Red grimacedat the looks aimed his way. The problem was that the questions they had were ones he didn’t have any answers to. There was a spell to transport yourself through smoke, but…not that easily, and not without there already being fire, and thus smoke, present. Not to mention, the spell was usually set up between one witch and another through fireplaces.
It didn’t help that after the death of his previous witches, with each new bond created and broken, he’d lost an unidentifiable amount of information that he’d learned alongside those in the past. Red had lost and relearned things countless times, even if he didn’t realize he’d known and forgotten it. It was very possible that at one time he’d have known the answer, but this was not one of those times.
More than that, he was still reeling over the fact that Ollie had somehow formed a connection, an affinity with both The Endless Death and The Living Flame, which shouldn’t be possible, yet…
Red cleared his throat as the two men continued to stare. “I felt your grimoire going to you. I was sure it would take you away…but then something felt very wrong. It’s hard to describe completely, but…your mind, I can feel it the majority of the time, less thoughts and more the flavors of your emotions.” Though he could read minds when he wanted to, it was probably best that Ollie not know that… “At that time, I felt something drastically shift and take hold of your mind, and then I looked back andyou appeared. Can you tell me what happened, what you felt the moment your book appeared?”
Ollie’s brow pulled. “I—” His witch’s gaze got this distant look to it, even as unshed tears made his eyes glossy. “—my phone was broken—AH, it’s still in that closet, I think.”
“I’ll grab it for you later, Ollie,” Noble murmured.
“Thank you… Um…as I was saying, my phone wouldn’t turn on and I was feeling useless…helpless…but then I felt this burning anger and hatred inside me. It was almost like it was…calling to me. The emotions, that is. They didn’t feel like they were mine, yet they also did. I don’t know, they felt so strong that they scared me.”
His heart started to race at the implications of Ollie’s words, as he rasped, “It felt like they were calling to you?”
“Y-yes, does that mean something? I m-mean, I managed to push it back, if that counts for something, but then…my book came…”
Red looked to Noble. When he met the witch hunter’s concerned gaze, he found his eyes full of knowing, yet also confusion, both of which probably showed in his own expression.
Flicking his gaze back to Ollie, he pressed on, “What happened then?”
His witch swallowed hard, wincing slightly as he did. “I-it told me you would die, so I…stopped fighting. Though I guess it would be more accurate to say, when the feelings came rushing back, I welcomed them with open arms.”
Red took a deep breath in, slowly letting it out as he tried to calm his nerves before responding. “I see.”
Ollie huffed, “What does that even mean?”
“It means I need to think about it.”
Which meantthe cat probably knew something, but wasn’t ready to tell him.Great, more things being kept from me, Ollie thought with an inner sigh.
“Well, can you please tell me what it means when you do figure it out?” he drawled stiffly, not bothering to hide his irritation, but his sass was likely hampered by how rough his voice sounded and the yawn that forced its way out after his last word.
Red wiggled from his hold, jumping off the bed. “I will. Get some rest.”
He frowned as he watched his cat leave, before looking at Noble, and hesitantly latching onto the edge of his shirt, fearing the man was about to leave him too. “Stay...please,” he softly begged.
Ollie honestly felt safer in the man’s arms, and he wasn’t sure he could fall asleep without him.
Noble smiled and kicked his shoes off before getting on the bed, tugging Ollie back with him and into his arms. “I need to grab some things from my house, but I’ll stay until you fall asleep, and I promise to be here when you wake up.”
As his heavy eyes closed, he nodded, softly rasping, “Thank you,” as he snuggled closer.
Noble tookone last look at Ollie before carefully closing the bedroom door and heading down the hall to the spiral staircase. He found Red sitting on the round ornate kitchen table, staring out the window. With the chandelier turned off, the dark stone walls, wooden floors, exposed wooden ceiling beams, and weathered green cabinetry were all cast in shadows. The only source of light was coming from the medium-sized gothic window above the sink, which had a rounded top and was sectioned off below into three panels.
He paused there at the entrance, watching quietly, before asking, “Do you…” Even though he trailed off and didn’t finish the thought, Noble was sure the familiar would know what he was asking.
Red sighed. “The only theory I have, I don’t like.”
“Since it’s probably the same one I have, I can't say there is much to like about it.”
And unfortunately, the only theory he had that made sense to him, was that the entity, The Living Flame, had been present.
“The question is…fucking why?!” Red hissed. “And how?! With Ollie’s affinity to The Endless Death, it shouldn’t be possible!”
Noble frowned. “You didn’t already know?”
“Didn’t know what?!”
