Ritual of the Broken (Haunted Hearts)

Chapter 16

Chapter

Sixteen

T hey drove to Ellie Barnes’s apartment with a waxing moon just risen hanging above the brownstones and tightly packed houses. Ollie sat in the passenger seat of Adrian’s car once again. Even with so short a time together, these car rides were starting to feel like a normal thing to him. And, as Ollie glanced over at Adrian in the driver’s seat, remembering how the man looked without his clothes on, he wouldn’t mind if it became a common thing.

But he caught himself. There was a dead woman. Two dead now, and reminiscing about seeing a naked werewolf was not appropriate.

“That lightning you whipped up back there, that was a nice touch.” Adrian said a hint of a smile playing on his lips.

Ollie flushed, rubbing his neck self-consciously. “Yeah, well... I was just trying to stun it. ”

“Can’t complain,” Adrian assured him. “It worked.”

Warmth rushed through Ollie at Adrian’s tone. “I’ve never seen a full-grown werewolf before,” Ollie said after a moment. “You were impressive.”

Now, it was Adrian’s turn to blush a little. And Ollie found it… cute. Endearing.

“I try to avoid the big guy if I can. It’s harder to explain away. But a shadow beast is a good enough reason to bring out the full battle rattle.”

“Is that how you view it?” Ollie asked him.

“View what?”

“Your various forms or shapes. Do you see them as separate from one another?”

Confusion crossed Adrian’s features. “How do you mean?”

“I don’t know, really. You said, ‘avoid the big guy’ and made it sound like it was something else inside of you, like it was separate from the person you are now. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I get it.” Adrian thought about it a moment as they drove. He wiped at his forehead with the back of his hand. Then, he shook his head. “No, they’re not separate from me. I guess it all just comes natural to me, so I never really thought about it. But all the forms are a part of me. I’m still me inside of any one of them.

“I guess my thoughts are dominated a little by the forms. My wolf form is more instinctive, and when I’m in the hybrid form like with the shadow beast, the urge to fight is stronger. My body reacts differently depending on the form I’m in. I’m more agile as the wolf and stronger as the hybrid. But I’m still the one in control.” On that last sentence, Adrian frowned.

Ollie gave that some thought, then he turned back to Adrian with a smile. “I have a whole lot more respect for werewolves now than I did even this morning.”

“Did you not respect werewolves before today?” Adrian smiled when he said it. It wasn’t a defensive question.

“I mean, I didn’t have much of an opinion. Werewolves were a section we studied in preternatural taxonomy, and that was it. It was all very… academic.”

“What do they teach you about werewolves at your academy?”

Embarrassment caused Ollie’s face to grow warm again. “It’s more like scholarly studies and stuff. They suggest that werewolves are formidable opponents.” Ollie quickly looked at Adrian again. “And allies, of course. We’re told that while we can cast against a werewolf, the results of any cast are less effective, because of what is believed to be some form of natural immunity.”

“Did you work with werewolves?” There was something in Adrian’s tone that gave Ollie some pause. A note of wariness.

“No. Of course not. It was all very theoretical for us. There are mages who might go on to study more about the other species out there. One of my friends from school specialized in faerie realms and the fae when he moved into his post-graduate curriculum. And other mages focused on werewolves and werewolf social structures.” Ollie watched Adrian as he spoke. There was much less smiling on his face and a lot more staring at the road.

Ollie gulped and took a breath.

“I know you don’t want to talk about it,” Ollie began, “but whatever happened to you in the past—whatever a mage did to you—I’m sorry for what they did. One thing taught to us in all our discussions at the academy is that it’s never right to exploit other species. In fact, it’s against Synod law. If a mage did something to you like that, then they were wrong to do so.”

Ollie thought Adrian would questions or some sort of angry response. But all Adrian did was nod. “Thank you,” he said. “I appreciate that.”

Ollie nodded in return. He didn’t know what else to say.

They continued on in thoughtful silence. Ollie still scarcely knew Adrian, yet being with him felt comfortably right in a way he couldn’t quite explain. Over the course of this one chaotic day, Ollie found his wariness of the stern detective melting away. What had started as a reluctant alliance was shifting into easy companionship—perhaps the first sparks of real friendship.

As Ollie took one more glance back toward Adrian and the strong profile of his face and the quiet strength he presented, he couldn’t help but entertain the idea of maybe more.

They headed north until Adrian turned into a little warren of streets that butted up against a forest preserve. He finally turned into a large apartment complex that seemed out of place next to the smaller, low-rise apartments and townhomes that lined the streets in the area. Adrian checked the address again as he peered out the windshield at the fifteen-story buildings that made up the complex.

“I guess this is it,” he said.

They got out and found the right building, and they managed to slip inside behind a departing resident. They took the elevator to Eleanor Barnes’s floor and walked down the long hallway to her unit.

Outside the apartment door, they found it locked. Ollie straightened. “I can get this,” he said.

Adrian stopped him with an amused head shake, already pulling out a set of lockpicks. “How about we try for subtle? Better not to have every door in the place busted open.”

Ollie opened his mouth to shoot something snarky Adrian’s way, but he stopped himself. So far, his track record hadn’t been the best, and this kind of ribbing wasn’t foreign to him. They were merciless in school, and Emmerich could be a downright ass at times about it. Adrian’s comment was nothing. He crossed his arms. “Isn’t that against the law, detective?”

“We’re not exactly working within the law here,” Adrian said. “Besides, whether or not the door is opened by magic or boring, mundane lock picks, it’s still breaking and entering.”

Ollie gave in with a roll of his eyes. “Fine. Whatever.” But privately, he was charmed by Adrian’s unexpected playfulness. Even if it did still sting a little… in spite of how true Adrian’s comment might be.

