Runaway Mortal (23 page)

“There are some things which you should only discover yourself.” Her voice was calm as she spoke. “Fate only gives us clues to our future; it doesn’t reveal the master plan.”

Anna carefully took a sip of her drink and made a face. “This tastes awful!”

“I didn’t say it would taste good, only that it would give you strength,” Valeska commented, her eyes twinkling. “So what have you come here for?”

Anna looked at me out of the corner of her eye and nodded.

“I need to know how this will lead me to Headmistress Melkane’s killer.” Reluctantly, I reached into my sheath and pulled out the Mortal Blade. The green wrought handle seemed to dance in the light as I held it out for Valeska to see.

Valeska reached out for it eagerly and grabbed the hilt. All of a sudden, she let out a strangled cry, immediately pulling her hand away from the blade.

In shock, I watched as a scorch mark appeared on the top layer of her skin. She cursed and shot to her feet, hurrying over to her cupboard and rummaging around in it.

“Why did it do that?” I demanded, feeling protective of the blade. I turned it over in my hands, making sure that Valeska hadn’t left a mark on it herself. But the blade was just as beautiful as ever.

“It is not meant for a witch’s hands,” Valeska explained as she returned to us with a bottle. Unscrewing it, she rubbed something that looked like lotion onto the burn.

“What?” I asked, confused.

Valeska put the lid back on the bottle and set it aside. “I forgot myself for a second; I could feel the power emanating from the Mortal Blade and wanted to touch it, but only the chosen mortal is able to lay hands on it and use its power.”

Anna leaned forward. “So no one else can touch it? They’ll be burned?” I knew why she was asking this; she and Misha had both touched the blade without being burned.

“No, the blade chooses who can touch it,” Valeska explained, “but only a mortal can harness the power it holds.”

“And that’s me?” I asked, recalling that Loire had disputed with me over who the prophecy was actually about. “Not anyone else?”

“Yes,” she confirmed with a nod. “The blade will only have one true bearer.”

“So I can use the power to lead me to the Headmistress’ killer?”

Valeska nodded again.

“I don’t know how,” I admitted, feeling very much like the seventeen-year-old that I was. I didn’t know what to do with myself, let alone with a centuries’ old all-powerful object. “I feel like there’s something on the very edge of my mind, but it’s just out of reach.”

“The cards will guide you,” Valeska said, her voice growing low as she pulled out her deck of tarot cards from the folds of her silks.

They’d either guide me or confuse the hell out of me. Or maybe she’d have another vision—that’d be consistent.

Valeska spoke as she shuffled the cards. “I will read your past, present, and-” A single card flew out of the deck and landed face down in the center of the table. “What?” She sounded alarmed as she stared at it.

“What does that mean?” Anna asked, her eyes wide.

This had happened last time, too. Was this a normal thing? Judging from the way Valeska was frowning at the card, I didn’t think it was.

“Fate has chosen this card for you,” she said, placing the rest of the deck aside and flipping over the card that had fallen out.

Depicted on it was a man with a stooped back holding a staff in one hand and something that glowed golden in the other.

“Ah,” said Valeska, “the Hermit. This card represents your need for knowledge and-”

But I wasn’t listening anymore. My attention was focused on the golden object in the hermit’s hand. “What is that he’s carrying?”

“What?” Valeska seemed annoyed that I’d interrupted her in the middle of her reading. “Oh, that. The modern cards depict the Hermit carrying a lantern, but my deck carries the original depiction. Traditionally, the Hermit holds a staff in one hand and an hourglass in the other.”

An hourglass.

An angel’s death.

An angel’s hourglass.

The Angel Glass.

Then all of a sudden, everything made sense.

Chapter Twenty-Three

We were back at school.

But instead of being outside the school walls like we should be, we were inside them. Anna had teleported us to the main courtyard right by the fountain of Margot Esteré. It was unheard of—powerful magic prevented anyone from teleporting directly into the school. I felt like we’d broken a Guinness World Record.

“How did you do that?” I asked, turning to Anna in amazement.

She was bent over beside me, her head between her knees as she rocked back and forth.

“Shit.” I scrambled to her side and wrapped my arms around her, slipping a little on the ice that covered the ground. “Are you alright?”

Anna slowly raised her head, her face pale. “I think so. I just need a minute,” she whispered, slowly staring around at her surroundings. “I-I don’t know how I got inside. I was just thinking of school.”

My hand shot to the Mortal Blade, and Anna’s eyes followed my movement. “Do you think the Mortal Blade broke through the magical barrier?” she asked, her voice weak.

“I don’t know what else it could have been.”

It didn’t make sense though. Loire had had the Mortal Blade when we’d teleported to school the first time, but we hadn’t broken through the barrier. Was it because he wasn’t supposed to be the true bearer of the blade? Was the blade allowing me to access its true powers in a way that Loire hadn’t been able to?

