Lockhart's Confirmation (Vespari Lockhart Book 2)

by J. Stone

  Spencer shook his head. “Not much, I’m afraid. Well, to be honest, just about nothing.”

  “What do you mean? There has to be some record of what happened.”

  “Yes, there is.” He turned around and picked up a few of the scraps of paper. “These are the accounts of everything that happened with him.”

  “Then, there has to be a vespari’s name in there. Ambrose has to be in there.”

  He shook his head again. “No. No one’s named in these. Wherever there is a reference to the vespari who killed Azus, someone has come back and scratched out the name. There is no way to know if Ambrose was responsible or not.”

  “He covered his tracks,” she muttered.

  “What are we going to do now?”

  Wynonna nodded to PJ. “He’s the plan.”

  “Who is he again?”

  “My name is PJ,” he said. “I’m a… well, I’m an occultist.”

  The librarian’s eyes went wide and then cut over to Wynonna. “What? You brought an occultist to the Black Tea Tower? Are you mad?”

  She waved a hand at him dismissively. “He’s fine,” she told him. “PJ is going to help us.”

  “If the other vespari don’t kill him maybe. And us for collaborating with him.”

  “He’s not a monster,” Wynonna said. “He just has a gift, and that’s what’s going to prove Ambrose is a murderer and a cultist.”

  “How is he going to do that?”

  PJ pulled the silver round from his pocket and held it up for Spencer to see. “This.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Wynonna bound a soul eater within this round,” he explained. “I can harness its power.”

  “How does that help us?”

  “Every monster that a vespari has ever killed is stored in our tattoos,” Wynonna said, tapping her chest. “PJ can expose every living creature destroyed by a vespari. If we can get Ambrose alone, we can prove that he’s the one who killed Rohan, the one who killed Kaelan all those years ago. It’ll be proof that Ambrose is working with the Eternal Night under the name, Azus, and that he’s working to destroy the vespari from within.”

  “That’s… that’s…” Spencer had no words, shaking his head as he pondered the plan.

  “We’ve tried everything else,” Wynonna said. “He’s left no trail that we can possibly follow. PJ can do this.”

  “What if it wasn’t Ambrose? What if we’ve been wrong about the whole thing?”

  “Then, we’ll prove his innocence, but you know there’s no one else that makes sense. Nicolae is too fat, and Bowater is too young… and stupid.”

  Spencer looked down at the ground and stood silent for a moment. “Alright. We’ll try things your way. What’s the exact plan?”

  Wynonna smiled. “All you need to do is get Ambrose down here by himself. PJ and I will take care of the rest of it.”

  ***

  Both Wynonna and PJ stood behind the door waiting for Spencer to return with Ambrose. She gripped her revolver in hand, while he held onto the silver round. Every passing second felt like both torture and a release. She felt so close. She’d so nearly finished it. All the damage Ambrose had inflicted over the years was about to come to an end.

  When Rohan first told her his story, Wynonna didn’t quite know what to think. She simultaneously wanted to stop the cultist as well as forget him. Corrigan had sent her to Alexandria for a single purpose, to receive confirmation as a vespari. Back when she still had a chance of becoming one, she was more willing to overlook the possibility of foul things going on in the tower.

  Now, however, after learning of Ambrose’s true nature, she couldn’t sit idly by any longer. The corrupt elder was not simply working with the cultists of the Eternal Night for whatever malevolent purpose they had, but he had also taken the life of a man she cared for. Rohan was dead because she didn’t act sooner, because she didn’t take the threat more seriously. She couldn’t take all of the blame for Ambrose’s deeds though. After all, the elders wouldn’t have banished Corrigan to the desert wastes if no one had murdered Kaelan. The trail of destruction stretched back decades, but no more. It all needed to end, and she was going to see to that one way or another.

  When the door beside them finally creaked and pushed open, Wynonna felt a shiver go through her spine and her back went rigid. She put a hand to PJ’s stomach to hold him back, as Spencer stepped through. The librarian continued forward, stopping and turning around at a bookshelf.

  “What is so important then, Spencer?” Ambrose asked, walking in behind him.

