I glanced back over to Adeline as Lothar and Jake walked around the circle to the point where the two coffins sat side by side.
Adeline followed them but took it a step further, using her magic to help her float down to the coffins and standing above the new one that just appeared. The green light surrounding her soaked back into her body once more. Only a small flicker of light remained just inside her palm. She aimed it down toward the coffin and let it gently glide over the stone lid.
“Is it his spouse?” Lothar asked, kneeling before the edge of the circle to get a closer look.
Adeline cocked her head in curiosity. I wasn’t sure what her magic was telling her but I could see it piqued her interest. Within seconds her expression shifted from curiosity to concern. She let her magic pour back into her body and lowered her arm.
I waited for her to say something. Anything!
Her skin was always like porcelain. It possessed a softness I knew mine would never achieve. And yet, when I looked at her she went even paler. Her cold breath blew from her mouth in a heavy vaporous cloud. I knew whatever she learned from her magic touching the coffin that she didn’t like it.
“It wasn’t his spouse,” she said, locking her eyes on mine. “It’s the grandmaster’s twin sister.”
10
Lothar sneered down at the coffin and rose back up from his knee. He turned his back and crossed his arms over his chest while Jake looked downright amused.
“Well, that explains a lot,” he said with a sarcastic grin.
Adeline floated up from the coffin with her magic glowing from both palms and her feet, gliding toward me like a celestial being and landing with perfect ease.
Lothar walked around the circle. I thought he might spit down at it granted the way he was scowling.
“Riley, listen to me,” Adeline said, forcing my attention away from Lothar. “I don’t know if you realize it yet but this changes things.”
“I realize it,” Lothar muttered once he reached us.
“Only because you’ve been in the lycan realm and worked alongside magical beings for several years. Riley hasn’t.”
“What is it?” I asked, knowing whatever she was about to say would likely change my future. “What does this mean?”
“I think it’s possible that the link between you and Dirk wasn’t just meant to protect him,” she said. “My magic told me more than just who was in the other coffin. I saw things. Things that happened centuries ago. I understand how the Dolch Erbe is recruiting now. It may feel like Dirk kidnapping you and linking your lives was the worst thing in the world. But let me tell you, Riley. You were one of the few to survive it. Countless others they’ve brought here for over five hundred years fell victim to the grandmaster’s inner circle. I saw their faces. The people he tormented in each century. He did so for a purpose. He was looking for the proper body to give over to his twin’s spirit.”
My mouth nearly fell to the ground beneath my feet. “Dirk was trying to do to me what he did to Margaux?”
“Yes, but for another member of his inner circle.”
“His twin sister.” The memory of what my dad told me at the café in Paris sparked in my mind. He said the original grandmaster had a sister that died by the hands of a lycan. Was this her coffin?
Jake clapped his hands while Lothar mumbled a few colorful curse words under his breath.
“That’s the key!” Jake said. “Alina is going to love this.”
“What’s the key?” I asked, feeling ignorant given that everyone else seemed to catch on and I hadn’t.
“We never knew why certain people fell to the Dolch Erbe before you became a lycan, Riley,” Adeline said to me. “You being here has given us answers. I need to return to Budapest and do more research in my family’s records of the Dolch Erbe’s suspected members but there’s one more detail I never even thought to consider until now. None of us would.”
“What detail?”
“The grandmaster has a twin. A twin he always sought to find a body for so he could bring her spirit back. That means every person who fell to the Dolch Erbe and became a grandmaster had a twin. They must have switched places every century to thwart suspicion. One century it would be a woman and the next a man and so on. The spirit of the original grandmaster chose you and your brother on purpose. You were of the Blackatter bloodlines and you were twins. A rare find and nearly impossible to track.”
My father was wrong. In the café, he told me it was meant to be him. He believed the grandmaster wanted him as his newly acquired body. Perhaps that was never the case. He was meant to find a woman and have her give birth to twins in his bloodline.
