FAELAN
Sage and I walk down the hall to the red door. It opens before my knuckles hit the wood to knock. Gerald, Marius’s selkie assistant, is there, looking at us with his white eyes. “The master will be out in a moment. Please wait for him there.” He points to the two seats facing the desk.
When Sage sits, she grips the arms of the chair, her knuckles turning white. I’m not sure why she’s so tense. It seemed like she was relieved for a second about the torque—for good reason. Her energy being contained will help her have a smoother transition. And it’ll allow for a clearer head when she chooses her House. She’ll still have to deal with the memories, but I’m hoping Marius will have a solution to that, maybe speeding up the process so they’ll fade faster.
It doesn’t take long for Marius to emerge from his feeding room. His chest is bare, a towel is wrapped around his neck, and there are drops of water falling from his damp silver hair. The scars from his years as a child slave in Rome are apparent. I glance at Sage to see how she reacts. She’s not really looking at him, though. She’s biting her nails and staring past him at the feeding room door where Marius’s selkie concubine, Paris, can be seen climbing from the feeding tub, naked.
My eyes move to the floor, and my stomach clenches as I realize Sage will think all the wrong things about what she’s seeing.
Marius shuts the door and walks over to us, drying his hair with the towel. “What’s the urgency?” he asks. “I was planning to come to the house in an hour or so. Is everything all right?”
I stand. “Yes, sir—I mean, we’re not sure. Sorry to interrupt you. I just wasn’t sure this was something that I should wait on.”
“Sit, Faelan.” He goes to the other side of the desk, pulls a white cotton T-shirt from a drawer, and puts it on. He folds his towel and sets it aside. “Did something happen last night after I left?”
“In a way,” I say. Sage is silent as Marius focuses on her. “It’s come to my attention,” I continue, deciding to get right to the point, “that she’s having dreams of Queen Lily. Blood memories, to be exact.”
Marius looks between us. “I don’t understand. How do you know this?”
“We did a dream spell,” I say. “And I went in with her as the tether.”
His features tense. “What pushed you to do such a thing?”
I hesitate.
Sage breaks in. “I was feeling connected to Kieran, like I knew him or something, and it scared me. Faelan was trying to help me figure out why.”
“And when we went into the dream under the spell,” I say, “it was clear that Sage was dreaming as Lily. Like a blood memory.”
“Blood memories show themselves when the person is awake,” Marius says, his eyes narrowing. “Not asleep. This is very odd, Faelan. You know how these things work. We would’ve been aware if such an invasion of her mind had happened. We’ve watched her. No druid has had access to her. And even so, the ceremony takes hours, and the memories don’t hide themselves.”
“Yes, sir,” I say, trying to gather my thoughts and figure out how to explain it better. “But she has knowledge of Lailoken, the wise man. And she knows about the King of Ravens and how he fed, how he looked. How would she know those things?”
“It was foolish to follow this.” He shakes his head, frustrated. “This could confuse matters even more.”
“But, sir, something was wrong. She’d had a slipup with her energy in her sleep, even with her torque on. At one point, she wouldn’t heal. And then this strong connection she was feeling with Kieran . . . we were trying to figure out what was going on.”
“It seems a lot has gone on,” Marius says.
“Yes, sir,” I say. “I’m sorry, I wouldn’t have bothered you with this either, but I’m not sure how to help her now.”
“Don’t apologize, Faelan,” he says. He turns his attention to Sage. “Come here and stand in front of me, child.”
She glances at me, then stands and moves around the desk to the other side, in front of Marius.
He examines her face, focusing on her eyes. “Your energy seems very clear. I can sense the torque working with—” His eyes fall to her torque, and he steps back. “Where did you get that, child?” His head turns to me as he points at the medallion. “Where did this come from, Faelan?”
I didn’t expect him to react so strongly to the ancient torque. If anything, I thought he’d be relieved that it was found after it went missing so long ago. But now my nerves turn raw at the anger in his eyes. I feel him begin to stir his energy in the air, my muscles twitching, my veins aching, as he manipulates the water around him—including inside me.
“It’s my fault that I’m wearing it,” Sage says, her tone worried, like she can sense Marius’s simmering rage. “Kieran gave it as his gift last night at the Introduction. Faelan had nothing to do with it.”
Marius turns his attention back to her. “And you placed it yourself? Take it off.”
I start to explain. “Sir—” But he waves his hand and a sharp sting fills my skin, my gut twisting with his manipulation. I grunt, hunching in pain and clutching my stomach.
Sage’s eyes widen and she steps back. “Don’t hurt him—”
“Take it off,” Marius repeats coldly.
Sage shakes her head, reaching up to clutch the medallion in her fist. “I can’t. Kieran put it on me,” she says, her voice shaking.
“Kieran?” Marius says through his teeth. He turns back to me. “You allowed the Prince of Shadows to place the most powerful torque in existence on the newblood he wishes to control, Faelan?”
“Faelan wasn’t there,” Sage says quickly. “I slipped away from him even though he told me to stay put. It was my fault. When he found me, I already had it on.”
Why would she lie? It doesn’t matter if I was there or not. I was meant to be watching everything, to be guarding. And I failed.
The tension of Marius’s power releases from my body, the pain fading a little.
He studies her. “You protect him with your lies,” he says, his voice softening. “You have loyalty, young one. This is good. I’m very relieved.” He moves to his desk and unlocks a hidden drawer underneath, then pulls out a small scroll. He glances at me. “I saw last night that you were becoming attached to this newblood, Faelan. But I was unsure about her. I see now that we may be able to trust her.”