Truth Seer Book Four, page 20
I sank a hand into my pocket, grabbed the ring, and threw it at Vince. He caught it. The second his fingers locked around it, a pained expression engulfed his face. He gulped hard. With stiff lips, he swore.
“Lady Edwina’s magical ring. I’m assuming by your reaction, Vince, it registered her death. Vampire rings are such specific things.” Lux gestured to it with his tail.
When Vince didn’t hand it over, Lux shrugged. “Very well, Head of the Council, you have your evidence. That ring is fundamentally connected to Lady Edwina’s magic. When did it register her death?”
“Days ago.” Vince stared at the ceiling. He looked at me. He flinched and went to walk toward me.
I lifted my hands and freaked out. I shook my head. “You could be a copy—”
“You could be a copy,” Vince tried. He was exasperated and saying the first thing on his mind. He didn’t mean it.
Lux drummed his fingers on his desk. “Harper’s the only one who couldn’t be a copy.”
“And how have you concluded that?” Vince snapped.
Lux pointed at Beth. “Harper’s sustaining Beth’s soul. She does that through her own soul.”
“Harper could be a copy, but the life copier could be keeping her somewhere close by.”
“Harper, grab Beth and infuse her with your magic,” Lux said.
I did.
Beth glowed.
Lux gestured at me as if it proved his point.
Vince tapped a fist on his leg. “The Council must know this. It—” He glanced to the side.
I swallowed. “Changes everything. Anyone could be a copy. Except for me apparently. I actually already knew that,” I tried for a weak joke.
No one laughed.
Lux stared at me. His gaze drifted down my body. “You have several broken ribs, massive contusions, and serious fatigue. I could offer to heal you, but that is against my advice. We must call a meeting. We must discuss this. And Harper, until you are certain, you can’t trust anyone. Including me.”
“You can’t leave her in that condition—” Vince tried.
“Harper, there are magical potions in the drinks cabinet to your left. Drink the pink one.” Lux gestured to it.
I shook my head. I paused, bit my lip, and looked at Beth. “Can you tell if it’s poison?”
“I can.” Vince strode toward it.
Lux cracked his tail. “Don’t touch it. You could be a copy. Just like Harper, I’m fully aware that I’m not. Bethany should be able to assess what the magic is. That potion is unique,” he said after a pause. “And ludicrously expensive.”
Beth took the initiative, flew over to the drinks cabinet, messed around inside it, and retrieved a potion.
“Dear God. You sure you want to waste this on her?”
“Beth,” I hissed defensively. “It’s not a waste…. Wait, how expensive is it?”
“I imagine there’s only one in the city. Harper, this will do more than pick you up. It will fly you to the moon and back.”
“So it’s not poison, then?”
“No. It’s a thousand-year-old life elixir. I can tell that simply by holding it. The magic is intense. Down the whole lot. Don’t waste a drop.”
I grabbed it off her. I stared at Lux then Vince, then Lux, then did it. I uncorked the bottle with a fizz and drank. It was smoother than Bailey’s, fizzier than champagne, and more powerful than jet fuel.
I didn’t spill a drop, but when I was done, I doubled forward and almost blacked out. Then energy returned to me in a surge. I lifted my hands and stared at them, scared I’d vibrate right out of my skin. “What the hell has this done to me?”
Lux lifted a hand. “Ride out the effects. They won’t last much longer.”
He was right. In seconds, they dissipated. I breathed hard. I sank down to my knees and promptly jerked to my feet. I watched them both. “What now? What exactly will a meeting of the Council prove?”
“It will warn everyone. We can’t prove much. Life copier magic…” Vince swore again. It was clear he was battling with the truth. He didn’t want this to be real. So he was trying to pretend it wasn’t.
I didn’t know if he was a copy. I still looked at him with all the force I could muster. “Vince, this is no time to deny reality. I’ve seen the life copier’s handiwork. We have to warn the Council before anyone else is replaced.”
