by Briar, Robin
I actually thought that was a strange decision at first, especially if killing a manipulative warlock was the easier mundane solution to their problem. It wasn’t until we actually faced him that I finally understood their decision. Felix crackled with magical energy.
Seeing Felix here now answers a few questions for me right away, like who tattooed Trent and his minions with magic immunity. If what I’ve been told about Felix is true, he could have done that. It also explains the teleportation circle, which he would have inscribed.
The fact that I don’t have access to the quicksilver pool, however, I can’t explain. I wouldn’t be able to threaten Felix as a spellcaster, but I could protect myself at the very least.
Trent looks at the ground for the silver spike and realizes that it’s not there anymore. He quickly looks up at me on top of him. For one second, a flood of emotions plays across his face. Hurt and then anger.
Trent reaches around my back without looking and rips the silver spike out of my grip.
“You were going to kill me?” he asks.
Felix chuckles. “Don’t doubt it. This one is the Maiden of her coven.”
“Wait, you know each other?” Trent asks Felix.
“We’ve met,” he answers. “Seduction is her forte. That’s how she wins, Trent—by getting you to lower your guard.”
He’s not wrong—seduction is what I do, but it wasn’t that simple this time around. There was more going on between Trent and I than expected. A lot more. I’m almost afraid to say what it was.
I haven’t experienced that kind of intimacy in a very long time. A part of me wonders if I’ve ever experienced that kind of intimacy. The men I siphon for lust were all being observed, either directly or remotely, by Candice and Saffron through our shared bond to the quicksilver pool.
The few times I didn’t tap into the quicksilver pool with Mason, his sister would have been riding along, feeling everything that he was.
Trent actually looks wounded beneath me. He’s trying to stay mad, but wrestling with unexpected emotions at the same time. He’s starting to think that what happened between us was strictly deception.
If I’m right, he’s magnifying that feeling by how vulnerable he allowed himself to become. I’m all too familiar with how men harden after realizing they’ve exposed their soft underbellies to a woman. It’s almost like they want to feel betrayed in order to feel strong again.
I look down at Trent sympathetically. “If you shifted into a wolf, even a half-man, half-wolf, that would have killed me. I had to protect myself.”
“What? You think I can’t control myself?” he says. “I mastered my wolf a long time ago. I only change when I want to now.”
Felix laughs out loud. “I love it! A witch actually hurt the feelings of my werewolf general! Seeing that alone makes coming all the way down here worth the trouble.”
That’s going to sting Trent’s ego more than I want. I have to control this situation.
“I have no idea how much control you do or don’t have! You could have the discipline of a monk or the hair trigger of a teenager for all I know. I have to look out for myself. I know for a fact that you’re self-interested enough to understand that much. If it makes any difference, I was going to kill you sooner, but kept putting it off.”
That gets a wry grin out of Trent, but Felix laughs.
“Ha! She’s still trying to seduce you! I don’t think she can help herself. It’s like breathing for this one.”
That gives Trent pause as he seriously considers Felix’s words.
“You kissed me. Is that how you get men to lower their guard before stabbing them?”
I stand up off Trent’s lap indignantly.
“If that’s what you want to believe, go ahead. Felix is clearly your master. Let him tell you what to think as well as do.”
“He’s not my master,” Trent counters.
“Uh-huh,” I say sarcastically as I retrieve my clothing. “Let me guess. You have some amicable deal where he tells you to do and you do it. You agreed to be his lackey at first, but now you’re indebted to him. I know what that tattoo on your neck does, Trent. I also know who put it there now.”
“Oh, I am impressed,” Felix says. “Now she’s even feigning disappointment, like she has some kind of hold over you. Masterful work, dear, truly, but if you’re falling for any of this, Trent, I may have to find myself another general.”
Trent looks back and forth between us. I pretend not to notice, and pull my cut-offs on over the layer of sweat that has rapidly formed on my body. My shirt as well. It would be more comfortable to wear nothing in this heat, but I want Trent to think I’ve been offended.
In for a penny, in for a pound.
“If you can’t tell the difference between real and fabricated pleasure, then you’re a fool,” I tell him. “Trust your instincts or doubt them. I don’t care anymore.”
That last part is lie. I do care, especially as I can’t cast spells right now. Felix is a warlock of the highest order, and I’m utterly defenseless, cut off from my coven and the quicksilver pool.
I need somebody on my side, and Trent is the best I’ve got right now. I know it’s desperate to count on him after only having sex once, but I’m not exactly in a position to choose at the moment.
The rest, however, is true. I really was feeling something in the moment with Trent. He was too. We were both caught off guard by it.
I glance at Trent just long enough to see that he hasn’t made up his mind yet. Good. If he’s anything like Mason, instinct guides him more than anything.
“Very impressive,” Felix jeers while clapping. “That was a truly excellent performance!”
I walk up to the man with golden eyes standing the same height as me. Felix is pissing me off, and there’s no point in hiding it.
