Midheaven (Ascendant Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  “Most definitely.” I bit the edge of my thumbnail. “Speaking of your mom…”

  Sophie didn’t look up from the box, “Don’t worry about her. She’s completely paranoid.” She ran her fingers over the edge of some of the carvings. “She’s convinced that Caleb or I are going to end up run down like the Wriothesley’s old maid and she’ll have to come identify our lifeless corpses at the morgue.” She looked up at me suddenly and held out her hand. “Give me your necklace.”

  Instinctively, I placed my hand over the cross. “What?”

  “Your necklace,” she left her hand palm up, waiting for me to give her the necklace while she continued to inspect the puzzle. “Give it to me.”

  Ever since losing it last year, I never took it off. I hesitated for a moment longer but when Sophie started shaking her hand in a Give it to me now manner, I unfastened the clasp and handed it over.

  She slipped the cross off its chain.

  “Sophie, I don’t want…” but my protest stopped abruptly when I saw what she was doing.

  “It fits perfectly,” she said.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Dangerous to Love

  I couldn’t believe it. “How?”

  “Well obviously, I’m bloody brilliant.”

  I ran my hand over the carving that now held my sapphire crucifix. “I’ve been staring and staring at this box for months.”

  Sophie shrugged, “And obviously you need me desperately,” she smiled.

  I looked at her in wonderment. She had figured out my crucifix was some type of key after looking at the puzzle for thirty seconds.

  Sophie rolled her eyes, “Oh honestly Charlotte,” she picked up my mother’s note. “It says so right here.”

  I reread the words, You’re going to need this and shook my head. “I thought she meant metaphorically, like for strength.”

  “Oh lord. See, it’s just like I tell Caleb all the time. Having too many brains can get in the way of common sense. You’re…going…to…need…this. Period,” she pointed emphatically to what I could, now, clearly see and shook her head. “Metaphor?”

  “I can’t believe it,” I said.

  “Well thanks a lot!”

  I smiled and shook my head, “I don’t mean that, just, I can’t believe it. I have been thinking for so long now that I would never get any further with it and then, like lightening…”

  “My brilliance illuminated your world.”

  “Absolutely!” I said in all seriousness.

  Sophie blushed and suddenly dropped the act, “I’m only kidding. Anyone would have seen it eventually.”

  “Honestly Sophie, I don’t think I ever would have.”

  Embarrassed, she looked at the puzzle again, “Still, nothing changed. What did the crucifix do?”

  I climbed up on the bed to inspect the box from all angles again. I had hated the puzzle for so long now, it was strange to feel the thrill of discovery again. I removed the cross, “Wait.” There were tiny pockets in the puzzle’s engraving. Sophie had placed the charm in backwards. When I turned the crucifix over and replaced it in the puzzle, each sapphire aligned perfectly in its own pocket. Holding my breath and without thinking, I pushed the crucifix in.

  It clicked.

  “What was that?” Sophie asked.

  “The next move I guess.”

  “But what happened?”

  I looked the box over again, “I’m not sure. I think something inside.”

  Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Sophie began bouncing excitedly next to me making the puzzle, and myself, toss back and forth. “Well what now?” she asked. “Let’s figure the next thing.”

  “It took ten months just to get this.”

  “Just a rough patch,” Sophie waved her hand in dismissal. “You and Caleb figured loads of moves before you got stuck.”

  At the mention of her brother, I leaned closer to the puzzle and pretended to concentrate. “Yeah, um, where is he anyway?” I poked noncommittally at an engraving and avoided looking her in the eye.

  Sophie stopped bouncing. “I wondered when you’d get around to asking.”

  I pursed my lips between my teeth and continued staring at the box.

  Sophie sighed, “He’s in the library, pretending to read.”

  Now I looked up, “Pretending?”

  “Yes. You know, so when you come in he can look all nonchalant and ‘Oh, what a surprise Charlotte. So good of you to pop by, you’re looking well.’ As if he hasn’t been waiting for this day for almost a year.”

