by Lan Chan
She frowned. “No, of course not. And just give it time. You’ll understand eventually.”
“And if I don’t?”
“You will.”
“Have you even given them a chance?”
“We shouldn’t need to.” I glanced up at her strained words to find her mouth pressed into a thin line. “They shouldn’t be here.” It was like listening to a broken record. They just couldn’t get over the fall of the dimension barriers. It wasn’t as though she was even born when it happened. Then again, maybe that was part of the problem. Many of the supernaturals had lived through the origin of the current arrangements. They would live through whatever else happened. We humans would grow frail and die in what they considered a mere heartbeat.
“I know right now it feels like everything is on its head,” Samantha said. “Give us a chance to show you why things need to be this way.”
All I could think of was the demon in its cage. My mind kept forcing me to replace the murdered supernaturals with images of Charles and Max. Of Diana and Roland being fed to it for the purpose of harvesting its poison. I retracted my hands into my lap and took a wet breath.
“Alessia. What you did...”
Seriously? Was she going to question me about this right now? “I don’t know what it was. I just reacted.”
She was quiet for a beat. “That storm wasn’t natural. You see now why we’re concerned? That kind of pinpointed destruction shouldn’t be possible. The Earth is completely out of balance.” She made to move towards me but I turned my head away. Instead, she crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m sorry you had to find out that way. We honestly wouldn’t resort to such methods if we had a choice. There are so very few of us and our powers are finite. If it helps at all, we’re told those who are sacrificed are the ones who are evil.”
I didn’t really trust her judgement on what was evil. There was plenty of that going around. But I doubted she would listen to reason on this point. I’d seen enough from Ashton on this trip to understand the depths of their fear. If I hadn’t been recruited into Bloodline, if I hadn’t taken such a massive dose of Arcana fruit, I would probably be all out trying to find any way to beat them back too.
“Get some rest,” Samantha said. After she left I didn’t move an inch.
When Rachel tentatively opened our door, I was still just sitting there staring. She glanced surreptitiously at me. I wouldn’t meet her gaze.
Rachel stepped towards her closet. For somebody who didn’t appear that into fashion, her closet was a white-painted monstrosity. It was only when she flung one side open that I saw it was jammed with all manner of random things. Most of it was weaponry. She had a crossbow hanging in there. On the top shelf was a row of liquor bottles. She grabbed a clear bottle with a red label, stalked over to me, and shoved the bottle into my hands.
“Take a drink,” she said.
I let the bottle topple to the mattress. Too many years in close proximity to alcohol had turned me off it completely. Some of my early foster parents had been big fans. Weekend nights were my most hated while I lived on the streets. The city was so clogged with idiots who were off their faces. More than once I’d had half-full liquor bottles thrown at me. The resulting smell made me instinctively shudder. One Christmas, Randall had convinced me drinking would make me feel better. It did at first. Until it didn’t and I ended up throwing my guts up in an alleyway behind a big department store.
Rachel appeared in front of me. She unscrewed the lid and pressed the bottle into my hands. “You’re in some serious shock,” she said. “Take a drink.”
I unlatched my fingers. “You’re pushing liquor onto a minor...” And then it hit me. What did that matter? What did any of this matter? There were demons out there! It didn’t matter if I drank the whole bottle. It didn’t matter if I drank all the bottles.
It was funny how one day could change things. I stared at the red label with the white trim. With the cap unscrewed, the smell of the vodka permeated the air. I tried to bring it to my lips but the fumes reminded me too much of the cleaning agents they used inside Nanna’s psychiatric hospital. It made my stomach churn.
I scooped the discarded cap up and closed the bottle. Tossing it on the bed, I got up and left the room. I could feel her eyes on my back, but I was already stomping down the stairs. Unsure where I was headed, my feet were crunching on the gravel before the sweet scent of roses and Chinese star jasmine filled the air. Inside their cottage garden, I weaved between the beds and sat down in the dirt.
Afternoon was beginning to give way to evening. Blue banded bees and hoverflies buzzed in the air as they gathered nectar from the pollen in the Queen Anne’s Lace. I took a few shuddering breaths, closed my eyes, and allowed my mind to cycle through the events of the day. Over and over again until I could quiet the tumultuous emotions.
Eventually, all I could feel was the thump of my own heartbeat. On a whim, I opened the barrier where I could access the Ley lines. The sudden burst of multi-coloured lights almost had me staggering. They weren’t so bright here but they took on a different quality. They were soft to the sharpness I saw in Bloodline. They were gentler. And they gentled me. The sweep of colours encompassed the land all the way towards Melbourne. I chased the rainbow farther and farther. Here and there some roadblocks and patches of darkness got in the way, but I managed to weave around them.
When I finally opened my eyes, the knot of anguish in my chest had eased. For all of the doom and gloom, there was still potential in the Earth. I hadn’t dared to throw my net close to where the ocean was, but for now, this was enough.
Dusting myself off, I made my way back to the mansion. Inside the kitchen, Samantha sat with another woman I didn’t know. The other woman was younger, maybe mid-thirties. She had a square face with sharp angled features. But it was her dark brown eyes that stifled me. They were so dark they were almost black. A lick of something cool brushed over my skin. They glanced up as I walked in.
