The Heirs of Death

11.2 Strike of Faith

STRIKE OF FAITH

I didn't leave the Prelius Chateau immediately like I had planned. Instead, I found myself having dinner with Rhia as Leon worked through what Father had given him.

As though I had felt bad for leaving him to work by his own, Rhia was fast to make me laugh myself hoarse. We had talked as we ate, and talked after that for more than an hour, not feeling the time pass.

She went as far as telling me about how stubborn and energetic both her and Leon were as children, and just how many troubles they kept creating, and I found myself talking about my life on Earth, as uneventful as it was.

So we ended up talking and joking and laughing until time was almost over and the meeting was to start. Excusing myself, I left, but not before warning them about what I'd discovered as far as knowing who our traitor could be. I didn't divulge details, fearing who could see through their thoughts at the meeting even when I suspected he wouldn't be invited.

But until I knew for sure, I wouldn't risk it.

I had then vanished from their home and back into mine, arriving straight into the throne room.
And now one third of an hour before the meeting ended, curled in the third throne and still wrapped in my cloak, I cherished the silence. I had extinguished all light when I arrived, savoring the darkness, the part of me that was night and mysteries overtaking me. Even moonlight was rare, sweeping every now and then over the marble floor and glass statues only when the clouds weren't thick anymore.

I felt like I was a part of that blackness that ruled the skies, like I was night and secrets and nothing more than the whispers of sleeping souls. I felt at peace.

I was still curled up in my seat, the one closest to the windows out of the three, when I heard distant footsteps. They weren't of a maid or a guard, no. Their pattern was familiar, belonging to a young man of strong built and a soul that was calm yet powerful, just like the sea's waves.

I smiled, feeling him approach, and leaned my head on my shoulder, keeping my eyes closed, hood draped over my face. A whisper of magic unlocked the enormous, double doors I'd made sure to seal so this silence wouldn't be interrupted by nosy maids. But his magic was welcomed, and forever it would be.

Few minutes passed, nothing but the symphony of those footsteps accompanied by the rush of wind through trees and foliages filling the room. And then, Carter was here, a few meters away from me.

And then closer, closer, closer, until he stopped.

I peered with lazy eyes as he stood in the darkness of the shadows swallowing the chamber, cape wrapped around his shoulder and sword hanging from his waist.

I couldn't see the glowing bronze of his eye and it was either because he was too swallowed in darkness away from the lights seeping from the open doors or because he just savored, eyes closed, the calmness as much as I did.