by A. J. Locke
“I can’t believe I pulled that off,” he said. Kyo and I rushed over to him.
“You did it?” I asked. “And Tielle didn’t suspect anything?”
“She didn’t,” Ethan said.
“And you got it?” Kyo asked.
Ethan rummaged around in his bag and took something out, which he then presented to me. “I got it.”
I took the object from Ethan with a smile. “Phase one is complete. On to phase two.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
I walked into Tielle’s office looking calm on the outside while I felt like I was burning up inside from the rage I was trying to not let show. On the one hand, I had long known how ruthless Tielle could be, but our recent stint as allies and something that sort of resembled friends meant that what she’d just done to me hurt quite a bit. It was all I could do not to blow in here on all that rage and slam her head onto the desk she was sitting behind until her skull cracked open and…
Deep breath. I took a slow, deep breath, and exhaled it just as slowly. Tielle was on the phone, so I stood in front of her desk until she hung up. She got up and came around her desk and what would you know, she gave me very sympathetic eyes as she looked me over. Someone give this woman an Oscar.
“I can’t believe what happened,” Tielle said. “But you seem to be on the mend. I am sorry I was too tied up with work to come visit.”
“It’s okay,” I said, forcing my voice to remain neutral. It didn’t help that Tielle was wearing that awful perfume again. “I’m healing well because of my little soul-less glitch, but my speedy recovery sure confounded the doctors.”
“I’ll bet,” Tielle said, flashing a quick smile.
“The Savages and Revath keeping you busy I assume?”
“Yes,” Tielle said, face growing solemn. “It’s hard to anticipate when the Savages will appear again, but it’s been estimated that there are about fifty of them by now.”
Revath was halfway there.
“We’ve been able to capture a few and are holding them in a more secure location than we did Brian.”
“Hopefully they don’t escape.”
“They won’t get far if they do,” Tielle said. “But this whole Savage situation is even more distressing because Micah is now one of them. How are you holding up?”
“Not well,” I said. “I won’t be okay until the darkness is out of Micah and his soul is back in. Revath keeps the Savages’ souls in a rune that’s hung around her neck. I saw her suck Micah’s soul into it. But I don’t think it will be easy to get that away from her.”
“At least we know where the souls are,” Tielle said. “It is information we can work with.”
“And Nova is still locked up?”
“Yes,” Tielle said, nodding. “She keeps calling for you.”
“I’ll bet,” I said. “I have nothing more to say to her. She started this, but she cannot stop it.”
“Are you afraid?” Tielle asked, voice low. “This is unlike anything we’ve ever dealt with before. I am at a loss as to how to contend with this sort of power.”
“I’m a lot of things,” I said, walking over to the windows. Being too close to Tielle was making me want to wrap my hands around her throat.
“How’s Ethan?” Tielle followed me and we looked out at the view of the city. Were the Savages going to rise soon? I shuddered, trying to push the image of those red, soulless eyes from my mind. I had to focus on why I was here.
“Did he black out again?” Tielle asked. “I wanted him to stay but he insisted on going home.”
“Was it a bad episode this time?”
“It seemed so, I am very concerned. He said he wanted to come by and talk to me about what was going on, but not too long after he got here he started to convulse and blacked out. I went to get help but he had regained consciousness by the time I returned. It frustrates me that I cannot figure out what is causing these blackouts. I tried to persuade him to stay for more tests, but the thought of that seemed to scare him.”
“Can’t blame him, after what he’s been through,” I said. “But I’ll keep an eye on him and if it gets worse he won’t have a choice but to come in.”
“Okay, good.”
I let silence take over for a moment before I spoke again. “How’s your son, Jian?”
“He’s well, still taking in what NYU has to offer. I think he’s leaning toward going there.”
“Ethan told me they met,” I said lightly. “Said he seemed nice, I’d like to meet him before he leaves.”
“We can arrange that, granted the Savages don’t enact another massacre.”
“Hmm. Or I can meet him this afternoon, in Washington Square Park, where he’s currently sitting by himself on the rim of the fountain reading The Fault in Our Stars.”
“What?” Tielle’s tone was sharp and her eyes narrowed as her head whipped to the side to stare at me. I turned to her with a slow smile.
“I know exactly where your son is right now and what he’s doing.” That was thanks to Kyo and Ethan. Ethan had texted me while I was in the elevator to tell me that they had Jian in their sights.
“What are you playing at, Selene? Why the interest in my son?”
“Because your adopted son is very interesting to me,” I said. “Or rather, your biological son that you gave up for adoption then adopted after stripping him of his dead magic. That sounded confusing, but as you are already well aware of what you’ve done, I’m sure I don’t need to clarify.”
Tielle’s body was rigid, and if her eyes could shoot lasers, I’d have two gaping holes in my body right now.
“Selene…what…”
“Thinking of unleashing an angry tirade on me? I wouldn’t.” My voice was flat, no inflection of emotion in it, and I met Tielle’s gaze without flinching. I let my anger fill me up until my body was flushed with heat. My hands balled into fists.
