Page 29 of Whispered Warnings: Part Two

Chapter Nine

Neith

“We probably should get inside,” Griff says. There is a spark of excitement in his eyes from our conversation. I think they would all like to get to know the dragons a bit better, like the reapers, dragons are notoriously closed lipped about their ways and their home.

I don’t blame the guys. The dragons are awesome. Well, the ones that I know are, anyway. I’m stalling, I want to carry on talking about dragons, I don’t want to go and tell Sully about the voices and risk him abandoning me. The guys took it well, really well actually, but my nerves are fucking shot.

I need a nap.

I grip Betty tighter as I follow the guys out of the van.

As we all push our way in through the front door to Sully’s place, my nerves start to build again. The guys seem to be pretty accepting of my newest crazy confession, but a small and cynical voice is telling me that they are just pretending that they feel that way and that really, they are completely freaking out and thinking of ways that they can get rid of me.

What if Sully just thinks I’m crazy?

Don’t be fucking ridiculous, it’s Sully and he’s family.My inner voice tells me firmly.

“Neith,” Sully greets me happily, giving me his usual hug. When he pulls back, he notices Betty in my hand, and his expression changes to worry, “I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon, has something happened?”

I shrug, “Erm, sort of. Can we go into your office? I need to talk to you about something.”

Sully nods immediately and leads the way into the office, closing the door behind us all. We all take a seat, and Sully looks at me expectantly, his expression worried. It’s not often that I ask to speak with him. I know that we are safe to talk in here, and that no one will hear what I’m about to say, but I take a moment just to gather my bravery again, and I’m grateful that the guys allow me to do this without filling Sully in themselves.

“I’m going to just say it, rip it off like a bandaid. All my life, I have heard voices in my head. I don’t know what they are saying, but they sometimes get louder, and sometimes they react to things that are going on around me,” I explain. I then go into more detail about it and repeat everything that I said to the guys.

The whole time that I’m talking, Sully sits there with this small smile on his face, and I wonder whether he is taking me seriously or if he thinks that I am joking. Sully isn’t the kind of person who is cruel, though, and laughing at me now when he can tell that what I am telling him means so much to me, well, that would be cruel. The more I think about it, the more Iwonder if he may actually know something and if I’m not insane after all.

When I finish talking I wait patiently to see his response, the nerves bubbling in my stomach and making me feel sick. His smile is concerning to me, and although logically I know that he is taking me seriously because of how I am telling him, there is a small part of me that is worried that he’s smiling because he doesn’t believe me.

“I’m trying to be really careful how I phrase this,” he says eventually, a look of concentration on his face.

I sit forward in my seat, excitement buzzing through me, “So you know why I hear the voices?” he nods very carefully, so I ask, “I’m not crazy?”

Sully shakes his head, “Oh god, no, Neith. I am so sorry that you even considered that. If I had known that you were experiencing hearing them, then I would have told you that it was normal.”

“Can you at least say why?” I ask.

Sully winces, “I’m not sure that the silencing spell is going to let me tell you,” his eyes widen as he must realize something and his eyes move to Raiden, “You can help her.”

Raiden frowns, “I can?”

Sully grimaces, “Let me try to explain this in a way that is going to make you understand without triggering what I can and can’t say. When reapers come into their magic, before anything else happens, what are they taught to do?”

Raiden frowns, “Block out the voices of the dead,” his eyes widen as he looks at me, “holy fuck, you are hearing the dead. You have been hearing them for your whole life. I can’t even begin to imagine what that must have been like,” he winces, “the dead like to talk, a lot. That had to have been really fucking difficult. I can help you block them out if you want me to?”

I love that he checks in with me.

I nod, “Yes, please.”

He smiles, “Say silentium mortuorum. You really need to put feeling behind the words in order to make it work.”

It seems so simple; I just need to say two words in what I’m assuming is Latin, and then that’s it, the voices that have been with me my whole life will be silenced. I am so completely overwhelmed with what is happening now, that I don’t question him, I don’t ask anything that I probably should, and I just repeat the words. The effect is immediate, and for only the second time in my life, I am left alone in my head.

A wave of emotion crashes over me, and it takes me a moment to find my voice, when I do it’s tight with emotion, “They’re gone. My head is silent. They have all gone.”

“Wait, all?” Raiden asks. “You mentioned something similar earlier, but I thought you were just talking as a whole. How many voices do you hear?”

I frown, “It sounds like thousands, all of them talk over the top of each other, and one never manages to rise above the rest.”

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