Stepping into the apartment’s tidy interior, Ollie noted how different it was compared to Zachary O’Brien’s place. Where Zach’s apartment was lost in piles of junk, Ellie Barnes’s apartment was serenely tidy, except for a thin layer of dust covering the tables. The living room had been vacuumed, and a number of children’s toys sat in one corner. These, Ollie noted, also had a patina of dust on them.

Adrian reached into an inside pocket of his jacket and produced a set of latex gloves. “Just in case they decide to do an actual death investigation. It might be best if we don’t give them fingerprints to ask questions about.”

Ollie nodded and took the gloves.

The centerpiece of a wall shelf was a singular framed photograph that took pride of place. In it, Ellie beamed with genuine happiness, flanked by a handsome man and a young boy, her family. The names on the gravestone, Ollie guessed. To either side were smaller pictures of the same boy as a baby and playing with toys, sitting in front of a birthday cake, and even a few crayon drawings.

Ollie carefully lifted the center frame. “She doesn’t even look like the same woman.”

“Loss will do that to a person.” Adrian held up two funeral programs, one with a smiling picture of the man, and the other a picture of the smiling young boy. The front of the programs showed the names: John and Brayden Barnes.

“Let’s go try to find a sigil,” Ollie said, carefully placing the photograph back on the shelf.

They began in the main bedroom. As with Zachary O’Brien’s apartment and the sigil over his bed, it seemed the most logical place to look. The curtains were half-drawn, allowing the lights from outside street lamps to cast harsh, angular shadows over the ceiling. The bed was impeccably made, sheets taut and pillows neatly fluffed. It was the epitome of a room left in the wake of grief, untouched and preserved. Adrian moved to one side of the room, fingers tracing the edges of picture frames and feeling beneath the bed while Ollie focused on the space above it, expecting to see the mark they were hunting. But there was no sigil.

The search took on a rhythm. They moved seamlessly, Adrian checking under furniture while Ollie inspected walls and ceilings. It was clear they’d learned from their past search, their movements more coordinated and less rushed.

And Ollie didn’t push to use his magic, especially after what happened in Zach’s apartment. If fingerprints would cause questions, an overturned apartment would bring on a lot more.

Pushing open the door to the second bedroom, Ollie found a room painted a pastel blue, the floor littered with toys as if someone had just left them. Sketches hung from the walls—spaceships and cars with jagged and wiggly red fire shooting from tailpipes. The space looked lived in, happy. A boy who lived his life as a normal, content kid. And that’s what sank Ollie’s gut. Ellie Barnes left this room untouched. A thin layer of dust even covered a stack of baseball cards on the dresser.

But Ollie’s heart fell further when he saw the bed. Unlike the one in the main bedroom, this was disheveled, sheets pulled to one side, pillows on the floor. It wasn’t unusual to find an unmade bed in a child’s room. But beside the bed stood a glass half-filled with water. It hadn’t been there long. Next to it lay a ring—an adult’s wedding ring. A man’s ring. It dawned on him then: This was where Ellie Barnes had been keeping vigil, where she surrounded herself with her son’s things and wrapped up in his bed sheets as if to coax out a little more of his spirit.

“She’s been sleeping in here,” Ollie said dipping back into the hallway, beckoning Adrian over with a tilt of his head.

Adrian entered, a mix of sympathy and determination on his face—and a sheen of sweat on his forehead. “Poor woman,” he whispered, taking in the surroundings. He took in a breath, and his brow crossed. “Someone else has been in here.” He sniffed again. “The scents in this apartment are overwhelmingly Ellie Barnes. I smell her everywhere, along with traces of the others. But in here, there’s a new scent trail.”

“Could it be her son?”

Adrian shook his head. No. It’s too fresh. Within the past couple of days.” He pointed to the bed. “And it’s strongest from that direction.”

“That’s some nose,” Ollie said.

Adrian smiled and blushed a little. “Probably our rune carver,” he said.

They approached the bed, an image forming in Ollie’s mind of Ellie curled up on this small mattress, surrounded by remnants of her lost son. Losing her husband had to hurt, but losing her child must have felt unimaginable.

They set to work in their search. Ollie’s fingers worked their way over the headboard, feeling for inconsistencies. The smooth, polished wood was cool to the touch, but then he felt it—a slight, uneven divot. Pulling his hand back, he squinted and shined the light from his phone. He saw it, a sigil, carved discreetly into the headboard.

“There,” Ollie pointed it out, his voice a mixture of triumph tempered with the weighty sadness of the situation.

Adrian leaned over. He nodded. “The new scent is strongest here too.”

Quickly, Ollie captured the image. The flash illuminated the room briefly, casting shadows that made the memories seem even more haunting. They took a moment, absorbing the weight of their discovery.

The feeling in the room was different from their previous search. Before, there was urgency, friction, a sense of not entirely being on the same page. Now, there was understanding, unity. Both Ollie and Adrian felt it— their shared mission becoming more evident, and their collaboration more fluid.

“We’ll get this to Emmerich,” Ollie said. He could text it, but the thought of reaching out to Emmerich pushed a fist of dread into his gut at the idea Emmerich might respond. Or worse, call him directly. Then he’d have to talk to him, and he already did that once today. That was more than enough for the time being.

As Ollie pocketed his phone, he looked at Adrian, a silent nod passing between them. They had what they came for, but this search had given them more than just a clue. It had brought them closer as allies.

But as they rose, Adrian swayed. Ollie reached out and put a hand on his thick shoulder. “Whoa there. You okay?”

“I’m fine,” Adrian said. But the sweat on his forehead stood out even more. He looked pale. “Let’s go. River Forest police will probably be here soon.”

“I don’t think you’re fine.”

“I’m fine,” Adrian insisted.