“We’re assuming anyone has been replaced yet,” Lux pointed out as he drummed his fingers on the desk again.
“You told me not to trust anyone,” I tried.
“No. Because you will be the adjudicator.” Lux crossed his arms.
My brow scrunched. “Sorry?”
“The Council represents a great many different magical skills. But you are the only person who can tell who’s a copy or not, Harper. You can sense souls. I’m sure Beth’s already told you that copies don’t have souls.”
I winced. “I can’t sense them – not like that. Maybe in the future. I don’t know what I’m doing,” I said bitterly.
“I have a soul, Harper,” Vince jumped in. He reached toward me.
Lux cracked his tail again. “Do not pressure her. She is now the only weapon the Council has.”
I didn’t like being referred to as a weapon. What else was I?
I didn’t want to head to the Council. After my day, I needed rest. The Council was plain torture. But I got it. They needed to be warned. I stupidly focused on the last roundtable discussion I’d attended. You know, the one where they’d thrown chairs at the wall?
Back then, we’d just been warning them of a life drainer. A life copier was way, way worse.
I didn’t travel to the Council via a portal. Vince offered. Lux shut him down.
I took Lux’s car instead. It was probably a risk. If he was a copy, it could be booby-trapped. But then I reminded myself that if he was a copy, he wouldn’t have suspected I’d find out so soon. Lord Omega also didn’t want me dead.
The drive to the Council was one of the most fraught of my life. I was thankful the car was magical. I didn’t run anyone off the road. My hands jittered on the steering wheel in time with my shaking teeth. Beth was no help. Rather than calm me down, she kept arcing me up. “Lux’s acting trustworthy. A copy would act trustworthy though, right?”
“I don’t know, Beth.” I rubbed my face. “I just wish I could feel souls already. I think… I think Lux has one. Wait,” alarm spiked through me, “does a demon even have a soul?”
She snorted. “You know the answer. It’s yes. All true living creatures have souls. Demons included. But I don’t need you to rely on simple facts. You must be certain, Harper. Do not trust the wrong person.”
I pulled up outside of the Council. The car parks were starting to fill. Vince had called ahead.
I couldn’t remove myself from the front seat for a full three minutes. I sat there, trying to unstick my butt. It felt like a rock.
Word would’ve spread by now. Vince would’ve told his aides, at least. Which meant Omega would know I knew about him.
“Get out of the car, Harper. It isn’t safe for you to simply remain here. Head into the Council. You made the decision to tell them what’s going on. You need to carry through with it.”
“You think I shot myself in the foot, don’t you, Beth?” I frowned, stared up through the windscreen, and watched snow slowly spiraling down from the laden clouds above.
“Yes. You should’ve run. Running is always better.”
“It’s sometimes better. You told me to run from the Council back when I first met you. It saved me from those trackers, true. It still wasn’t the best thing to do. It set me on the wrong course with Vince.”
“A course you have since corrected with kisses.”
“I’ve never kissed Vince.”
“You certainly have in your dreams. Harper, you’re wasting time. Head into the Council. You may not believe this, but you now hold a very important place in this city. You may be new to magic. But it is up to you to protect the Treaty. Only you can do it.”
Way to go to pull a girl up. She was telling me that I had the capacity. But I shrugged back from responsibility. It felt like a noose around my throat.
I finally shoved my door open, shuddered against the cold, snowy wind, and strode up the Council steps.
I think I saw someone moving back from a window above. A quick scan of the side of the building confirmed it’d be the leader’s window. Vince was watching me, then?
That creeped me the hell out.
“From this point on, Harper, you must radiate a sense of power and calm. Do not let the Council disintegrate. Do you remember the last roundtable meeting?”
I snorted. “I can still hear their screams in my dreams.”
“They freaked out that much at the prospect of a life drainer. A life copier is a completely different category of forbidden practitioner. There is every chance the Council will pull itself apart during this meeting. They need a steady hand to keep them on the right path.”
