ten
“Ishouldprobablygoback up the hill and continue my training with Seer Goddard,” I told Silas after we parted ways from Lily. We were halfway back to Wisteria Cottage when I slipped my hand into his. “I was just getting started this morning when I sensed that something was wrong.”
“You sensed it.” Silas said it as a statement, but I heard it as a question as his hand tightened against mine.
“It’s a long story. We were trying to focus on earth, on levitating rocks, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong in the water. I went to the cliff, looked over, saw the boat and the commotion.”
“You can resume training tomorrow. You’ve been gone since dawn, and it’s past lunch time. I can hear your stomach rumbling from a mile away, and your face is so pale you’re going to faint.”
“But—”
“Have you eaten anything since this morning?”
“I’ve been a little busy.”
“Stay here at Wisteria Cottage for the afternoon, have something to eat. Get some rest, and you can continue your training first thing tomorrow.” Silas glanced at my face and obviously saw I wasn’t convinced. “You don’t have to sit around idle, if that’s what you’re worried about. You could work on what Seer Goddard taught you this morning or study your textbooks. It all counts as training.”
“I guess, maybe you have a point. I’m not sure I’d accomplish anything this afternoon with Seer Goddard anyway. I am wiped, mentally.”
Silas’s hand slid from mine as he pushed open the gate in the stone wall that surrounded Wisteria Cottage. He paused, his face tilting upward, like he could smell something was wrong.
“The wards aren’t up.” Silas’s body froze. “Millie told me she was running to the store. She should’ve activated the wards before she left.”
Silas moved inside faster than I could blink. He darted through the front door, and as I was still winding my way along the walkway, he was back outside.
“It’s all clear,” Silas said, breathing heavily. “Millie must have just forgotten. There’s food on the stove. I assume that’s for you.”
I followed Silas inside. “Were you expecting trouble?”
“Can’t be too careful.”
“Is this about the harbinger symbol?” I asked. “Is this one of those times when you know more than anyone else, and you’re just not saying?”
“I don’t think I know more than anyone else. I do know some things.”
“Can you tell me?”
“Food first. Then talk.”
Silas and I both helped ourselves to a hearty bowl of white-bean chili and a slice of fresh bread. As I sliced into the loaf, itstruck me that this was probably the very same loaf I’d worked with Millie to create yesterday.
“I made this.” I spun around and waved the bread in front of Silas. “For someone who barely knows how to turn an oven on, not too bad, huh?”
Silas grinned. “You are truly magic, Alessia.”
I wrinkled my nose at him. “You have no idea how complicated sourdough is.”
“I’d like to keep it that way.”
We sat at the table, eating in silence for a few minutes. With each bite I took, it was almost like my body realized it was hungry. Ravenous, even. A few minutes later, I was mopping up the remnants of my bowl and polishing off my toast.
I sat back as Silas refilled our glasses of sparkling water. When he’d sat down next to me, and we no longer had an excuse for avoiding the subject, I asked Silas about the harbinger and the sigil.
“Honestly, I’m stringing those two words together like I know what I’m talking about,” I admitted, “and I truly don’t. Please explain it to me like I’m five.”
“The harbinger is a creature that signals the approach of something,” Silas said. “A forerunner for the Darkest Lord. He sends the harbinger out to do his bidding, to collect things from this world that he needs in the underworld. It’s true if there’s a Harbinger of the Underworld, it’s likely that it’s just the start of your problems. More trouble is on the way, and that’s a promise.”
“I see. And the sigil is his symbol?”
