Soul Guard (Elemental Book 5) (21 page)

She sat up and set her book aside. “Well, that does
make sense.”

“How is it possible?”

“I don’t know. I knew next to nothing about Dothra,
the keys, or the shadow walkers until I was killed. However, I did a lot of
work with Astrid, and I did a lot of snooping around before she took over. I
believe the secrets behind the Shadow Master and my father’s history lies in
the castle of Dothra.”

“Well, it’s not like we can just go to the castle.”

“I know. Maybe you can have a vision that shows you
something.” She stood up, picked up her book, and held it out to me. “Can you
return this for me? I can’t really risk walking around up there.”

The book cover was black leather with a silver
embossed, foreign title and a silver edge to the paper. I took it carefully,
just in case it was as old as it looked. “Where does it need to be returned
to?”

“My father’s secret library. I was planning on
staying in his room this summer until the school turned into a sanctuary for
the most suspicious and close-minded wizards in the world.”

“Yeah, we’ll return it.”

*          *          *

We made it back to the dorms and up to our room
without being intercepted by anyone. The room was exactly how we left it;
boring white walls, dark gray carpet, three beds suspended over three desks
with attached dressers, and a closet. My mother, Elizabeth, and Henry were
sitting in the chairs, and Jason and Scott were playing with kinetic sand in a
bucket.

“How did it go?” Henry asked.

“Not very helpful. Grab your lock picking kit. Let’s
go return a book to the library.” He frowned, but reached under his desk for
his bag without asking any questions and pulled out a leather case. “Darwin, if
anything happens, you know what to do.”

“Scream like a girl. I can do it.”

Henry left the room and I shut the door behind him.
“Why do you need help taking a book back to the library?” he asked after
glancing around to make sure we were alone.

“How do you know I don’t just want to chat?”

“Because Darwin is the one who always wants to talk.”

“Yeah, you’re right. We’re going to return a book to
Langril’s secret library.”

“Now that sounds more like what we do.”

We arrived at the professor’s room and Henry got to
work on the door lock. It only took him a couple of seconds. “Do the professors
stay at the school during the summer break?” I whispered.

“It depends on if they have families,” he said
quietly. We went inside and shut the door. “Addison says Hunt has a hard time
finding professors who have spouses working at the school, do not plan on
having a family, or are willing to spend eight months out of the year away from
their families. You know, you can unlock doors with magic.”

“Yes, but your skills are the safer bet.” The room
was exactly like I remembered it; a plain bed, a wooden desk, and a bookshelf
full of books. Henry and I moved the bookshelf carefully and managed to avoid
dropping any of the books. Behind the bookshelf was a section of wall that slid
open to reveal a smaller room. Every inch was crammed full of books and papers.
“I wonder if there are any books here that can tell us about the shadow
walkers.” I didn’t realize I was doing it until I grasped a candle stick from
its holder on the desk. When I did, the door slid closed behind us, leaving us
in absolute darkness.

Henry sighed.

“Sorry.” I pulled out my lighter and flicked it on
before lighting the candle and holding it up. “If I put it back, that should
open the…” I trailed off when I turned to him and saw a painting on the door.

He turned to see what I was staring at. “That’s not
Quintessence,” he said.

“No, but I’ve seen it before.” It was a painting of a
dark, enormous castle. “It’s the Dothra castle.” I was following my instincts
as I reached forth and felt along the edge of the painting. When I touched a
small trigger, I pushed it, and the painting swung free of a safe. “Are you
kidding?”

“That was all you,” Henry said.

“Actually, I think some of it was Heather. She said
that the answer was in the castle of Dothra. Can you get that open?”

He scoffed. “In my sleep.”

I really saw a lot of progress in Henry since he got
his son back. Although he was still formal and reserved most of the time, he
was learning to express himself and was no longer going nuts on the full moon.

In less than a minute, Henry stepped away from the
safe and it popped open easily. Inside were two things; a small book and a red
foam ball.

“How did the ball get in here? The last time I saw it
was after he disappeared. Either Heather put it in here, or it was important
enough that the first thing he did after the shadow man escaped was hide it.”

“But it’s just a ball.”

I stuck it in my pocket. I would have tried to use it
to induce a vision, but I had already done that before. Instead, I grabbed the
book, closed the safe, and returned the candle. The door slid open. I blew out
the candle and we returned to Langril’s bedroom.

