CHAPTER FIVE
I sat on the bed, staring at the view behind the window like I had been since we returned a few hours ago. Now, the sun rested on the lake's surface, sinking deeper with each passing minute and darkening the sky. My palms were caked with dry blood where my nails had been repeatedly digging into the skin as I tried to recall pieces of my dream— or vision—or whatever the hell that was.
The fae. What color was his skin?
Now my mind thought it was blue, the color of the night sky just before dawn, but it wasn't, was it?
No, I chided myself, it wasn't Rae. It couldn't be. But the more I tried to recall, the hazier it all became until the images were barely there and I was questioning the accuracy of my memory.
I had pretended to be asleep every time someone came by and I wasn't sure if they truly bought it or if they were just leaving me be, but it had given me much needed time to clear my head. Aunt-Drea had returned about an hour or two ago, dropped off lunch and urged me to eat, but the tray was still untouched by the table. She filled me in on whatever little she found and told me she had been trying to track the things using the blood that that been left on her clothes but came up empty, and I told her about Rae. At some point I had even tried asking the Schadeux what they knew but they went back to speaking in that indecipherable way they usually did.
"Minion?" Matt's voice came from the other side of the door and I threw the cover over my head and laid down quickly, relaxing my body as best as I could . " I know you're not sleeping, kid. I'm coming in. "
The door opened and I sat up, wrapping the blanket around my shoulders for an additional comfort. Matt walked in, a bowl in his hand and still wearing his K.O.A.C uniform; he must have just gotten back from work. He shifted my feet with his free hand and sat sat down at the edge of the bed.
"I'm not really hungry Matty, and Aunt-Drea already brought me lunch."
" Which you didn't eat. " he gave me a pointed look. "And who said this was for you? Besides, it's not lunch. It's ice-cream. Which I like as much as you do. " Yet, he made no move to eat any of it, instead he placed the bowl next to the tray of untouched food which happened to be right in my line of sight. "Siya told me you were up here pretending to be asleep and asked me to check on you before he left."
" He did?" I frowned, "Where did he go? "
"Work." Matt said the word like how one would say 'genocide', the distaste evident in his voice. He took a few seconds before speaking again. "Who's Rae?"
" He was—is my friend." I caught myself referring to him in past tense and I corrected myself. "He's my friend. "
Matt nudged the leg that I had been resting my chin on lightly. "Not your boyfriend, perhaps? "
" No." I smiled, remembering our fake breakup a week ago, but it faded quickly. "No, we're just friends. He's my only friend really, but I should've left him alone. I should've known that he would only get caught up in my mess. "
"It's not your fault, Soli." Matt caught my hands that were digging into my palms again and laced his fingers through my cold ones. My eyes were swimming with tears, but he wiped them away when I looked up at him. " It's not. "
" He was only taken because he was with me . They must've saw him leaving my house or—"
"It not your fault, Soli." His grip on my face tightened a bit. It wasn't painful though, the gesture was only reassuring. "None of it is; you didn't choose any of this."
He hadn't asked a question but he was looking at me as if he needed confirmation that I heard what he said, so I nodded, and his palms slipped from my cheeks. I took the ice-cream and slowly ate it, but it brought me no joy like it usually did. "You were right, you know. But only partially. "
"About what? "
"About what happened to mom being connected with the people that have been going missing. I saw them in my dream earlier, but it wasn't a cult or trafficking like you guys thought. It was him."
Matt nodded but he didn't meet my eyes; his gazed focused on the scar on my wrist. "Siya filled us in before he left."
I stared down at the bowl and stirred the ice-cream, turning it into chocolate soup. "They're making these things Matty, hundreds– if not thousands of them. The question is why?"
Matt's face was solemn when he spoke. "Why build an army unless you have plans for war?"
The spoon clattered in the bowl as I dropped it from my hand, the little appetite I had gone completely. "How far along is Aunt-Drea with the spell?"
"If you come down you can ask her yourself," He flicked my nose as he stood, holding out a hand for me. "You're not doing this alone, minion. Don't think that you are."
Aunt-Drea sat in the middle of a pile of books in the center of the study, her blue hair haphazardly thrown in a knot above her head. She held my mother's glaive in her hands and the pupils of her eyes disappeared in flashes of white as the pages ruffled around her.
Matt leaned down to whisperer in my ear. "Mom says she's been doing this since she got back."
