armor, but I won’t back down. Are you going to give me what I want?”
Again, silence followed.
Sophia nodded, pursing her lips. “Very well, you stubborn old Castle. You’ve asked for it.”
Chapter Fifty-Nine
Sophia felt a lot like Hiker as she stomped through the Castle, her eyes teeming with anger and hostility bounding in her chest. She rarely allowed her emotions to overwhelm her. Right then, she felt ready to explode.
She took the stairs two at a time and hurried for the weapon’s room she had passed on occasion. This was Wilder’s domain, but she needed to borrow something.
To her surprise, Wilder was sitting on the bench in the center of the room when she entered. He glanced up at her, maybe as surprised as her to find Sophia staring around the room, having just bombarded into the space.
“Hey, Soph.” Wilder slipped the object in his hands down beside him, trying to hide it.
She turned her attention to surveying the many weapons that lined the wall. There were large and small swords. Knives and many other blades were secured on the wall. Sophia knew Wilder could feel the experiences of the weapons in the room. It didn’t surprise her that he spent most of his time here. He knew his gift was a curse and also his very strength. She believed that since Subner had taken him under his wing, telling him the truth about having given him this ability, that Wilder was now more embracing of it.
“Hey, I need an axe,” she said, looking around for one that wasn’t too big or small.
“Like for throwing?” he asked.
She shook her head, striding over to a pair of axes that might work. “For destroying.”
“Destroying what?” he asked, his voice careful and his blue eyes sparkling with curiosity.
“Treachery,” she said through clenched teeth.
“That sounds interesting. Can I watch?” he asked.
She shrugged. “If you want.” Pointing at the wall, she said, “I’ll take that one.”
Wilder’s eyes shifted between her and the axe which glistened in the firelight. “Are you sure? That’s Grim the Destroyer. It’s seen some—”
“Yes,” Sophia interrupted. “Give it here. Grim the Destroyer sounds perfect.”
Hesitating, Wilder took the axe off the wall and carefully handed it to Sophia. All his actions were slow, which her movements contrasted greatly with as she turned with the axe and sped out of the weapon’s room, heading for the corridor where the portal door was located.
Sophia thought it might be possible to expose the portal door, but that wasn’t her end goal. She just wanted to cause pain. She wanted to win. She wanted to make those who didn’t live up to their bargains feel remorse.
At its heart of hearts, which she wasn’t sure it actually had, Sophia believed the
Castle felt. It had to be possible to reason with it. There must be a way to get the Castle to cooperate. She just had to find it.
Chapter Sixty
When Sophia veered up the stairs to the second story, it got Wilder’s attention. Before, he’d been casually following her like he wanted to see her cut down a tree on the Expanse.
“What are you doing?” Wilder asked, sprinting to catch up with her.
“Making someone pay for breaking their word,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Soph, you can’t do that!” he yelled, his eyes bulging.
“Watch me,” she stated, stomping through the corridor until she neared the place where the portal door should be. It was still missing.
The pieces of the broken chandelier still littered the floor. Ainsley had found it and was cleaning it up. The housekeeper glanced up when she heard Sophia and Wilder and rose from her stooped position, her lips pursed.
“You made it mad, didn’t you?” Ainsley asked, sticking her hands on her hips. It was strange for a moment to see her in her brown burlap dress and her hair a mess. After the recent vision of her as some sort of royalty, the current image didn’t compute.
Sophia shook it off. “It started it,” she fired back, holding the axe in both hands. “It’s refusing to deliver. We made a bargain.”
Ainsley shook her head and clicked her tongue, her hands still on her hips. “I told you…” she warned.
“After everything I went through, it tried to kill me,” Sophia stated, throwing her hand at the debris covering the floor.
“Who?” Wilder asked, looking at Sophia and Ainsley.
“The Castle!” both women yelled in unison.
He stepped backward, shaking his head. “What. Is. Happening?”
“General deceit and total manipulation,” Sophia seethed.
Ainsley looked impressed as she surveyed the axe. “What are you going to do with that?”
“Remodel,” Sophia answered simply.
“W-w-wait,” Wilder stuttered. He came to stand between Sophia and Ainsley as if she planned to use the axe on the housekeeper. “What are you going to do?”
Sophia stepped around him. “You’ll find out, Wild. And Ains, why is it you don’t remember how you became the housekeeper for the Castle?”
Ainsley blinked at her, obviously confused by the random question. “I’m not sure, S. Like I told you, it’s been a long time since then. I get flashes, though. Sometimes it comes back to me suddenly, and then I forget again.”
“Do you remember not being a housekeeper and living here?” Sophia asked.
Ainsley answered, “No, but that sounds lovely. I don’t have to dust the shelves and try to pass old meat off as fresh?”
“What?” Wilder asked in shock. “You don’t really do that?”
She waved him off. “Of course, I don’t.”
“And that scar.” Sophia pointed to her temple. “When did you get it? Do you remember that much?”
Ainsley’s hand reflexively went for the scar on her temple. “I don’t, S.”
Sophia might not have been on this Earth for very long, but she knew without a doubt that Ainsley Carter was under a memory spell. “Do you remember the day before mortals weren’t allowed to see magic?”
Ainsley appeared as serious as Sophia had ever seen her. The housekeeper’s eyes were lost in thought for a moment. “No, I don’t. Should I?”
Sophia stepped around the elf and centered herself in front of the wall where the portal door should have been located. “Yeah, you absolutely should.”
