The Black Fortress

by E. G. Foley

  “Not that I blame him for seeking to extend his life,” she added ruefully. “If I had the sort of afterlife awaiting me that he’s got in store, I’d probably do everything I could to escape death, too.

  “But, sooner or later, Zolond’s got to pay the price for the choices he’s made.”

  Nixie’s eyes widened. This Geoffrey, her old beau, was Zolond? The Dark Master? Sorcerer-king of the warlocks who could command the demons and made the Black Fortress their home?

  Her heart pounded.

  The Elder witch gave Nixie a pointed look that told her in no uncertain terms this was not to be discussed outside her suite. She took a sip of milk and continued in a cool tone. “So, until my old beau joins his lord, Shemrazul, in the Ninth Pit of Hades, for my part, I’ll just keep on having these ridiculous birthdays.”

  With that, Lady Bradford took her final bite of cupcake.

  “Well,” Nixie said calmly, doing her best to take such devastating revelations in stride, “I, for one, am glad you’re still here, ma’am.”

  The baroness chortled, then quickly regained her dignity. “Thank you, my dear. People like you make my sentence on this earth much more tolerable. So, tell me, what is the moral of this story, hmm?”

  “Whew,” Nixie said. It had been an overwhelming lesson. Stunned, she sat there, still taking it in. “Use magic wisely?”

  “And?”

  “Never use bad means to achieve good ends?”

  The Elder witch gave her a wink. “Atta girl.”

  CHAPTER 35

  A Heart-to-Heart

  That night at Griffon Castle, Jake ate supper with his cousins, Derek, and the twins at the long, formal table in the red dining hall. Red and Teddy were stationed in the corner, as usual, scarfing down their food from their bowls.

  Jake had been quiet for most of the meal, turning an idea over in his mind while the adults chatted.

  He stared through the dancing flames atop the tall silver candelabra, only stirring from his reverie when Archie asked him to pass the partridge hash.

  Absently, he floated the serving bowl down the table to his cousin using his telekinesis before the footman posted by the wall could even react.

  Isabelle gave Jake a curious glance as she sipped another creamy spoonful of the cheese-and-walnut soup, no doubt sensing his wistful mood.

  When a break in the adults’ conversation emerged, Jake suddenly spoke up.

  “I should like to throw a welcome-home party for my parents once they’ve been rescued,” he announced. “I was wondering if any of you might have ideas about what might be suitable.”

  Everyone at the table turned to him, looking astonished that he, of all people, should make a civilized suggestion.

  Henry’s eyes began to glow with pride to hear him talking so proper, to boot. He lifted his goblet in a toast. “Capital notion, my lad.”

  Miss Helena smiled. “I think that is a lovely idea, Jacob.”

  “So do I,” Isabelle said, perking up a bit. She had been glum on the whole ever since they’d left Merlin Hall.

  Archie warmed at once to the idea and instantly began throwing out clever inventions he could rig up to really dazzle them when they came home. “Fireworks? A cannon that shoots confetti?”

  “We’ll need music,” Derek murmured with a smile.

  “And dancing,” Miss Helena chimed in, dimpling at her beau.

  But Isabelle sighed at the mention of dancing and lowered her gaze, looking downcast again.

  This distant attitude was so unlike her that Jake decided to try to talk to her about it after supper that evening. See if he could help. After all, she was always there for him whenever he needed someone to talk to.

  He was no empath, of course, but the least he could do was try and return the favor.

  And so, after the meal, Jake went over to his cousin, who was sitting by the fire in the great hall, working on her embroidery loop by candlelight.

  It surprised him because, for all her many talents, Isabelle was terrible at any kind of sewing.

  Even as he walked toward her, she pricked her finger on the needle and let out a small cry of pain.

  Jake smiled as she popped her fingertip into her mouth.

  “Hope it’s not fatal,” he said.

  She harrumphed and squeezed her finger, then shook it. “No, but it hurt. That’s the third time I’ve poked myself in the past quarter hour! I’m starting to feel like a human pincushion.”

  He leaned over to look at her colorful project. “What’s that you’re working on?”