“Okay, warlock, this is obviously your dungeon. Lock me up, string me up, whatever, but get on with it already. Your passive-aggressive bullshit annoys the fuck out of me.”
He smiles and gestures for me to leave through the open slab entranceway, standing aside like a gentleman.
“Well, I don’t want to do that. If there isn’t any fuck left in you, then what does that really leave? Your bag of tricks would be empty.”
Felix knows that I’m cut off from the source of my magic. It must be a feature of this place. This is his clever way of asserting dominance. I won’t give him the satisfaction of reacting with fear, so I walk past him disdainfully. Maybe I can get my bearings by looking around.
Three stone stairs lead up to a hallway, where it’s even hotter than in the small stone room. Sweat is pouring down my face continuously now. The ceiling here is arched, maybe fifteen feet high at the peak.
The entire length of the hallway is lined with slab entranceways. Each one is located on a landing down three flights of steps. There is a sconce spaced out between each slab and every torch is burning.
I start to wonder if there’s a teleportation circle behind each one of these entranceways, but then my attention is grabbed by something much more interesting.
Two massive double doors made out of steel, the surface etched with the landscape of a massive battle. The doors mark one end of the hallway, terminating the space. It’s hard to make out the details from this distance, but I recognize what looks like an army.
The army is being led by a large man with cloven hooves, double-jointed legs, leathery wings on his back, and two enormous horns on his head. Not really a man so much as a demon, but wearing breastplate armor and wielding a gigantic curved sword.
The demon is depicted heroically on one door, blade in hand, facing a giant on the adjacent door. At least what looks like a giant.
The behemoth appears human from the waist up, bald and bare-chested, with arcane runes etched on his flesh. From the waist down, there is nothing human about the giant, only fire, smoke, and wind where legs should be.
The whole scene has been meticulously carved, which must have taken a lifetim
e to do.
I immediately want to see more, and step toward the double doors for a closer look before I even realize I’m doing it.
Felix snaps his fingers and extinguishes the torches bookending that end of the hallway, shrouding the steel sculpture in darkness. Apparently his magic has no problem working in this place. What did he say earlier?
Seeing that alone makes coming all the way down here worth the trouble.
We’re underground.
More torches begin to snuff out, from the steel doors to where we’re standing now. That’s when something else occurs to me.
I’m an unexpected visitor here. Felix is doing his best to be nonchalant about it, but none of this was ever intended for my eyes. Which means that I should pay even closer attention my surroundings than I have been.
If this is a private sanctum of sorts, then every square inch of this place is relevant, assuming I get out of here alive.
There’s a slab entrance directly across from the room where Trent and I were entombed. It’s marked with a series of numbers. I commit them to memory before the torches next to them extinguish as well.
Felix gestures toward another wall, where the other end of the hallway terminates. There’s an opening there, beyond which a flight of stairs curves upward. No windows anywhere that I can see, but if we’re underground, that’s not surprising.
I keep repeating the numbers I just memorized in my head.
“Let’s head up,” Felix says casually. “As you can tell, it’s a trifle hot down here. I wouldn’t want such an exquisite weapon of lust to sweat away her delectable curves. That would be a shame, even if we are enemies.”
Felix takes the lead as Trent approaches me from behind. I turn around and look at him, trying to gauge what he’s feeling. He looks neither angry nor cheerful. He does incline his head toward Felix. Understood. Follow the warlock.
Trent is a soldier right now. A high-ranking soldier, perhaps, but still compelled by orders. I take a chance and touch Trent’s naked chest with the tips of my fingers, making eye contact with his disturbing crimson gaze.
Only then do I respond to Felix behind me.
“Is that what we are? Enemies? Or just two people on the opposite sides of a fence who want the same thing?”
Trent’s eyes flare when I say that. The words were intended more for him than Felix. I spin around and do as bidden, following Felix.
I notice that each slab entranceway we pass is marked with another set of numbers. Too small to make out from a distance, so I don’t try. Memorizing one set of numbers is enough.
As Felix passes each parallel set of torches, they snuff out as well, leaving the hallway in darkness behind us.
“If that’s true,” Felix answers, “then maybe we should learn how to share the wealth.”
Wealth. He’s talking about Trixie like she’s a resource to be mined. Felix had access to her for a year before we began to suspect what was happening.
Shortly before squaring off against Felix, Candice told me that none of us were a match for Felix individually. Not even Saffron. That’s why she stopped her from charging after him alone.
Together, however, our combined might was more than able to repel him.
Trixie is protected against Felix now. Saffron keyed the spell specifically to the warlock, which is why we had to face him at least once. The hex prevents him from coming within a mile of Trixie, which can’t make life easy for him in the same city.
Now, while I consider Trixie a close friend, I must always keep that secret from her, just like our surveillance is conducted. Trixie still thinks that Felix left her callously. The truth is that he wanted to keep seeing Trixie, just not for love.
From what I gathered, Felix was slowly draining Trixie, treating her like an energy source for his magic, much like I drain the lust of men to fill the quicksilver pool.