I flipped through the book to find that the words on
the pages were handwritten. I didn’t recognize the small, sharp penmanship or
the language. “Maybe Darwin can read this. If not, maybe I can get something
through a vision.”

We returned to our room, which was way too crowded.
“How about we split up the party?” Darwin suggested, obviously thinking the
same as me. “Henry, you and Kitten take another room on this floor. Kyle and
Dev’s Mom, pick a room, Elizabeth and Jason, take another room.”

“What if the shadow man comes?” Jason asked.

“He can’t get into the school,” Henry said.

“Well, we’re hoping,” Darwin amended.

“That’s not helping.” I held out the book. “Can you
read this?”

He flipped through it and sighed. “It’s in that
language from Heinrich Baldauf’s journal. It has no identifiable roots in any
human language.”

“Which means?”

“It could take me weeks to decipher it.” Then he
grinned. “Which means it could be the most fun I’ve had all year.”

“We don’t have weeks. Everyone out except Henry and
Darwin.”

“Why?” Kyle asked.

“Because I don’t like doing my thing in front of
other people.”

“Henry and Darwin aren’t other people?”

“Nope.” Without any more argument, everyone except
for Henry and Darwin headed out to pick their rooms. I sat in my chair, took
the book, and slipped my vision ring on.

*          *          *

The vision did not come easily. At first, I just felt
sick, but when I pushed past the sensation and focused my mind on the book, I
felt something just beyond my reach. Normally, my visions involved revisiting
someone’s memories or constructing part of the image in my mind. This was more
difficult, since I had no idea what to expect.

Darkness formed and receded before I realized what
was happening. I found myself in one of the empty classrooms of the university.
Without control of my motion, since I wasn’t seeing through my own eyes, I
turned and peeked through the crack of a door. Vincent was just stepping out of
Hunt’s office.

At least, I thought it was Vincent until his face
changed into one that was half person, half not. His skin was grayish and his
eyes changed from Vincent’s unusual one blue, one purple, to a sinister yellow.
I was seeing when Krechea disguised himself as Vincent to bring the four keys
together. It was Langril’s eyes I was looking through.

I heard a strange whispering sound right before
Krechea took a small crystal out of his pocket. “Tell me you’re not helping
Krechea. Tell me honestly that you’re not trying to set Krechea free and I’ll
let you go.” It was my own voice that was whispering eerily across the hall.

“You are asking for death by saying his name. I’m
only doing what it takes to survive. That’s all I ever wanted. Gale wanted
power, so I had to give it to him until his death. You ruined that for me.
You’re the reason I have to help the Shadow Master.”

And that was Felicity. Krechea overheard my
conversation with Felicity because I said his name.

Everything went black for a moment before blue fire
lit in a circle around me. The walls were now dirt and Langril stood in front
of me. “Well, you got here faster than I expected. If you decided to work with
me, your instincts with my power could make us truly unmatched.”

“My instincts aren’t on the market. What’s going on
here?”

“I never told you why I changed my name, did I?”

“From Leara Kingling to Keigan Langril? I figured you
didn’t want anyone to recognize you.”

He shrugged. “I have a forgettable face. You and
Astrid know that first hand. No, the reason I changed it was for an experiment.
I experimented with the power of names. After a few mistakes, I learned to
break the power of my true name.”

“How?”

“I stopped being that person, so the name was no
longer mine. I had no name at all, which enabled me to make an astounding
number of enemies and a not-too-shabby following. It also resulted in me
learning to travel to other worlds temporarily, just long enough to make a
deal. We could only appear in dreams and visions at first, but when my
followers became soul guards, they were summoned to that world with enough
magic to make them a new body. Then it got complicated.”

“Because of Krechea?”

“No, his part came much later. Although we could
visit the dreams of the original vampires, fae, and shifters, only the humans
had wizards. Perhaps it was because you were all descended from us, but you
were our ticket out of Dothra. The thing is, no matter what the terms of the
contracts were, the human wizard’s soul would be dragged into Dothra when they
died. This vastly increased Dothra’s power and weakened the barriers between
our worlds.”

“And that made it easier for you to coerce more
humans,” I surmised.

“Yes, but that’s not all. What really complicated the
matter, what always complicates the matter, were the children.”

“Please tell me you don’t mean what I think you
mean.”