  She sighed. “A sampler for Aunt Ramona’s birthday. It was supposed to be done three days ago, but I’ve been procrastinating.”

  “When’s her birthday?” Jake asked in surprise as he sat down in the other leather armchair across from the fireplace.

  “It’s today, Jake.”

  “Blimey,” he said with a frown. “I didn’t get her anything.”

  “Don’t worry, she despises her birthday.” Izzy gave him a look. “She’s had so many of them, she doesn’t like to be reminded.”

  “How old is she?” Jake murmured.

  “I’m not sure, exactly. Mama says she’s over three hundred.” Isabelle shrugged. “I just thought I’d pass the time here in the country making her a handmade gift. No magic involved—obviously.” Wryly, Isabelle held up the embroidery loop, showing him her work, and Jake had to admit that the flowers in the design resembled lopsided bricks.

  “It’s nice,” he offered, but Izzy scoffed at his tact.

  “It’s dreadful. I’m hoping it’s the thought that counts.”

  Jake laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m sure she’ll love it. She loves everything you do.”

  Isabelle cocked her head with a rueful smile and set her embroidery project aside. “Maybe it would be better if we just took a stroll into the village tomorrow and bought her something nice.”

  “Oh, I would love a break from this place,” Jake said heartily. “Let’s ask Derek and Henry if we’ve earned a day off yet. Maybe they’ll let us go.”

  Isabelle nodded, then her thoughts apparently drifted once again, as they had so often ever since their party had left Merlin Hall.

  Her faraway stare fixated on the cheerful blaze dancing in the fireplace.

  “Hullo?” Jake called.

  She blinked back to awareness and glanced at him. “Sorry, coz, was there something you wanted?”

  “Just to talk to you,” he said.

  “About what?” she asked with unusual bluntness.

  “Maddox.”

  Her golden eyebrows lifted. She sat up straighter. “Maddox? What about him?”

  “It’s obvious you miss him. So, instead of moping around here or stabbing yourself with sewing needles, why don’t you just write him a letter to tell him how you feel?”

  She looked at him in surprise. “Write to Maddox?”

  Jake nodded.

  But Izzy stared back at him, looking tongue-tied. Then he noticed the guilty flicker in her blue eyes, and his brows arched as understanding dawned.

  “Oh. So, it’s not Maddox you’ve been moping over.”

  She dropped her gaze and floundered, her cheeks turning pinker in the fire’s warmth.

  Jake leaned forward, searching her face. “Talk to me, Iz. I’m worried about you. You haven’t been your usual happy self since we left Merlin Hall. I tell you everything.”

  Izzy gave him a soulful look, then glanced over her shoulder, scanning the rest of the spacious, high-ceilinged great hall to gauge the whereabouts of the others.

  Miss Helena was sitting at the pianoforte perusing a catalog of fabrics and fripperies, and jotting down items she wished to order. Derek was at the round oaken table, reading the Times sports page in between steps of cleaning one of his rifles.

  Archie was playing chess with Henry at the game table over by the wall where the knight’s suit of armor stood. As for the pets, Teddy was running circles around Red in the center of the ro
om.

  No one paid Jake and Izzy any mind.

  “Well?” He turned to her again. “What’s bothering you?”

  “Could we take a turn out on the terrace?” she asked timidly.

  Jake nodded. “Of course. I could use some fresh air.”

  They rose, and Izzy slipped her shawl around her shoulders. Jake pulled his jacket on again. He’d removed it after supper and hung it on the back of a chair.

  “We’ll be out on the terrace for a few minutes,” he told the others.

  “I got overheated sitting by the fire,” Izzy added.

  “Don’t stay outside too long.” Miss Helena glanced up from her catalog. “It’s chilly out.”

  They agreed, then walked out onto the terrace behind Griffon Castle.

  Though it was barely eight o’clock, the blue-black night enveloped them in shadows the moment they stepped outside. As they crossed the terrace, dried leaves skittered and rasped across the flagstones at their feet.