She groaned and the glaive went flying across the room, slamming into a shelf that came crashing down on impact. Her face was red when she looked up, her gaze meeting mine, and I saw her frustration clearly. "Soli, you're up." She stood and walked towards us and with a dismissive wave of her hand the shelf righted itself, the books packing themselves neatly away. "I could use your help with a locating spell if you're up to it. Something powerful is blocking me out, but I'm sure with your help we'll have better luck breaking through. "
She looked as distraught as I felt and I wrapped my arms around her, comforting her as much as it was to comfort me. "Tell me what to do."
I felt her nod against my shoulder and she pulled away. " Since you're here the spell's going to be a bit more complicated to perform, but we just might get better results." She looked over my shoulder to Matt. "Matty, where're the candles? "
" I'll go get them." Matt paused with one foot out the door frame. "Is there anything else you need? "
Aunt-Drea took a second before answering again. "Just a basin of water."
Matt returned less than a minute later and Aunt-Drea placed the candles in a wide circle, setting the basin in the middle. I sat facing her, our legs crossed on opposite sides of the basin as the flames came alive around us, illuminating the photo of my mother and her glaive that sat to my left.
"Remember to focus on Alessia. It's a blood incantation so the connection should be strong enough without us having to do much." Aunt-Drea's hands moved across the water and a think fog rose from the basin. "Block your mind from anything else or it'll break the connection. Once we find her, we find Rae as well okay? "
"Okay." I extended my hand over the water as she instructed, and blood pooled in my palm as I envisioned the skin splitting . The water turned silvery with every drop and the liquid rippled as I placed a few strands of my hair into the bowl.
She took my hands in hers and we chanted the foreign script written in the book to our right, and as the words rolled off our tongues the fog grew, and so did the flames. The heat warmed my back and my eyes closed as I repeated the spell from memory as we said the words a third time.
"Voca sanguis sanguinem,"
"Blood call to blood," I spoke in English as she spoke in Latin, singing the sentences lowly as I was instructed.
"vocat alta vocat humili, "
"Call high call low,"
"Umbra illuminabit abscundita,"
"Unmask what's hidden in the shadow,"
I focused on my mother like Aunt-Drea said, replaying all my memories of her and then, her face flickered at the back of my mind. My voice rose in incantation as I tried to latch unto the image, holding on to it for dear life.
"Invisibilia detegent!"
"Unmask the unseen..."
We stood in a large room, our hands still clasped tightly together. Thick burgundy curtains covered the tall windows, yet the room was bright, and the figure in the middle of the room soaked in its light.
My mother laid on a grand bed of irises, her hands folded daintily on her chest; a cloud of darkness formed a dome around her unmoving frame. The slight rise and fall of her chest was the only consultation that she was alive, as she laid so stilly and so pale that it made me anxious. We walked towards the bed, but every step became heavier until it was almost impossible to move, and soon we weren't moving at all. The image began to shatter and I clawed at it hoping to hold on, but it slipped through my fingers and my mother disappeared once more.
The candles went out with a loud puff as we were lurched back to reality.
"Did you feel that?" I was out of breath when I spoke.
Matt sat up straighter on the couch. "Feel what? "
Aunt-Drea answered for me, a scowl on her face. "One powerful bitch pushed us out."
"But we saw her, Matty." I couldn't contain the smile on my face even with our failure. "She's alive, and that's all that matters for now. She's alive."
I flicked my wrist and the candles lit up again. "Lets try again."
The candles went out again, and again, and again. They had turned to little stumps of wax yet we still hadn't reached further than a few steps before we were pushed out. A drop of silver that didn't come from my hand fell into the water, and I wiped my nose, watching my fingers come away streaked in blood.
" I think we should stop for today. " Aunt-Drea rose and stretched her long limbs, her eyes fluttering close.
"One more time?" I lit the candles again but she outed them with a wave of her hand.
"No, you're overexerting yourself. " She handed me a rag for the blood that was streaming from my nose. "And the candles are just wicks and grease at this point. We'll start again tomorrow."
"But—"
"You guys have been going at it for hours, Soli." Matt said from his spot on the couch where he laid with a book covering his face. "You'll make better progress when you're well rested."
" Alright, tomorrow it is," I agreed reluctantly, knowing that they'd give me no choice in the matter. "I'm starving anyways."
