The Mystery of the Frozen Heart

Chapter 13: Nightswimming

1925

1 The next clue was, according to the coordinates written on the enchanted galleons, hidden close to an abandoned barn, in the middle of nowhere, on some godforsaken field. It would have been preferable to travel to the place via Floo Network or Portkey, but both methods were more likely to lead unwanted intruders to the place in question than Apparition. Celestia didn't exactly feel comfortable Apparating (semi-) blindly, but after everything she'd already done and everything she was still planning to do, this seemed almost tame. Besides, they weren't Apparating blindly, per se; they had the exact coordinates to the place in question, even though none of them had ever set eyes on that field.

The plan was simple: first, they would find the next clue. Then, Celestia would switch wands with Apollo and continue on to meet her contact - she and Nocturna, that was. Apollo, Ares, and Ethel would then stay behind and kill the Auror Goldstein, should she show up in the hopes of catching Celestia. Ethel's assumption was that Goldstein would use MACUSA resources in order to track Celestia's wand and through her, the frozen heart. If that were the case, Goldstein would no doubt be acting more or less alone; she'd walk directly into a death trap. Maybe Goldstein wouldn't defy her superior. Maybe she'd stay in New York and just do as she'd been told. Probably not, though, according to Ethel, who was the only one who actually knew the Auror personally. If Goldstein really did track Celestia's wand and follow it, she'd be murdered in cold blood. Celestia wouldn't be the one to cast the killing curse, but she'd be directly responsible - no use in pretending otherwise. She would become a murderer. She would cross a line that could never, ever be uncrossed. A human being would be dead because of her.

It was better not to think about that too much.

The group Apparated on a grassy, windy field that stretched on for several acres in every direction. In the middle of the field stood a rather dilapidated red barn with a partially caved-in roof. Farther away, the field was framed by a dark-green forest. The sky was blue, and a pale sun was shining.

"Where are we?" Ares all but shouted. He was trying to keep the wind from messing up his hair, with zero success.

"No idea," his brother said, shrugging. "But who cares? We're where we're supposed to be. Let's find the next clue and get this sorry affair over with." He pulled up the collar of his black coat. "Do we proceed as we did in the forest?"

Celestia, trying to ignore her own hair problems, nodded. "Yes."

Apollo smiled a little. "Let's not waste any time, then." He raised his wand. "Invenio." A small sphere of white light appeared. "Lovely." He turned around and marched off.

Everyone else did the same.

Again, Celestia was joined by her sister.

"You don't seem happy," Nocturna said, as they trudged through the swaying sea of green toward the barn. "So close to success, and you're still sad." She sounded so concerned, it was enough to break a person's heart.

"I'm not sad," Celestia said. One glance at Nocturna revealed to her that the former wasn't buying the talk. "Really, I'm not." Her foot caught on some hole in the ground or something similar, and she stumbled, but didn't fall. Not that it would matter. Her clothes were mud-stained, anyway. She wished the MACUSA goons had given her briefcase back, but it was still being inspected for illegal contraband. Americans and their bureaucracy.

"Wistful, then. Depressed. Melancholic. Call it what you will."

Celestia brushed a knotted strand of her ruddy hair from her face. It didn't help. Two seconds later, it was dancing in front of her eyes again like a panicking bird. How to put into words what she was feeling without sounding whiny and self-important? Nocturna was her sister, though. If a person couldn't disburden their heart to their own sister, then to whom?