  Above them, an uneven cloud cover hid the half-moon and veiled the stars. The outline of the trees bristled against the sky. The large topiaries throughout the garden made strange, hulking shapes in the dark. But straight head, down the central garden aisle, Jake could see the wide River Thames rolling by endlessly.

  A glimmer of moonlight silvered the current.

  In any case, the cool night air cleared Jake’s head quickly after the heavy meal and the cozy warmth around the fireplace.

  The two cousins strolled over to the far edge of the terrace, where Izzy stood pensively at the top of the shallow stone stairs that led down into the garden.

  Jake perched on the wide stone balustrade nearby. “So, what’s afoot?” he asked, resting his elbow atop his bent knee.

  Izzy gazed up at the half-moon for a moment, the night breeze riffling her long skirts.

  Jake waited, determined to be patient, per his lessons.

  Finally, Isabelle looked at him. “Janos yelled at me.”

  “What?” Jake wrinkled his nose.

  “Well, not yelled, exactly. It was more of a snarl. ‘Stay away from me,’ he said.”

  Jake looked at her in shock. “When was this?”

  “Right after he came back through the portal with the team. The night his family died.”

  “Blimey.” Jake pondered this, then frowned. “Well, you can’t really blame a chap for what he might’ve said at such a horrible moment as that.”

  “No, I know!” she said in obvious frustration. “It’s just, his anger was very specifically directed at me.” She shook her head, distress filling her face. “I can’t imagine what I did to offend him. It was almost like he blamed me in part for what happened to his family. I just don’t understand how that could be.”

  “Neither do I.” Jake was mystified. “Why on earth would he blame you? That doesn’t make any sense.”

  “I have no idea,” she whispered with a shrug.

  “Has he tried to, you know, contact you? Mentally? Telepathically, I mean. To explain or apologize or…?”

  “No. That’s why I think he really meant it. If the words just slipped out, then surely he would’ve said something by now. Like he was sorry. That he didn’t really mean it. And I’d forgive him, of course. As you said, who could blame a person for lashing out at such a time?”

  “You were probably just the first available target,” Jake said.

  “That’s what I thought, too, at first. It’s not as though I would hold a grudge against anyone under those circumstances. But that’s just it. I haven’t heard a word from him. Nothing.” She shook her head. “I cannot comprehend why Prince Janos would blame me for their deaths. I had nothing to do with it!” She pressed her hand to her heart. “I did my best to help him, didn’t I? You were there. We did exactly as he asked.”

  “We did,” Jake agreed, nodding. “You got his message down perfectly.”

  “And yet he lashed out at me, as though, somehow, it was all my fault.”

  Jake frowned and watched the river for a moment.

  Isabelle toyed with a tassel on her shawl, moving restlessly across the top of the garden stairs.

  “Let me ask you this,” Jake said after a moment. “Have you tried scanning him with your abilities?”

  “Lord, no.” Izzy shuddered with a dire look. “I don’t dare. He might sense it and get offended all over again. He’s angry enough at me as it is.”

  “But it might provide some answers.”

  “I can’t invade his privacy, Jake. He made it very clear he wanted nothing more to do with me.”

  Jake squinted, confused. “I don’t understand. He’s always adored you. You know it’s true.”

  She looked away with a low, unhappy laugh. “What, you mean all his silly flirting? He doesn’t mean anything by it. That’s just his sense of humor.”

  Finally, his cousin smiled, as though remembering all the times Janos had informed her she was going to marry him when she grew up. The times he had given her and nobody else the most courtly of bows, and the way he clutched at his heart as though mortally wounded every time she rolled her eyes at his clowning.

  Remembering all those instances himself, and seeing the look on Isabelle’s face right now, Jake suddenly remembered what Maddox had said about the matter.

  “Oh dear,” he mumbled, leaning back on his hands. The stone balustrade was pleasantly cool and rough under his palms.

  Isabelle looked over at him. “What?”

  “Well, this is awkward,” Jake said, debating whether to tell her Maddox’s daft theory.

  What if the grouch was correct after all?

  “What?” Isabelle prompted, her long skirts swinging as she turned to him. She folded her arms across her chest. “Did Janos say something about me?”