  As soon as the elder was inside, Wynonna moved into action. She pushed the door closed and aimed her revolver at Ambrose.

  “Don’t move,” she ordered him.

  The elder stopped and twisted his head part way around to see her. “Wynonna? What are you--?”

  “Shut up,” she said. “PJ, lock the door.”

  The occultist did as she said and then moved to join Spencer.

  “What’s going on here?” Ambrose asked. “Spencer, what is this?”

  “We’re looking for the truth,” the librarian told him.

  “What truth?”

  “One of the vespari elders is corrupt,” Wynonna said. “One of you is working with the cultists of the Eternal Night.”

  “I’m certain you’re upset that we didn’t confirm you as a vespari, Wynonna,” Ambrose began, “but this isn’t the way to deal with it.”

  “If you’re innocent, you’ve got nothing to worry about.” She pointed at PJ. “My friend here is going to expose every creature you’ve ever killed. If we--”

  “An occultist?” Ambrose asked, turning his attention to PJ. “You really have lost your way.”

  “He isn’t evil just because he has a power inside him. And, right now, he’s going to prove how useful his power can be when in the right hands.” Wynonna turned to PJ. “Do it.”

  The occultist nodded, and their experiment began.

  ***

  The gold energy exploded out of PJ’s hand, clenched tightly around the soul eater’s silver round. Shooting out from his fist, it collided with the elder’s chest. He froze on the spot, and Wynonna knew exactly how he felt. That cold, wet feeling, with a strange force seeping inside you and gripping power, pulling it out, and making it manifest for all to see.

  As the golden light penetrated him, and forms began to flow out from him like they had Wynonna, she lowered her revolver, knowing he was not a threat so long as the spell held him. She just hoped that no one would wander by and see the lights glowing under the crack of the door. Luckily, the spell made little to no noise, and Ambrose, frozen as he was in that pose, made no sound either.

  The creatures that began to emerge from Ambrose were diverse. Lycanthropes, vampires of different types, vishlers, harpies, gargoyles, nagas, and many other things Wynonna didn’t know. Some she at least partially recognized from Corrigan’s journal, but others were entirely foreign to her. The one thing she did not see, however, was any vespari. Neither Rohan nor Kaelan numbered among the dozens upon dozens of forms filling that library.

  “I don’t think they’re in here,” PJ said, as if reading Wynonna’s thoughts.

  “Keep looking!” she shouted, peering around the room for any sight of the two men or anything else that would be incriminating.

  “I’m telling you, Wynonna,” he replied. “He didn’t do it.”

  “He has to be the one!”

  “It wasn’t him, Wynonna,” PJ told her, relenting from the spell.

  “Don’t stop now!” Wynonna shouted. “It had to be him!”

  Ambrose, meanwhile, flopped to the ground, weakened by PJ’s use of the soul eater magic.

  “I’m sorry,” PJ told her.

  Wynonna ignored the occultist and pointed at Ambrose. “You have to be the one. You’re corrupt! You orchestrated all of this! You killed Kaelan. You framed Cory! You tried to have me killed! I know it was you!”

  “I don’t know what you
’re talking about,” he replied with concentrated effort.

  “Only you and Bowater voted against me, and that idiot isn’t clever enough to get away with this.”

  After a couple quick breaths, he asked, “What are you talking about? I didn’t vote against you.”

  She shook her head. “What?”

  He looked up at her from the ground. “I voted for your confirmation, but Nicolae didn’t. It surprised me as well, but--”

  “It can’t be,” she said. “He doesn’t fit.”

  “Doesn’t fit?” Ambrose asked.

  “It wasn’t him,” PJ told her, gesturing toward Ambrose. “Maybe you should consider--”

  “No,” she said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

  Wynonna took a couple quick breaths, thinking about what Ambrose had just told her. She wondered what she should now tell him. PJ had just helped her prove he didn’t kill Rohan, hard as that was for her to believe. Given PJ’s proof, however, she saw little reason to distrust the elder.

  “I didn’t kill Rohan,” she finally told him.

  He gave her a confused expression. “What? But you brought back his medallion. His gun.”

