Of Fate & Forbidden Desire (The Gatekeeper Duet #1)

12. Chapter Twelve

Chapter Twelve

To feel like an insect beneath a microscope is a very weird feeling indeed. -Charleene

S tretching my body, I went back over what I could have done wrong yesterday evening to make Dina pull away from me as she did. It was like I’d burnt her, but I couldn’t understand why, and when I’d asked she’d paced for a few moments before speeding away and slamming her bedroom door behind her. Now, as dawn turned into day, I was frustrated and confused, however I had my meeting with the Council of Five today. Groaning, I rolled over, snatching up my mobile that I’d barely touched since arriving and glared down at the time. Eight o’clock. I had hours before my meeting with nothing to do but stew over last night.

Busying myself with getting ready, I took the best and longest shower I’d ever had. My ensuite had the most technical facilities I’d ever seen, you could even control it with your phone. A rainfall shower head took over most of the shower cubicle's ceiling and then three other shower heads were placed around the large glass cubicle that massaged every part of me with jets of water while I sang my lungs out. Feeling more alert and refreshed I grabbed two fluffy towels, wrapping one around my body and the other around my now clean and strawberry smelling hair. Smiling, I was still humming some advert tune as I stepped into my room, where I found Dina sitting patiently on my bed with her foot wagging. Ignoring her I strode over to the wardrobe, taking my sweet time to choose the outfit she’d helped me pick yesterday for my meeting.

“Are you not speaking to me?” Dina’s voice came from the doorway behind me, sapping away some of my good mood .

“Are you going to explain what happened last night?” I asked back, slowly inching my new black tights up my legs.

“No,” she answered in a surly tone as I grabbed my black panties and bra set.

“Then I’m not speaking to you.” I replied, pulling them on.

Once I was fully dressed in the smart black pencil skirt that encased my legs to just below my knees and the not too tight black shirt, I walked back into the bedroom, making a point not to glance at Dina as I wanted to. Instead I slipped my feet into my black ballet flats, feeling her eyes watching me as I moved around the room. Collecting my phone from the pillow and sitting before the vanity, I caught a glimpse of indecision on her face in the mirror before turning my full attention to the mess that was my hair. Huffing out a frustrated breath, I grabbed the hairdryer a little more forcefully than I’d intended, and went to work fixing it into loose waves that fell down my back. Once it was pinned in place, I decided to leave my face free of make-up and applied a couple of squirts of my favourite Jimmy Choo perfume, savouring the three small squirts. I never over used it, making it last the whole year before treating myself to a new bottle.

Giving myself a once over in the full length mirror and happy that I looked at least somewhat presentable, I continued ignoring the seething vampire, before ordering breakfast. The morning dragged by. I ate my pancakes, the best I’d ever tasted, and pondered what the Council would ask me. The silence between me and Dina deepened further with every minute that passed. Every so often she would let out a growl, as though frustrated, before returning to glaring at the wall. I was almost ready to break it when she announced it was time to leave, ending any chance of us repairing what was broken until after my meeting. Nevertheless, the closer we came to the coven building, the more determined I became of getting to the bottom of our spat.

Watching the pavement pass beneath my feet I almost let out a scream when Dina tapped my shoulder, letting me know we’d arrived at the Coven building. It still looked magnificent, in the pitiful noon sun and darkening clouds, but something squirmed uneasily in my stomach, making me fearful as I looked at the dark empty windows. I knew it was just my own anxiety but I felt unseen eyes watching me, judging me even, as I walked up the gravel driveway. I also wondered if I’d even come out of this beautiful house alive. Shuddering I flicked a glance across at Dina, surprised to see a frown marring her brow as she stared ahead.

Wanting to ask what she was thinking but not knowing how to break our silence, I opened my mouth and closed it a few times before giving up and returning to my own thoughts instead. The door swung open as my foot landed on the first of the three wide steps leading up to it, revealing a tall man with grey hair and wrinkles. His faded green eyes crinkled at the corners when he looked at me, but I wouldn’t call the thin smile he offered friendly or warm in any way.

