Peacekeepers

Chapter 41: Breach of Contract

Anne felt a small chill go down her spine at the sight of his eye glowing so abnormally. Something had happened... something terrible. She set a hand against her belly protectively as she gathered her courage to ask, "What exactly happened to you? What do you mean you dug too deep?"

Linus sighed and let his hair fall back over his eye, his good eye looking down anxiously. "I was trying to delve into the root of certain magics. I thought I would use the entity that I thought was most amiable to my cause." He looked back to the board where he'd written the names down before looking back to Anne. "I was wrong, though. They are far too powerful, and do not take kindly to meddling.

"Did one of them do that to you?" She whispered in shock.

"I think so... it's difficult to say. It was all so fast it's difficult to remember." He reached up to touch the wounded eye and flinched as his fingers ran across the glowing skin before he lowered his hand again. "I used a pencieve. It was the easiest way to delve into the magic, by using the magic of the spell itself to travel."

Anne looked over to the large basin in the corner, wondering how he had managed something like that. Traveling within the magic? How was that possible? "This pencieve?" She asked, walking toward it.

"DON'T-" Linus shouted, making her stop in her tracks and look back at him in alarm.

"I'm sorry, I don't know if the entity is still connected to it... I don't want something to happen to you or your child." He said in a strained voice.

Garreth came up behind Anne and put a hand on her waist, carefully turning her away from the pencieve as he looked over at it warily. "What do you remember of what happened?" He asked Linus cautiously.

Linus gave a strained expression as he recounted the event. "I was running through darkness, it was well outside of the boundaries of the memory I had gone into. I remember a face, pale but with strange whisps of material coming from their head and torso." He motioned in waving motions to illustrate. "They told me I'd gone too far and warned me to go back... but I was stupid, and tried to press on. There was a bright white flash, and that was the last thing I remember." He shook his head solemnly. "I woke up on the ground beside the pencieve, with this." He motioned to his eye.

Garreth made a soft sound of concern, glancing over to the pencieve again. "Why are you so intent on this research, then?" He wanted to get to the root of the reason.

Linus shifted between his feet in a nervous gesture. "To try and fix this." He said softly.

That made Anne hiss softly, knowing all too well what it was like to want to fix a curse. She looked up to Garreth who caught her glance with a sympathetic look. They couldn't trust him though... not yet. They didn't know him.

They all looked up as a loud sound came from the front of the house, and Garreth quickly turned around to move Anne behind him protectively.

"Did you tell anyone we were here?!" He glared back at Linus.

"No, of course not." Linus shook his head in alarm. He moved past them to go out of the door, his expression blank as he strode into the hallway. Sebastian already had his wand out and was standing in front of Ominis and Diane protectively, looking over at Linus with an accusatory look.

Linus didn't pay him any mind as he walked past him, taking his pale wand out of his coat to confront the intruders.

A loud hiss sounded behind him as they appeared down the hall, several men led by Marvolo Gaunt, who saw Ominis and smiled wickedly. "Found you." He sneered.

Linus didn't seem to pay any attention to that, more focused on the matter at hand. "Marvolo Gaunt, your father may have me under your employment but you do not have the right to enter my home without permission." He said in a monotone, polite voice.