“Some of the humans wanted companions. Children were
often a result. That weakened the boundaries even more. Unfortunately, not
everyone was done with their contract when Krechea took over, so a lot of real
relationships were destroyed. But I’m getting off the point. I decided that in
order to truly master magic, I needed time to learn human magic. I took a name
and the risks that came with it, and became a soul guard. Krechea was ready.
That was why I changed my name.”

“Because Krechea found out?”

“Yes, and I had to break its power over me. When he
took over, he got most of my books, including those I used to teach my
followers.”

“So he learned to break the power of his name as
well?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, that isn’t all. The reason I
took a name wasn’t
only
so that I could become a soul guard. I also
created a spell so that when one of my followers needed me, they could call my
name and I would be summoned to them. Krechea took my spell and modified it. He
let people know his name on purpose so that he could spy on them, without letting
anyone know that the name held no power over him.”

The vision ended and I was in
my room again with Darwin and Henry. “What did you learn?” Henry asked.

“That the shadow man has heard everything we’ve ever
said about him. If we say his name, he can temporarily overhear the
conversation.”

“Interesting,” Darwin said.

“What is?” 

“I think we can use that. If we have some
information, we might be able to throw him off our trail if we change the
details.”

“That is possible. We’ll think about that, but right
now, I need to go see Vincent.”

Just when I shut my door, a blast of energy shot past
me, barely missing me. It only took me a second to assess the situation. On one
end of the hall was an elderly wizard and on the other was a middle-aged male
fae with dark blue hair. Their duel was more dangerous than those of the
students because their goal was to kill each other.

It didn’t occur to me that interfering was dangerous.
I reached out instinctively for the closest minds. I recognized Henry and
Darwin automatically. There was my mother, Kyle, Elizabeth, and Scott who I
also identified easily. Then there were the two strangers. I didn’t give them a
chance to counteract my power; I took a firm grip on their minds. “Stop!” I
demanded out loud, sending pure force through the connection. “There are
children in this hallway! Take it outside.”

They were startled for a moment, but they both
surrendered mentally. Without a word, the wizard went upstairs and the fae went
down. I rolled my eyes and made my way down the stairs, out the front door, and
into the castle. I focused on finding Vincent because that seemed to be the
fastest way to find anyone here.

After almost an hour, I gave up and ran right into
Remington, who was carrying a blood-soaked blanket in her arms. “What
happened?”

“I have no idea. I found him in my office like this.
I was looking for Vincent.” She lifted the edge of the white blanket to show me
what was inside.

“Ghost. Who hurt you?” I asked, taking him gently. He
let out a soft sound that wasn’t anything like his normal meow. “We need to
find Dr. Martin.”

“I already tried him. He left for the children’s
school an hour ago. If we can’t find Vincent, there are other wizards and fae
here who can do healing magic well.”

“You can’t do it?”

“I’m not the best and familiars are very
magic-resistant. I already tried, damn it.”

I didn’t push because I saw the root of her
irritation; she was ashamed. She was exceptional at most elemental and illusion
magic, but healing wasn’t her strength. Even though I hadn’t done much healing
in a long time, I had been able to help Darwin when Flagstone touched his skin
and I healed Astrid when we were kids.

I had to give it a try. “We need to lay him down on
something.”

“In here,” she said, opening the closest door. It was
a classroom. I laid Ghost on one of the desks. “I’ll get some water and
towels.” She disappeared quickly.

“Okay, Ghost, can you tell me what happened and how
to help you?” I asked. I reached out with my mind for his. He felt so distant
and disheartened that I wasn’t sure it was his mind I was sensing at first.

Then he sent a short vision through the mental link.
I saw through his eyes as he sat on the desk in my room. The image was
black-and-white and very fuzzy, since the cat was mostly blind. When he saw me,
the position changed from the desk to Darwin’s bed. I saw a potion he left
behind and myself reaching for it. I remembered that. When I tried to grab it,
it disappeared. The vision changed to me in the library when Vincent slipped
the potion into his robe pocket right before we went to confront Felicity. Then
the vision changed to a scene I hadn’t been a part of. I saw Vincent in my room
as he slipped the potion bottle behind the books on my bookshelf and a note on
my desk. I still saw through Ghost’s eyes, so I knew he was watching from the
corner of my desk.

When I saw the note, it suddenly made a lot more
sense.

