“The trials? You mean…?” I stammered.
“Yes,” she answered before I could finish my sentence. “He was a lycan. They were brutal times. Werewolves wandered all over the continent, murdering and pillaging under the guise of fighting for one side of the war or another. Friends turned against friends. Families against families. Lycan against lycan. The Northern Vontex did their work from here with the protection of a magical barrier to conceal them as they came and went. The vixra created a spell that turned the interior of the house into a separate realm, just like back at the academy.”
“That doesn’t answer why it’s symbolic to the Dolch Erbe,” Jake said.
“The vixra gave birth to the prestige of the Northern Vontex here. Margaux must think she has the upper hand. This is where the Northern Vontex was propped up. And if she wins the night, this is where we’ll be destroyed.”
“Not with this one on our side,” Jake gloated, giving me a small nudge in the shoulder.
Lothar crossed his arms over his chest. A noise resembling a growl poured out of him. “She knows we’re coming.”
Alina nodded. “This is probably a trap.”
“We managed at the ritual site and that was a trap,” Jake said. “We can handle this.”
Alina walked right into Lothar’s personal space with a look on her face like she might commit murder if provoked hard enough. “And you still won’t let me have some vixra blood?”
“No,” Lothar lied coldly. “I have it in my system and that’s enough.”
“We’re about to try kidnapping the most powerful luxra witchling in all of France who happens to be possessed by an ancient witchling of the Dolch Erbe’s inner circle. You don’t think now is a good time for us to be well-armed with more than just material weapons?”
“I think, as the leader of the Northern Vontex, that I don’t need to give you further explanation than to say no. If things get too bad, I’ll make a vixra tunnel and get us all out of there.”
“That’s comforting,” she whined.
Whatever authority Lothar had over Alina must have put a stop to her because she didn’t push the matter any further. Even though one look at her kicking her foot into the road showed how much she wanted to.
“You’re going to get us all killed,” she mumbled under her breath just loud enough for us to hear.
“On the contrary,” Lothar countered. “I’m doing what I need to do to keep us alive. Starting by having Riley with us.”
“The original three of us aren’t sufficient for you anymore?”
I couldn’t help but stare daggers at Alina like I had been betrayed. The woman I met when I first came to the academy encouraged me. She told me to keep going when I felt utterly lost. She even bought me sheet music and a guitar to keep my mind occupied when I was stressed. Now she thought of me as a hindrance?
“Dirk wants Riley,” Lothar scolded her. “And Margaux does Dirk’s bidding. If Margaux sees Riley with us it will catch her off guard. She’ll be more focused on Riley than any of us.”
Suddenly Alina’s attitude didn’t interest me anymore.
“You want to use me as bait?” I shrieked.
“Do you want your brother back, Riley?” he asked me. “Or whatever might be left of him?”
I gave him a shallow nod.
“Then this is what has to be done. Once we have Margaux, the game changes. We can use whatever tactics the vixra will permit to pry information out of her.”
“And what tactics are those?” I asked.
“Margaux’s mind is more than likely being possessed by an ancient evil. As long as we don’t cause any permanent damage to Margaux’s mind, I imagine the possibilities will be endless. And it will bring us one step closer to getting your brother back.”
I took a deep breath and tried ignoring the fact that he was intending to use me in some sort of sick game of hide and seek.
“First things first,” Lothar continued. “We have to get inside. Which could prove challenging.”
“Why’s that?”
He walked passed me and stopped in the middle of the road lined with trees leading to the large parking area near the enormous house. Then he took out his gun from its holster and aimed it right at the open space down the road.
“Don’t you think that might draw unwanted attention?” I said to him, not quite believing how brazen he was being.
He fired a shot. I expected to hear loud gunfire but I didn’t. The gun had a silencer on it. Or some form of enchantment because I didn’t hear much more than a slight pop. That wasn’t what concerned me. It was the ripples of blue cascading through the air and forming a large wall between us and Chatsworth. The ripples traveled all across the side of the enormous house and to the gardens around back. Then toward the fountain and pond on the other side. The entire house was being protected by magic. Margaux created some sort of shield around the house. The bullet from Lothar’s gun never passed through. It ricocheted off the blue shield of light and went right into a nearby tree.
Jake ducked out of the way and nearly dropped to his knees. “Not your best idea in the world, mate,” he whined. “Thank christ no one is home right now.”
The blue ripples slowly dissipated and disappeared once more, leaving the space invisible and the shield completely undetectable.
“Riley,” Lothar called me. “Do you still have that special object Devon left behind? I think now might be a good time to use it.”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “I barely know how to control the thing.”
“You created a shield around yourself when the guards outside the fortress were after us,” Jake said. “Why not try that? You know, so no one gets hurt.”
I sneered in his direction and lifted the cuff of my sleeve to my elbow, revealing my forearm in the pale moonlight shining between the line of trees.
‘Meaning if anything goes wrong only I’ll get hurt. Thanks a lot, you bastard!’
I shook my head as I gradually let the silver engraved box unshift from inside my body. I thought it might be the perfect hiding place and I was right. I managed to cart it along with me everywhere in case I needed such a weapon. I just didn’t know how it would work as a tool for breaking and entering.