“You realized something when you saw the Hermit card,” Anna said as I helped her to her feet. “What was it? You said something about the headmaster-”

My attention immediately went back to the problem at hand. “Yes, I need to see Delware.” I didn’t tell her why. I didn’t know how to explain myself. Only Misha’s uncle could give me clarity. “I need you to get Misha and Loire and meet me in his office. Do you think you can do that?”

Anna nodded slowly, straightening up her jacket. “Yes, I think the herbal remedy Valeska gave me is helping.”

“Okay, go now.” I placed a hand on her shoulder, looking into her eyes with urgency. “And hurry.”

“Whatever it is that you’re doing, be careful.” She gave me a look of warning. I knew she didn’t want to leave me here by myself. “Promise me.”

Not meeting her eyes, I nodded. “I promise.”

Deep down, I hated myself for lying to her, but I couldn’t wait around any longer. I needed answers, and I needed them now. I was so close now; I could feel it. Besides, being careful wasn’t really my style.

Anna closed her eyes, and this time it only took a few seconds before she was gone. It seemed to be easier for her when she wasn’t teleporting a long distance, was traveling within the school, and was by herself.

As soon as she was gone, I hurried across the courtyard and towards Delware’s office, my heart thudding so loud that I was sure anyone would be able to hear it.

A sense of déjà vu hit me as I looked up and saw the lanterns floating above me, immediately recalling the lanterns I’d seen in my dreams.

Lanterns weren’t the only thing I’d dreamed of—I remembered the broken hourglass and the sand flowing all around me. I remembered seeing the same hourglass in Headmistress Melkane’s office the night of her death when I’d gotten into an argument with her, and I remembered seeing the same hourglass on Delware’s desk when I’d returned to school.

When we had assumed that the Angel Glass referred to a magic mirror, we’d been wrong. It wasn’t a magic mirror at all—it was an hourglass. An hourglass that I now believed had belonged to the late headmistress.

If my suspicions were correct then a person I had trusted for most of my life was behind all the horrible events that had taken place recently. It made me sick to my stomach to think like that, but all the signs pointed to him. I just hoped I was wrong and there was another explanation.

As I entered the dimly lit reception area that led to Delware’s office, my eyes glided over the plants that decorated it. Recalling what Misha had said about erat demons not being able to channel their earth powers indoors, it made sense that Delware kept plants around to draw power from.

The door to his office was ajar, a sliver of light peeking out. I didn’t bother knocking; I just walked right in as though he’d been expecting me.

And maybe he had been expecting me. Maybe he’d been expecting me for months now.

“Good evening, Katerina,” Delware said, his voice calm as I approached his desk with careful, deliberate steps.

The Mortal Blade grew warm against my leg again, and now I understood why. It sensed that another Triad object was nearby. That was why it had grown hot in the library earlier; Delware must have had the Angel Glass with him when he’d come to speak to us.

“Where is it?” I demanded, my eyes wandering over his desk and then around the room when I noticed the hourglass wasn’t in its usual place. I knew it was in the room somewhere because the Mortal Blade was still warm.

“Where’s what?” His expression was guarded as we stared each other down. He looked exhausted, the crow’s feet deep around his eyes.

“The Angel Glass,” I said, going along with the game he was playing with me. “The one that belonged to Headmistress Melkane.”

“Sit down, Katerina.” Delware gestured at the empty chair opposite him, acting hospitable like he always did.

“No, I’d rather stand.” My tone was stiff; I’d always been at ease around Misha’s “Uncle Troy”, but now I was on my guard.

“So hostile,” Delware said, his tone pleasant. “That is very unlike you, Katerina.”

“Yeah, well,” I said with a shrug, making sure I was in a position where I could grab the Mortal Blade quickly if I needed to defend myself. “That was before I realized that you’ve been trying to kill me.”

It had taken me too long to figure it out, maybe because I had trusted him since I was a child, but Delware was an erat demon and had used his powers of the earth to hurt me. I just didn’t understand why.

“Don’t be silly. If I’d wanted to kill you, you’d be dead already.” The way he said this so casually made my blood run cold.

“Why did you attack me in the first place? If you weren’t trying to kill me then what were you trying to do?” Fear and anger consumed me as I recalled the second attack. “You hurt Anna and Misha! How could you do that to your own flesh and blood?”

“It was a test.” Delware folded his hands on top of his desk. It was pissing me off how normal he was acting, even as he admitted what he’d done. “I was testing to see how strong you were and how strong your bond was with Anna and Misha. You passed.”

“You’re crazy!” I spat out, trying to wrap my head around his confession. “You could have killed us! And your niece! You could have killed your own family!”

“Then you would not be worthy of the ancient prophecy.” Delware stood up, and I immediately pulled out the Mortal Blade. He smiled as I held the blade up in front of me, taking on a defensive stance. “I see you found the Triad object, just as I expected you to.”

“You know about the prophecy?” I asked, taking an uneasy step back as he walked around the table.

“Of course I know about it. It’s not a guarded secret. You just have to know where to look.” He stopped by the large bookshelf against the wall, turning his back to me as he studied the books on it. “And I have suspected for a while now that you could be the true bearer of the Mortal Blade.”