As the four of us stood there looking down at the coffins another realization struck me. The curse was meant to draw Blackatters together but what if it served another purpose as well? What if it assured that when Blackatters procreated, they produced twins? And if there was always a set of twins each century, the grandmaster and his sibling could consistently have fresh bodies to possess that met their requirements.
“Why wouldn’t anyone have noticed that?” I asked as the thoughts in my mind danced around a whirl of possibilities. “It seems like a noticeable pattern.”
“Because the grandmaster didn’t intend to use you as a member of the Dolch Erbe,” Lothar grumbled. “He wanted a link between the two of you so his twin’s spirit could override yours when it was convenient.”
“Like a spy?” Jake asked.
Suddenly my concerns about the curse and being drawn to Rodrick weren’t my greatest concern anymore. They didn’t matter at all. Breaking the link between my brother and me could mean life or death. If the spirit of the grandmaster’s sister started possessing me, she could get me to do anything. I could give Dirk secrets without knowing it. She could take hold of my mind, my body, and my spirit. Maybe she had already. Would I have a way of knowing if she did?
Adeline saw my breaths getting shorter. My heart was pounding inside my chest and I knew Lothar and Jake must have been able to hear it.
“Chin up, Riley,” Adeline said to me, taking my chin in her hand and forcing me to resist hanging my head. “We know more now about the Dolch Erbe’s recruiting tactics than we ever have before. And I won’t let that bitch take hold of you. I would know if your mind wasn’t entirely your own. You’re Riley Blackburn and no one else. Do you understand?”
I gave her a weak nod. “Yes. I understand.”
She let go of my chin and looked me up and down. “This link might actually be more useful to use than it was to Dirk. Whatever he meant to do with it wasn’t completed. You managed to kill his luxra witchling before that could happen.”
‘Which led to him getting his hands on Margaux as the replacement. Well done, me.’
“So what now?” Lothar asked, getting more agitated by the second.
Adeline threw him a glare. “Patience, Lothar.”
“We don’t have time for patience. Especially if-”
“Quiet,” she scolded him. “There’s one way of knowing more about the link and how to manipulate it in our favor. A way that could help us draw Dirk in and capture him. If we do that, we can potentially purge the grandmaster from his mind and save Dirk’s life. We didn’t know that was possible a few minutes ago. But there’s one way we can see if it’s probable.”
“How?” I asked eagerly. She had given me the first glimmer of hope for Dirk’s life that I had in months.
“We need to capture Margaux,” she said. “The spirit of the luxra witchling you killed during the ritual now resides in her. That luxra cast the spell linking the two of you together. The same luxra can break it. Or perhaps help us use it to draw Dirk in closer so we can capture him. But first, we must get Margaux. Only the luxra spirit residing inside her can tell us more.”
“Yeah, good plan,” Jake objected. “I can totally see a member of the Dolch Erbe cooperating with the likes of the Vontex over the grandmaster.”
“You don’t think my magic i
s limited to removing enchanted booby traps, do you?” Adeline smirked.
“Definitely not,” Jake said. “But I do recall seeing Margaux’s wand taking control of Riley’s magic when we last saw her here.”
“Because of the wand she carries. It’s called the svethulka. It’s one of the most powerful wands ever carved. It’s over seven hundred years old and passed down to the most powerful luxra for ages. Until the 17th century. All traces of it disappeared. Now we know why. Luxra pined for it because it’s one of the only wands ever created that can manipulate another witchling’s magic. She must be disarmed before she gets a chance to use it.”
The familiar whispering through the trees grazed by my ears, making my arms erupt into a sea of goosebumps far more than the winter chill was capable. I couldn’t make out their words. I didn’t need to. The atmosphere changed so dramatically that I felt each one of my senses erupt with one instinct. To run!
I raised my palm to see my magic dancing in a swirl of crimson red light on my pale skin. My magic was warning me of danger. It was getting closer.
