“Eden,” Kiran began but had to clear his throat before he continued, “Avalon, this is Henri Moreau and Sophie Clement.” Kiran introduced them in his flawless French accent and then paused as they lifted their heads to acknowledge his introduction.
Eden gasped when the full damage done to their faces was revealed and I pushed down the bile that rose quickly in my throat. Looking past the swelling and disfigurement caused by torture I could see the softer lines and tilted eyes of Sophie accentuating her feminine features and distinguishing her from Henri’s more angular, masculine face. But in front of us were mere ghosts of Immortality.
Kiran continued, “They claim to have escaped a research facility of sorts where they were held after being kidnapped from their homes in Paris.”
“What kind of research facility would treat you like this?” Eden asked through thick emotion and watery eyes.
“The kind that tortures and murders Immortals for the sake of an unexplained research project,” Kiran spat, completely disgusted. My mind struggled to catch up, to fit pieces of this puzzle together that I was certain I was missing.
“They say it was run by a man who calls himself Terletov,” Talbott explained carefully. I watched his jaw tick as he waited for our reaction. “Dmitri Terletov.”
“That’s not possible,” Eden gasped. “I still have his magic…. I watched the Titan Guard take him away. I still have his magic,” she repeated desperately.
Kiran pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly to him while we all thought this over.
“It was…. Terletov….” Henri lifted his head to confirm our fears. His voice was a whispered rasp as if it hurt to just breathe in the oxygen it would take to speak. “I met him once…. as a child. I remembered…. him.”
I sucked in a short breath, trying not to be disgusted by the sound of the hoarse wheezing sounds that came with his effort to talk. I was not a compassionate person. I never had been even through everything we went through before. But these people demanded compassion and heartache. They were so broken, so…. haunted. Even as the effort to understand fell in large chunks of misinformation and was mostly still holes, I felt instinctively how this evil was worse than before…. how unprepared we were to face anything like this.
“And was he…. did he have magic?” I asked gently.
“Yes,” Henri rasped out.
“How is that possible?” I asked more to myself than anyone else.
The doors opened and several servants walked into the room. They gasped in unison at the sight of Henri and Sophie, all pausing, not sure what to do next.
“Henri, Sophie,” Kiran began, giving the servants a look that said they better do exactly as he asked. I held my tongue, now was not the time to point out his habitual royal snobbishness. “We are going to take you to your rooms, where you will be well cared for. We will talk more later, when you feel up to it.”
The two refugees nodded their agreement and struggled to stand, leaning heavily against each other. Titans were there immediately, slipping surprisingly gentle arms around them to aid in their exit. The flurry of servants followed them out and then the room was silent again.
“Talbott, I want you to post two Titans outside each of their bedrooms. For their safety and ours,” Kiran ordered.
Talbott gave quick instructions to the remaining Titans and then they too left to fulfill their orders with purpose glinting powerfully in their eyes.
The door opened again and another man walked through, a man I had only seen reflected in Eden’s memories. His magic was powerful and swirled around him like a vortex of power, if you got sucked into it you would fall into the unknown and never resurface. His flawless midnight skin reflected depthless eyes and the silky ivory turban wrapped around his head added to his mystery.
“Thank you for coming,” Kiran greeted him and it became obvious he had summoned the mysterious man. “There are two Immortals that need serious care. I am not positive of the extent of their injuries, but they are very severe.”
“Take me to them,” the man commanded and I suddenly realized who this man was. He was who they called “the Witch.” Lucan’s use of him was merely rumors and gossip until he oversaw the contract that Eden signed when she gave herself over to Kiran.
I realized then that he lived somewhere in the castle and that over the last two and a half years I had not seen him once. Although I didn’t really understand his set of skills, so I didn’t know why I would have needed to use him, or what I would have used him for.
“I’ll take you,” Eden offered. “Maybe we can work together. I’m positive this will be like no healing you’ve ever experienced before.”
“Eden, I don’t want you anywhere near that magic,” Kiran growled in response to her compassion. “We don’t know what’s wrong with them, where they’ve actually come from or if they really are refugees or spies sent by Terletov himself.”
“First of all, Terletov is dead,” Eden snapped back and I was surprised by her defensiveness. She was always so patient and loving with Kiran these days. Her flaring temper reminded me of the little firecracker she used to be, back when Kiran had to prove he loved her and that she loved him back. But I knew, because I could feel it, how responsible she felt for these Immortal’s suffering. She felt responsible for Terletov’s fate, whether he was dead or alive and if he was alive she felt like she was the one that released this evil against us. “Second of all, I have the power to heal other people. You can’t feel their magic. You can’t feel how…. unbearably miserable they are. They need my help.”