by Hall, Linsey
The ten robed figures who surrounded us nodded gravely.
I unclasped the locket and held it out. “I was told that you could read the writing on the back of this locket.”
Ophelia took it and studied it, then passed it around. “We can do more than read it. We helped create it. The engraving on the back is our language.”
The charm made its way around the room, passed from scholar to scholar.
A beautiful, dark-skinned woman looked at the charm, then met my gaze. “I am Nuria, and I enchanted this locket.”
My heart thundered in my ears. This woman might know about my past.
“Cassiopeia is your real first name,” she said.
“You mean, the one given by my parents?”
“Yes. You may have chosen it when you had no memory, but you were drawn to it specifically. Clereaux is your chosen last name, but the one you were gifted at birth was McFane. You are the daughter of Alice and Ethan McFane.”
A dull noise roared in my head. “You knew my parents.”
“Indeed.” Her dark gaze met mine. “They were members of an organization that allies with ours.”
“Were,” I said. Past tense. My heart plummeted, a sick feeling filling my stomach. This emptiness was nothing compared to the Nullifier’s magic.
Aidan reached for my hand. I squeezed it hard. I hadn’t really expected my parents to still be alive, but I hadn’t been able to control my hope.
Her gaze softened. “Yes, were. I am sorry.”
“How?”
“That is not my story to tell,” she said.
“Then whose is it? I want to know what happened to my parents.” I gripped Aidan’s hand harder, trying to control the tone of my voice. I was so close to answers! So close to a person who could tell me.
“They have closer friends than I who should share that story.”
“Who? Were they part of the organization you spoke of?”
“Yes, but we do not speak their name, for they do not exist. Not on this side. And they will not exist if the Order of the Magica discovers them.”
“Can you tell me how to find them?”
“Unfortunately, no. They are well hidden for safety.”
Who the hell had my parents been involved with?
“You operate outside of the Order’s jurisdiction?” Aidan asked, curiosity in his voice.
“We operate according to our own codes and laws,” Ophelia said. “When the Order requests our help, we lend it. But we will not be governed by politicians. Knowledge often defies them.”
Fair enough.
Magic crackled in the air, bringing with it the scent of the desert. Across from me, a man stiffened, his gaze going blank white. The room hushed, every face turned toward him.
Was he having a vision?
“Cassiopeia Clereaux.” The man’s voice was monotone. Every inch of him, from the sweep of his white robes to his dark hair, was deadly still. “You have come to the crossroads and succeeded, but the road becomes difficult. A great confrontation is coming. Without your magic, you will fail. Yet time is getting short to recover it. If you are smart and brave, you may prevail, but the way is growing perilous.”
My heart thundered as I desperately tried to commit the seer’s words to memory. The crossroads he mentioned had been foreseen by Aethelred. And his reference to a confrontation and needing my magic to survive it was exactly what Aethelred had said yesterday.
When he finished speaking, he shook his head, and his gaze cleared.
“Another one?” he asked, his voice much more animated, though vaguely confused.
“Yes, Kyros,” the woman next to him said. “Quite a good one, if I do say so.”
He smiled. “Excellent.” His gaze met mine. “I presume it was about you? I hope it was helpful.”
“It, ah…was,” I said. “Though I wasn’t sure I understood it all.” Or maybe I had. I just didn’t want to understand it. None of it had been good news, exactly.
“Understanding comes with time, my dear,” Kyros said.
Great. With time. Just what I had tons of.
Either way, though, the locket held answers. I looked at Nuria, who held the necklace. “Will you tell me what the locket says? How to open it?”
She nodded, then bent her head. “The inscription on the front is directions for how to open the locket. I have made many in my day, and there are several different ways to get inside. Within the locket, there is something that your parents wanted you to always have.”
My heart thundered, covetousness roaring. Of the thousands of times my dragon soul had coveted treasure, it had never wanted anything like this.
“How do I open it?”
“Only you are capable. You must enter the Pool of Memory. There, you will receive instructions on what to do.”
“Where is the Pool of Memory?”
“Here, in the Lyceum of Metis.”
Thank magic for small favors. “Could you take me to it? I’d like to do it now.”
“Of course.” She rose. “Come with me.”
Nuria led Aidan and I through the rooms and courtyards until we reached a small building at the back of the compound. It was the oldest building by far, the stone roughhewn and ancient.
“This is why we built the Lyceum here,” Nuria said. “The Pool of Memory is ancient and has been here far longer than we.”
I followed her into the small building, ducking under the low doorframe to avoid hitting my head. The room lacked the many windows of the other buildings, though it was not dark. An opalescent sphere hung suspended in midair, shining a pearly light on the pool below.
The pool was a natural spring made of boulders and crystal blue water. It was a mere ten feet by ten feet and had a set of stone steps carved down into it. A small bench along the side was the only other thing in the room.
“This place is amazing,” I murmured.
“It is, isn’t it?” Nuria said. “You may leave your things on the bench and should enter the water with only the locket.”
“And then something will happen?” I asked.
“You won’t miss it.” Her smile turned serious. “But do not stay too long under the water. It is wonderful, but you are subject to human physiology there as well as here. You will run out of breath if you stay too long.”