“Welcome home Adrina,” he greeted Dina beside me, using the same name Tilly had back in York.

“Antonious,” she greeted back, giving him a small nod as he stepped aside, “this is Charleene Murry, she has a meeting with the Council.”

“Yes, the Unknown Witch,” he confirmed, his voice devoid of any emotion but stiff politeness. “Please follow me.”

Glancing at Dina with questioning eyes, my feet refused to step across the threshold, it was as though they knew something my head didn’t. “You’ll be safe here.” Dina reassured me, watching my struggle from within the house and holding out her hand to me. Giving her an uncertain nod and gipping her hand tightly my feet finally moved, letting me step inside and back in time.

The walls were pale wood panelling that reached almost to the impressively high ceiling, before a small stretch of bare wall was painted in an off cream colour that had gone out of fashion with the Stuarts. As I followed Dina through the small entrance way, my eyes widened at the large staircase before me that was carved from dark wood, with a blood red carpet running down the middle of it. In here the walls reminded me of a school trip I’d taken to Dalmeny House, with their regency style paintings and furniture. I was still staring in wonder as Dina gently tugged on my hand, getting me to follow them into yet another room, through a door that sat in the shadows of the staircase .

It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the brighter natural light which flooded this new room after the dim barely lit entrance rooms, but when they did I found myself wanting to duck behind Dina as she dropped my hand. Multiple pale faces turned towards us as I walked through the door. The women wore dresses from different periods in English history, each looking just as beautiful as the next, and the men wore similar suits in a mish mash of styles. However they all had a similar waxy quality to their bluish-white skin and their pupils flashed bright red as I passed by. A shudder raced down my spine from their unnatural stares, reminding me that I’d just stepped into a predator's den, where I would be the prey if they chose. Dina’s shoulders straightened and she stood a little taller as we made our way through and even though I couldn’t see her face I knew she was glaring at each vampire as they flinched back and found something other than me to fix their gazes on.

I didn’t begin breathing again until we stepped through another door into an empty corridor and my lungs felt like they were about to explode as my heart raced a million miles a minute. I could still feel their eyes until I heard the door close softly behind me.

“This way please,” Antonious requested as he led us down a corridor lined with portraits of gorgeous people.

“That was…an experience,” I muttered under my breath, knowing that Dina would hear it.

“Just ignore them, they don’t get out much and definitely do not know how to behave like regular people.” Dina explained, making me smile a little.

“What should I expect?” I asked, not wanting to stop now that she was talking to me again.

“They will examine you and the witches will have questions regarding what you can remember of your life. Do not lie to them as they will most certainly have warded the room to detect lies and half-truths.”

“Ok,” I responded, her warning doing little to comfort me. But I suppose she was merely trying to prepare me, which was in a way, sort of comforting. Antonious set a fast pace that belied his age as we wound through the building and stopped before an unassuming door.

“I will let the Council know you have arrived,” he told us— well told Dina as he didn’t even glance at me— and then stepped through said door, leaving me and Dina alone for the first time since we’d entered the Coven.

“So this is your home, it’s very… big,” I struggled to put a word on just what the Coven building was and ‘big’ wasn’t entirely adequate.

“It is, but I much prefer to be out in the real world than cooped up here.” She said in a clipped tone, biting off each word as she watched the door like a hawk.

“Can you hear what’s going on in there?” I asked, nodding my head towards the door when she glanced at me.

“No, most of the rooms in the Coven are heavily sound-proofed for privacy, but this one is also warded to keep the information discussed inside, within its four walls.” She quickly explained and just as the last word left her lips the door was slowly pushed open.

“You may enter,” Antonious drawled, his eyes flashing to my face and away again.

“Thank you, Antonious,” Dina said, before striding into the room.