My muscles were sore as I stretched them out, and when I stood I almost fell right back down. I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for the sudden nausea to pass.
Matty rose from the couch, "You okay over there? "
"Yeah," I steadied myself on the wall and took in deep breaths. " Just a dizzy spell. Give me a minute."
Jules was coming from the kitchen when we finally came down from the study, her hands full and Akali trailing behind her, arms crowded with dishes as well. "I was just about to come get you guys. I completely forgot it was my day to cook dinner. "
"We barely noticed," Matt took the tray from her hands and placed it on the table, shifting other dishes to make room. " We've been busy in the study— well, they've been busy and I was just great company. How were things down at the lab?"
"Crazy." Jules winced as if the thought itself was too much. "We're practically running around like headless chickens down there. I was locked up in my office the entire day studying the blood samples Drea brought. "
"What's with the feast?" I asked, taking in the wide spread that was enough to feed a group of about twenty.
She wiped her hands on her apron and touched my cheek. "Our Soli's back. Of course we're going to celebrate as best as we can given the situation. You guys go ahead and sit, I just need to get the salad from the kitchen. "
" Is Siya not back yet? " Akali asked when we were all seated at the table. She yawned into her sleeve, her fork frozen midway to her mouth.
" He called me an hour ago to say he got another assignment so he may not make it to dinner. " Jules passed me the grilled potatoes and I thanked her and piled some onto my plate, the hunger finally catching up to me.
Matt sighed over a mouthful of food and finished chewing before he spoke again. "Did you get results from the samples?"
Jules shook her head. "That's the thing. Each sample is just– I don't know, it's like they don't even have DNA. There're no traces of the species they were before, it's all just liquid. Even locating spells won't work on it. It's all just so complicated. "
I nodded and swallowed my food. " They're not themselves anymore, so it makes sense that they won't have the same DNA as before. " I blocked the recurring image of Rae with inky eyes and graying skin out of my mind and took another bite before nausea could sneak up on me again.
"But none at all?" Akali trailed off. " That's not possible."
"I know." Jules gave me a sympathetic look before speaking again. "Did you make any progress with finding Lesa?"
" We saw her, " Aunt-Drea offered, setting aside her wine," but we kept getting pushed out before we could find out where she is. The person who casted the spell is extremely powerful, we only managed to get that far because of Soli. " She sent me a smile and I blushed under the pride coming from it. "Our girl's powerful too, you know?"
" We'll just keep trying until we break through," I promised.
I sat on the floor with a bowl of water in front of me and and my mother's dress and the sweatshirt that Rae left at my place clutched in my hands, recreating the scene we did earlier. The candles came alive around me as I spoke the incantation that had imprinted itself into my memory. After dinner we chatted until we were all bone tired, catching up on the years we missed with each other. It was already after midnight when I retired to my room to take a warm bath, hoping it would calm my nerves but I was still on edge. I was exhausted, but I dreaded sleep so I busied myself instead.
I closed my eyes, envisioning my mother and envisioning Rae as my version of the spell flowed from my lips.
"Voca te mihi mater, et voca ad te amica mea," I call to you my mother and I call to you my friend.
"sit fibi responde mihi vocati inem sanguis meus anima me et venter mues imtremuit" May you answer the call of my blood and my heart.
"revela domino sphaeram as me, ut possim adprehendet vos."
Reveal your aurae to me, so I can find you.
All the air rushed out of me in one breath and the candles went out with a gasp.
I stood a few feet away from my mother, her body still surrounded by irises, but this time the windows were opened and the moonlight flowed through the room. Someone stood by the bed, her black hair pined up beautifully with extravagant jewels, a white silk dress much like the one my mother wore clung to her slim frame. Her pale hand reached through the dome and touched my mother's head, and her eyes flickered wildly under the strange woman's touch. The woman spoke softly to someone over her shoulder whom I couldn't see and my mind took me out of the room. I floated through winding hallways and passed countless windows each opened to reveal the soaring night sky until I came to a stop in a dark room, and with a start I realized it was the same one from my daydream. I saw a flash of yellow in the darkness, the same yellow I had come to memorize these past two years, and I was jolted out as quickly as I was pushed in.
The Schadeux were in a frenzy when I came back and I glared at their constantly shifting bodies in the corners, their white eyes the only thing stagnant. They shrunk under my gaze and I felt bad and softened my stare a bit.