I nodded. Of course I wouldn’t stay ‘til I drowned.
“You should wait outside,” Nuria said to Aidan.
He nodded. Before he followed her out the door, he reached for my hand and pulled me to him, then pressed his lips to mine. I savored the touch before he pulled away.
“Call for me if you need me,” he said. “I’ll be right outside the door.”
“I will.” I stepped away, then watched him leave.
When I turned back to the pool, the silence made the room feel even more magical. I was surrounded by magic every day, but this was something special. An unquantifiable number of memories lay within that pool. It seemed impossible.
I hoped it wasn’t.
Quickly, I toed off my boots and stripped off my clothes and dagger. I left them in a pile on the bench and approached the stairs, the locket gripped in my fist.
The water was both cool and warm at the same time, swirling around me like a living thing. It felt strange, almost like it sparkled against my skin. When I was up to my neck, the water glittered in front of my eyes like a blanket of sapphires and diamonds.
I sucked in a deep breath and submerged, the water closing over my head and sucking me into a world of eerie silence.
Memories clawed at my mind. They bombarded me from all sides, flashes of faces and names and voices that ignited the familiar headache that always came when I tried to remember my past.
I tried to choose the right one, but they all blurred. I squeezed my hand around the locket, focusing on the bite of the metal into my flesh. Suddenly, one memory gleamed clearer than the rest. I reached for it with my mind, focusing on it.
A moment later, I was st
anding in a small room. There was a plush blue couch and a small fireplace surrounded by bookcases. It was homey.
It was my home, I realized. And it was fuzzy around the edges. A memory.
I turned, feeling weightless, and caught sight of a tall man kneeling on the floor in front of a little girl who was about twelve years old. She had red hair and freckles and wore a pair of denim overalls and a rainbow shirt.
Me.
Which meant the man must be my father.
My gaze darted to him, taking in his dark hair and strong features. Familiarity burst in my mind as love exploded in my heart.
Dad.
A second later, my head throbbed painfully, a migraine on the edge of agony. It was a familiar pain. Normally, it would push me away from the memory entirely, but the Pool of Memory must be holding it at bay.
I rubbed my temples, but felt nothing. Though I moved my arm, I couldn’t feel my fingertips against my temple. Because I was currently an apparition? My mind was inside this ghostly body in my old home, not in my real body back in the pool.
I tried to ignore the pain as I watched my dad speak to young me. She was so young that it was hard to think of her as myself.
“And whenever you need to return home, you use the locket.” He held open his palm, and the small golden locket sat inside.
“How?” she asked.
“You press it against your heart, like this.” He held the locket up and held it against his heart. “And think of your mother and me. It will open the locket.”
“Okay,” she said.
My dad hooked the locket around the neck of my younger self. The smile on my face was so big that I ached to be her again. But my dad’s face was grim, no longer painted with a comforting smile for my younger self. Worry and concern shadowed his eyes.
Something was wrong.
Of course it was, if he was giving me a locket to help me find my way home. He feared we’d be separated.
“Okay, kiddo,” he said. “What do you say we do a puzzle? Your mom will be home soon, and maybe we can surprise her with the last piece.”
A memory of letting my mom put the last piece in the puzzle blasted through me, the same tearing pain that came with every other old memory I’d had since I’d awoken in the field at fifteen. I ignored the pain and watched them set up the puzzle on the coffee table in front of the fire. On the mantle behind them was a framed photo. My dad, me, and a pretty red-haired woman.
My mother. My heart ached. I’d never seen her face before.
Would she be home soon? I wanted to stick around long enough to see her. That would be okay. I’d only been here a minute.
My chest hurt as I watched. At first, I thought it was sadness. But after a moment, I realized it was lack of air.
I was drowning back in the pool.
I remembered what Aethelred had told me about the Nullifier’s power. I was immortal, protected from time and decay, but not from trauma. My lungs filling with water definitely qualified as trauma.
With one last look at my dad, I pulled myself away from the vision.
Nothing happened.
My lungs continued to ache, and I was still in the living room. I tried again, closing my eyes and envisioning my body back in the pool. I strained to leave the memory, but I was caught there, held tight by invisible ropes tied tight at my arms.
Panic fluttered in my chest as wild as the pain. Something had trapped me here, inside my mind, while my body died in the Pool of Memory. My greatest fear of late had been that I’d be immortal, forced to watch my friends and family die.
Little had I known that my end would come far sooner.
My vision darkened as I struggled to escape the memory. My father and younger self blurred as I went totally blind, my consciousness floating in this strange half-world created inside my mind.
As I was about to pass out, cold water filled my mouth and swirled around my body. I thrashed and kicked, struggling to reach the surface. My toe brushed one of the rocks below, and I kicked again, catching it enough that I could push myself off.
I broke the surface with a gasp, my eyes filmed with water. I choked and blinked, trying to clear my blind eyes as I swam the short distance to the steps. As I scrambled up them, I caught sight of Aidan, straddling another figure and strangling the life out of it.
“What’s—” I coughed, spitting up water. “Going on?”