The stranger grinned. “You look just like her,” she said. “It’s just like looking at a younger version of Hilary.” It was the voice that cemented it. I’d heard that voice before. It had been during the Sisterhood attack at Charles’s birthday. She’d been the one to call me a traitor.
25
I lifted my chin. She met my gaze and smiled again. “You act like her, too.”
Samantha must have sensed my sudden agitation because she got up and wrapped her arm around me. “Alessia, this is Matilda. I understand the two of you have met.”
“Under strained circumstances,” Matilda said. She too came around to this side of the dining table. Rather than shake my hand, she placed her finger under my chin and gripped it. I slapped her hand away and wasn’t surprised when she let out a throaty laugh.
“I should apologize,” she said. “Except I’m not sorry.”
“You will be,” I grit out.
Matilda smirked. She turned to Samantha. “I told you she’d be perfect.”
The only thing holding me back from slugging her was Samantha’s nails digging into my bicep. I tried to push Samantha away but she wouldn’t let go. “I know you’re angry,” she said against my ear. “But now isn’t the time.”
Something tried to weave its way into my chest. This time, I put real strength into breaking free. I rounded on her. “Stop doing that,” I snapped. “Whatever you keep doing to try and calm me, it isn’t working.” I wasn’t sure what it was, but I was pretty certain she had some kind of empathetic powers. She was too good at guessing how I was feeling. But unlike Raphael, she seemed to think it was her right to use it to placate me. Like it was wrong for me to feel things that didn’t fit in with her plans. Right now I didn’t have the energy to process another shock.
“I’m going to bed.”
Samantha simply nodded.
For the first time in forever, I forgot to draw a physical circle when I got into bed. It felt like I’d just experienced the longest day in the history of the world. My min
d kept speaking to me about right and wrong. About supernaturals and humans. About my own responsibility in all of this. And throughout it all, a single burning question: What was I?
When I posed it to Azrael, silence was all I got in return. He was taking this strange pact thing he had very seriously. It was starting to tick me off. By the time I actually fell asleep, I could already see the light turning grey in the horizon.
It didn’t take long for the nightmare to come for me. I heard Phoenix’s frantic barking but I couldn’t see him above the towering flames. Heat scorched the air. Every breath I took was full of ash. I coughed, but in my dream, I couldn’t move my hands to cover my mouth. Glancing down, I saw the first wave of flame lick at my sneakers. I opened my mouth to scream when a figure appeared in front of me. The fire parted to allow Lucifer access. Wherever he walked, the flames receded as though they were too afraid to touch him.
His wings spread out either side of him. The light from the fire bathed him in an unearthly glow. In his right hand was a blade. Despite being on the brink of burning, I couldn’t help staring at it. At the light it gave off that blazed brighter than the fire. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen his angel blade but every time felt like I hadn’t taken it in properly.
He smiled at me and extended his hand. Phoenix barked again. This time, he sounded close enough that I felt like I heard him next to my ear. Something rough and wet scraped across my cheek. Pointed teeth nicked my ear. The pain acted like an anchor.
My eyes snapped open to find the dingo beside my bed. I let out a startled yelp which he returned. The sheets were a tangled mess of warmth around me. I was sweating buckets. I tried to move my arms but found the sheets twisted around them like shackles.
“How in the world did you get in here?” I croaked. The dingo responded with a single bark. The door was open but nobody else seemed to be around. I extricated myself slowly.
“Thanks.”
Phoenix followed me to the bathroom where I showered and dressed in my sweats. We went for a short run. It was all I could manage because I’d slept way too late and the sun was already hot enough to melt the pavement.
Samantha and Matilda found me in the kitchen as I was feeding the last of my toast and bacon to the dingo. Samantha came to sit beside me while Matilda chose to perch on the windowsill opposite.
“C’mon now,” Matilda said. “No need to get all sullen. I was just joking last night.”
“Really? Were you joking when you tried to rip my...Kai’s soul out of his body?”
She wrinkled her nose at me. “No hard feelings, pumpkin. It’s all part of the program.”
“Is she kidding?” I asked Samantha. The grand mistress tapped her chin.
“Mattie is a little eccentric as you can see. But she’s only here for a short while, and I thought you would benefit from her unique experiences.”
I knew this was going to happen. Despite all assurances that I wouldn’t have to do any schooling on the weekend, here we were. “I don’t think there’s anything I want to learn from her.”
I was trying to get a rise out of her but instead she threw her head back and laughed. I had to admit she had a lot more personality than Giselle.
Samantha cleared her throat. “I thought Mattie could help you see if you can find a way to undo that curse on your grandmother.”
It was interesting that Samantha continued to refer to Nanna as my grandmother despite being the one to tell me she wasn’t. “How is she going to do that?”
“Let’s see, shall we?” Matilda said. “Why don’t we go somewhere less accessible?”
“Like where?”
“The beach?”
She doubled over laughing when the blood drained from my face. “Just kidding. Sam’s office should suffice.”