“Why don’t I?” Ainsley asked speculatively.
Sophia pulled the axe back and gritted her teeth. She looked over her shoulder at Ainsley, who she realized was a victim to circumstances blanketed in mystery. “That’s exactly what I want to know.” She turned her attention back to the stone wall. “Give me the book or you are going to pay. Last chance, Castle.”
The silence that greeted her words was all the answer Sophia needed. Wilder interrupted, “What book? What are you talking about?”
She gave him an unyielding expression. “The book that tells the history Ainsley has forgotten. The one that explains why so much of our history as the Dragon Elite is unexplainable. The one that exposes all of Hiker Wallace’s secrets. The one that fills in the missing gaps, telling The Complete History of Dragonriders.”
Wilder’s eyes grew large. To Sophia’s relief, he didn’t try to stop her.
Neither did Ainsley. She put her hand out in Wilder’s direction like she was looking for comfort, not something she’d ever needed before. “I have forgotten…quite a lot, actually, and every time I wonder about it, I forget again. I get distracted by something, and then another decade rolls by before I question why I don’t remember the past.” Just like that, it dawned on the housekeeper. Her gaze was tragic when she looked at Sophia, wide-eyed. “You’ve figured it out, haven’t you? I’m under a memory spell, aren’t I, S. Beaufont?”
Sophia nodded. “Yes, I think so, and I’m going to figure out why.”
Wilder reached out and took Ainsley’s hand, comforting her. She already looked to have recovered, her attention darting back to the broken chandelier on the floor.
“Oh, I’d better clean that up, right?” Ainsley said, pulling away from Wilder, the hurt evaporating from her eyes. She had already forgotten what they had been talking about, the very topic of a memory spell making her overlook that she couldn’t remember a thing.
“No, you should wait,” Sophia answered. “There’s about to be a lot more to clean up.” She pulled back Grim the Destroyer and swung it at the wall of the Castle, breaking through the stone and treachery. She hoped she broke its resolve, too.
Chapter Sixty-One
The stone wall crumbled at the point of impact. Sophia unwedged Grim the Destroyer from the wall and pulled it back again, combining her next attack with a combat spell.
The axe sunk into the wall, sending a spray of rock dust through the air. When Sophia pulled it out this time, several loose rocks fell to the floor at her feet.
The third time she pulled back the axe, she yelled, “Give. Me. What. You. Promised.”
The axe sank into the wall like it was a butter knife cutting through bread. She yanked it out and watched a great deal of the wall come down.
The Castle made no attempt to answer her or reply to the demolition. Knowing Ainsley and Wilder were still watching curiously at her back, she swung around and gauged their musing expressions.
“I will win this,” Sophia said, her breath ragged.
“Yes, and I see you’re about there.” Ainsley pointed at the wall that had been the source of Sophia’s attention.
She turned to find the wall completely repaired, not even a speck of dust on the floor by her feet. Clenching her teeth together, Sophia launched Grim the Destroyer through the air and made the blade of the axe stick deep into the wall.
Yanking hard, she tried to take the axe back, but this time it was really stuck. “Give it to me,” Sophia said through gritted teeth, referring to both the book and Grim the Destroyer.
The axe wasn’t budging, so Sophia stuck her foot on the wall and tried to create leverage as she pulled.
“Really put your back into it,” Ainsley encouraged behind her, sounding amused.
“I can help if you’d like,” Wilder offered thoughtfully.
“I’ve got it,” Sophia spat, sweat pouring down her brow.
The Castle had made a claim to the axe, Sophia realized as she tried to take it back, continuing to pull.
“Okay, well then, I’ve got a thing I’ve got to do,” Wilder said discreetly.
Sophia watched as he retreated back toward the staircase. He cast a speculative look at her over his shoulders, his hands in his pockets, and a strange way about him. He was up to something, but come to think of it, she realized everyone in the Castle was. She’d deal with him later. Or she wouldn’t, and he’d keep his secrets buried like all the r
est.
Scrunching up her face, she gave the axe the biggest tug yet. It released from the wall, making her stumble backward from the momentum.
Sophia ran at the wall, vibrating with anger, and threw the axe into it, but this time it didn’t even make a dent. It was like she was beating a wall made of diamonds. The blade of Grim the Destroyer just bounced off.
“You are revolting!” Sophia yelled, pulling back her foot and kicking the wall, realizing she was running out of options.
“What is going on here?” Hiker Wallace asked at Sophia’s back.
She tensed. Gripped the handle of the axe. Let out a long breath.
“Oh, S. Beaufont, Hiker is coming,” Ainsley said in a loud conspiratorial whisper.
Shaking off the strange desire to laugh, Sophia turned around to find the leader of the Dragon Elite standing squarely in front of her, gazing down with a demanding expression on his face.
“Thanks, Ains,” Sophia said with zero inflection.
“What is the meaning of the blockades at the end of the hallway?” Hiker asked Ainsley.
She pointed down at the broken bits of the wooden chandelier. “There’s construction going on here. You’ll have to go around.”
Sophia was less worried about Hiker coming down this corridor now the portal door had disappeared. What did it matter anyway? So what if he knew? What would he do, fire her? Withhold secrets? The Castle not delivering on its end of the deal had stripped her of her resolve. She really didn’t care if Hiker was pissed. Either way, she still didn’t have any answers, and she’d risked a great deal for nothing.