  The smile broke loose across my face.

  “Ugh, he’s my brother,” distaste contorted her features. “Come on then,” Sophie pushed herself across the bed and got down. “Let’s get this over with or I might get sick.”

  I stepped down from the high bed and began following her through the door when I suddenly stopped, “Wait.”

  Sophie stopped and turned, already halfway down the hall.

  “We should bring the puzzle. Caleb will want to see.”

  As we descended the grand staircase and moved closer and closer to the library with slow shuffling steps, my heart hammered at my chest. The puzzle wasn’t that heavy but the thought of seeing Caleb again made my arms feel like jelly. When we entered the library, I was glad that I could focus most of my attention on trying to walk while balancing the stone puzzle between Sophie and myself.

  We walked through the library and placed the box on one of the tall study tables. Caleb sat in one of the wingbacks with a large tome opened across his lap. He didn’t look up from his book right away.

  When he finally closed the book and looked up, I took a deep breath and put a huge hello smile on my face. It felt fake. “Hi Caleb.”

  “Hi,” he said getting up from the chair.

  It took a second to register. He looked different somehow, but what was it? We moved across the room towards each other, smiling, welcoming—it still felt false. Just before he hugged me, I realized what was different. Caleb was taller, broader. When his stiff arms embraced me, there was a strength I didn’t remember from last year.

  “It’s good to see you Charlotte,” his voice was deeper than last year.

  “You too,” I said pulling back.”

  Caleb had grown up.

  Sophie flounced sideways into one of the overstuffed chairs nearby throwing her long legs over one arm while she let her head fall back against the other. Her eyes were closed but a wicked smile played across her lips. “A hug?” she shook her head from side to side. “Almost a year and it’s only a hug. What a colossal waste of a moment…such a shame.”

  Caleb ignored her. “I see you’ve brought the box back,” he walked towards the table.

  “Yes,” I said thankful that I’d thought to bring it down. Unlike Caleb, Sophie’s teasing had made me blush.

  “You solved it?” he asked starting to move the puzzle through the initial steps that we had performed last summer. When he reached the end of what he knew he turned to me. “Show me the rest,” he smiled.

  I removed my necklace, placed the crucifix and pushed. We both heard the click of the internal mechanism and I let my hand drop.

  “Your necklace?” Caleb exclaimed. “That’s amazing. What’s next?”

  I let my hand fall back to my side. “That’s it. Your sister just figured out that last move about ten minutes ago.”

  “What?” he laughed and looked at Sophie lounging in the chair.

  “That’s right,” she said bouncing her legs over the chair’s arm. “You may bask in my brilliance.”

  “But,” he said turning back to the box. “It’s been ten months. How is it possible that this is as far as you’ve come?”

  His words fell over me like ice. I continued to stare at the puzzle that had perplexed me for so long, unable to look up and meet his questioning eyes. Unwilling to face the disappointment I knew was there. My throat closed and I had no words handy to defend myself. The truth was, I felt stupid. Stupid, slow, dull witte
d. How could I, over the course of a year, not see what was so clearly spelled out, what Sophie had surmised within a few minutes. I was stupid.

  Sophie was up and out of her chair in an instant. “You are a block Caleb.”

  He spun on her, “What? I just meant…well, I just meant what happened is all.”

  “What happened is she has been completely abandoned and left with solving this crazy puzzle all herself. It would be hard for anyone and it certainly doesn’t make it any better to have you tossing it in her face.”

  “I didn’t toss anything…”

  I ignored them. They both had a point. I was incredibly depressed this last year. Having found my mother—only to lose her all over again. Finding out about a baby sister I didn’t even know. Learning that my father was not, in fact, my father. Not to mention being completely disconnected from the only two people in the whole world I could ever discuss it with. It was a lot for anyone to digest. But Caleb also had a point—ten months is a long time to be staring at something right in front of you.