I let out a huff of air and peered back at the others as I walked closer to the invisible shield.
“You might want to back up,” I told Lothar.
He did as I requested and backed away with the others, waiting as I stood there like a fool trying to figure out how to make this one work.
‘I just opened up a vixra tunnel for a speeding car. Maybe this won’t be the most difficult thing I do all night.’
I shut my eyes and let my magic wrap around me, curling over my limbs and piercing through my clothes until it surrounded my body like a cocoon. Then I let it spread around me in a spiraling circle of light, just like Rodrick did when he shielded me from the luxra in Paris.
When I opened my eyes, the entire area before me was lit up in a brilliant red hue.
‘Now or never.’
I lifted my arms and placed the box in my hands as though I was offering a sacrifice to the gods. Then I cracked open the box and let the silver lightning rip through the crack, focusing my magic all around me and only letting the strikes of electricity shoot out where I permitted it.
To my shock, it was working. The shield Margaux created around Chatsworth was strong but it couldn’t handle crowning magic. A hole began to tear through the fabric of her spell, ripping through the air until the shield hissed and sent sparks of blue in every direction.
I heard Jake gasp and duck away as the sparks flew behind me.
I created a funnel of my magic before me, making sure as I cracked open the box even more that the lightning shot forward. The blue ripples of light became more like tidal waves as the spell began to break down. Only I knew it wouldn’t hold forever. The shield was massive. It spanned the entire house and perhaps several acres around it. This one opening was our only sh
ot of getting through. A hole carved into the shield, just big enough for us to climb through before it snapped back shut.
“Go!” I hollered. “Go now! I don’t know how long I can hold it.”
Jake was the first to dive right in, launching his body face-first through the hole and nose-diving on the other end until he rolled back over onto his feet like he was an action hero starring in a lead role. Next was Alina. She leapt inside and skid to a stop on the gravel. Then Lothar came up from behind, unsure if he wanted to go through without me.
“Go! Do it now!” I shouted at him.
He reluctantly jumped through the hole, binding up his body in a crouched position and barely making it through as the hem of his leather trench coat grazed the edge of the hole.
I didn’t have much time. Maybe a matter of seconds. The hole was beginning to close up. And when it did, I wasn’t sure I would regain the energy fast enough to bust a hole through it again.
‘Nice job, Lothar. You wore me out before we even run into Margaux.’
I tapped into the vixra blood laced throughout my body, pushing it out of my skin and making sure I had enough energy to get me through. Then I ran for the hole and leapt straight forward with all my might. I crashed landed on the other side with a loud smack. Only the sound wasn’t coming from me. It was coming from the hole in the shield snapping shut behind me and my magic tearing back into my body faster than I was ready for.
I screamed as it slammed into me with torrential force. It felt like a thousand rubber bands were stretched out to their maximum then released right over my skin. I remembered what Rodrick looked like when his crowning magic came back inside his body too quickly. He could barely handle it. His skin ripped open. As it was, I could barely move. I laid there motionless, wondering if I had torn open my skin just like Rodrick did.
“Riley!” Lothar cried. He knelt next to me and held my head up in his hands, giving me a gentle shake.
I opened my eyes to see them all peering down at me. I wasn’t covered in blood, so that was a plus.
‘The vixra blood. It protected me.’
I let out a sigh and sat up. Lothar moved his hand away but didn’t break eye contact with me.
“Are you alright?” He reached for my hand to help me back up to my feet.
“I think so.”
“I hope Ellinor didn’t talk you into moving to Hungary,” Jake said with a cheeky grin. “You’re skills are far too incredible to go running off where Blackatters are in abundance.”
“She’ll go wherever she pleases and serve whoever she wishes,” Lothar stated.
His response took me by surprise. It wasn’t every day that someone told me to do what I wanted rather than what they wanted.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, I might have found the only man alive who genuinely wants me to do what I feel is right. Aside from opening a vixra tunnel on a speeding highway. I won’t forget that any time soon.’
I saw Alina grimace behind Lothar and turn her back away. “We need to get moving,” she insisted. “Margaux likely heard all that racket.” She unsheathed her sword from her holster inside the leather of her trench coat and walked down the road leading to Chatsworth.
Lothar and Jake pulled out their swords. Given it seemed to be their choice of weapon that night, I did the same. The leather wrapping around the handle fit my hand like a glove. I still had some vixra magic left inside me. It wasn’t quite as potent as it was before we left the forest but it was still there. I only hoped it was enough to get me through whatever was about to happen next.
We came to a large stonearch way. Lothar took his gun out once more and aimed it right at the lock on the gates. It fired a shot and blew the lock away. He pushed the gate open and we were on a cement entrance leading to a courtyard with wild animal statues lining the way. I half expected them to come alive and attack us. Nothing too extravagant seemed strange to me these days.
In the far reaches of my mind, I could envision how this little courtyard might have looked centuries ago. With women in huge gowns being helped out of carriages by men in fine coats and white wigs. The highest nobles of society coming to mingle and share in their political pursuits inside the lavish interior. The likes of which I saw with my mum all those years ago.
