Page 11 of The Shadows Beyond
Darcy’s hands clapped together as her eyes sparkled. “To enhance the richness of the chocolate! You bake?”
“Not exactly. I cook. I’m a chef. In training, anyway. Well,wasin training.” Cinn’s eyes dropped to the well-worn blue rug.
“Well, you can help me in the kitchen anytime. These two Neanderthals can’t tell a paring knife from a pastry brush.”
Elliot snorted out a spray of tea as Cinn’s head snapped up to glare at Darcy.
“I’m not staying.”
Julien shuffled forward an inch. “Cinn—”
A knock at the door had Cinn flinching backwards, panicked eyes flashing towards it. For the first time, a trace of fear could be detected on his face. “What is she going to do to me?”
Darcy stood, but before she took a step, Eleanor burst into the room, heels thundering on the wooden floorboards. “Evening,” she said calmly, her gaze landing straight on Cinn. “Mr. Saunders. I hear you went on a little walk.” She hung her long black coat on the wooden coatrack.
Elliot shuffled along on the sofa to make space for her while Darcy sprung up, wringing her hands together. “Madame Sinclair, can I get you anything?”
“Something stronger than that should suffice.” Eleanor nodded at the tea, sending Darcy scurrying off. Julien had never understood Darcy’s unease around Eleanor, but then, he’d grown up attending dinner parties with the formidable woman since he was five.
“Look,” started Cinn, sitting forward. “Unless you plan to produce some sort of legal documentation that says you can keep me here—”
Eleanor held up her hand. “We have just saved you from a life behind bars, Cinnamon Saunders. If I were you, I’d be grovelling at my feet. And if I were you, I’d be hesitant to go back to the outside world until I knew I wasn’t going to be responsible for any more deaths.”
Cinn recoiled, face horrified, as he slumped back into himself, but Eleanor smiled. She’d said the magic words, and she knew it.
“Now, now,” she said, as she accepted the half glass of brandy Darcy offered her. “There’s no need for that. I promise you that this is the best place for you. We can help you. Train you. Besides, as moteblessed, you need to be with your own people.”
Cinn shook his head. “What?”
“Moteblessed. It’s the overarching name our community gives to those of us able to channel motes of any kind. Some of us have a narrow range of motes we can influence. Some, like Elliot here, have trained their mind and body to withstand a great range and quantity of motepower,particularly elemental-based motes. He’s one of Auri’s finest upcoming members of our gendarmerie.”
Pride practically seeped from Elliot’s pores, and Julien laughed, which helped to squash down the tiny prickle of jealousy that he couldn’t help but feel whenever Elliot’s channelling abilities were complimented.
In disbelief, Cinn stared at Elliot, opening his mouth as if to question what Eleanor said. Elliot smirked, wiggled his eyebrows, then proceeded to raise every drop of tea out of his mug to form a swirling ball of brown liquid between his hands. A gasp came from Cinn, followed by a string of expletives. His mouth fell slack as his thick eyelashes rapidly blinked at the floating tea, which was now being expertly manipulated back into the teapot through the spout.
“Elliot! That’s unhygienic!” snapped Darcy.
With a soft laugh, Eleanor swirled her brandy. “Darcy is also able to manipulate a wide variety of motes, and is researching the synthesization of them into compounds. Julien, on the other hand, specialises in how we can utilise them within technology. These are just three examples of professions or areas of study in our moteblessed community. And then we have you. Stop shaking your head at me, Cinn. You utilise shadowmotes when you have your… experiences. You just never knew it.”
Julien stared at the mixture of shock, bewilderment and… relief?… that warred on Cinn’s face. What must it have been like, growing up moteblessed and not having the faintest clue what that entailed? Confusing, certainly. Lonely even, maybe. What had Cinn thought was happening when he had his ‘experiences’?
“So… you’re telling me that it’s their fault? Theseshadowmotes? Can I stop them? Can I fix myself?”
Cinn sounded like a broken man on the edge of desperation, and a soft noise burst out of Julien before he could stop it, but it was Elliotwho beat him to say, “Being moteblessed is a privilege that most could only dream of. Why would you want to stop it?”
“Mate, did you miss the part where I murdered four people?” Cinn snarled.
Darcy looked to him with wide, sympathetic eyes. “That wasn’t you though, if what Madame Eleanor told us is correct. You just… accidentally brought back a psychotic-murderer spirit or something. Right?”
“Same result.”
“She’s right, Cinn,” said Eleanor. “There’s no blame for you to shoulder. However, now you need to learn how to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
The firelight danced in Cinn’s eyes as he considered her words. “Fine,” he eventually spat through gritted teeth. “But I can leave as soon as I’ve learnt to control it? These shadowmotes or whatever? I’ll be free to go? And my record wiped clean?”
“We can discuss all of that in due course. Although, this isn’t something you’re going to learn overnight. These three have been practising motecraft since they were children, and they still have a lot to learn.”
“Hey,” said Julien. “Where are these unfounded accusations coming from?”