“I know all about the true dead witch history,” I said. “And I know that you know I know. Jian is your biological son and he has no idea of that. Or that he is a dead warlock without his magic. I also know something else. That you were the one who had me beaten. Your cloying perfume gave you away, Tielle, but bravo on that convincing show you just put on pretending to care about my well-being.”
Tielle’s eyes narrowed even more, but she said nothing. Her mouth had flattened into a tight, tension-filled line.
“How did you find out?” I asked. “And why couldn’t you have just talked to me about it?”
“Because it’s none of your business,” she spat. “And I found out from Leena.”
“I used a memory altering rune on her.”
“A large quantity of those runes turned out to be defective. The effects were not permanent. Unlike the Memory Rune I used on the men I hired to take you, Leena regained the memories you wiped out. Then she came straight to me.”
“Where you immediately arranged for me to be abducted and beaten to scare me off my investigation.”
“You have no business poking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“You really think I am the wrong party here? Are you fucking serious?” I couldn’t stop my voice from rising and it was all I could do not to punch her in the face. “For over three hundred years you dead witches have been gorging yourselves on the magic of dead warlocks. You ripped their souls from their bodies and banished them to the In Between. Then you flourished while history forgot they even existed. All because they didn’t want to help you and the fucked-up human government of that time kill off reanimators. And after that, generations of dead witches killed male infants to make sure the warlocks never rose again. Killed their own damn babies moments after they took their first breath. Oh, I guess you’d say the past couple generations have been more humane in their approach to males that are born, but it really isn’t much better to take someone’s magic and lie to them about who they really are. You and all the dead witches who insist on sitting on top of this dark, horrible, secret are the truly despicable
ones, as is showcased by the lengths you were willing to go through just to stop me. I am someone who helped you more than once, saved your ass more than once. I just cleaned up your mess with the crossover ghosts and this is what you do to me?” I took a step closer to Tielle, and whatever she saw in my eyes made her take a step back. An uncertain look flashed across her face.
“I am going to blow this wide open,” I said. “And there is nothing you can do to stop me. But if you do not give me what I want right now, I will bring your son into this in a way I am sure you do not want.” I nodded my head toward her desk. “Why don’t you go have a look at the pretty little rune box you keep in your desk drawer.”
Tielle frowned, then a split second later hustled over to her desk and pulled out her rune box. Moments later she gasped and stared at me with a warring look of fear and anger.
“Could it be that a green rune that’s wrapped in gold is missing?” I asked. “The rune that contains the magic you drew out of your son when he was born? Yeah, I have it. And that was the real reason for Ethan’s visit by the way. His blackout problem is real and needs to be addressed, but the one he had here was a performance.”
Tielle sputtered, clearly having a hard time wrapping her head around the fact that she’d been played. I had told Ethan where her rune box was and which rune to procure after his fake blackout. I remembered that Tielle had used runes she kept in that box to scan my body last year and inform me that part of my soul was missing. I had seen the green and gold rune then, and seeing Magda’s had jogged my memory.
“Selene, give me that…”
“Oh, I don’t have it on me,” I said, cutting off her thunderous words. “Ethan has it. And if he doesn’t hear from me in the next…” I checked my phone, “ten minutes, he is going to go up to your son, sitting on the fountain in Washington Square Park, tell him all about your deception, and give him that rune. Your relationship with your son will become something I don’t think you can salvage, would you like that?”
Tielle’s body was shaking, and her face had turned red with rage. I was not afraid of her lashing out at me though. One, I couldn’t die, and two, I had just put a time limit on things. Her time was best used helping me as opposed to trying to hurt me.
“I’ve also disabled his phone for the time being, in case you were thinking of calling him.” That was a favor I had asked of Carlos when I went to see him earlier.
“If you’re going to expose us anyway what difference does it make to threaten my son?” Tielle said. “He will find out regardless.”
“True, but Ethan isn’t the only one I have with eyes on Jian. And my other friend is a very skilled fighter and has a sword. Made of ghost fire. Because he’s a ghost, you see.”
Tielle’s eyes widened. “You would not dare kill my son.”
“You’re right; I’m not a monster like you. But I could return the favor you dealt me to your son. Did you hear about all the injuries I sustained? Would you like to see your son laid up in the hospital? Unlike me, he doesn’t have a supernatural connection to a ghost in the Afterlife to help him recover as quickly as I did. Trust me, I would rather not hurt your son in any way.” I took a step closer to her and dropped my voice. “But I will. I will fight fire with fire, Tielle, and no matter what happens, just remember that you started this.”
Tielle stood there seething for a while longer before she spoke through gritted teeth.
“What…do…you…want…?”
“Oh, it’s very simple,” I said. “I want the location of all the dead warlock bodies. Especially that of a warlock named Kyosuke Isarou.”
“The majority of the warlock bodies…are in New York.”
Each word seemed like it pained Tielle to say, and I knew she wanted to lash out at me. Only the knowledge that her son was being threatened was keeping her in check.
“Where exactly?” I asked.
“Beneath the Paranormal Library.”
