Anastasia doesn't flinch. "Yes. Draw your own conclusions."
Omigod. The Blackwoods know Vincent spent time in the academy. Did they place him there? Instruct him? I glance at Tobias again. We had our suspicions, but the witch hatred threw us off the scent.
"When can I leave?” I ask Anastasia. "You can't keep me here—wherever I am.."
She places her knife and fork on her now empty plate and stands with a white cloth napkin in her hand. The dress clings to her perfectly proportioned body, reminding me of Theodora. "You are at my home. My guest. Fortunately, few know where the Blackwoods are located since they banished us years ago. We're hidden, behind wards, protected by the magic they want eradicated. You're honoured that we allowed you in."
"Honoured?" I choke out. "You abducted me!"
Anastasia moves around the table and I shrink back as she looks down at me. "Maeve. You need to be here, if you want to become stronger. I can teach you more than that useless academy. We have a connection now, remember?"
She throws her scrunched white napkin onto the table and walks towards the door. Mhairi stands to the left, watching proceedings with her hands clasped tightly in front of her, and dips her head as Anastasia approaches.
"Please find Maeve a change of clothes, Mhairi," Anastasia says as she stalks by. “The girl looks disgraceful.”
My hands shake and I put them beneath the table. Now Anastasia has left, the energy from the guy beside me fills the space. Nikolai’s malevolence frightens me, but something worse radiates from him as he shifts in his seat to face me. “I’m looking forward to spending time with you.”
The surreal world I’m in darkens.
Nikolai Blackwood is interested in more than my magic.
Chapter Four
MAEVE
I ask Nikolai if I'm allowed time alone in the building's grounds, fully expecting him to say no. He merely shrugs and reminds me how powerful the magic surrounding the place is, in case I decide to leave. I've no understanding how powerful and don't want to find out; I only care about breathing in fresh air away from the cloying scent and energy inside.
Mhairi, who appears to be my constant companion, escorts me back to my room, where somebody has lain clean clothes on the bed. A short black dress that reaches my knees and is cut lower than I'd like at the top. I explore the bathroom where a modern shower behind a glass screen contrasts with a claw-legged oval white bath beneath a window. After I shower and use the rose-scented soap, I'm in half a mind to put on my jeans and shirt from last night, but they're muddy and smell bad. Trying to clothe me and forcing me to join in their family breakfast unnerves me, as if they want to bring me into the fold. In the end, I wear the dress but replace the stupid heeled shoes with my trainers. Mismatched clothing is the least of my worries.
Unsurprisingly, Mhairi waits outside the door and asks me to follow her to a rear set of stairs, that are less ornate than the first. Once we reach the lawned gardens, I'm convinced she'll trail around after me, but she retreats to the house.
A small glimmer of peace washes through me as I stand on the lawns and take in the scents of freshly cut grass and roses from the bushes lining a narrow path of circular stones. A few moments of respite from whatever I'm facing later today.
I study the house. I'm at the rear of the expansive mansion, pale-bricked and three stories high. I'd expected the place to look similar to the academy, but instead the bright exterior hides the shadowy lives inside.
I turn back to a small stone bench not far from the path and perch on the edge, smoothing my ridiculous dress. I try to untangle my thoughts and fail, because I'm unable to see past my fears. What will happen to me while I'm here? Has Tobias betrayed us? He and Anastasia behave as if they're old friends, and she implied Tobias worked with her in the past. But most frightening of all, Anastasia hinted that she could 'cure' Tobias and return him to normal.
What if this is what Tobias wants?
I can't begin to take on board what the possibility means for me, the academy, and our group’s future. For our future.
Tobias would be a different man.
Something unnerves me about the place I'm in, beyond the residents. This morning, I convinced myself I'd slept until midday as the sun was at its peak. Now I'm unsure, as the sun hasn't moved position. How far does the Blackwood ability to manipulate time stretch? I'd read the family were involved in necromancy and blood magic, and once created a vampire hybrid who's now in Ravenhold, but never thought much to the temporal side. With the ability to stop time, they hold more power than anybody else in the world. And if they join with the Dominion, the insurgents hold that ability too. How the hell could anybody stop this?
No wonder the coven is exiled.
How much do the Confederacy know?
And what does this mean for me? Us?
Anastasia and her brother appear on the terrace I crossed when I left the house and pause to talk to each other. Nikolai slowly turns his head towards me and I’m hit with the uncomfortable sensation that ants crawled across my skin. I look down. No ants. Nikolai? I brace myself for his approach, but he turns away as Mhairi appears and walks towards me. I squint at her against the sun.
"You need to come back inside now, Maeve."
Protesting would be useless, so with a heavy heart I follow her, body prickling with disgust as I pass the now-silent brother and sister.
Chapter Five
MAEVE
I sit alone in a room. I'm unsure how long for, and I sway between happy nobody arrives and frustrated that nobody explains what's happening.
I've taken in every detail in the time I've waited. How subtle runes are carved into the panels and the worn patches on the old-fashioned burgundy armchair. I stare at the pattern on the rugs, eyes following the circular and square patterns and counting them to distract me. White gauze curtains blow from a breeze entering a partially opened bay window, lessening the pervasive Blackwood house smell.
The room holds a strange emptiness despite the furnishings—I can't detect any magic around me.
Finally, the handles move and somebody pushes open the double oak doors to step inside. A man I've not encountered yet walks in. He's older than Anastasia, his black hair short and peppered with grey, and shares the same eye colour. He's dressed in black trousers and a partially unbuttoned black shirt revealing a pendant similar to Jamie's. Or is this the one Jamie wore?
I shiver as he meets my eyes, but he doesn't linger on my body the way Nikolai does. A sharp pain stabs behind my eyes and I cover them with my palms, immediately throwing up a barrier. He's attempting to read my thoughts, so he'd see nothing but images of this room. But I don't want him to sense my emotions or see Tobias in my mind.
"This is her?" he asks in a thick Eastern European accent.
Anastasia steps into the room behind him. She's dressed the same as breakfast, and she smooths her hair with a hand covered in silver rings. "Yes. Can you sense our magic?"
"Stand." He steps forward.
I'm not controlled by magic, but in his intimidating presence I do as he says. His magic surrounds him with a magnitude I've not felt—even greater than Anastasia's. "I'm Ruben. Anastasia's father and the head of this family."