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Over the next few hours, Kieran and Kallan taught her the basics of using metal. It was harder to do than the other elements, which could be used by drawing runes. Metal was all about Energy and feeling it but since metal didn’t have a lot of its own natural Energy, it was hard to grasp onto it. Kieran kept pressing her to use more magic but after the events of the day, Claire didn’t know if she would have the control to pull it back if something went sideways so she kept it firmly locked down.
Finally, Kallan called a break. Claire leaned back on her hands, soaking up the afternoon sun as Kallan got them all some water. Puck was chasing butterflies nearby and she smiled as she watched him pounce and roll in the grass.
“So how did you meet your friends?” Kieran asked, accepting the water from Kallan when he returned.
Claire hid her smile at his question. He was most likely fishing for information about Holly but she didn’t mind indulging them.
“Well, I didn’t meet them until last year actually. I grew up in Windshire Coven at the orphanage.”
“At the orphanage?” Kallan frowned, pity flashed in his eyes.
Claire nodded. “It wasn’t a bad life, just a lonely one maybe. No one wanted to adopt the blind low-level witch with no heritage.”
“Hold on, blind?” Kieran peered at her.
“Not now,” Claire said with a sad smile. “I guess my blindness was due to Winona, my mother, placing bindings on my magic. All magic has a cost, or so I’m told, and apparently that was the only path she could see to keep me safe.”
“So you grew up blind? How did you get your sight?” Kallan prompted gently.
“When I got these actually,” Claire motioned towards the daggers. “When I touched them both at the same time, the power blast started unraveling the bindings on my magic, giving me enough of it back that I got my sight. I was at the Academy at the time.”
“How did you get from the coven to the Academy?”
Claire briefly recounted the story of growing up alone at the orphanage, to the letter from the Academy that had actually been sent by her mother, to meeting her friends and then her Triad.
“It’s a little hard to believe sometimes,” Claire said softly, looking out into the Fae land around them as she finished the story. “I wished for a family so much growing up, unable to come up with a reason as to why my parents would abandon me, never dreaming that the answers would be this complicated twisting mess around saving the Realm. But even though I know that I have this responsibility to see through what my parents started, I… I don’t want it to come at the cost of losing this family I’ve created.”
She felt Kallan and Kieran exchange a look but she ignored them, biting her lip to stave off the pang of sadness that had tears threatening to fall down her cheeks.
A hand covering her own brought her attention back to her cousins. “We’ll teach you everything we know,” Kallan promised.
35
Over the next few days, Claire trained with her cousins for most of the day while the others poured over the books in the library. Each night, they all had dinner and discussed what they found. It hadn’t been much so far as Zack and Desmond had divvied up the books among the group and everyone was in information overload but two nights before the Traditio, Zack had an announcement.
“Claire, it’s worse than we thought.”
At his words, Claire set down her fork, losing her appetite at the serious look on his face.
“It can wait till after dinner,” Malcolm growled, shooting a glare at Zack for disrupting Claire’s appetite.
“Well who would be able to eat after that,” Bethany griped. “Might as well get it over now.”
“Sorry, Claire,” Zack said sheepishly, pushing his glasses up on his nose. “I just thought you would want to know.”
Claire laid a hand on Malcolm’s legs and squeezed to get him to stop the soft grumbling growl under his breath and gave Zack a reassuring smile. “It’s okay, Zack. Sometimes there’s no right time for bad news. What is it?”
“It’ll probably be easier if we show you,” Desmond said, pushing back from the table and offering a hand to Claire. He clearly knew what Zack wanted to show her from the thin set to his lips.
It had been a few days since Claire had been in the library but it was clear the group had been spending most of their time here. The furniture had been pushed away from one of the walls leaving it open but not empty. Sheets of paper and different color ribbons were pinned all over the empty wall. Broad categories were separated by thick black ribbon and multi-colored ribbon crossed the wall in a chaotic art project.
Zack easily threaded through the piles of books that littered the floor and shuffled a few papers on a side table before straightening and pushing his glasses up on his nose.
“Okay so we’ve been digging into the journal that you found as well as your mother’s journals and creating a rough timeline of events to identify the major players on the Council that we think are responsible.”
“Isn’t the entire Council responsible?” Kallan looked at Claire.
Claire looked at Desmond who smiled softly back at her. “Even if the entire Council isn’t responsible, they are all complicit to an extent.” Claire could feel the internal struggle in him. His father was the elected council member for the witches and it was clear that Desmond was struggling to figure out if his father was involved.
