Spellcaster series #5: The Sage

Home Sweet Home

HEIDI

The window fogged up as I breathed. I pressed my face to the glass as I watched the officers drive him away.

"How long will they hold him?" Mrs. Embers asked as she came out of Ada's bedroom.

"I'm not sure."

I walked to the kitchen and leaned against the counter with a mug of coffee in my hands. Worry was beginning to plan its seed inside me. Mrs. Embers stood beside me and leaned over the sink. She turned on the faucet and washed her hands. I sipped the steaming black liquid, eyes on the wooden floor.

"You all right, sweetheart?" She asked with a benign smile.

I hadn't noticed before but on contrary to his stoicism and occasional temper, Tristan took after his mother's gentleness.

I nodded. Then I turned to her. "Can I share something with you?"

Her face was open and patient. I continued.

"I'm worried about Tristan. He's been more reserved with me and I know that he's consumed with paranoia. He refused to tell me about that body part we found in the snow. In our own backyard."

Mrs. Embers remained silent. She listened intently as I went on about his silent moods in the past five years. He had been burying his past so much that he had forgotten right from wrong. At least, almost.

"He has his father's silence and his grandfather's temper," Mrs. Embers laughed. "That boy—he's no different from any of them even though he tries."

"Was he close to his father? You know, like the way he is with you?"

She looked thoughtful for a moment before answering, "No, my dear. He respects and obeys his father but they never bonded openly with one another. Not the way I am with him. Then again, my husband grew up with Sir William the same way."

"How was their relationship?"

She shook her head, "My husband was close to severing his ties with his father. The only reason why he didn't was because I persuaded him not to."

"But Tristan is quite a family-oriented man," I said. "I mean he's never spoken ill of anyone in his family."

"He learns it from me," she lightly nudged my ribs and grinned. "That boy isn't all Embers."

As soon as she said that, another crow hit the window above the sink with a loud, sudden thud. We both startled.

"That's the third time this week!" Mrs. Embers said angrily. "There must be a nest on the roof, or something."

A crow. Ada. The monster.

I walked to the coat rack and put on my winter jacket. I put on my boots and slipped my wand into my back pocket. I grabbed my dagger and the Necromancer's blade from my nightstand and pocketed it in my coat—just in case.

"I'll go check it out," I told her and went out the door.

I jogged down the snow-covered steps of the porch and took a few steps forward before turning around. I lifted my gaze to the roof. A row of crows and more. The facade of the roof was tall and I couldn't see anything behind it. I teleported to the roof and—

—pale corpses neatly arranged with their eyes closed, some unidentifiable from decomposition. Crows perched all around the ledge of the roof, fixating their beady little eyes on the bodies. Like food. My knees buckled and I felt my breakfast make its way up. I tried my best to keep it down.

What the—

In the corner of my eyes, there was a tall man in a black suit dragging a body. He had pale skin, as pale as the corpses, and he had his back towards me. I channeled my energy.