I lifted my hand. It shook like a little fishing vessel on the crest of a tidal wave. “Do you really think I’m that steady hand, Beth?”
“You’re the circuit breaker. You can theoretically detect a copy. You need to tell the Council you can do it. It will be the only way to calm them down.”
“It will be a lie.”
“It will be a momentary lie. You will now work on your capacity to detect souls. Start with me.”
I frowned at her as I rose up the large staircase behind the atrium. “You are a soul shard. You’re easy. It’s a given that you have a soul.”
“Precisely. What is the sense of me, Harper?”
I frowned at her. “A friend.” That wasn’t a joke.
She didn’t laugh. She sighed. “There is a deeper sense about me. Latch onto that. Feel what it is for something to be a soul. Is it energetic? Is it simply an innate knowledge like one has when they’re lucid dreaming? What is it, Harper?”
“We should’ve done this in the car. The meeting room is right ahead.” I exhaled.
Aides scurried everywhere. Two robed vampire guards held the door open. Practitioners raced in. They clearly knew something important was up.
I ran my nails down my face, leaving little red lines.
“Harper, Lord Omega told you you were badly trained, didn’t he?”
“Try not to remind me of that now.”
“You are differently trained. You’ve trained yourself through intuition, trials, and pure grit.”
I laughed, then rubbed my face.
I greeted the two robed vamps guarding the door. Stiffly, they bowed from the hips. I noted their hands didn’t touch, though they usually did when greeting important guests.
Guess I was just a sideshow. Sorry, try the main event. I strode into the Coliseum, and the crowd went silent. The room was still filling up. No one brushed too close behind me as they walked through the doors. They quickly darted to the side, heading up the staircases between the seats. They kept their heads turned over their shoulders as they stared at me.
My nerves ramped up. If it weren’t for Bethany’s continuous presence, my teeth would’ve started jittering.
I started to sweat in places I hadn’t for years. I crossed my arms and realized that was confrontational. I dropped them.
When everything became too much, a familiar shadow of demon wings appeared behind me. I spun. I controlled my relief before it could engulf my features. Lux did not dart forward and grab me comfortingly, anyway. He kept his distance. “This will be down to you, Harper,” he muttered, voice quiet and staccato.
“I get it. I’m the truth seer. Beth thinks I should lie and tell people I can sense souls already—”
“It isn’t a lie. It is currently an unused skill. Very soon, I’m sure you’ll figure out how to use it. That said… it may be convenient to let the rest of the Council think you have already mastered it.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Isn’t it dangerous to lie? Haven’t you told me in the past that I shouldn’t do it as a truth seer?”
“Strange times call for strange measures.”
Vince walked into the room. All eyes were on him. The stadium seating was finally full. This wasn’t my first rodeo. I’d experienced the Council’s wild side the day I discovered magic. It was still a seriously stressful situation. I swore it wasn’t just the fact every magical practitioner in Epista’s eyes were on me. It was the room itself. It was specifically made to make you freak out.
Vince kept it together. He strode up to the podium, placed his hands either side of it, leaned forward, and said in a booming voice, “Silence.”
Remarkably, silence did descend. Usually he had to bang his gavel. Clearly the Councilmembers needed to know what was happening and were eager for his update.
Vince should take the bull by the horns. Any indecision would cost him now. But he stared at me, and even a preschooler would know he was questioning whether I’d told the truth.
“Idiot,” Lux muttered under his breath. He flapped his wings.
He didn’t need to reveal them fully to get people’s attention. He could just crack his tail. Or if it were me, he could take his damn shirt off. But I certainly couldn’t distract myself with intimate thoughts of Lux now.
“An urgent meeting of the Council has been called. A new forbidden practitioner has been found,” he announced.
Silence descended. Then the entire crowd erupted into angry chatter.
A peeved Vince lifted his hand. He muttered under his breath to Lux, “This is my meeting.”