‘Dirk!’
“He knows I’m here,” I said.
“Who?” Jake asked. I was tempted to roll my eyes. For being a smart and capable Vontex Jake had moments of being dense that stunned me.
“My brother!” I said forcefully. “He knows I’m here. Maybe he did the last time too and that’s why he sent Margaux.”
The breeze rushing through the trees picked up, swirling my hair behind my head and sending a parade of scents from the forest through my nostrils. Crows in the trees overhead cawed into the air and abandoned the branches, fleeing the area as fast as they could. I heard the scurrying of small feet on the floor of the forest as animals rushed through the fallen grass and leaves to getaway.
Adeline faced the ritual circle once more and let her magic rain down on the coffins below, forcing the stones to move back into their place and cover up the crypt just as it was when we first arrived. I wasn’t fascinated to watch her this time around. I turned about frantically, trying to get a feel for where Dirk was. Or if he was there at all. As far as I knew, he didn’t have anyone else from his inner circle. But that didn’t mean he didn’t have allies.
I heard a loud smash of the stones merging together once more. The crypt was covered up and the array of dirt and forest debris hid what remained. Adeline made sure everything looked as though it hadn’t been disturbed. I knew better. That wouldn’t stop Dirk or any other lycan from being able to smell our scent long after we left. I wasn’t sure if her magic could or would account for that.
“Let’s get out of here,” she said once she was finished. “We did what we came here to do.”
“Don’t we want to break open the other coffins?” Jake asked. “Maybe we can find out more.”
“Perhaps another time,” she said as she brushed by him and lifted her hand to open a vixra tunnel. “Right now we need to get back. I have more research to do and plenty to occupy my attention before we return. You three and Alina focus on finding Margaux. Use the oracle wheel if you have to.”
Adeline opened the tunnel and let the light rip into the air, sending a strong wind through my limbs and making the goosebumps already on my arms prickle over me. Lothar motioned for me to follow her and he would be close behind. I did so, careful not to look down and doing my best to control my landing. I was getting better at it but I was far from perfect. I managed to only stumble a little once I reached the other side and was back to standing by the bridge near the fortress of the academy. Lothar and Jake came in behind me. Adeline didn’t hesitate for a second before sealing the entryway and making sure the tunnel was shut.
“He won’t be able to pass through or trace where I made the tunnel,” she said. “Even if he is the grandmaster, there are limits to what he can do.”
“Even if he has vixra blood?” I asked.
“He would have to go about getting it illegally. There are channels for witchlings to get it but we make it difficult.”
‘My brother already did the unthinkable. I don’t think he’s beyond breaking a law about the acquisition of vixra blood.’
“Gentlemen, would you mind giving me a moment alone with Riley?” Adeline gave them a slight bow of her head. “Thank you for accompanying me tonight. I was able to get much more information than I ever had before.”
“You did all the work,” Lothar admitted. “So thank you.”
“Hardly. I like to know others have my back when entering enemy territory. I’m glad you were there with me.”
“You’re most welcome.” Jake flashed her a grin and came up to shake her hand goodbye. Even I could see it wasn’t a gesture of goodwill. He wanted to flirt with her.
‘Don’t take her compliment quite so literally, Jake. She’s being polite.’
Lothar took Jake by the shoulder and pulled him away before he could reach for Adeline’s hand. “Come along, Jake.”
Adeline didn’t speak up again until they were both out of earshot. Which for lycan hearing meant we waited until they were both back inside the fortress.
“Walk with me,” she said.
I did as she requested and joined her as she walked along the Thames river beside the fortress. The river that I knew wasn’t actually the Thames but a mere copy in the lycan realm. If anything, that was a relief. I always thought the Thames was rather disgusting. It was full of nothing but pollution and rubbish. The Thames in the lycan realm, however, glistened a brilliant shade of greenish-blue. I could hear the fish inside swimming to the surface and biting at the flies. It was a part of nature that I missed and rarely got to see. Maybe Adeline knew I needed a few seconds of quiet. Especially after the prospect of Dirk possibly showing up at the ritual site before we got a chance to getaway.