Dear Devon,

There is a way through for you now. I must be
brief, for we are out of time. From a place where boundaries bleed and fears
fester, I have realized the flaw in my alliance. You must not trust your eyes,
not even your Sight. The answers are clear solely in the absence of light. You
are the only one who can make this journey, and you must do it alone.

I am afraid this may be the end for me, and I find
myself with a single regret; you should have been my son. Farewell, nephew.

Sincerely,

Your Uncle

I had seen that letter before. Ghost looked up at
Vincent. “
What did you see
?” Although the cat’s words were in Vincent’s
head, it was still startling to hear his gravelly voice so clearly in my mind.

“I saw Keigan pulling me into the fourth door of the
tower. I can’t figure out why or how because Keigan shrouded his decision with
misdirection. I also saw you injured and… the injury is just a smokescreen
though. Someone is going to poison you and then cut you so that Devon can’t see
the real danger. I’m hiding a potion because I don’t know who will poison you.
Give this letter to Devon and make sure he finds the potion
before
you
get poisoned.”

“
What about you
?
The letter does not
describe how to save you
.”

“Don’t worry about me. With me out of the way, Devon
has a better chance of defeating Krechea. If he loses me, maybe he won’t lose
what’s most precious to him.”

“
And what happens to me after you are gone
?
My
magic and life is tethered to yours
.”

“I won’t be dead, just gone. You’ll be fine as long
as Devon gets this potion to you. Do you understand?”

I could feel the familiar’s irritation. “
I am not
a fool. Of course I understand. I understand that you are an idiot
.”

Vincent turned and left. The cat hesitantly put his
paw on the note as worry overcame him. He hid it, but he cared about Vincent
very much. Unfortunately, that was when shadows reached out across the room.

I was shoved out of the vision and back to the
classroom just as Remington burst in the room with water and a few cloths.
“What the hell happened to you?” she asked.

I wiped sweat from my forehead. “He was poisoned.” I
gently prodded Ghost’s neck until he opened his eyes. “Where is the potion
Vincent hid? I moved those books and there wasn’t a potion there. What happened
to it?”

I pushed the closest feeling I had to vitality
through the mental link; I focused on adrenalin. Finally, I got a fuzzy,
half-faded, dark picture of the potion sitting on my coffee table at home.

Of course it’s there
. I turned to Remington.
“Make sure he holds on. I’ll be back as soon as I can be.”

“Where are you going?”

“Hopefully, I’ll bring back the antidote.” I focused
on my symbol and home simultaneously. My instincts warned me of danger, but I
knew the shadow pass was dangerous. All I cared about was that I had to save Ghost.
The damned cat had been through so much.

It felt like I was only in the shadow pass for a
blink of an eye. My living room was well lit from the windows, which made it
harder to appear somewhere from the shadow pass, so I appeared in my dim
hallway. Placed right in the middle of my coffee table was the potion. Ghost
must have left it there right after I went to the school.

I reached for it, only to be shot with something from
behind. As I collapsed on the ground, unable to move, I realized my instincts
had been warning me of the danger
here
, not in the shadow pass. The
assailant roughly tied a blindfold over my eyes. I tried to kick him, but my
limbs weren’t obeying my brain.

I concentrated on the presence of my familiar to
summon him. I felt the gargoyle respond an instant before I heard someone being
slammed against the wall, so I assumed it was my familiar here to protect me.
Instead, when the blindfold was removed, it was Vincent who stood over me. He
helped me stand and I felt a sort of electrical current run over my skin. “Is
that better?” he asked.

I failed to flex my fingers, but my legs held and I
was able to move my arms. The more I flexed them, the looser my muscles became.
“Yes. Thanks. Was that the shadow man?”

“No, that was just one of his followers.”

“I thought they weren’t supposed to be attacking me.”

“This one probably thought he could steal your key
for himself.”

“How did you find me?”

“I was looking for you. You said you would meet with
me.”

“I know. I looked for you and found Ghost. He was
poisoned.” Vincent groaned. I picked up the potion. “It’s okay, we can save
him. He showed me the potion and letter you prepared for him.”

“I see. I will help Ghost. Rosin is looking for you.”

“I think saving Ghost is more important than whatever
Alpha Flagstone wants.”

“Of course it is, but I can help Ghost.”

He had a point. “I don’t care what Flagstone has to
say; if I can help Ghost at all, I will.”