“Great.” I started walking to the door. “I guess we should get a move on then.” I paused at the door when I saw that she hadn’t moved. I raised an eyebrow.
“My son,” she said tightly.
I pulled my phone out. “I’ll text Ethan and tell him to give it an hour and a half more.”
“That may not be enough time to find the body you’re looking for.”
“For your son’s sake, you better make sure it is.” I walked out of her office, and after a moment’s hesitation, she followed.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
I made Tielle ride with me as opposed to driving separately to make sure she didn’t try anything. Needless to say, it was a rather uncomfortable car ride, but fortunately not a long one since the Paranormal Library was not far from the PCC. Once we arrived, Tielle indicated that we would not be going through the main entrance. She took us to the back through what looked like a service entrance—a narrow, non-descript gray door near the Dumpsters. Once inside a musty smelling hallway, we walked a short distance under flickering lightbulbs until Tielle stopped at a door. She fished out a ring of keys from her purse, found the right one, and when the door slid aside, another door was revealed. This time it was an elevator door. It contained a keypad, which Tielle used to type in a rather long code before the doors opened. With a frigid glance at me, she stepped inside and I followed suit. Once the doors slid shut, Tielle pressed one of the only two buttons there were to press. One to go down and one to go up.
“Why here?” I asked. Despite the modern keypad, the elevator was ancient and moved slowly, and I was beginning to realize that even with the slow descent it was a long ride. Just how far underground were we going?
“This Paranormal Library is the oldest in the country, the first one to be established,” Tielle said in a clipped voice. “It was built not only to house knowledge…but to keep secrets. After the events with the warlocks, their bodies were initially hidden in numerous places all over the world, but as time passed and the world developed, the witches realized that it wouldn’t be long before someone came across some of the bodies. Raze an old building, excavate an area to build on, and you might find a tomb of warlocks. So very slowly and over the course of several decades, most of the bodies were covertly moved here. Does that answer your question sufficiently?”
“It certainly does,” I replied smoothly. Her poisonous tone didn’t bother me. At the end of the day, despite my methods, I knew I was the one who was right.
“It is admirable the lengths you have chosen to go through for this,” Tielle said. Her voice was softer, but it was still hard. “With only a smattering of knowledge about what happened three hundred years ago, you decided to take on the task of righting an ancient wrong.”
“Ancient or not, it’s still wrong,” I said. “And there are wrongs still taking place, aren’t there? With the way you treat males who are born with dead magic.”
Tielle’s jaw tightened. Fact was fact. It was one thing to keep such a dark and terrible secret, and another to continue to feed into it.
“Be that as it may, don’t think for a second that the warlock hands are pristine and clean. That they did no wrong in their time.”
“Everyone does wrong. It doesn’t make what you did any more right.”
“For your sake, I hope this Kyosuke Isarou is worth your gallant efforts to unearth his body.”
I said nothing. I didn’t have to defend myself to Tielle when I was the one trying to do something good.
Finally, the elevator stopped and the door slid open. I had been wondering what I would find at the end of that long ride, but was not really prepared for what I saw.
The space was huge. Gigantic, ginormous, whatever word for really, really big that you could think of. The Library was massive, but I got the feeling that this underground space spread out from the library and probably spanned the next few blocks. And we were so far underground that we were way below the basement level of any other building in the area. Dull lights were strung along the stone walls, and I couldn’t imagine how
not fun the task of getting electrical wiring down here must have been. Before electricity, many a candle surely met their end here.
It was spacious, but it was packed. With coffins. Or wooden boxes, rather. To me, coffins were made of glossy wood and were smooth and gleaming with nice hardware, but clearly the dead witches had seen no reason to lay the warlocks in anything other than a plain, pine box. And knowing how old these boxes were and the journey they’d been through to get here, their decrepit condition was understandable.
I shuddered. Tielle held herself still as she stared out over the sea of coffins, and even though I knew what I was coming to find, it was unnerving and creepy to look out and know that each and every one of these boxes held a body. It was worse knowing that many of them contained bones or decomposing bodies since Kyo said many dead warlock ghosts no longer existed. Still, a tinge of excitement went through me. Kyo’s body was here. Intact and still containing his magic. I just had to find it.
“Well, let’s get to it,” I said, walking forward.
“I told you an hour and a half would not be enough,” Tielle said. “We need more time; you have to tell Ethan to leave my son alone.”
“No service down here,” I said, waving my phone at her before shoving it in my back pocket again. “And I don’t want to waste time with that ridiculously long elevator ride. We have fifty minutes left. Best get to searching.” I glanced at the boxes I was closet to. “They have names on them, good.” What a relief. I would not have wanted this process to involve opening each box until I found Kyo.
Tielle moved like a wooden soldier over to a row of coffins and started to inspect the name tags. The light was dim, and a lot of the names were faded or obscured, so it wasn’t the easiest task. I took out my phone again and opened my trusty flashlight app. It helped with being able to decipher some of the more illegible names. As we searched, Tielle and I moved rows and rows apart, but I kept my eye on her. She very mechanically walked to a box, bent slightly to look at the name, then moved to another one.