Chapter 12
Althea was in the library when the call came in about the fire, puzzling through a stack of documentation about the Wild Hunt. Most of it had been catalogued a long time ago by Lucas Lane, but there were still various journals and diaries of long-dead Council members that had yet to be touched.
Without risking a few exploratory trips to the Hunt's lair, she wanted to create a map of some sort that would help her plan her attack. However, she wasn't having much luck with the diaries of her predecessors--they had been inclined to leave the Hunt alone.
Her first potential clue had come from a very old map of what had then been Daultonsville, and a notation in the margins of said map, that a cave with a direct door to Faerie existed somewhere in the forest. The author of the note had not written what lay on the other side, but the cave's location was very near--as far as she could tell--the modern location of the Hunt's lair.
Did the Hunt have a house in Faerie?
Not a single Council member since then had bothered to see where the Hunt spent its time. For all Althea knew, Gabriel could have a palace deep in the heart of Faerie, laughing at his Masters behind their backs for almost an entire century.
The sheer enormity of what he could be hiding squashed her urge to research before acting. She wanted to summon Gabriel into her presence and force him to talk--and since she was a Council member, he would be bound to tell her everything, if there was anything to tell.
But that would also play her hand too soon, and put him on the defensive.
She didn't want the Council to renew the binding, after all; she wanted to force him to bind himself to Magdalen.
When the call came about the fire, she was tempted to ignore it, but Lucas would wonder why she hadn't responded and she needed to keep a low profile until the Hunt was bound again. So she drove out to the burning house, only to find it vastly changed from what she expected.
There were no fire trucks, for one. And no fire, either. The driveway--which hadn't existed in years--curled around the house like a sleepy snake, and the lighted windows sparkled.
Strange flowers bloomed on either side of the driveway--golds and silvers and reds that glowed in the light of the fading moon. It was almost dawn, after all, and the sun would drive away the darkness soon enough.
Althea parked her car and stared at the house. For a moment, she wondered if she'd somehow wandered into Faerie, but the Veil was a mile away at least, and this house had been in the same spot for almost two hundred years.
And yet, there was no fire. No flames. Just a house, restored.
She wasn't very surprised when a black Hound walked out of the front door and onto the porch. He shifted shape as she opened her car door, and bowed.
"Magdalen requests your presence."
Stefan always managed to twist the most mundane request into something obscene. Althea had never liked him.
The blood on his shirt gave her pause. She stared at him for a moment and tried to gauge his mood. Every once in a while, he would actually answer her questions.
"I was called about a fire," she said. "Is there--What did she do?" And what did this have to do about her plans?
"Magdalen will explain," Stefan said shortly. "And you're keeping me from my dinner."
He offered her his hand, but she shrank away from the blood that covered his skin. "No thank you."
With a leer, Stefan led her to the restored front door, opened it, and ushered her inside.
Magdalen sat in the parlor on a delicately carved chair upholstered in what looked to be raw silk. She wore a red gown, of course--Althea had never seen her in any color but red. Her hair was braided with strands of jet and emeralds, her jewelry equally fit for a Queen. Her chair was in front of a window and she stared in rapt fascination at the darkness outside.
The--the gored remains of an elf--she saw one pointed ear still attached to its skull--lay on the rug in the middle of the floor. Gobbets of flesh littered the rug and Stefan's Hounds, four black monstrosities, lay around the room, licking the remains of their feast from their fur. The smell was even worse than the sight. How could she stand it?
"Althea. So nice of you to come."
Althea swallowed hard, fighting the urge to vomit. Was this some sort of test? When Stefan walked into the room behind her and liberated a chunk of something from the floor--and popped it into his mouth--she had to turn away.
"Stefan, remove the remains of your meal." Magdalen's gaze held no warmth in it. "It is obviously bothering Althea."
"Let it bother her." Stefan shrugged.
With a sigh, Magdalen motioned with one hand and the body vanished, leaving a spotless Oriental rug behind. "Is that better, my dear?"
Althea tried to decide if she spoke out of honest concern, or if there was a bit of sarcasm running through her tone. She faked a smile despite the residual nausea, steeled herself, and walked across the rug where the worst of the carnage had been. Thankfully, nothing squished under her feet.
"What did you do?" she asked. "How--"
"I was in need of a place to stay," Magdalen said. "Stefan found this house for me. It was not--ideal, but it will do."