He considered it for a second before nodding. “In
that case, I welcome your help. I’ve been going back and forth all day and you
know how tiring that is.”

“If you want, I think I can do it for both of us.”

“I would appreciate it.”

I slipped the potion into my pocket, grasped his arm,
and focused on my symbol. It was more of a strain on my energy and took longer
because the room was so light, but after about half a minute, shadows reached
across the floor and enveloped us in complete darkness. The air grew stale and
cold. When I focused on Ghost, a sense of direction came over me. I didn’t have
a clue which direction I was going in, but I was moving anyway.

The darkness dispersed and left us in the classroom
with Remington and Ghost… only, the room wasn’t as I left it. Every single desk
was on the far side of the room in a big pile, broken glass littered the floor,
and Ghost was wrapped up in the towel in Remy’s arms. She was sitting against
the door with a gun and a bloody knife on the floor at her side. I looked up
and realized where the glass had come from; the ceiling had a skylight, which
was now just a hole. “What happened?” I felt like I had asked the question a
million times since that day John walked into my office.

“One of the wizards attacked, but I stabbed him and
he didn’t seem to even feel it. Your gargoyle showed up and helped.”

“One of the wizards that your father invited to stay
here?”

She nodded. “And I’d really like to know why.” She
gave me an accusing glare.

“I don’t know.” I absolutely hated lying to her, so
because she didn’t know anything about the keys, I just avoided her after I got
mine. This time, I legitimately didn’t know. “Are you hurt?” She shook her
head. “Then let’s worry about Ghost right now.”

I took him and pulled the bottle out of my pocket.
Although he had lost weight since the last time he pounced on my chest, he was
still heavy. Despite the cat’s weight, I managed to get the lid off the bottle.
Fortunately, it was a dropper type. I squeezed the rubber cap to fill the glass
tube and Vincent took the bottle from me. When I put it to his mouth, he didn’t
respond. He wasn’t breathing.

“Fuck. Wake up! Come on! Vincent, can’t you do
something?”

“I’m not very good at encouragement.”

I forced open the cat’s mouth, stuck the tip of the
dropper down his throat, and squeezed. I had no idea if I was helping or
hurting him, but I didn’t have any other ideas. Darwin probably knew how to do
CPR on animals, but I didn’t even have time to ask him and I highly doubted it
would help anyway without the potion.

Once I was sure the potion wasn’t coming back up, I
took him over to one of the desks, tipped it back onto its legs, and laid him
on it. He still wasn’t breathing, so I placed my finger over his heart. No
heartbeat. I wasn’t going to settle for that. Guided by my instincts, I focused
on all four elements at once.

Water was healing, trust, and emotion; earth was
strength and endurance; fire was purification and courage; and air was wisdom.
I would heal him because I had mastered the four elements and that was what
life was. Life was made up of the five elements, the fifth one being the soul.
I didn’t understand the fifth element yet because I hadn’t started my final
semester, but I knew Ghost had enough life in him every time I saw him. It was
why he didn’t die when a wizard summoned him too early and made every day of
his life a struggle. He didn’t die when that wizard was killed by Vincent. It
was why he wasn’t going to die this time.

Somehow, the aspects of the elements solidified
inside me, flowed down my arm, and struck him like a static shock. He popped
up, claws slashing, fur bristling, and hit the ground on his feet. Then the
little bastard just vanished.

“Does that mean he’s okay?” Remy asked.

“I think so. Now, do you know the name of the wizard
who attacked you?”

“No.”

“What did he say?”

“Nothing.”

“Not even why he attacked you?”

She shrugged. “It’s obviously because I’m a way to
get at my father.”

“What is it you wanted to talk to me about?” I asked
Vincent.

He shook his head. “It’s about Keigan, but we should
discuss it in private.” With that, he turned and walked out.

“Did he seem a little apathetic to you?” I asked
Remington.

She shrugged. “I don’t know him too well. He’s my
father’s friend, but he rarely visited and they both worked hard to pretend not
to be close because they didn’t want the council to suspect Vincent of
anything.”

“I really don’t know him that much either.” Even if
everyone
was wrong and he was my father instead of John, that didn’t automatically make
him someone I could trust. When he started teaching me to control my visions, I
started to trust him without realizing it. My instincts had never warned me I
was in danger around him. “Anyway, I’ll deal with that later. Let’s go find
your attacker.”