  “I lied. I found Rohan, but I spared him.”

  “But, why?”

  “He wasn’t an oathbreaker. He told me what really happened that night in the tower.”

  Ambrose looked genuinely interested. “What? What did he tell you?”

  “Rohan stumbled on two robed figures - cultists of the Eternal Night performing some ritual in your chamber - in the elders’ chamber.”

  “Madness,” he murmured.

  “It’s true, and the robed figure had to have been one of you - one of the elders. I spared Rohan, but when I went to look for him again, I found him dead.” Wynonna reached into her pocket and pulled out the bloody runed bullet. “Dead by this.” She tossed the bullet on the ground in front of Ambrose.

  The elder picked it up, twisted it between his fingers, and then looked up at Wynonna. Standing up, he said, “And you thought I killed him?”

  She grimaced but nodded. “I thought the soul eater would reveal your role in his death.”

  “I didn’t kill Rohan,” Ambrose said, shaking his head. “I loved him like a son. It broke my heart to even order his death.”

  “Then who? Rohan described the robed man as slender. It couldn’t have been Nicolae, even if he went against me in the confirmation, and Bowater’s a jackass but not smart enough for all this. I’m missing something.”

  Wynonna started to pace back and forth, watched by PJ, Spencer, and Ambrose alike. She paused and went rigid.

  “Spencer, who said they saw Cory going into Kaelan’s chamber the night he died?”

  The librarian moved over to the table where he’d left the transcript. Dragging his finger along the paper, he eventually looked up and said, “Nicolae.”

  “Nicolae?” she repeated. “Again, his name comes up?” Her eyes dashed to and fro, searching for some clue as to how everything added up. There was one piece which had yet to make any sense to her whatsoever. “Azus,” she said, looking to Ambrose.

  He looked at her with an odd expression. “What?”

  “Azus,” she repeated, walking toward the elder. “What do you know about him?”

  Ambrose thought about it, screwing his face up and staring at the ground. After a moment, he looked back at her. “You mean that cultist? From decades ago?”

  “What can you tell me about him?”

  The elder shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not sure what there is to tell. He killed innocent people mercilessly to fuel his rituals, until he was finally stopped.”

  “What happened? How was he stopped?”

  “He was killed. Nicolae killed him.”

  “Nicolae? Him again?”

  “But, you remember what Rohan said,” Spencer interjected. “The cultist was thin.”

  “I remember,” she replied. “But, we keep coming back to him. There has to be a reason for that. Someone killed Rohan, and I’m willing to bet that it was the same person who killed Kaelan and framed Cory. The same person who supposedly killed Azus all those years ago.” Wynonna turned to Ambrose. “Where is he? Where is Nicolae?”

  The weakened elder finally stood up, bracing himself on one of the tables there in the library. “I’m not helping you on this witch hunt. You have no proof of anything.”

  Wynonna pulled the sketch of herself from her pocket and laid it on the table beside Ambrose. “I found this in the nagas’ lair. Someone tried to have me killed.”

  Ambrose picked up the paper and looked at her image. He then flipped it over and read the note on the back. Shaking his head, he said, “This doesn’t prove anything. Nicolae wouldn’t do this.”

  Wynonna sighed, just now realizing one more piece to the puzzle. Turning to Spencer, she asked, “You said Nicolae was the one to have you draw this sketch?”

  The librarian nodded. “He was.”

  “Look, Ambrose,” Wynonna began. “Every piece of this points to Nicolae.”

  “Just as you thought it pointed to me mere minutes ago?”

  She shook her head. “I was wrong, but you’ve given me more information. Who killed Azus? Nicolae. Who claimed to see Cory go into Kaelan’s chambers? Nicolae. Who had Spencer draw my sketch? Nicolae. Who denied my confirmation? Nicolae.”

  Ambrose’s face remained still and steady. She hadn’t convinced him of anything.

  “Fine. Let me ask you this,” she said. “Who was it that wanted me to kill Rohan?”

  The elder looked down and then back up at her. “It was Nicolae’s idea, but we all agreed that--”

  “And who wanted me to go after the naga?”