" You know I don't speak whatever language that is. " My eyes burned and I wiped the liquid that ran down my cheek, grimacing as it came away silver. Their voices rose to a crescendo, then suddenly there was quiet.
'...aure..'
"Oh, now you speak English. How convenient." I collected the candles and placed them neatly under the bed; I'd try again tomorrow and I wouldn't stop until I got the results I wanted. "Where was that same energy a few hours ago when I was asking about my mom? And Rae."
'itz...hrd..to.'
"It's hard?" I sat up straighter, intrigued that I was having an actual conversation with them. Sure their words weren't fully decipherable, but I was able to peace them together just fine. "What, to speak English?"
They shook their dark heads.
"To speak at all?"
They nodded.
"Is that why you speak to me in my head, or at least try to? Then why not just speak English there? "The Schadeux took a few seconds then they merged into one, forming the silhouette of a little girl.
'We...spek engls. ' I tried as hard to understand what they were saying as they had to try to communicate what they wanted. 'yu... dot undrstad....yu... sht us...ot.'
" I don't.....understand because I shut you out? " I frowned and they vanished before I could ask what that meant.
A pair of knuckles rapped on the door and I peered over the bed to look at Sairen who suddenly stood in my doorway. "I see you still make it a habit to speak to yourself? "
His smooth Eçalian lilt was heavier with fatigue, his words thickening with his accent.
"Did you just get back?"
" Yeah. I was heading to my room, but your door was open and you were having an entire conversation with yourself. " He shrugged off his coat and leaned against the frame, folding his arms, and his muscles contracted under the fabric of his black long sleeved shirt.
I stood up and sat cross-legged on the bed, absentmindedly stroking Mr. Bearingtonn. "I was speaking to Schadeux."
" So you say, but I've never seen them. You may just be crazy. "
"Funny." I rolled my eyes but there was a smile pulling at my lips.
"Are you okay?" He asked suddenly and my smile dropped slowly.
That was a loaded question wasn't it? Was I okay physically? Mentally ? In general, or at the moment? All those questions had the same answer: no. "I'm better now that I have a lead."
"You do?"
"Yeah," I nodded. "We did a locating spell and we saw mom. We don't know where she is as yet and keep getting pushed out, but it's something."
"Well that's good," he sent me a small smile, "Great, even." He pushed himself off the frame and slung his coat across his shoulder. "Well I just stopped by to say goodnight. So goodnight princess."
"Wait," Sairen paused and I took it as my sign to continue. " You said earlier that we'd talk."
"Right," He nodded his head slowly as if he was just recalling what I was talking about. "I wanted to know more about what you saw, but that conversation can wait until the morning, no?"
"Oh. I thought you wanted to talk about us."
His head tilted down slightly, his lips pulling upwards. "Us? What about us?"
I laid Mr. Bearingtonn down and gave Sairen my undivided attention, no matter how hard it was to meet his eyes. " About why you're calling me 'princess', for a start."
"Do you not like me calling you princess?" His thick brow rose.
"It's not that, Sai. " I groaned and straightened out my legs so that I sat on the edge of the bed. " You've always called me Sol, only you, and I know a lot of time has passed, and things change, people change. But can we not let this be one of them?"
"Okay." He watched me with knitted brows and I lowered my eyes at the way he peered into mine. "But I do like 'princess'."
"I like Sol better." It belonged to just us.
I noticed the subtle roll of his eyes that his hair did well to hide and the slight smirk he did nothing to conceal. "Fine. Sol it is."
"Good."
"Sol?"
"Yes?" I looked up from where I had been playing with the edge of Mr. Bearingtonn's tie.
"Ask."
Apparently I wasn't as good at playing indifferent like I thought I was. " Matty said you were at work, but you're not one of the Doves at K.O.A.C, and I'm guessing by the blood on your shoe you're not a teacher either. "
"Is this your way of asking what I do? "
I nodded. "As discretely as possible. "
"That wasn't discrete at all, but I'm a Raven. "
I couldn't stop my mouth from dropping open or the audible gasp that left my throat. "You're a hunter?"
Everyone knew of the Ravens. They were bounty hunters and the ones K.O.A.C assigned when there were really powerful creatures that needed to be put down. Yet, I had never seen a Raven in real life, only heard stories about them, and I wasn't the only one; you never saw the Ravens, you just heard about the aftermath. I patted the bed as an invitation.
