The Red Wing Mansion

The Pearl Wing Mansion : Chapter Fourteen

Alix's POV

Pearly and Dagger sit in their drenched clothes opposite Claudius and I. After taking seats opposite his large desk, I sit on top of the desk, crossing my legs, while Claudius reclines on his chair, his temple resting on his fingers as he tilts his head at the 'enemy' of his past.

"Time to make up," Pearly speaks up, forcing positivity, "Dagger will need instruction, guidance and help for a little while from you... dear brother."

"Mm," Claudius agrees but barely holds off on outwardly groaning about it, "... I will help," then he reluctantly adds, "Speak your mind, old friend."

Dagger finds that amusing, scoffing that moment and almost smiling, his funeral suit a tattered mess on his body – but both Mr. and Mrs. Spellman are too in shock to do anything about it right now. So they came directly to us. I asked Claudius to just go with the flow without feeling the need to bully a dead man, surprisingly he agreed.

"I see you're enjoying this estate, Fontaine, why did you need another when you have your own; the Red Wing?" Dagger asks, while I notice his mop of nicely sprung brown curls drying now that he's inside.

"It's not mine, it's Pearly's," Claudius redirects, "Besides, I don't live at a large estate anymore. I have a luxury cabin that comes with a holiday park I run, just outside of Clue. The Red Wing is ash and dust now."

"How did that come about?" Dagger is immediately satisfied with this outcome, his dark eyes humoured by his loss of property.

"Shall I explain?" I ask Fontaine.

"Go ahead, Alix," Claudius holds back a sigh and lets me talk to Dagger.

"Claudius was not always just an incubus on the hunt, Dagger. He once starved himself so much that he became a ghost, and I met him at the abandoned and haunted Red Wing, in a separate timeline that no longer exists," I speak up with fervour, excited to tell my own side of Fontain's journey with me, although I do note Dagger's reservedness, he's already cold to the idea of what I'm suggesting. Still, I try to explain, "We went back in time together, and Claudius lived from that point on as an active incubus. He wasn't always active. Not while he was waiting for me to be born again, because I had jumped back to the future, escaping the past I did not belong in. And so... here's our new timeline. We met again, twice, my memories returned with the burning of the Red Wing, where all that darkness had been brewing," I see I've already lost Dagger on the comprehension, since for him he has only lived in one timeline, this one – the same timeline that Claudius had murdered him. I stoop my shoulders, disappointed. I wanted to impress him with some more context but Dagger just blinks and takes in Claudius cruelly.

"Right," Dagger bites out one word, sits back and straightens up.

Claudius mimics him, straightening up too while Pearly visibly gulps and holds tightly onto the armrests of her chair, nervously glancing between the two, then looking to me with distress. She's dreading the outcome of this confrontation.

I can understand it, they're equal in height, strong, strict and disciplined – arrogant about their own abilities. Neither would bow to the other.

"The title to the estate will remain unchanged for now, until you prove yourself," Claudius softens his tone, he talks quiet, like he's in a business meeting, "For you to maintain yourself, I suggest keeping close to Pearly. Avoid Isela. Tomorrow night we gather, Aelia will bring you a gift. A soul of another."

"I must take the soul from a stranger?" Dagger asks and Claudius clenches his jaw shut as he just nods.

"No," Pearly shakes her head, "He can't –"