  Caleb and Sophie had angry, heated expressions and were yelling now.

  Franzen was my father.

  Franzen, the descendant of Francis Bacon—AKA Shakespeare—was my biological father.

  That piece of information—well that I had pushed down. What was to be done with information like that other than drive yourself crazy? I knew it on an intellectual level. Francis Bacon, my ancestor, was a grand alchemist who had discovered the secret to living an extremely long life. He had done this, then tried to pass his teachings on to others.

  I knew this in a factual way.

  But I didn’t really understand it. And, maybe, didn’t even really believe it.

  Either way, I had failed. That much was clear. I had failed to solve the puzzle, failed to grasp the basic tenants of alchemy, failed to learn enough.

  I didn’t know enough to be able to protect an ailing Franzen, my mother, and Grace from Emerick.

  “Guys,” I whispered.

  They kept arguing.

  “Guys!”

  They stopped. Caleb turned away and stormed to a nearby bookshelf while Sophie returned to her chair and fell into it.

  I took a deep breath. “You’re both right. I have been a complete mess, with everything from last year just hanging over me, and not having anyone I could talk to. You’re right Sophie. I have felt alone, overwhelmed, never mind terrified and totally paranoid about being followed by Emerick’s men. But Caleb’s right too. I’ve also completely wasted ten months because I let myself become paralyzed by depression and fear.”

  Caleb whirled around, “If you think for a minute that I meant…”

  I shook my head, “Even if it’s not, it’s true.”

  “You’re being too hard on yourself,” Sophie whispered.

  I turned back to the puzzle and closed my eyes. I touched its sides, trailed my fingers over the sharp engravings. “I don’t feel like I can do this all by myself. I need you, I need you both.”

  Sophie hugged me from behind, “Well it’s a good thing you’re here then.”

  When she dropped her arms, I took a deep breath. “Except.”

  “Except what?” Caleb strode across the space between us.

  “Except that I promised your mother.”

  “Promised her what?” Sophie asked alarmed.

  “I promised I wouldn’t involve you,” I turned and met Caleb eye. “Either of you.”

  Sophie scoffed, “Well what she doesn’t know…”

  When I turned, my expression stopped her, “You don’t understand Sophie. This whole time I’ve been away, Emerick had me tracked. Everywhere I turned there were unexpected photos and strange men peering at me from across streets. Franzen warned me before I chose to leave, and Emerick is even more powerful now than he was last year. I need you, but I won’t endanger you.” I turned back to the box and placed both my hands on top. “And I have a feeling that if Emerick found out about this, there is little that would stop him from taking it. You mother is right Sophie, I’m a dangerous person to know.”

  “Well never mind the bloody box then,” Caleb said. “If it’s that dangerous, then let’s put it back on the shelf upstairs and forget we ever found it.”

  “You know I can’t do that.”

  “Well if he doesn’t know about it already, I don’t see how he’s going to find out now. And we’re certainly not saying anything to anyone,” Caleb reasoned.

  But Emerick might know. I thought of my premature call to my uncle, his belief that I was now “not safe” back in Venice Beach. He believed Emerick’s eyes and ears had infiltrated every area of my life.

  “Besides,” Caleb added. “Mum’s not in charge of my comings and goings anymore.”

  I looked at him and realized I’d forgotten, Caleb was eighteen now. We had been so busy arguing and worrying over all my problems, I didn’t even know if he’d gotten into Cambridge. “You were accepted?” I breathed.

  Caleb’s cheeks flushed and even with all that was obviously wrong with our current situation, he couldn’t help but smile. He’d been wanting it for so long. “Yes,” he said. “I wanted to email you when I got the letter but your uncle…”

  I nodded, “Not safe.”

  “Not safe,” Caleb repeated.

  I moved towards him and reached my arms up to encircle his neck. Caleb stooped down so his arms could wrap my waist. “Congratulations,” I whispered into his neck and he squeezed me harder and lifted my feet gently from the floor.

