Page 26 of The Healing Dragon (The Red Book #2)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
JANELLE
I close the clinic doors behind me and head to my room.
Today’s gardening is weighing on my muscles.
Especially my back, which feels heavy and tense.
I roll my shoulders and feel the sting of pain.
I know it will turn into a full ache by tomorrow morning.
It’s like whatever I did today affected the muscles I don’t use often.
“Hey,” Matias calls from the clinic doors. He closes them behind him and rushes in my direction. “We need to talk.”
“I won’t tell a soul of your secret,” I assure him.
Not like I have anyone to tell, but if saying it makes him feel better, why not?
“Not that, but thank you. I appreciate it. I need your help.”
“My help with what?” I tilt my head.
“Answers,” he says, then begins walking the opposite direction without looking back.
Despite my exhaustion, I find myself following Matias. There are a lot of questions regarding him, but I don’t have any answers as far as I know. That alone intrigues me enough, and I think he knows it .
He is walking beside me, but his eyes don’t turn in my direction even once as we cross the halls of the castle to our destination.
I pause when a set of double doors comes into view.
This is my first time back here after the attack.
My heart rate picks up with every step I take.
Despite smelling smoke, I disregard it as a figment of my imagination because Matias seems entirely unfazed.
I watch a light glow under the doors. My mind tells me that when I open that door, flames will greet me on the other side.
It's unreasonable for me to believe so, but not impossible, and that sliver of possibility is where I am.
Someone then exits the library, leaving the doors open behind them. The person casually pushes past us without sparing us a second glance.
“Are you okay?” Matias asks me. He looks between the library and me. His too-well-knowing eyes seem to understand the situation. “We are both going to be haunted by what happened to us for a while. The time to face the music is here.”
“I’m haunted by what I did, not what happened to me.
” Not all the demons that haunt us are alike.
We are not the same. Not even close. “You might not have learned the entire story of the attack, but I, with the help of the fire snake my magic conjures, killed a group of students assembled inside those walls.” I point inside the library.
The news of their fate was shared with me by the old man guarding the prison cells the night of the attack.
Back then, I felt so dissociated that I only recall the news being delivered.
Not an ounce of emotion followed after. I watched people share their fate before choosing to hide in my mind, but they were just people in my head.
Giving this group of people a label such as ‘students’ made them all even more real.
“I know.” His eyes show a compassion I don’t deserve. “ Sofia was a friend studying inside that very room when you and your snake came along.”
“She was your friend?” I ask, taking a step back.
“A new one.” He looks back to the room, then to me. “But I also know that you were not in charge of the snake. Your soul bond was. I also know you killed him and saved Bianca.”
“I didn’t do it fast enough.”
Coward.
“That might be true, but it’s also true that it’s easy to toss out blame and pretend we will always make the right decision in that situation.”
“You are far too kind and compassionate for your own good,” I say.
“Or maybe I also know what it is like to be under your father’s control.” His voice lowers and to my ears only he adds, “I listened when you spoke to me that day in the cells. I, too, felt like a coward for not fighting back and checking out instead.”
I look at Matias. The clouds of his eyes are no longer hidden behind the fake smile.
His shields are down and I can finally see why he has been seeking me out.
He doesn’t feel thankful for my aid in his freedom.
He seeks me out because I’m a fellow survivor of the evil that made him wish to disappear. I’m a flame akin to his fire.
“What are we doing here?” I ask, nodding to the open doors.
He clears his throat and after making sure no one is nearby, he says, “I want to figure out what exactly was done to me. That might give me an idea of how to make the voice stop.”
“What voice, Matias?” I take a step closer to him and whisper, “Is it my father’s?”
Is he somehow able to still communicate with Matias?
My father is a powerful man, but his capabilities have limits.
His hold over me always made me think he viewed me as his most powerful child, even more powerful than himself.
I would come lacking to this extent of power, but I’m not sure what the Red Book might do for a person.
“No, I don’t think so. I don’t think the voice is of someone living.”
