Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
SELESTE
" H as she eaten?" Aggie asked, shutting the door to Seleste's bedchamber. Anne was curled up in the bed and Augustus stood sentry at the foot.
Seleste shook her head. It had been madness from the moment Chresedia's minions and their beasts arrived.
Aggie and Grimm returned to chaos and had spent the evening of their return with Grimm roaring through the castle alongside Gaius and Laurent, doling out orders to check for anyone harmed and to search the entire city for anyone associated with Chresedia.
Aggie, on the other hand, hadn't left her Sisters' nor Anne's side. "If only I'd been here."
Finally, the dam broke. Aggie melted into tears, and Seleste rushed for her as Sorscha pulled her onto her lap, and Winnie went for a glass of water .
"If you'd been here," Winnie said gently, "then what? You can't save everyone, Sister."
This only sent Aggie into more sobs, snuggling Mabon to her chest. The little bat had flown in the window only moments after Aggie's return.
Sorscha and Winnie traded looks with Seleste, all of them thinking the same thing. Itching to know what she and Grimm had learned.
But it felt crass to address anything with Emile's broken body beneath the castle.
Anne had screamed and screamed, the memory of the sound still coating Seleste's ears. Screamed for Laurent to go get him, go get him. But being the man that he is, Laurent had already been on his way. Solemnly, he'd lept from the broken cliff while Seleste comforted Anne. Floating up a few moments later, Emile's lifeless form was wrapped in his magic.
Since then, Anne had been inconsolable.
A debt repaid , Sorscha had muttered at one point, and Dulci had slapped her.
Sorscha wasn't entirely wrong, but neither was Dulci. Anne and Emile's relationship had been fraught and complicated. But it was no one's choice but Anne's how she grieved the man's death.
They were all sitting in Seleste's rooms sniffling when Aggie and Grimm arrived.
They had their own things to share with Aggie, namely their mother's sacrifice and the eclipse destination, but no one could do more than stare at their hands. Chresedia had fractured them. Again .
"How long were we gone?" Aggie finally asked, wiping her sleeve across her face.
"Nearly a moon," Seleste answered, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.
She squeezed her eyes shut, more tears leaking. "We need to get moving. That means the eclipse is, what? Less than a fortnight away?"
Winnie nodded. "We all want to mourn Emile, Aggie, but there is much we need to discuss."
Seleste watched as Aggie set her face like flint, pushed her shoulders back, and took a deep, settling breath. She gave Mabon a little peck on the head and stood, the bat falling into flight to go hang from the rafters.
"You're right. Emile would hate a fuss over him." She took a sip of water, then went to the sideboard and poured herself something stronger. "We need everyone for most of what needs to be discussed, but there is one thing that is only for the four of us and Grimm." Aggie held out her hand, all four of their mother's journals appearing there, stacked in her palm. "These—" Her voice cracked. "These can summon the first Sisters." She swallowed, hard. "My daughters. One time."
"Holy gods." Sorscha covered her face with her hands. "I don't think I can handle that."
Winnie blinked rapidly, shaking her head. "No. I cannot either. I— Not right now."
Seleste disagreed. She wanted to see them, face to face, immediately. Her heart surged at the thought. But if they weren't all ready, they would wait. Grimm would need to be present as well to see his daughters. "Then, I say we wait," she said. "We must get on the road as soon as possible, but it will be many days of travel. We prepare ourselves along the way."
Aggie nodded, wiping at her weepy eyes again and nursing her drink. "Where is our destination? Will it take all the days we have left to reach it?" A sadness was thoroughly coating Aggie, one that Seleste did not think stemmed from the loss of Emile or the thought of seeing the First Sisters.
"That is one of the matters we must discuss," Seleste began. "Laurent and I first thought our destination was Eridon, but we were mistaken. Eridon was merely Chresedia's launching point after she came through the door in Eldritch. We assume she actively used River Vide to travel for her evil escapades."
"You found the correct destination, then?"
Seleste nodded. "She is preparing to leave our realm from Helsvar."
Aggie put a hand to her forehead and began to laugh darkly. "Full fucking circle. Again." Once her unhinged laughter subsided, she glanced at the door. "I– There's one more thing I'd like to keep between the four of us and Grimm until it's sorted out."
Sensing a juicy morsel of gossip, Sorscha leaned in. "We're listening…"
"Gaius' grandfather on his mother's side, Achilles Zivai, was in league with Chresedia and Asa's mother at one point. Do any of you know anything about that?"
Seleste's pulse quickened.
Sorscha mocked an exaggerated frown. "Asa claims his mother knew Chresedia before she was Athania . Morgana had started her Academy of Alchemy and brought on several young academics. Nadja was one of them and the woman named Chresedia. There were two more, they had some…" She flipped her hand back and forth. "Secret society together. But, I guess, at a certain point, Morgana needed a new body and took Chresedia's. This was before we were born. One of them was also a doctor—his descendants kept it going until about a hundred and fifty years ago when he was killed."
Seleste couldn't breathe.
"Chresedia, Nadja, and Gaius' grandfather, Achilles," Aggie mused, "then Gideon mentioned a man named Pollock."
She was going to faint.
"Which was the doctor?" Aggie asked carefully. "Achilles?"
"No. We learned he was a mage, though, and Gaius refuses to talk about it."
"Pollock," Seleste interrupted, the name barely leaving her lips. "He was the doctor."