  He frowned. “Again, Nicolae, but--”

  “He sponsored me just so he could use me to clean up his mess. When I didn’t do it, he decided to get rid of me.”

  Ambrose shook his head. “There are… a number of coincidences here, but that doesn’t mean he’s a cultist. It doesn’t mean he framed Corrigan, and it certainly doesn’t mean he murdered Rohan and Kaelan.”

  “What if Nicolae didn’t do it?” Spencer asked from beside them.

  “What are you getting at?” Wynonna replied.

  “Azus. What if it really was Azus?”

  “How would that even work?” Ambrose asked. “He’s been dead for decades.”

  “Maybe not,” Spencer said. “Did anyone else see Azus’s body?”

  The elder shook his head. “Not that I recall.”

  “Then, maybe events didn’t unfold like everyone was lead to believe. Maybe Azus never died and instead found some way to control Nicolae.”

  Wynonna turned to PJ. “Any thoughts on that?”

  The occultist shrugged. “Well, I don’t claim to know everything, certainly not when it relates to cultists, but it seems possible.”

  “We would’ve known that something was wrong,” Ambrose said. “A cultist couldn’t have hidden within the vespari ranks all these years.”

  “Even still, it doesn’t explain the figure Rohan saw,” Spencer said. “You said he described a thin man. As you know, Nicolae is not that.”

  “Then, it wasn’t Nicolae in the room that night,” Wynonna replied. “It was Azus.”

  “How?” Ambrose asked.

  She shook her head. “I… I don’t know.”

  He frowned.

  “Look, Ambrose, I don’t know everything that’s going on here. You have to admit that there are too many coincidences lined up to simply ignore. All of this has to be at least worth asking Nicolae a few questions, right?”

  The elder stared at the ground for a minute, while everyone else just waited in silence. When he finally looked up again, Ambrose walked to Wynonna. Instinctively, she gripped the revolver at her side, expecting the worst. She was surprised then we he nodded to her.

  “I agree,” Ambrose told her. “I don’t know that Nicolae is guilty of anything, but I’m prepared to ask him a few questions a
bout it.”

  “Good. Then, how do we do this?”

  The elder walked around her. “Come with me. All of you.”

  ***

  Ambrose took the group of them up to the third floor. They passed a few vespari along the way, some who gave them strange looks, but being with the elder, no one said anything or tried to stop them. Word had clearly gotten around that Wynonna hadn’t received her confirmation though, if the looks she got were anything to go by.

  All the same, they soon arrived at the elders’ chamber, and Ambrose unlocked the door, letting them in with him. He closed the door behind them, first peering out into the hall to check if anyone had seen them. Turning around to face them, Ambrose pointed to one of the side doors that she’d never been in. She’d assumed that they belonged to the individual elders, as there were three of them.

  “In there,” Ambrose said, walking past the group.

  “What’s in there?” Wynonna asked.

  “This is my private office,” he explained. “You should wait in there, while I locate and bring Nicolae to you here.”

  “Mm. If you say so.”

  He pushed in the door and held it open for them to enter. Wynonna did so, followed by PJ, and Spencer was about to walk in, when he was stopped by Ambrose.

  “Why don’t you come with me, Spencer?” he suggested.

  “What do you need me for?” the librarian asked.

  “Nicolae will need a reason to return here.”

  “Can’t you come up with something?”

  “It will be simpler if I have a legitimate need. Do you still have that information you dug up on Queen Keqet?”

  “Keqet?” Wynonna asked.

  Spencer turned to her. “Oh, that’s right. In all this, I forgot to tell you that I looked her up. We’ll need to do something about her once we get everything resolved in house.”

  “So, you know who she was? You know what happened to her?”

  “I do, and it’s--”

  “Enough,” Ambrose said. “We’ll handle all that later. I just need a reason to get Nicolae back here.”

  “Right,” the librarian said. “Shall I collect my materials?”

  “Yes, go down and grab what you need, so everything looks legitimate. When you have them, meet me back outside these chambers, and I’ll bring Nicolae inside. We can figure everything out from there.”