"But--what about the fire?" Althea asked.
"The fire does not burn in Faerie," Magdalen said. "Stefan's dinner was a regrettable sacrifice. I had to have fresh blood to move the Veil, and the human boy's blood just would not do."
"Human boy?" There were treaties between the elves and the Council, of course, and one of them specifically forbid the elves from kidnapping humans. "What human boy?" On the tail end of that, she asked, "And how did you move the Veil?" She glanced back at Stefan as she asked this, but the expression on his face gave her no clues.
Magdalen dismissed the boy with a wave of her hand. "Don't fret. I've taken care of him. Don't you want to see my handiwork?"
With a bit of trepidation, Althea looked out the window.
The wall was on fire. Flames had spread across the empty window--empty even as her mind insisted she was looking through unmarred glass--and engulfed the porch to her left. The grass outside was seared and burning in places, and a fire truck was parked in the same spot as her car, giving her a head-aching dose of double vision.
She jumped, despite herself, when a portion of the wall fell down, raining stones and burning wood and obscuring her view of the proceedings.
When the flames died down, she saw Lucas standing well away from the fire with a girl Althea didn't recognize.
"I believe her name is Sennet," Magdalen said before she could ask. "She's a Healer."
"Why did Lucas send for her?" Althea asked, and then remembered Magdalen's comment about the human boy. "Who is this 'boy'?"
On the far side of the clearing, Ben, one of the junior members of the Council, appeared, walking quickly towards Lucas and Sennet. He spoke to them for a moment, pointing back at the forest, and then Althea saw someone appear out of the trees, hanging just on the edge of the clearing, as if waiting for Michael to return.
Or, perhaps, waiting for Sennet, because the Healer hurried towards the waiting figure instead of Ben.
"Who is that?" Stefan asked.
"I'm not certain," Magdalen said. "Why don't you send one of your Hounds out to follow him? And bring the boy."
Althea squinted at the figure through the screen of the fire. She couldn't see him very clearly, even then, but he certainly did not look familiar at all.
One of Stefan's hounds vanished into the hallway, presumably to do Magdalen's bidding. The others ignored the proceedings. Stefan vanished as well, and Althea heard him walking up the stairs.
A moment later he returned, dragging a tightly bound young boy behind him.
"Ah, yes." Magdalen stood up from her chair, smiling, as if she received him as a guest and not a prisoner.
The boy's single eye was red-rimmed and panicked, and a gag similar to the one she had fashioned for Josiah blocked all notion of sound from his lips.
"This is the human boy?" Althea asked. Under the dirt and grime, he looked halfway familiar, but she could not place him. Was he a student at Darkbrook? That would be disastrous!
"He's a telepath, or so he says," Magdalen said. "Can he read your mind, Althea?"
The gag vanished from the boy's mouth. He coughed, drew in a breath, and tried to twist away from Stefan's grasp.
"Damn you," Althea snarled, recognizing him. "Magdalen, if he escapes--" There was no way to block Jordan's talent from reading her mind. The Council had tried, many times, and failed to help him control his talent.
"He won't escape," Magdalen said calmly. "Jordan, I shall leave the gag off if you do something for me."
The boy was shivering helplessly, even though it was quite warm in the room. "W-What do you w-want me to do?"
"Stefan, bring him here." Magdalen waited until Stefan had dragged Jordan to the window, and then pointed outside. "I want you to read their minds. The red-haired boy talking to Sennet. Who is he?"
She did something to the window that zoomed in on their faces, like magical binoculars.
Jordan stiffened as soon as she pointed him out. Althea could almost see the lie forming on his lips.
"You've seen him before, haven't you?" she asked. "Where? Who is he?"
"I--I don't know," Jordan whispered, crying now. "I saw him here. In this house, early this afternoon. He met Sennet."
"For what reason?" Magdalen asked. "And what is his name?" She smoothed down his hair when he did not reply. "It would not do for you to anger me, child. If you do as I say, I will not harm you."
Althea wondered if she spoke the truth. And if she did not, could she stand by and watch Magdalen kill a human child? Even one such as Jordan?
Jordan glanced over his shoulder at her, his eyes wide.
Althea glared at him. Of course he had heard that! Aloud, she said, "What is his name?"