“Due to the seriousness of the truth seer’s claims, it’s everyone’s meeting. Because anyone could be a copy.” Real viciousness snapped through Lux’s words. His eyes narrowed as he assessed Vince. The vamp assessed Lux right back. I’d once thought their already acrimonious relationship couldn’t deteriorate further. Guess I was wrong.
I knew I needed to do something. Yeah, sure, this was Vince and Lux’s meeting. They were my allegations. I didn’t mind public speaking. Just not like this. Now I concentrated on the one thing that could get me through anything. The truth.
I cleared my throat. I didn’t need a magical gavel. I lifted my hand. It might be a waste, but to get everyone’s attention, I called on a spinning droplet of blood. It appeared over my hand, quick and bright. It worked a treat. The crowd stopped their angry chatter. An edgy silence replaced it.
I exhaled hard. “A new forbidden practitioner is working in Epista City. They’re working with Lord Omega,” I concluded, though I didn’t technically have evidence of that. I exhaled. I looked at the crowd, spinning around on the spot, “They are a life copier.”
No one said or did anything. It was like I hadn’t spoken.
I cleared my throat. I looked down at Beth. She hovered in front of me, always my shield.
“When in doubt, repeat your assertion louder,” she snapped.
I kept breathing hard. “A life copier is at large in Epista City,” I practically screamed.
Now the crowd did something. They jerked onto their feet, and they spoke so loudly, I couldn’t hear any single comment. They all morphed together in this angry mess.
Usually I was at arm’s-length from the rest of the Council. I didn’t have a side. That helped. I’d also signed a contract. In many ways, I was like a mere worker.
Not now. Now everyone’s angry attention was directed firmly at me. One woman leapt to her feet. “Impossible. Life copiers are extinct. You really think we believe you? This is scaremongering.”
The word scaremongering was repeated. Every time someone snapped it, my shoulders rounded.
“You can’t look weak, Harper. For God’s sake, pull yourself together. Speak the truth like you alone know it. Because you do. You must engender confidence.” Beth bobbed close.
How could I engender something I suddenly lacked? My self-esteem plummeted. What if I was wrong?
That question lasted one second. Then I remembered a rib-crushing fight with a demon. I wasn’t wrong. And I’d learned my lesson long ago that I should never deny the truth.
The angry chatter continued. I rose to my own defense. I strode straight toward the podium. Yes, Vince was the head. But it was my turn to speak officially. And dammit, the Council would listen. “Regardless of whether you want to face the facts or not, there is a life copier in this city.”
Someone rose to their feet in the crowd. Hardly surprising. Almost everyone was on their feet. This person moved with obvious elegance. A memorable one, too. The lighting in the room changed. And I came eye-to-eye with Lady Edwina. Crap. She was in the crowd? Of course. She was a member of the Council. She would’ve found out the meeting had been called like everyone else. But….
Beth was right. I shouldn’t have told anyone. I should’ve gone to ground until I had more evidence and an action plan.
Lux knew exactly what I was thinking. He couldn’t offer me his comforting presence. He had to keep his distance.
He at least turned and looked at me. His gaze was a challenge. He’d told me this meeting was down to me, that I had to prove myself as a truth seer.
I faced Lady Edwina. I really faced her. It was time to learn to scan for souls. She was too far away, though.
That wasn’t the fact that got to me. Samantha, her aide, stood right by her side. What the heck was a non-magical servant doing at a Council meeting?
It threw me for too long.
Lady Edwina arched a coiffed eyebrow. “She’s speechless. I was warned of her incompetence. I see it was justified. Child, you’ve only known about magic for a handful of months. How on earth would you recognize the work of a life copier?”
I wanted to snap I was staring right at one’s handiwork. Vince cleared his throat. If he’d wanted to point the finger at Lady Edwina, he would’ve started the meeting that way.
Either he was doubting me, or he had a different plan.
Or maybe he had no plan at all, I concluded when I walked closer and saw the indecision playing in his eyes. He was just as confused as me.
I was losing hold of this meeting. It’d only just begun. So much for everything falling on my shoulders. I couldn’t even carry air.
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