Salvation : Book 3

CHAPTER 28 : Even If It Hurts

Telling the council about Malek had gone exactly the way I expected it would. Starting with Jasper calling me a traitor, claiming that I'd been colluding with the emery the whole time. He called me a menace, and for a second I understood what Spider-Man went through with J Jonah Jameson. Hugh had tried to get him to calm down and Jasper had threatened to have me locked up again. 

    Russ was on my side as always and tried to convince the council to hear me out. In the end she'd succeeded and I'd told the council everything I knew, except for the part about all of this being because Malek had chosen to save the life of the man he loved, consequently betraying his brothers and leading the death god getting his hands on the most powerful grimoire known in the four realms, the Sokkot.  

    "Are you sure that's everything," Hugh had asked as his light gray eyes stared searchingly into mine. I'd nodded almost immediately. 

    "Yes, that's everything," I said, my voice a little uneven but no one seemed to notice. They let me leave as they deliberated on what to do next. Kai and Davin remained in the room as I made my way out. 

    I walked down the stone corridor, down to the next hallway, turning left then walking down that corridor, it was lined with arched windows on one side and identical wooden doors on the other side. I passed them all as I made my way to the training room, where I still had my training session with Scarlet. 

    I had decided to continue my magic lessons even though I was taking lessons with Malek because he'd suggested it. He said I needed to find my balance, that my magic was more powerful when I blended it together. I had to have master of the light as well as the dark. 

    I knocked on the large wooden door when I finally stood in front of it. I got an almost immediate reply for me to come in. Scarlet stood in front of the large floor-to-ceiling windows that made up one of the walls of the room. They overlooked part of the massive, red leaved forest that was stood right outside the council's headquarters. They were red now, in the spring, but in winter I'd seen them a sparkling green, covered in snow. In the months before, in the autumn, they'd been golden, rimed with a brownish hue. I liked the leaves best when they were red, it reminded me of the dream I'd once had, of Adrian and I walking through those woods. A dream that wasn't mine, but Adrian's. It was during one of the only times I'd intentionally dream walked, the night I'd gotten Adrian back. 

      Scarlet was standing in a yoga pose, she balanced on one foot, her left foot pressed against her right thigh and her hands pressed together, her elbows held high. She took in a deep breath as I stopped a foot away from her and she dropped her leg, standing again on two feet. 

       "You're early," she said, as she reached up to twist her blonde ponytail into a messy bun. 

      I checked my watch, she was right, I was thirty minutes early for the session. "Yeah, I guess I am, sorry," I said. She gave me a friendly smile, that assured me she wasn't cross. 

     "Don't be," she said as she stepped closer to me. "It's good you're early, I've something special installed for you today." I looked her with peeked interest and furrowed brows. 

     "What?" I asked curiously. 

    "It's called a Rubbius spell, it's a very powerful and complicated spell. Very few witches have ever been able to execute it properly. But I think you can do it," she said encouragingly as she moved towards the table at the far end of the room. The training room was an open space, with very little furniture. The only pieces were a lengthy table in the far left corner, it held an assortment of objects, ranging from grimoires, herbs, blades, bowls and jars with mysterious pickled objects. There was  a book shelf on the right side of the room, it held journals, I'd asked Scarlet once what was in the journals, she had said they held a record of every witch she'd ever trained.