My head was spinning and I felt short of breath. “How could you possibly know that?”

“Because your kind was cast out because of Hallowed Scorn,” Delware said as though I was supposed to know what that meant. “And only your kind would be able to find the blade.”

“What does that mean?” I demanded. Now was not the time for a history lesson, but that was the one part of the prophecy we hadn’t been able to figure out—Hallowed Scorn.

“It means,” Delware said, smoothing down his jacket, “that there was once a time when mortals were the children of Heaven, but they were cast out.”

“What?” The revelation hit me hard. “That’s impossible.”

“It is part of our guarded history. That was how I knew that you would be able to locate the blade.” Delware seemed proud of this knowledge. “By testing your ties with Anna and Misha, I have magnified your power. That is what triggers the powers of a Triad object; the bond between an angel, a demon, and a mortal—a triad.”

When more than one is magnified, the ancient power cannot be denied.

Was that what being a mortal meant—that my kind had once been children of Heaven? Was that why the Mortal Blade had broken through the school’s barriers? Because my friends and I were a triad? Was that why the Mortal Blade had led me to the Angel Glass? Because the power had been triggered? But wasn’t Loire in a triad too? It made no sense.

“But why would you want to trigger the powers for us?” It confused me why he would want us to come into such great power.

“Some of us are not meant to find certain objects of the Triad, so I wanted to ensure it fell into the right hands; hands that I could guide so that the Mortal Blade would find its way to me. And it has.”

What a psychopath. If he thought he could manipulate me and my friends then he had another thing coming. “We will never be controlled by you.” Especially now that I knew him for what he truly was—a murderer.

He shrugged, not seeming to be bothered at all by anything I was saying. “A time will come when you will willingly follow me, Katerina.”

“I will never follow you.” I took a step towards him, pointing the Mortal Blade at him. “What you did to the headmistress was wrong. You killed her, you took away her life, and you don’t seem to care.”

“It had to be done. The Angel Glass was wasting away with her.” His eyes glazed over and he seemed a million miles away. “I plan on uniting all the objects and holding the greatest power that has ever existed in the three worlds.”

Honestly, I didn’t give a crap about his crazy, villain speech. “I hope it was worth it, because I’m handing you in to Parlum and you’re going to get what you deserve.”

“I don’t think so, dear.” He turned his head just the slightest, a smile on his lips. “I am far too strong for you, and I intend on walking out of here with the Mortal Blade.”

My mind was sluggish as I struggled to put together some sort of a plan. Anna hadn’t returned yet with Misha or Loire. I’d tried to keep him distracted, but there wasn’t much I could think of.

“Don’t move or I’ll drive this straight through your face.” I pointed the Mortal Blade at his throat, trying to sound intimidating like Loire had done when he’d ambushed me in my hotel room months ago.

Delware let out a laugh; the sound made me sick to my stomach. His eyes gleamed as though I’d told a funny joke. “You are not going to hurt me. You’re not a murderer. And while you may not want to submit to me at first, eventually you will.”

He made a slight motion with his hand, and I heard something traveling through the air. My heart sank as I recognized the sound—it was what I’d heard both times I’d been attacked. But this time I knew what to expect.

Spinning around, with barely any time to react, I held up the blade like it was a bat and swung the Mortal Blade at the first few rocks that came flying towards me. There was clanging as several rocks bounced off of it, barely missing me. My plan was working, but more rocks were still hurtling towards me. I needed to think of something else.

Misha had said that erat demons couldn’t use their powers indoors, so I was assuming that Delware was channelling his powers using the plants in the reception area. Very clever of him.

If I could injure Delware then I could get stop him from summoning the rocks and try to detain him here until Anna came back with the others. Turning back to face him, I charged at him with the blade, but with a flick of his wrist, Delware used the rocks to build a wall in front of him.

I paused, my eyes taking in the rocks suspended in mid-air in front of him like a shield. I had never seen anything like it before. But maybe the Mortal Blade could break through it.

With as much force as I could muster, I raised the blade above my head and brought it down on the rocks. There was a clash of metal against stone, and I staggered backwards from the sheer force of the blow.

The rocks had fallen away from Delware’s wall of defense, but they were already been replaced by more rocks. He was much more skilled than I was. He could easily beat me in a fight. Maybe I did need Anna and Misha. Maybe I should have waited for them, but it was too late now. I had made my decision. I had wanted to do this alone.

“Don’t waste your energy. You are not strong enough to defeat me.” His complacency filled me with an uncontrollable rage. “Hand it over already, Katerina. You are testing my patience.”

I let out a war-cry and charged at his wall again. The blade made impact with the wall with a crash, but this time I was thrown backwards onto the floor with so much force that black dots danced in front of my eyes.

Delware approached me slowly, his wall of rocks swirling around him now, like he was trapped in the center of a tornado. “You are starting to annoy me, Katerina.”

He raised a hand and a line of rocks strung themselves together like a necklace and floated across the air towards me. Before I could react, they wound themselves around my body and squeezed me so tight that I couldn’t move.