“Where are ye going? This man needs care.”
Davien looked at Quinn and noticed the white lines around his mouth, along with the bead of sweat that had popped up on his forehead, both of which indicated his pain. “I can’t do anything more for him at the moment.” He spun on his heel.
“I’ll stay and watch over him.”
Davien stopped. He slowly turned to face Charlotte, his brow raised expectantly.
“Dinna look a’ me like that.” She lifted her chin. “I grew up with eight other bairns. I’m sure I canna look after one man.”
“Very well. Whatever you need shall be at your disposal.”
This time, she lifted a brow. “And who shall I be askin’? There’s no one around.”
He merely said, “It will be provided.”
With that cryptic statement, he departed.
~ ~ ~
The next time the door to her makeshift cell opened, Cosette faced a member of the Order in a white robe. He set down a tray of food and backed out of the door without a word. She looked at the stale bread and salted pork and felt her stomach churn. While it wasn’t anything worse than what she’d been served over the years, it was obvious that she had become accustomed to an easier way of life at Shadowlawn. In the short time that she had lived within those mysterious walls, she had begun to think of it as home—with Davien as something even more.
Ignoring the pang in her chest, Cosette laid down on the cot and turned away from it all. She closed her eyes and eventually shut out the rest of the world.
Cosette. . .
She stirred, her lids fluttering at the sound of her name.
Cosette. . .
Her eyes flew open, her body soaked in perspiration. What do you want? She replied through her mind.
A dark, swirling laughter enclosed her, causing the air within her prison to slowly dissipate. Cosette clutched her throat, choking.Do you truly think that you can keep us here? I cannot be contained within human walls. I will soon prove just how powerful I can be.
What are you? A demon?Cosette asked.
I am so much more than that. So much more . . . In time, you will know. I will come to you, but only when you are ready.
The pressure on her windpipe suddenly eased and Cosette drew great heaving gulps of air into her lungs. A tear seeped out of her lid and fell down her cheek. She might not have to worry about Davien helping her escape before the spring rite took place.
She could be dead long before then.
~ ~ ~
Davien paused in the middle of reading. He balled his fist on top of the table in the archive room. He’d arrived only moments before, speaking in clipped sentences to Dashwood, before he was given access to the only place that was left to turn, the last avenue available if he ever hoped to have a normal existence.
With Cosette.
But as he was going through theArs Almadel, he was struck with a sudden urge to see her. He’d only left her a few short hours ago, yet it already felt like an eternity.
Scrubbing a hand through his hair, he went back to the page he’d been on—and froze. The wheels of his mind stopped turning, as if everything had suddenly clicked into place. At long last, this was something that might actually work.
The passage before him spoke of creating a wax tablet as a way of contacting angels and demons by a method of scrying. Beside this was the image of a sigil, a symbol that varied, depending on what being you wished to summon. While he didn’t yet know what exactly it was he was trying to find, if he could locate a suitable medium by which to translate a vision, it would be worth the effort to finally understand who, or what, they were dealing with.
He ripped the page out of the volume and shoved it into the inside of his jacket pocket. At the moment he didn’t care that he’d just desecrated a book that had been around for more than two hundred years.
He was a man on a mission and time was running out.
~ ~ ~