Aidan jumped off the body and rushed to me, sweeping me into his arms and out of the water. His warm strength sent a rush of comfort through me.
I glanced at the body and realized it was a smoke demon. A few feet away lay a red demon, the kind who wielded a fire sword. His blade lay at his side, extinguished.
“They were trying to kill me,” I murmured. “They were holding me under, weren’t they?”
“Yes,” Aidan said. “Victor Orriodor’s seer must have found you and sent them. I heard voices and came in.”
“Thank you.” I kissed him hard. “I tried to escape the memory, but I couldn’t.”
“I’m glad I heard them.”
“How did they get in? Didn’t Ophelia say this place is protected?” I pushed at his chest, and he took the hint, letting me down. I knelt at the smoke demon’s side and inspected him.
A charm hung around his neck. It was a simple bit of stone with a hole drilled through.
“There’s one on this demon too,” Aidan said from where he knelt by the other demon.
I glanced over and noticed the same charm tied around his neck. I yanked the one off the smoke demon’s body, and Aidan did the same to the fire sword demon. I inspected the charm more closely, finding a strange swirled symbol carved into it.
“Penatrist charms,” Aidan said. “Very rare. They allow the wearer to bypass protective spells and enter protected areas.”
“Victor Orriodor is collecting all kinds of valuable charms these days.”
“He is, indeed.” Aidan stood. “I can’t imagine he has many more of them, but we should get out of here. The seer can only see your location when your concealment charm is nullified by your fluctuating power. Let’s get somewhere new and hopefully have some more time before he finds you again.”
“And sends more freaking demons after me.” I rose and kicked the body of the smoke demon, immediately regretting it when my toe hurt. “Why didn’t he come himself?”
“Either he’s busy or he doesn’t want you to nullify his power.”
I grinned, liking that he might be wary of me. “Let me get dressed.”
Aidan glanced down, as if realizing for the first time that I was nude. Or perhaps now that I mentioned it, he felt it okay to look. His eyes darkened, but he said nothing. Smart man. He’d no doubt noticed before, but my safety had been his first concern. A girl had to like a thing like that.
I clipped the locket around my neck. “Search their pockets for transport charms. One of them should have one if they wanted to get back.”
Aidan patted down the bodies as I dragged on my clothes. As I was strapping on my daggers, Aidan held up a small black stone.
“Got it. Here.” He handed me the stone. “Keep it on you, in case the worst happens.”
Meaning that the demons managed to get me in an unescapable position. I took the charm from him. “Thanks.”
By the time I was ready, the demons had begun to disappear. They’d be nothing but a memory in a few moments.
I nudged the handle of the demon’s fire sword with my toe and said, “That’d make a nice addition to my trove if I could figure out how to control the flame.”
Regretfully, I turned from the blade. I didn’t know how to control it, so I’d be bringing a fire hazard into my lovely trove.
Not worth the risk.
“Is that what fills your trove?” Aidan asked. “Weapons?”
“And other things.” Maybe I’d show Aidan sometime, but I wasn’t ready yet. Troves were personal.
“You get what you needed from your memories?” Aidan asked.
<
br /> “Yeah, I think so,” I said. “Let’s get out of this place and find a quiet spot so I can try to open the locket. I think we’ve got a little while before Victor Orriodor realizes his goons have failed.”
“Yes. It’d take a while to kill you. You’re too tough to go easy.”
I grinned. “You say the sweetest things.”
“Only the truth.” He held up the penatrist charm and peered at it. “And I doubt he has any more of these. They’re rare enough that I’ve never even seen one.”
“I suppose a guy in your business would want to keep track of those.” Aidan ran a security company, protecting things and people for vast sums of money. Charms that could break through his work would be of definite interest to him.
“Yes. We try to keep an eye out for them on the black market. They only come up for sale once every decade or so.”
“And he used two at once.”
“It was good timing. You were alone and distracted. It’s what I’d do. He’ll probably never get a better chance.” His gaze was calculating.
I’d forgotten how cunning and scary Aidan could be, since he was always on my side. But if he wanted something, he’d be ruthless in getting it. Like I was. We probably both had decent insight into Victor Orriodor’s mind, though we lacked his sociopathic edge.
We left the Pool of Memory and found a nearby marble bench, shaded by a gnarled tree. Wildflowers bloomed around the base of the bench.
I took a seat and removed the locket.
“I’m going to shift,” Aidan said. “To be safe.”
“To better protect me.”
He nodded.
“I’m figuring you out,” I said.
“I don’t mind.” Magic swirled around him, bringing with it the sound of crashing ocean waves and the scent of the forest. A gray light glimmered, obscuring his form.
A moment later, the griffin stood in his place. His golden gaze met mine before he began to pace in a circle around the tree.
I pressed the locket to my heart and thought of my father. It was easy to think of him as I’d just seen him. Only the barest headache pinged at my mind. Perhaps because I’d already unlocked that memory.
I tried to think of my mother, but the pain came. I envisioned her face in the picture I’d seen in my memory. Her bright green eyes and red hair. My stomach churned as I poked at the corners of my mind, trying to pull on the elusive threads of memory that might lead to something more than just her face.