Sairen shook his head and walked over. The mattress sank under his weight and the Schadeux grew anxious with his proximity but I was the only one that heard them, just like I was the only one who saw them.
He laid his coat by his feet. "What do you want to know? "
I think my desire of becoming a Raven sparked when I realized that if I was strong enough, we didn't have to be constantly on the run. I was thirteen at the time. "What's it like?"
"It's practically the same as being a Dove, just with alternating hours, worse Creatures and better pay. " He ran a finger along my cheek, frowning. "Why is there blood on your face? "
I turned my head away and wiped the remaining blood with the bottom of my t-shirt. " I scratched myself earlier. "
He didn't look convinced but he dropped it anyway and I cleared my throat. " So, why does everyone seem so upset about you being a Raven? It's the most respected job."
He sighed and laid back on the bed. His shirt rose a bit, revealing planes of hard muscles and the intricate black markings of his Mark. I turned my head towards his face and tried to keep it there but his eyes distracted me as much as the rest of him did.
He stared up at the ceiling as he spoke and I remembered the nights when we used to lay here together watching the fake stars my lamp created, and listening to the stories my mother told. " The family thinks that it's my death waiting to happen. " He paused for a moment to smile, but it had no happiness in it. "My uncle was a Raven too, and we used to work together, but he died four years ago during one of our assignments. My aunt was injured as well, and after that they wanted me to quit, but I had already been a Raven for two years and I loved it. "
"I'm sorry. "
He turned to me then, and I was shocked by the amount of intensity behind his eyes. "You didn't kill him Sol, there's no need to apologize. "
I brushed the hair away from his face and touched the little crescent in the middle of his forehead. His eyes tracked my every move. "I'm sorry anyway, "
He turned away. "I'm surprised you still have this guy. " He took Mr. Bearingtonn from the bed and held him above his face, turning him over as he inspected the stuffed toy. "He's seen better days. "
I snatched him away from his hands and held him to my chest, gasping dramatically. "Mr. William Elijah Bearingtonn is a veteran Raven, and his battle wounds should be respected. "
" I apologize." He brought his arm over his mouth to stifle a yawn. "Where is my respect for my senior officer? "
" Am I keeping you up? "
" No, I don't sleep much anyway." He tilted his head, watching me as he spoke. "Besides, I'm convinced that if I fall asleep you'll disappear on me again. "
At his words I recalled a time years ago when Aunt-Drea, my mother and I had disappeared in the dead of night, leaving the sleeping house behind, and I felt a sharp pain in my heart. There was a moment of heavy silence before he spoke again, "I noticed earlier that you didn't have your Mark. "
I felt the heat in my cheeks rising when I realized the 'earlier' he was referring to, and it took all my courage to keep eye contact. " I don't think I'll get one— I'm already way over the age of twelve. Besides, I'm not fully Décalthian."
"Décalthian blood is extremely potent, Sol. I'm sure you'll get your Mark soon."
" I hope so, they make some cool ass tattoos. "
" That they do." I glimpsed another swirl of black as he came up on his elbows.
"Those," I pointed to the dark designs on his right hand that was now visible as his sleeves crept up. " Weren't there before. Were they?"
His gaze followed my fingers and he sat up straighter. " They weren't. It started a few months after you left, I think; my Mark just started expanding one day."
"Is that even possible?"
"It shouldn't be. But," Sairen pulled his shirt over his head in one swift movement. The first thing I noticed were the hard planes of his stomach and the muscles that coiled smoothly around his arms and chest, then I noticed his Mark. Intricate black designs covered his entire left arm and chest, coming together delicately and sharply to form the likeness of an Eçalian wolf, with its horns extended to his chest; but then more swirls and chords of black connected to his Mark, expanding out to his side and his right arm, towards his stomach and even lower. " It happened."
My hand moved on its own accord, the Schadeux voices rising, but a blood-curling scream from downstairs made me freeze before my fingers brushed the beautiful designs that decorated his skin . Sairen's eyes met mine before he vanished into his shadow and suddenly I was alone.
Dècaltians couldn't do that; they couldn't blend into the shadows and travel through them like he did — like I did, but Sairen had always been more than just Décalthian, and we had always been mysteries together.
My shadow swallowed me up and I reappeared in the bedroom where Aunt-Drea laid, clutching her arm and bleeding.