Jordan closed his eyes. "His name is Malachi. I don't know anything else about him."
"Can you read his mind?" Magdalen asked.
"N-No. My--My talent only works on humans." He was shivering again, his face pale despite the darkness of his skin. "I don't know anything else about him," he said, almost desperately.
Which made Althea think that he knew something else. "You said he met Sennet here. She's a Healer. Why would he meet her here and not at her house?"
"Because he was hiding something," Magdalen said. "Of course."
"I don't know what it was," Jordan whispered.
Magdalen smoothed his hair again. "I think you do." She grabbed him from Stefan's grasp and pushed his face against the windowpane. "Do you see what is happening in the human world? Do you see the flames? All I have to do is let go of you and you will be dead, child. Burned to a crisp. They might find your body; they might not. But you will not survive the flames."
Jordan's sobs were the only sound in the room for a moment, He struggled in Magdalen's grip, but the ropes held him tight.
At first, Althea thought that he would not answer her; that he would not give up whatever he knew. But when a pane of glass cracked in the window, letting in a gust of searing hot air, he melted. Of course. A child was no match for Magdalen, after all. And he was merely a child.
"T-There was a lady with him," he sobbed, and fell to his knees when Magdalen released him. "An elf lady. She--She is going to have a baby, and she wanted S-Sennet to--to make sure everything was okay."
"What is her name?" Althea asked, ignoring the discomfort that was the part of her not entirely certain about torturing a child to get any sort of information.
"Emle. Her name is Emle." Jordan cringed away from Magdalen when she reached for him again, but she only handed him back to Stefan, who made no move to take him. In fact, Stefan was staring at the window with a very odd look on his face, almost as if he, too, had recognized Malachi.
"Can you read Sennet's mind?"
"N-No," Jordan whispered.
"But she is human!" Althea protested.
"She is a Healer," Magdalen said. "I doubted he could, but it never hurts to ask."
"What about Lucas?" Althea asked as Gabriel stepped out of the trees to join Lucas and Ben.
Malachi had already vanished; Sennet was on her way back to the group.
Jordan glanced at Magdalen. "He--He's thinking about someone named Josiah."
"Why is he thinking about someone named Josiah?" Magdalen asked as Althea furiously shoved all thoughts of Josiah Hunt from her mind.
"He--He always thinks about Josiah when he sees Gabriel," Jordan whispered. "He always thinks about how things could have been different, if Josiah had not--" He frowned. "He disappeared, I guess." He glanced at Althea. "He's also wondering where you are."
Althea felt her face flush. "You do realize that we can't let him live, Magdalen. You're going to force me to murder a child."
Magdalen dismissed her fears with a wave of her hand. "He will be useful yet," she said. "Child, what else is Lucas thinking?"
Jordan's eyes filled with tears. "He--He's thinking about me."
"Very well." Magdalen sat down in her chair. "Stefan, take him away."
"You--You can't just keep him here!" Althea tried to keep her voice steady, but it rose with every word. "What if he escapes?"
"Where would he go?" Magdalen smiled. "If he leaves this house, he will be lost in Faerie. He will not escape."
Althea couldn't understand how the house could exist in two places at once--and in one of those places, it was burning down. She glanced out the window again and saw that Sennet and Gabriel had vanished, and Lucas now stood alone, staring at the house while the firemen doused the rest of the flames with their hoses. Althea imagined that the destruction would look even worse in the daylight.
She heard a movement behind her and saw that Stefan had returned. He hesitated in the doorway for a moment, as if debating whether or not to speak.
"Magdalen, can you entice him here?" His voice held none of its usual sarcasm.
"Who?" Magdalen turned to stare at him.
"Malachi." Again, Stefan hesitated, and the Hound he should have sent to follow Malachi slipped into the room, glancing once at its Master before joining the others.
"I thought Magdalen told you to send a Hound after him?" Althea asked. "Why--Do you know who he is?"
"Yes."
For a moment, Althea did not believe him. But the look on his face--
"Then who is he?" Magdalen snapped.
"Entice him and I'll tell you," Stefan said, his voice oddly intense. "Put a dampening spell up around this house first--you'll need it. If you don't--"
"Who is he?" Magdalen asked again.
Stefan exhaled. "He is one of Gabriel's Hounds."
Next Update: September 21st
House St. Clair Home
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