Page 17 of Sophie's Ruin
Time was the one thing I didn’t have to spare. Henry was suffering. I wasn’t foolish enough to hope otherwise. The longer I delayed coming for him, the longer he was in the clan leaders’ claws. I was at Celeste’s mercy, though, and lashing out at her would be unwise. I needed her help to learn my magic if I hoped to stand a chance against the clans.
So I took a breath and asked, making sure my voice didn’t betray my ever-increasing dread and anxiety, “Where do we begin?”
8
“We begin with the fundamentals,” Celeste said, before taking a sip of her tea.
We were sitting across from each other at the kitchen table.
A steaming cup sat before me as well, but I was too on edge to even think about taking a sip. The herbal aroma was soothing, but it did little to help calm my nerves. My knee bounced under the table as I watched Celeste swallow her tea and lower her cup back down.
“There is energy around us, ebbing and flowing like a current,” she finally said. “Do you feel it?”
My knee stopped bouncing, and I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. Slowly, I let the air empty out of my lungs as I attempted to listen to the world around me. My vampire ears instantly picked up on many noises—Isabelle and Wren talking softly in the living room, Waylon stirring from his sleep, the wick burning in the oil lamp on the kitchen table, Celeste’s steady heartbeat. It was a cacophony of sounds, jarring and chaotic.
“I don’t feel it,” I said, opening my eyes and looking at the witch.
“You are not focusing on the right things,” she stated, matter of fact, as she brought her cup to her lips for another sip.
“The problem is…I can’t focus. There is too much chaos around me.”And in my heart,I didn’t add.
“You need to shut it all out and find your center.”
Shut it all out. Right. I could do that. It had been one of the first things I’d learned after becoming a vampire—the ability to tone down my heightened senses.
Placing my hands on top of my thighs, I sat up straighter in the rickety old chair and closed my eyes again. Sounds rushed in, loud and overwhelming. I let them wash over me and fade away until they were nothing more than a steady hum.
Find my center,I repeated Celeste’s instruction in my head.
My center was in my chest, near my heart that ached for Henry. The second I thought about him, silence slammed down on me as if someone had covered my ears. All sounds died, and the quiet stretched, growing taut like a bowstring until tiny vibrations tickled my eardrums. Whispers erupted, coming from all around me at once. They were elusive, like smoke and shadows, and I couldn’t make out what the voices were saying. Out of nowhere, a blood-curdling cry pierced my ears. It was a sound of agony…and it belonged to Henry.
My eyes flew open as I gasped for air, scrambling out of the chair and overturning it in the process. I staggered back from the table, my heart pounding in my chest.
“What happened?” Celeste asked urgently, rising to her feet.
“I heard him. I heard Henry. They’re torturing him,” I rasped, tears streaming down my face.
Celeste’s features crumpled as deep sadness invaded her gaze, dimming her lustrous eyes.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said low.
“How is it possible? How was I able to hear him?” I asked, reaching up with trembling hands to brush the tears from my cheeks.
“The energy around us…imagine it as threads, connecting people and places, carrying information through the world,” the witch explained.
“Can I use the threads to communicate with him?” I asked, latching on to the idea. I needed to tell him, to give him strength to wait for me, and let him know that I would come for him.
“You can’t,” Celeste replied, and my heart dropped to the pit of my stomach. “He doesn’t have magic in his blood. He will not hear your message.”
Tears threatened again as I ducked my chin in disappointment before another thought crossed my mind. My head snapped up, hope flaring in my chest.
“Can I use the threads to find him? To find where they’re keeping him?” I asked, and held my breath.
Celeste tilted her head to the side. Her white hair gleamed in the light of the lamp as she thought it over.
“Perhaps,” she finally said, and my heart sped up at the possibility. “But even if you find out where they are keeping him, there is nothing you can do for him now. You need to awaken your magic and grow strong enough to face the clans.”
“I know,” I assured her as I picked up the chair I’d overturned and put it by the table. Even if I couldn’t go to Henry now, knowing that I could use the threads to find him later—when I was ready—made it easier to breathe. “I want to try again,” I said, gripping the back of the chair.