The only difference is that in Trixie’s case, she can fill an even larger magical reservoir than an uninhibited werewolf, which is saying something. Saffron once told me that her daughter is a force of supernatural energy, which shouldn’t be surprising with her as a mother.
Rather than raise the girl, however, Saffron left Trixie in the care of two loving parents.
For twenty-five years, we have watched over Trixie from afar. Candice and Saffron obscured her existence with countless spells, cloaking her power from the world. From the world—but not from Felix, apparently.
He bided his time, almost as if he had been looking for her specifically.
When Felix got a hold of Saffron’s daughter, he drained her supernatural energy almost completely. She was near empty when we drove him off with a powerful hex. Trixie worked at The Vault for one year before he introduced himself. After that, he had her all to himself.
Trixie believed that she was in love at the time, but has since moved on, which wasn’t easy. The heartbreak she felt about Felix suddenly leaving was devastating to her for a long time.
We don’t actually know if the power Felix stole from Saffron’s daughter will replenish itself or not, but we’re always watching, either Kumi or one of the coven members. Near as I can tell, Saffron is navigating uncharted waters where her daughter is concerned these days.
As for right now, I don’t know how much Trent knows about Trixie these days, but I’m certainly not going to tell him anything.
“There’s nothing to share,” I tell him. “People aren’t resources to be used up and cast aside. They have value beyond your selfish needs.”
Felix stops before walking through the doorway. He turns halfway and looks back at me with a single raised eyebrow and a surprised look on his face.
“You believe that, don’t you? It makes me wonder how much you know about Saffron’s daughter. Perhaps, even after all these years, the Crone is still vetting you. She’s always been slow to trust, especially where her experiments are concerned.”
Felix doesn’t wait for an answer to his question; he simply turns around and makes his way easily up the narrow staircase.
12. Matters of the Heart
Felix and Trent march me up the stairs and through a false wall. The hallways change after that. Stone is replaced with riveted beams of metal, like an old military base, with row after row of doors on either side. A labyrinth of hallways.
We don’t get far before Felix places his hand on a scanner, or his eye to a camera, or speaks into a microphone. Every door opens. I’m waiting for him to use the iron key around his neck, but he never does.
I should be worried for my life, but I can’t help but wonder how tedious this must be for anybody who comes down here regularly. I’m fascinated by the level of security. It’s still quite warm on this level, but much more tolerable than it was in the stone hallway below.
Not only that, but the further we travel, the more modern the place becomes. It feels like we’re walking through history, centuries of it. Styles change, construction techniques, but not the security. That stays the same no whatever where we end up.
It’s like this place is constantly being updated with the most current technology. Keeping whatever lies behind these doors securely locked away. It’s almost impressive enough to make me forget about my predicament.
For Felix and Trent, however, none of this appears remarkable. They’ve seen it all before. Felix must be navigating the hallways by memory, but I can’t remember how many times we’ve changed directions now.
I am pretty certain this is The Vault, where Trixie used to work. There are branches all over the world, but she never left town during the two years she was employed by them—or, more specifically, by Felix.
I use the silence to repeat the numbers I read on that slab entranceway in my head. I may be lost, but I don’t want to forget that sequence. I’m sure they’re significant.
Felix really didn’t want me to see anything down in that hallway. He also wanted it to seem like he didn’t cared one way or the other. For that matter, he revealed a bit more to me, whether he in
tended to or not.
Firstly, he and Saffron have known each other for a long time. Longer than Saffron ever told me. That could mean anything. They could be enemies or friends or something even more intimate. Everybody is entitled to their secrets.
It’s not like Saffron lied to me about her connection to Felix. The subject simply never came up. Still, if the whole point is to protect Trixie from Felix, then I would think every little piece of information might be useful.
Secondly, Felix also said that Trixie is a part of some grand experiment engineered by Saffron. That could either be a lie or true. I suspect the former, an attempt by Felix to make me distrust Saffron at the very most or question her motives at the very least.
Regardless, he didn’t elaborate. He simply gave me just enough information to whet my curiosity. I won’t tug on obvious bait, but I would like to know more. Even if it’s just his side of the story.
It would be so much easier to read Felix if I had access to my spells, like Discern What is True. I reach out for the quicksilver pool to see if I have access again. No. Still cut off. I repeat the sequence of numbers to myself one time and then break the silence.
“So am I to be your guest, then? Locked in one of these rooms, perhaps?”
Felix looks back at me as we keep walking. “Not these rooms, no.”
“So what are these room for if not to seal away troublesome problems?”
“Incorrect, Jess—they can be used to lock away problems, but each of these vaults is already owned by a client. Some of these rooms will never be opened again, a contract in perpetuity. Those rooms are more about containment than storage.”
“And the stone rooms down below?”
Felix places his hand on a security scanner.
A computer voice chirps back at him, “Felix Eichmann. Recognized.”
“You already know more about those rooms than you should,” he answers, before pointedly looking back at Trent. “If the rules I outlined about teleportation circles were followed, then it wouldn’t be an issue right now,” he says before walking through the next door that opens.