The words give me pause. I finally realize why he has told no one about the voice.
He allowed Amy Bee to have a slight misunderstanding of what he is dealing with because of this.
Even in the magic world, no one can communicate with the dead.
Well, no one possesses the magic to raise the dead either, and Matias has done that.
His level of connection with those who have passed on is stronger than thought possible.
A few people sit at various desks throughout the expansion of the library entrance. With every step I take deeper inside, I’m in awe at how intact it looks. The smell of fresh pine wood hangs in the air as it has always been there and no disaster ever stained the walls.
“Can I help you?” A voice asks behind us.
I turn and look up at Santiago’s impatient frown.
His arms are folded before him and the tapping of his foot conveys he has places to be and we are in the way.
I’ve known Santiago for a long time. It’s hard to miss his existence when he is so close to the Oscuro brothers.
However, the few times I found myself in the castle when I wasn’t monitored by my father, I always spent time alone with Jesse, so there was never time to establish any type of friendship.
All I know of him is what has been told to me.
“You said for me to come at the end of the day,” Matias says.
Santiago looks between us, then up to the heavens. “Is there a reason she is here?”
From the hard edge of his eyes, I can see that he sees nothing more than the person from the attack. The hostility feels like an itchy slime that spreads more and more until there isn’t an inch of my skin free from it. It adds to the shame already covering me.
Matias looks at me and then back at Santiago. “I need to make sense of what happened to me, and I think she might be able to help.”
The honest bluntness from Matias surprises me.
I wondered if he planned on keeping secrets from the library keeper too, but it looks like yet one more person is going to be allowed into this messed up little group of my father’s survivors.
In a weird way, I think every person in this castle truly belongs to that group.
Even if they choose to blame me, Brandon or the Fates instead.
The few people we walk past don’t look up as we take a table off the far left side. I’m not surprised at the fact this specific table is hidden behind a bookshelf from the front door. I actually appreciate being out of sight.
There are more tables and chairs with similar setups down the wall of the bookshelf, but this one is the closest to the main library desk. Which is why we are here, since Santiago is on duty as long as the library doors are open.
“Okay, where do we start?” Santiago asks, settling into a seat across from me. His question is directed at Matias.
Matias turns to me. I hold his gaze as I try to think of something that can be helpful.
“Klause,” I say to Santiago. “The cursed book is open. We can start there.”
“The curse book talks about the movement looking to destroy the Red Book, not the powers of the Red Book when used against someone.” His body shifts fully to Matias sitting between us.
“What exactly do you want to know?” He taps the table with his index finger.
“We need the question in order to find the right answer.”
Matias hesitates for a second but then sighs. “Lord Duelo wanted to unseal my magic by using the Red Book’s magic. It became clear he had no idea what he was doing because every attempt was different.”
“What did he do exactly?” Santiago leans his forearms on the table.
Matias looks at me, then down at the table like he is about to unzip his skin and let us see everything he is.
“I was not the first of his test subjects, but I was the first that survived.”
I lightly tap his arm with my finger. “Do you know what spell he used?”
If we can get an idea of the steps he took, we can narrow down the spell and see what influence the spell had on Matias.
“That’s the thing. He didn’t have one. He experimented with many,” Matias says, fidgeting with his hands.
I share a look with Santiago.
“What part would the book play?” Santiago is looking at the table with grave focus now. I can see his brain compartmentalizing all the moving factors under a spell.
Matias looks confused and turns to me for clarification.
“How did he incorporate the Red Book?” I ask.
From what Jesse told me, Matias and Bianca have little knowledge of magic growing up in Fierno. She had a crash course while here, but Matias was asleep during that time. He wasn’t here long before departing, then getting kidnapped.
“He used the book as a can opener to crack me open.” He clears his throat. “The book is like a source of magic accessible to a wielder who taps into the power. That is the only way I can explain it. ”
“Does the book act as a form of stone or talisman under a spell?” Santiago asks.