  “No, no,” Jake answered. “I never did get a chance to talk to him before we left Merlin Hall.”

  “Well, what then?” she demanded.

  Jake hesitated, but it wasn’t as though the Guardian lad had sworn him to secrecy. “Maddox has a theory.”

  “About Janos?” Izzy snorted. “Then it’s probably not very nice. Maddox hates him.”

  “Well, hate’s a strong word. But yes. A theory about Janos.”

  “Do tell,” Izzy said in a skeptical tone.

  An owl hooted somewhere in the trees.

  Jake sighed and sat up straight again. “I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but Maddox thinks Janos loves you.”

  “What?”

  “Like—really loves you. Up-on-a-pedestal kind of love.”

  “Me?” She gaped at him. But her voice caught when she added, “Don’t be silly.”

  Jake shrugged. “Maddox thinks that all of the vampire’s joking around with you is just him hiding the truth in plain sight. Like spies always do.”

  Isabelle went perfectly motionless, staring at him with her mouth hanging open.

  At that moment, the moon peeked out from behind the clouds and illumined her face. She looked stunned, her lips parted, her eyes wide.

  Then she turned away without a word, gazing at the river. Jake could practically hear her heart pounding.

  “Well? What do you think?” Jake asked. “You’re an empath. I mean, you can sense when someone loves you, can’t you, Izzy?”

  “Yes,” she said faintly. Then she went and leaned against the empty stone urn at the end of the balustrade across from Jake. She looked a little shaken.

  He waited for her to explain. “You’re awfully quiet, coz.”

  Isabelle lifted her gaze from the ground and stared at him, clearly at a loss.

  When Jake read the mix of wonder and alarm in her eyes, understanding dawned.

  Then it was his turn to be amazed.

  “You already knew,” he murmured.

  She shook her head, glancing toward the river. “I-I didn’t know that that’s what I was sensing all this time, until you just said it now. I never would’ve dreamed… I mean, he’s so impossible! Oh, but every time
I’m with him, Jake, it’s such a beautiful feeling. He feels like no one else to me. Safe and sure. Undemanding and kind. Completely nonjudgmental.” The words tumbled from her lips as though she could no longer contain them. “Everybody judges me. I always have to be so careful in everything I do! I try so hard.

  “But he just…accepts me. Exactly as I am. And he knows who I am, because he can look right into my heart.”

  Jake studied her, amazed. “You love him too?”

  “I don’t know!” She seemed shaken merely to ponder the words. “All I know is that he’s so easy to be with. Not many people are that easy for me to be with. But I swear I never thought it was that.”

  “Love?” he asked slowly.

  Izzy nodded, still looking dazed. “I-I thought it was just…Janos being Janos. His charm. His wit.” She hesitated. “I know we share some strange sort of bond. I felt it, too. But I made light of it, just like he always has. Because, obviously, it would be impossible for us… Totally impossible. He’s too old for me, for starters.”

  “No older than those other chaps your mother shoved in front of you at the harvest feast.”

  “He’s a vampire!”

  Jake shrugged. “He saved my life. He rescued Red. He makes you laugh. He has a good heart.”

  “It doesn’t matter.” She shook her head, her face solemn. “Father would never allow it in a hundred thousand years.”

  “Aye, probably not,” Jake admitted.

  “Anyway, whatever Janos might’ve felt for me before, it’s clear he despises me now. I only wish I knew what I did wrong.” Tears suddenly welled up in her eyes.

  “Aw, don’t cry, coz.” Jake rose, determined to help her solve this. “C’mon. Let’s walk down to the river and skip some stones. I’m sure the two of us can figure this out if we try.”

  She nodded absently, blotting her few tears away on the end of her shawl. Jake led the way down the center aisle of the garden. Izzy trailed after him, morose.

  The grass was soft underfoot, but the breeze grew stronger and the soothing sound of the current grew louder as they approached the grassy riverbank.

  When they reached the edge of the water, Jake searched around in the moonlight for a flat stone, found one, and tossed it out across the water.