by Kade Cook
“What in the Realm were you thinking when you decided to pull a stunt like that anyway? What happened to slowly gaining the girl’s trust and getting her to help you so that no one would notice anything?” Cimmerian shakes his head in irritation then turns back toward the board and begins erasing again with more vigor this time.
Adrinn glances down at his vapourish feet, swishing them as if he is bored. “I never was one for patience. Actually, I detest waiting on others in general. Hmmm, maybe that is something I might want to work on.”
“Yes, you do that.” Cimmerian stops cleaning for a brief moment and rolls his eyes at Adrinn’s absurdity.
Adrinn slides his way closer to Cimmerian’s side to sit on the desk and leans in. “So, tell me…did the girl survive?”
“Yes, but barely.”
“Excellent. All is not lost then,” Adrinn says with a smug grin and rubs his hands together menacingly.
“What do you have up your sleeve now?” Cimmerian sets the eraser down and edges to his desk to look for his notes.
“I have discovered a little something from my quality time with our little Borrower,” Adrinn chirps out, almost giddy.
“Oh, and what would that be?”
“I have tasted a lot of essence in my day but hers seems to be different. I cannot truly explain it, but I believe the Boragen child has more to offer than originally anticipated.”
Cimmerian freezes and turns his head to view Adrinn’s vaporous face. “You think she might be the key?”
Adrinn’s mouth widens and rises at the edges into an evil smirk. “She may not be the key but a closer resemblance to one than I had before.”
The hairs on the back of Cimmerian’s neck stand on end in anticipation.
“I want you to take a special interest in her. Watch her, befriend her, and see what she is about.”
Cimmerian cringes and starts to pace, scratching his head in frustration. “I can’t just start following some youngling around all the time. I actually have responsibilities to uphold.”
“Have you changed your mind about our accord? I would hate to think that poor helpless Symone is going to be left to rot in the bowels of Darkness.”
Cimmerian halts his movements. He clenches his fists until the bones beneath ache and glares at the apparition resting his vaporous form upon today’s lesson.
“No! I have not.”
“So, then we have an accord.”
“It would seem so,” Cimmerian spits out between gritted teeth. “I will do what I can, but I will not promise you anything.”
Adrinn smooths out his hair with his hands and leers in Cimmerian’s direction. “Well, you have already successfully deceived your coven. I am quite certain that you will figure out a way to get me what I need.”
“I said I will do what I can. Now leave before someone finds you here and we are both done.”
“So testy in the mornings, you really should try to cut down on the caffeine.”
Cimmerian pivots, raising his hand to scold Adrinn’s sharp tongue, but he is already gone.
8
THEO’S WARNING
The smell of late spring wafts through the air as Gabrian cracks open the driver side door of her car. The early meeting with the Covenant of Shadows lasted too long and once the Elders left her house, it was way too late for her to even think about trying to go to sleep so she opts for an early morning start on the paperwork mounted on her desk instead.
A loud fluttering of wings greets her as she steps up onto the sidewalk in front of her office door. Her eyes lift to meet her loyal stalker staring down at her, now prancing for her immediate attention to be placed on him.
“Good morning, Theo. Couldn’t sleep either, huh?”
The dark silhouette of a bird makes a low rumbling from its throat as if to agree with her and then bobs its head from side to side.
Gabrian glances down the shadowy street, hoping to see familiar lights shining from her favourite store, but the Coffee Hound is still dark. Her arrival is much too early for such luck. With a sigh, she reaches into her bag and fishes out her office keys.
“Well, I guess office coffee will have to do for now.” She shudders at the thought but decides with enough cream she might be able to drown out its bitter taste and makes a mental note to ask C.K. later if she can buy some pre-ground coffee beans from him so she doesn’t have to suffer the horror of early morning starts in the coming future.
A tip-tapping of feet from above stirs her from her coffee conundrum. She shakes her head to wake up and peeks at the bird over her shoulder.
“I know, I know, stop procrastinating. The paperwork won’t get done with me standing down here.”
Sliding the key into the lock, she turns the knob slowly then peeks once more at her friend, and gives him a wink. “Have a good morning, Theo. Stay out of trouble, okay?”
The bird clicks then coos a cheery good-bye before flying off toward the Coffee Hound, most likely with the hope of finding a few tasty treats that may have gotten thrown out in yesterday’s trash, while Gabrian sets off up the stairs and begrudgingly fires up the office coffee machine in the waiting area.
Wandering to her office door, she hesitates to open it for a minute as the nightmarish image of Adrinn returns to haunt her. Every morning, it’s the same unsettling thing. Just for a moment, she relives a wave of helplessness, the feeling of him draining every ounce of life from her body paralyzes her until she forces herself through the archway of the door to switch on every last light she has to its full capacity. She leans against the wall, gathering herself, and hopes someday she will get past this but does not hold much faith that it will be anytime soon—not until she is able to sort out her memories between what is real and what is actually from the compulsion Ethan insists Adrinn had her under.
With her office lit up like a beacon, she enters the room and heads to her desk, dropping into her trusty leather chair. Her face falls flat as she stares at the mountain of files.