“You’re not funny.”
She didn’t stop smiling all the way. Phoenix padded beside me and then exited via the open back door. More odd behaviour.
Samantha sat behind her desk. I plonked down opposite her. Once again, Matilda was content to perch on the edge of the desk.
“Show me what the problem is,” Matilda said.
“How?”
“Bake me a cake.” She rolled her eyes again. “How do you think? Draw it for me.”
I almost reached for a pen and paper when the meaning of her words dawned on me. Right. I closed my eyes and tried to dredge up the memory of the threads that held Nanna bound. With my eyes still closed, I began to weave the threads together in front of me. When the light saturated my closed eyelids, I knew I was close to the end. The last touches I added were in a blue that was darker than my own.
When I opened my eyes, everything was bathed in light. Even the scenery outside was washed in blue.
Matilda’s head was cocked to the side. She jumped off the table and stepped around the many circles I’d drawn. Rather than dissipate like the circles I made in other areas, they pulsed as though there was indeed something inside of them.
“This is way too intricate to have been done on a whim,” Matilda said.
“The reigning theory seems to be that Alessia did it a piece at a time. She must have been doing it without even realising it.”
The way Matilda bit her lip said she wasn’t buying it. “What about these other, darker threads?”
“I suspect they might be forged from long ago. Perhaps in her childhood.”
Matilda walked around the room. She reached out to touch the threads of blue without making actual contact. When she turned her head up towards the portraits above Samantha’s head, I had a terrible feeling in my gut.
“Do you remember what Hilary’s magic used to be like?” Matilda asked.
Samantha’s looked quizzical. “Sure. But Hilary’s magic was purple.”
“Blue is a stronger colour than purple.”
“What are you thinking?”
“It’s possible these darker threads are a combination of both of their power.”
Samantha sucked in a breath. “That’s impossible.”
“So is a hedge witch with a demon blade.”
They both turned and looked at me. I stared right back. Samantha went very pale but Matilda’s trademark smirk was working overtime.
“I have no idea what you’re both on about,” I said.
“I should think not.” Matilda settled on the desk again. “It’s never been done before. A curse without a receptacle shouldn’t last this long. Most need objects to stay intact. An amulet or a –”
“Doll?”
She smiled. “Or a doll. Humans are too fragile for that kind of binding without breaking down.”
“She has broken down,” I spat, the anger spiking.
“You haven’t seen a real breakdown then. It’s not something you’d forget any time soon.”
“Bethany Hastings is slightly touched. She’s lost her memory, but from what I’ve heard, everything else about her is mostly whole. Bethany has managed to keep her sanity for eighteen years. That’s not something to be dismissed lightly.”
“The question is,” Samantha said, “how do we undo this?”
“It’s impossible to know anything without having access to her.” Matilda raised a brow at me.
“Don’t bother,” I said. “Even I’m not allowed to have access to her right now.”
She inspected her nails. “That seems odd to me. Why are they insisting on keeping you separated?”
“They have concerns about what I would be revealing to you,” I said.
“That doesn’t seem right.”
I could see both sides. At the same time both sides annoyed me. “Given the way you and Giselle terrorized them, I can’t really blame them. They didn’t know if you were going to turn out to be a mind witch as well.”
Matilda leaned forward. “Trust me, if Giselle wanted to steal your thoughts, you would have felt it.”
“So I’ve been told. The long and the short of it is that we’re not getting into Seraphina anytime soon.”
&n
bsp; “I take it then that we’re also not going to get Giselle back either. Courtney’s not going to be happy about that.” I assumed she was referring to the third member of their little assassin group.
“Tough luck.”
“What did you do to her anyway?” Matilda asked.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “No idea. I’m not really on the level with what these powers are all about.”
“Then let’s see if we can do something about that.”
“I’ll leave you to it,” Samantha said. “I have some arrangements to make with Ben’s office.”
She was gone with a swish of her skirt. I was left to the tutelage of a witch who thought I was a funny little play thing.
“Have you ever considered letting go of the restraints you put on yourself just to see how far your power can take you?” Matilda asked. I shuddered at the thought. It was bad enough when I lost control. I’d hate to think what it might be like if I did it on purpose.
“I’d rather not.”
She shrugged. “Seems like a waste. Sooner or later, something is going to push you into it and if you don’t learn how to control it, it’ll end up controlling you.”
“I’ve managed so far.”
She crossed her ankles in front of her. “Managing isn’t controlling. Eventually you’ll age out of both Academies. What are you going to do then?”
The thought had crossed my mind. And with it came the image of a burning sword and a field of battle. I must have physically shuddered because Matilda looked curious. “What was that?”
I could feel the first stab of pain in my throat. I cleared it. “Nothing. I just don’t want to think that far ahead. Right now I’m having enough trouble getting past what happened yesterday.”
That triggered something in her that was anything but pleasant. She put on a great front but she obviously hadn’t become a deadly member of the Sisterhood based on her sense of humour.
“I knew we should have tried harder to eliminate that Nephilim,” she said. “Without him, I reckon we could convince you our side is the way to go.”
