Page 10 of Blue Embers
I smiled, rubbing my eyes as I reluctantly stood from the chair I’d been sitting in for hours. I had on a casual, green dress that reached only to the middle of my thighs. The first and simplest thing I could find when I had gotten dressed. Something I never would have worn into public had I not received an urgent call from the hospital that morning, but considering the hour, I wasn’t too worried about my fashion statement.
Kissing my sister on the forehead, I started heading for the door, trying my best not to show her how I was really feeling. I was tight with emotions. Anger. Anxiety. Heartbreak. It was a little storm inside my chest that I hoped wouldn’t get too overwhelming before I was able to walk out the door.
Once I had made it past the barrier, I started heading down the quiet hallway, further and further from my sister. The act felt so wrong, but I didn’t know what else to say to her. I needed a shower. I needed food. I needed to breathe. I wished I could do all that there, beside her, but I couldn’t and she didn’t want me to. Dammit. I felt like a rubber band being stretched so far I was on the verge of snapping and every step I took away from that room made me feel more and more like I was going to tear.
It took twice as long to get to my house from the hospital considering the time I sat in the car thinking, both when I left and when I returned home. Instead of walking inside, however, I found myself with my hands gripping the steering wheel.
I stared at my little house, which looked just like all the rest. Nothing about it seemed comforting. I had few possessions and even fewer that I actually cared about. My life was lacking in a certain sense, especially in moments like this, so before turning off the car, I pulled away from the house again and decided home wasn’t where I wanted to be.
Ten minutes later, I was pulling up to the museum, still hungry, tired, and a bit lost if I was being completely honest with myself. What I needed was something to get my mind moving in a completely different direction. I needed work. I needed to organize something. Rearrange a display. Write up plaques. Anything to keep my thoughts from wandering down darker paths.
Using a key card for the loading dock entrance, I walked into a large hallway toward the Draak exhibit. Security lights lit the way through the building. When I found myself in the large chamber surrounded by Draak history, I was almost immediately at ease knowing I could busy myself for a while and stop thinking the worst about my sister’s health.
Aware that no one else was at the museum, I got comfortable. I slipped off my ballet-slipper flats near the staircase and walked up to Ben’s office, looking for paperwork to go through. As usual, Ben’s unorganized style made the desk a cluttered mess. I walked around to start looking for a list of items in the collection. I had given Ben several early on and since mine was at home, I attempted to find his.
On the edge of the desk, I nearly knocked over a cup of what used to be a hot coffee but was now a room temperature cup of milky-brown liquid. Startled when it nearly toppled over, I grabbed it, spilling a bit of the drink on my hand. Immediately the smell of hazelnut hit my nose, further aggravating my hunger.
Walking the cup to the trash can in the corner of the office, I glimpsed a name written on the side. “Valentyne,” it read. Putting the pieces together, I wondered if the coffee was for me considering I was supposed to be there that morning to receive his contribution. Sighing, I tossed the old coffee in the trash and continued looking for a list, but was unsuccessful.
Convinced my lack of focus was the issue and that my lack of focus was because of my sister, I rubbed my forehead and sat myself down in Ben’s old, wooden chair, trying to calm myself down a little. As I sat there, the silence around me grew dense until a slight ringing crawled into my ears. After a while, I realized the ringing wasn’t the usual type and opened my eyes.
Listening, the sound began to appear more like a hum. Like someone had tapped a metal pipe and let the reverberation create a faint noise as it settled. I looked around, trying to pinpoint where the sound was coming from when I found myself staring at the bottom drawer of Ben’s desk. Reaching forward, I slid the drawer open to see a silk bag inside. I fished the object out, finding it to be heavy and warm to the touch. Loosening the drawstring on the top, I slid the bag down off of an intricate, metal hilt.
I was a bit hypnotized by the object, watching as veins of blue glowed faintly down the sheath as I slid the silk down further. The bright silver alloy vibrated in my hands so slightly it could have been missed by someone who didn’t know the feeling. The metal was alive with energy, the humming more clear now that I knew what it was. Aware it was probably the item Killian had told me about, I decided I could pass the time trying to find a suitable place for it downstairs.
Covering the item again to keep my fingerprints off the polished metal, I started to head for the door. I was distracted when my phone started to buzz in my dress pocket. I pulled it out, looking for an identification name on the display screen, but there was none. A little suspicious who would be calling so late, I hesitated, but not for long. Curiosity overruled caution and I tapped the screen to answer.
“Hello? This is Persephone Grant,” I said into the phone as I descended the steps.
“Hello, Ms. Grant,” a familiar, English accent spoke into my ear. I stopped halfway down the stairs, surprised to hear Killian on the other end at such a late hour.
“Killian,” I said in far too surprised a tone. “Uh...what can I do for you?”
“Actually I wasn’t expecting you to answer this late,” he said, his voice as charming over the phone as it was in person. “I hope I didn’t wake you. I was simply going to leave a message asking if you’d received the dagger. I left it with Benjamin this morning.”
I looked down at the dagger in my hand, reaching the ground floor. “I did,” I said. “It’s a beautiful weapon.”
“Have you found a place for it yet?”
“I haven’t.”
There was a brief pause between us. I stood by the stairs, my bare feet on the cold marble, and wondered what to say.
“What areyoudoing up so late?” Killian asked, sparing me the trouble of trying to find something else to say to him.
“It’s been a long day,” I said, walking the dagger to a table across the room. “There’s a lot on my mind. I couldn’t sleep.”
“Likewise. Benjamin mentioned you were feeling ill.”
“Uh...well,” I faltered, searching for a way to expand on a believable excuse for my absence. “In a sense. I had some unforeseeable issues this morning that I needed to take care of.”
“Well, have you eaten?”
“Define ‘eat’,” I said, almost amused at how long it had actually been since I’d had a real meal.
“Then have dinner with me.”
I blinked at the request, unsure I’d heard it right. I hesitated to respond, expecting him to say it was a joke.