“How did I manage to get this far behind?”
A bitter aroma wafts in across the room, quickly offending her sense of smell. It is accompanied by a sick gurgling—an alert indicating that her coffee is done. She crinkles her nose at the thought of it but begins to smile the closer she gets to the pot. The quicker she drinks it, the sooner the caffeine will kick in.
“It’s better than nothing,” she admits with an honest bit of gratitude and carries the concoction back across the room to her door.
Entering her office, she notices a movement that gives her heart a start and causes her to nearly spill her coffee. She scans the room. Finding nothing out of place, Gabrian catches her breath just as a shadow flickers from outside her window. It seems that Theo has decided to perch himself proudly on the ledge to keep an eye on her. He looks at her with a cock-eyed stare—tilting his head ninety degrees to the left—then settles down for a rest. She can’t help but laugh at her new companion’s insistent presence and finds it somewhat comforting as she continues back toward Mount Doom.
As the minutes pass, Gabrian buries herself in her work, not noticing Theo’s departure nor the strange charcoal-coloured mist creeping in from underneath the door. It seeps in low and slithers its way across the floor. Reaching the chaise, it rises up the side and begins to manifest, collecting itself into a more recognizable figure—the shape of a man—and one that is quite familiar indeed.
Unsure of what kind of reception he will receive from her, Adrinn watches Gabrian diligently at work and in complete oblivion to his company. He keeps his presence concealed from her sight, remaining silent as he stares at her from across the room. He studies everything, noting every move she makes from the way she bites her lip when she is thinking to the way she tousles her hair with her hands when she becomes flustered with something.
He slips from his perch and moves around the room, curious of her surroundings. He glides along the side of the walls, eyeing her certifications, and runs his fingers along the edge
s of its glass—casting a sinister grin that grows by the moment.
Gabrian looks up from her papers. The hairs of the back of her neck feel strange and her stomach twists with the eerie sensation that she is being watched. She glances at the window, thinking it might just be Theo giving her the stare down, but he is gone. Searching around the room, Gabrian reads the space around her to see if anything is out of the ordinary—anything that might explain the strange disruption. Not finding anything, she brushes it off as an aftereffect of being tired, burying herself back within the never-ending pile of paperwork.
Adrinn slithers in front of her desk. Hovering over her, he stretches out his hand to touch her just as a loud agitated squawk sounds from the window behind him. Theo has returned to continue his obsession with Gabrian but he finds something much more than his beloved friend.
Gabrian jerks her head up from the ruckus at the window, startled by Theo’s odd behavior. As he pecks violently at the glass between them, thrashing his wings and digging at the ledge with his feet, she ejects herself from the chair and jogs toward the frantic bird, passing straight through her uninvited guest.
A slice of icy soul sucking pain cuts through her body at the contact with Adrinn’s vaporous form and a wave of nausea sweeps over her with little compassion. She grips her stomach but continues toward the bird, pushing her unusual discomforts to the side.
Theo thrashes himself against the window, nothing short of a raving lunatic, as he watches Adrinn slink in closer to Gabrian. Unsure of what she should do about Theo’s distress, Gabrian tries to open the window, thinking maybe she can calm him down somehow, but it won’t open. Pressing harder, she wedges her fingers along the edges of the window and grips harder, hearing the frame crack under her forceful coaxing. In all the frustration and faltering attempts to get to the bird, Gabrian’s Borrower gift surges and flares outward, sending a heave of energy through her. Her senses pick up on a dark source of energy—a presence behind her—and she slowly turns. Her fingers tingle while blood pulses wildly in her ears. Her skin pimples, turning icy cold as fear creeps through her.
The surge in her gifts shifts something in Adrinn’s invisibility cloak. He can feel his transparency oddly failing. Not wanting to confront Gabrian yet, he pulls himself back from this world, completely in awe that the bird can see him, and leaves Gabrian alone in her office with the insightful Raven on the ledge.
Gabrian’s senses reflexively settle as Adrinn’s Darkness dissipates back to Erebus, but she remains shaken as to what kind of phenomenon has just happened. Silence in the room is deafening. Her eyes desperately continue to search for some kind of trigger, but they fail.
She halts her search and turns to Theo, who stands relatively calm on the other side of the pane of glass, grooming and readjusting his feathers back into their rightful place from his bizarre episode. Halting his cleanup for just a moment, he glances intently upon Gabrian as she stares at him and shakes her head. He gives her a subtle nod and voices a low rumbled coo of comfort—letting her know that all is good again.
9
INVISIBLE CAULDRON
Gabrian jumps at the sound of knocking on her office door. After the strange morning she has had, she is a little on edge. She flares out her senses in reflex but retrieves them quickly once recognizing the familiarity of the aura on the other side.
Come in, her silent words reach his mind. She watches as the latch inches sideways and the door slowly opens.
Ethan’s ever comforting eyes meet hers and the smile he wears quickly fades. “Wow, what was the number of the bus that hit you?”
“Ha, now that is funny.” Gabrian reaches up and gently pulls back the loosened strand of hair that escaped her messy bun and hangs freely, shrouding her blue eyes. “Do I really look that bad?”