When Lothar shot another bullet at the lock on the front doors, destroying what was left and sending splices of broken wood flying through the air, whispering caressed the tender skin on my ears. It was the same sound of faint whispers that haunted me at the ritual site.
‘She’s definitely here. And she brought friends.’
“I could have used my magic for that,” I whispered to him.
“No. You’ve used enough. Save your energy.”
The whispering got louder, seeping through my ears and taunting me with danger ahead.
“Lothar,” I whispered, wanting to warn him of exactly what I thought might happen.
“Shh!” he silenced me, lowering his gun and peeking through the crack in the large doorway.
The first thing I saw was the white and black slate floors. The diamond shapes lined the interior. The sound of our feet echoed across the floor as we walked down a staircase toward the grand entrance. Once I was inside, I couldn’t help but look up at the magnificent sight before me.
The grand hall was lined in gold and paintings from floor to ceiling. The banister to the right reflected their gold hue as the lits flickered awake. The scale of the hall opened up before us with the enormous staircase looming down, showcasing the house’s finery and elegance. The Renaissance paintings and sculptures were displayed all around us with figures stoically standing for their portraits. And if I wasn’t mistaken, the figures painted on the ceiling appeared to move about through the blue sky backdrop behind them.
“What the hell?” Jake muttered.
‘It’s not just you. We’re all thinking it.’
The lamps hanging on the walls around us changed from a faint gold light to blue, lighting up the entire grand hall in a glow that didn’t do anything to calm my nerves.
When I peered back over to the grand staircase before us lined with intricate carpeting, I stopped dead in my tracks.
“Bienvenue,” Margaux said from the top of the stairs. She smiled down at us clustered together at the center of the hall with our swords drawn. Her long black hair was tied neatly behind her head. And the gown she was tortured in appeared brand new. Not a single tear was ripped at the hem from all her struggles. Whatever spirit resided inside of her clearly took time to clean up. And I knew why. It wasn’t every day a member of the Dolch Erbe’s inner circle got to witness the downfall of their enemies. Margaux considered tonight to be one such occasion.
I knew Lothar hadn’t exactly told me to but I let my magic travel up the length of my sword. Only I used the trick Rodrick showed me and didn’t let its bright scarlet light show. I was ready to use it if I had to. And my gun and a magazine with liquid locksin bullets if I felt so inclined.
I heard the click of a gun’s barrel and knew Lothar’s mind wasn’t far behind mine.
Margaux cocked her head as though our weapons were endearing, if not cute. Then she shook her head in disapproval like we were silly little school children.
Few things in this world made me instantly furious. But superiority was one of them. However high up in the witchling hierarchy Ellinor and Adeline were, they didn’t go out of their way to make me feel inferior. Margaux clearly wanted us to know we were beneath her.
Margaux’s hands were tucked inside the large inner pockets of her black dress. She walked down a few of the steps with the long hem trailing along behind her. Then she withdrew her hands from her pocket to reveal what she had been hiding inside the folds of the material.
‘The svethulka!’
She twirled the ivory wand in her hand and rested it between her fingers. Her lips twisted into a half-smile. A blue flare of light lit up the tip of the wand. Only she didn’t point it at us. She pointed it at the enormous paintin
g moving above our heads on the ceiling.
The memory of the dream I had returned to the forefront of my mind. I frantically looked all around us, trying to figure out if this was the right place. In my dream-like vision, I battled someone wearing a trench coat, not a dress like Margaux was in. And we were both armed with swords. Not to mention the building wasn’t on fire.
‘It can’t be here. This isn’t it.’
I suddenly got a jolt of confidence that faded from within me. If this wasn’t my dream, then I was meant to live through it. My end wouldn’t be here. Not at Chatsworth, not this night, and not by Margaux’s hand.
‘That wand could make things interesting though.’
I shuddered as my mind went to the absolute worst scenario possible.
‘Just because I might survive doesn’t mean the others will.’
The second the thought crossed my mind I saw the svethulka send a streak of cobalt blue light right into the painting. I understood now why it was moving. Blue smoke barreled out of the painting and funneled down like tornadoes reaching for the floor.
The whispers I heard outside grew louder. Almost as though the whispers weren’t being carried by a gentle wind. They were being spoken by spirits of the undead.
The spinning funnels of smoke sparked and flared all around us, sending beams of light straight into the floor and forming the most demonic-looking creatures I had ever seen in my entire life. Their faces contorted into beasts, snarling and growling at us all clustered together in the center of the grand hall. Their eyes lit up in their skulls, forcing me to squint at the sight of them as they circled us. Only their faces didn’t look the faintest bit human. Fur sprouted on their bodies as they flashed their razor-sharp teeth and stood up on their long hind legs. They were the souls of lycan.
‘These are her victims! These are lycan killed by the Dolch Erbe!’
Margaux laughed from the towering staircase and lowered her wand back down, ready to enjoy the scene she set. “Your brother will be thrilled, Riley,” she spoke to me in French, making sure only I understood her words. “It’s not every day we get our hands on a Vontex. Much less three.”
Rescind: (Lycan Academy of Shapeshifting: Operation Shift, Book 4) Page 14