“Riley,” she started. “It’s more important now than ever that you concentrate on your studies. If you focus harder than you ever have before and graduate with good marks you can join my family in Hungary. I don’t know about you but nothing would make me happier than having you close by.” She wrapped her arm around my shoulder just like she did when I was a young girl of fourteen, walking about the streets of Paris at night before I knew anything about witchlings or lycan. A time when I innocently thought she was more of a friend than a guardian. And yet, I couldn’t help but think of her in that way now. She was a guardian of sorts. One that always looked out for me and probably wanted to do so now more than ever. She saw losing my mother as a personal failure. She didn’t want to fail me as well.
“I’d love that too,” I said to her. “And I also had something else on my mind.”
“What’s that?”
“I learned what my brother was doing in Paris when he was living with Margaux Carville and Alexei Ibragimov. His mission was to create safe houses for Blackatters so they wouldn’t be confined in Budapest. I want to continue his work.”
She smiled down at me. “It’s a noble thought. And a worthy pursuit. But we’re not there yet.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“The vixra council doesn’t make mistakes very often and there’s rarely a time when I strongly disagree with their judgment. But allowing your brother to pursue such goals in the city where the curse originated wasn’t wise. To be fair, none of us knew for certain that it was cast there. Nevertheless, it led to him falling prey to our enemies. Let’s focus on getting Margaux back and purging that wretched wench from her body before sending you to Paris on your own. Is that fair?”
I sighed. “Yes, it’s fair. Which is why I don’t like it.”
She laughed. “I don’t expect you to maintain a level of complete security or caution. Going into the abyss when it’s at its darkest is a quality required of the Vontex. And yet, you’re important to me Riley. As was your brother. If you’re going to finish his work, let’s remove as many obstacles that can harm you as possible. For my peace of mind. Agreed?”
I couldn’t argue. And what surprised me more was that I didn’t wa
nt to. I missed Adeline so much after my mum died and my father carted my brother and me back to England. Alina had been too busy and too sour with me lately. To hear someone say those words to me was heartwarming to a degree I hadn’t felt since my mother was alive. We spent the next hour walking along the Thames, catching up on everything she missed since I came back to England. I told her about the band and the songs we practiced together. She told me about her travels abroad in search of various witchling treasures she read about in her mother’s journals from a time when America was known as the Colonies.
By the time we walked back to the fortress and she opened up a vixra tunnel I didn’t want her to leave. I had so few allies. And even fewer people that didn’t expect anything from me. All Adeline asked was that I worked hard at the academy. I adored her for it.
My room was empty when I got back. Alina was still nowhere to be seen. I did my incantation, placed a droplet of the liquid silver on my tongue, and fell into the most restful sleep I had experienced in weeks.
‘She must have used her magic to calm me when she placed her arm around me. Sneaky woman.’
11
The back door of the classroom slammed shut. Alina walked in with the graded exam papers stuffed inside her side bag. They were practically falling out. She reached for them as they almost spilled onto the floor. I nearly jumped from my seat when she dropped the bag onto the podium before the classroom and lifted her head to face her students.
She looked exhausted. And not to mention miserable. However tired she appeared before, it was worse now. The circles under her eyes were turning gray. She was in the same blouse I last saw her in from our previous class, only now it had pit stains. Her hair looked as though she hadn’t combed it in days. And from the small whiff I got of her when she walked by my desk she hadn’t showered since then either.
‘What in the world were you doing on the continent?’
She flipped her bag open and reached for the papers inside. She usually tucked them in neatly. Not this time apparently. Some were even folded over.
Rescind: (Lycan Academy of Shapeshifting: Operation Shift, Book 4) Page 10