“Uh, no…” Ethan lies, giving a nervous cough as he continues. “I am just messing with you.” Ethan marches over to the chair in front of her desk and slides down into its clutches, leaning back into its leathery arms before folding his fingers neatly together on his lap. “Maybe I was exaggerating just a bit when I said a bus. A small car, now that is a definite possibility.”
Gabrian’s mouth turns upward at the edges and she shakes her head, freeing her captive strand of hair again. Ethan notices that she is not quite her usual self. Normally she is quick to retort with a sharp-tongued comment to challenge his witty banter but today she lets him win.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I am fine—not sleeping well these days,” she says, tucking her hair behind her ear again.
“Anything you want to talk about?”
Gabrian wants to say yes, but she doesn’t need him to feel like he has to take care of her anymore. They are partners now, and she does not want to weigh him down with the issues she is having with her new idiosyncrasies, things will work themselves out. Besides he has more than enough on his plate with all his clients to keep him busy for centuries.
“No, I am good. But I was wondering if there was anything on the schedule for this afternoon that I wasn’t aware of.”
Ethan leans forward into a more professional manner and runs through the clientele issues and the mental to-do list in his head. “No, not that I can think of. There are a couple of new clients we are taking on next week we need to discuss but other than that, the day is pretty straightforward.”
“Did you need to discuss that today?”
Sensing that Gabrian has things weighing on her mind, especially after this morning’s meeting, Ethan shakes his head in response. “No, that is fine. It doesn’t have to be today. We can familiarize ourselves with them in the next day or so then decide what the best fit is for each client.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Gabrian. If you have something that you need to take care of, it can wait.”
“I was just thinking I might go visit Kaleb this afternoon to see if he had anything else in his herbal concoctions that might help me sleep. The herbs that he gave me aren’t working anymore.”
She did not have to explain anything to Ethan. The evidence is all there, boldly displaying on her tender face in the dark circles she wears under her eyes and the lack of vigor in her responses.
“I am sure he can find you something that can help,” Ethan says, rising from the chair. “He has seen it all in his day, and there isn’t much he doesn’t know how to fix with medicine.”
Gabrian laughs as Ethan pretends to stir an invisible cauldron in front of him. “You are wicked. Maybe I should ask him if he has a cure for bad jokes.”
Ethan stops stirring and waves his hand at her playfully, dismissing her welcomed jab. He pivots to take his leave then halts just at the door, peeking back at her over his shoulder. “When you see Kaleb, try to remember the reason you are there. Don’t be afraid to let him help you with what is really bothering you. Out of all the people within this Realm, there are very few I trust. He is one of them.”
Ethan’s words catch Gabrian’s attention. She smiles at her friend and nods, knowing they have centuries of truth and trial behind them.
10
WE ALL HAVE SECRETS
With willows hanging down on each side of the road, their limbs swaying in the breeze and dancing to the songs of the wind, driving up the gravel and grass woven driveway to Kaleb’s farm seems more like a path into a hidden realm more than it does a world renown nursery for plants and shrubs.
Idling along, Gabrian edges her way toward the top of the knoll as Kaleb’s world begins to arise up out of the greenery but barely. To the right, she sees his home made of stone and wood, much like her own, with ivy climbing up the side with conviction into the crevices of each stone.
On the left—standing camouflaged by rows of herbs like rosemary, sage, and lilac bushes—the entrance to a fortress of glass is visible, made specifically to house with a gentle touch, the magnificence of nature’s gifts.
Gabrian slips out of her car and breathes in the floral bouquet of wild flowers d
rifting on the wind. The scattered blossoms tickle her nose as they release their intoxicating allure, and she inhales deeply. From within the aromas wafting in the air, she catches the taste of herbs on her tongue, the ones she came to acquire growing inside the glass edifice. She also tastes the energy of the Elder she came to see. Her eyes roll back in her head for a second as fragments of his pure energy surge through her body. Realizing what she is doing, she consciously rips herself from the unauthorized exchange and shakes her head to break the connection to Kaleb’s life source.
Gabrian scans the yard but does not see any signs of him though she knows he is near. Venturing forward, toward the earthen structure, she descends the shale steps into its mystical entrance.
She has only been here once before with Orroryn in the past, and it was in the dark, so to Gabrian, the sights are completely new to her—revived by the light of day. Gabrian is in awe by the abundance of such an exotic collection of life growing in clay pots and troughs. The smells remind her of Shane’s little oasis on the island. Although it may pale in comparison by quantity of Kaleb’s collection, she still understands the power it has over Shane’s soul, even in its smaller measure.
Her eyes are immediately drawn to a bright red and orange flower set in the back, aside from all the other plants. Its unusual brightness amongst the greenery gives it all the attention in the room. Stepping forward as if pulled by a magnet, Gabrian gets closer to investigate the magnificent oddity. Edging past the other plants so as to not disturb the tranquility, she squeezes her way through what looks like a makeshift barricade that both surrounds and separates her from the flower. Breeching its solitary abode, she reaches out and runs her finger along the edge of one of the drooping petals. The texture is soft and velvety to the touch and causes the tip of her finger to sharply sting and spark.