“Thank you,” I managed to whisper following on her heels.

The room was spacious, easily two rooms combined, with a row of windows high up that allowed natural light into the room while also elongating the shadows. As I stepped inside my gaze was drawn immediately to the raised platform, which had been built to look like part of the wall. Halfway up–just enough that I had to crane my head back to see them– sat five people. Two women and three men all gazed down at me with varying expressions. One of the women looked at me like I was something unpleasant on the bottom of her shoe, while the other looked pale, even for a vampire, as she looked me over repeatedly with wide eyes. Puzzled by her look of shock I moved my eyes to the men. The blonde one looked bored, asif this meeting was too tedious for him to care. The dark haired one looked at me with narrowed, assessing eyes and the third smiled down at me in an almost grandfatherly kind way.

Taking a deep breath, I continued to where Dina had stopped and dropped to one knee in the centre of the room. I was just about to duplicate her position when someone with an old wavering voice spoke; drawing my attention to three other women in the room.

“This is the unknown child?” The grandmotherly voice asked. She had grey hair that was tied back in a low bun. Some of the strands had dared to escape and fluttered around her face. Her eyes were dark and from this distance I couldn’t discern if they were actually black or just a very dark brown, but it was her lips that held my attention. They were turned down in a sneer that I didn’t like the look of.

“Yes, I am She.” I told them, not hiding my unhappy tone at being addressed in such a way. I saw Dina’s head begin to turn my way, out the corner of my eye, before she quickly returned to staring holes into the wooden floor.

“Come forward Child,” said the second woman, who looked to be in her forties. She had blonde hair that already had grey strands glittering amongst them and her smile was not exactly kind, but at least she didn’t look displeased with my very presence. Yet her voice still held a note of condescension that rubbed me up the wrong way.

Remaining rooted to the floor, I looked at the last woman sitting below the Council of Five on the regular, antique, chairs. She was younger than the other two but still had the same blonde hair and dark eyes. Her face, although slimmer than the other two, still bore an uncanny resemblance. “It is unwise to test them,” she said in a whisper, her voice as light as air, and her face warmer than her predecessors. Her smile also seemed genuine as it creased her eyes.

Nodding my head at the younger woman, I followed the command and stepped forward, leaving Dina behind. When I was four steps from them I stopped and met each of their eyes. “I have had no knowledge while growing up that this world,” I paused and gestured around the room, “even existed. Can you tell me why that is?”

I needed to know why I’d been abandoned as a baby. “We do not know why.” The old lady said, who I presumed was the “Crone,” I’d done a little research on witch hierarchy last night.

“We would like to attempt to find out why,” the second woman continued and I realised that this must be how they spoke and was already turning to the younger witch for the end of this speech.

“Where were you first abandoned?” her question was said softly but it still stung.

“Scotland,” I told her, trying not to fidget, while they each looked at me.

“And what is your first memory?” the Crone asked.

“Erm,” I stalled, forcing myself to remember as far back as I could. I’d just passed my seventh birthday party when I felt a prickle against my mind.

“What was that?!” I shouted, my eyes flicking from one woman to the next waiting for any of them to answer.

“We were trying to watch your memories with you,” The one who would be formally addressed as the Mother of the trio explained, her brow pinched together.

“What do you mean?”

“Together we can focus our mental energy and view images when a person remembers them.” She paused, glancing at the other two women briefly before continuing, “but with you we saw nothing.”

“What does that mean?” I asked in confusion.

“You are protected by powerful and old magicks,” the Crone took over the explanation. Instead of asking anymore questions, my eyes moved back to the Mother.

“We have not felt this magickal signature in a long time, ”

Then the Maiden of the group spoke, “you are part of something bigger.” Her voice wobbled slightly on the end of her sentence and something squirmed in my stomach again, a foreboding that my life would never be simple again.

“Do you know who abandoned me?” I asked.

“No.” The Crone answered.