  “Charlotte,” he whispered back. “I’ve really missed you.”

  I felt the tears spill over and then the slick wetness between my cheek and his neck, “Me too.”

  “I am helping you. If you’re in danger then so am I. You don’t get to say otherwise, understand.”

  It was wrong, I knew it, but I nodded my silent agreement. I had promised Ms. Steward. Moreover, I couldn’t bear the thought of Caleb being in danger because of me. But his words were the best thing I had heard in almost a year. I was so tired of being alone.

  “Well don’t think you’re leaving me out,” Sophie said. “After all, I am the one who figured out the hardest move yet.”

  Caleb released his grip on me and stood up, “Just because Charlotte was stuck does not mean it was the hardest…”

  “She even said…”

  They started back up again, but I didn’t care. It felt good to be home. “Well,” I interrupted, “if you’re going to help me, arguing isn’t going to do it.”

  We moved the puzzle box further into the library, near one of the darker corners so that if Ms. Steward should come in, we would have time to hide it and make it look like we were doing something else. We stared and poked and ran our fingers over and through engravings trying to come up with the next move. Nothing changed. Caleb ran up and down the library ladders several times when he would think of different books he had come across during my absence that were related to alchemy or symbols. He would flip through their pages trying to match various engravings from the box with symbols and their meanings in his books. After an hour, Sophie went and laid on one of the sofas, “I’m just going to close one eye. Yell at me if you discover anything.”

  I kept staring at where my crucifix fit into the puzzle. To the left was a crescent moon cradling a star. To the right was a yin yang engraving and next to that was one that looked like a spoked wagon wheel. Next to the wheel was what looked like some form of writing symbol in a language I didn’t understand and then a Star of David. What kept my attention was the way they all seemed to be lined up.

  Like a list.

  “There are more keys,” I whispered.

  Caleb glanced up from his book, “What’s that?”

  I stood up and stared at the row of engravings. The rest of the symbols on the puzzle were jumbled with no clear symmetry or reason. Where the crucifix was placed alongside the other five symbols, I could see they were clearly separate from the rest of the puzzle. “Here,” I po
inted to the five other symbols and ran my finger across them. “What if my cross is only one key?”

  Caleb stood and looked for a moment and then nodded his head, “I think you’re right. Do you know what these are?”

  “Well I know this is the yin and yang and that one’s the Star of David.”

  Caleb nodded. “Wait…” he headed towards one of the library ladders and rolled it to the far end of the room. I watched while he climbed halfway up and ran his finger across titles, “Here,” he pulled out a black leather book and climbed back down. When he placed the book on top of the puzzle, I saw the title, World Religions: Beliefs, Practices & Symbols. “The cross, obviously, is a symbol for Christianity. The yin yang is used primarily in Taoism. This…” Caleb pointed to the engraving that looked like a form of writing and then began flipping through the book. “That one I’ve seen but I can’t remember.”

  “You’ve found something!” Sophie said right behind us.

  Caleb and I both jumped. “Sophie!”

  “What?” she asked defensive.

  “For God’s sake,” Caleb continued looking in the book. “Make some noise. You’re always sneaking up.”

  “I am not. You’re just always so absorbed in all your books you don’t notice what is happening around you until the last moment.”

  They were going to start fighting again. “We think my cross may only be one key,” I pointed to the row of symbols. “Caleb’s looking up this one right now.”

  Sophie yawned, “That’s the Aum.”

  “What? Caleb slapped the book and turned to look at her.

  “The Aum,” she repeated.

  “How on earth do you know that?” he flipped to the back of the book.

  “What? Like I can’t know things? My friend Gayu has it in her house, they’re Indian.”

  “Hinduism!” Caleb said to himself as he turned a page in the book. There at the top was the same symbol as the engraving.

  “You don’t have to learn everything from a book Caleb.”