Chapter 5 5. Beltane

Serphina and the other two Ravens stood together. It was Beltane, a huge night at the Dollhouse. A gross celebration that happened every year, though it tended to be the safest night for the Ravens. The Reapers that came would be loose-lipped. They always received the best intel at these kinds of parties, but Beltane was special.

Special to the Reapers that was, not for their victims. Not to the dolls that were subject to abuse beyond measure. Then there was who took the stage, a single female magician who would be abused to ensure she produced another magician for their vicious ranks.

Serphina had told no one of the hidden room at Castle Brook. She had kept that to herself, worried that there would be questions. Questions she didn't have answers to. She had read up on the Philosopher's Egg. She had studied old journals; the Egg was supposed to absorb any kind of dark power, but her theory was that it was already in use by the time she touched it.

The Resistance had wanted to use it to siphon whatever power was in The Sovereign's heart stones. Though they had failed in retrieving it. The Resistance was hoping that tonight the Ravens would get more information on the Philosopher's Egg, a heading or something. Instead, Serphina had found it, and she was sure whatever it had held was now in her. Though she felt no different. Other than the small black veins on her wrist, nothing else was different. She would keep that information to herself. The Resistance would no doubt try to exploit her in more ways than they already did.

"I think you should be a brunette tonight, not a redhead," Prudy told Serphina. She nodded to her sister. It was always perilous going to the dollhouse, but it was invaluable to the Resistance. "Straight hair, porcelain skin, and maybe green eyes," Nila commented. They did this before every departure. Picked each other's masks they would wear at the Dollhouse before they even left.

Serphina helped pick her sister's face, and they dressed, painting each other's false faces once their runes were in place. It was a beautiful war paint, or so they told themselves. Then it was time to go. Time to risk their necks for even a whisper of what the Reapers were up to. As they made their way through headquarters, they received looks. The Ravens knew what the others thought. They could feel it in the looks they received.

They had each other, and it had to be enough. Serphina knew very few in the Resistance could see the sacrifices the Ravens made for the cause. As they made it out of the wards, the three of them looked at one another. "No separating tonight," Prudy said. Nila and Serphina nodded. They would use the notice-me-not rune to get in the door unseen. Then continue to move silently, invisible to the eyes of the Reapers.

The disguises they wore were only used to obtain more private information. For intel they would have to extract by touch; Tonight wasn’t about that. Though Serphina had already used that specific rune this week to find Emma.

It was a short-lived rune without blood. Even with blood, it didn't work forever, but to draw it on people, one had to touch them, and that was when it was most risky for a Raven. Serphina had already risked it this week, and she was hoping she wouldn't need to do it again. But if she had to, she would, as would Prudy or Nila. It's why they were already in their disguise, just in case.

The girls put their hands together and shimmered to the secure spot, away from the Dollhouse but still close, always close. Pricking their fingers and sharing their blood to ignite the rune to make them invisible, and vanished into the night. Combining their blood on their three notice-me-not runes made it so they could see one another, but no others would see them.  They held onto one another, moving like wraiths slipping down the loud, violent streets, and right into the Dollhouse.

Avoiding the Reapers and Dolls that packed the place, they moved as a unit. Staying close, staying silent and listening. They moved with practiced ease, like a flock of birds who had a formation they knew instinctively. They avoided colliding, trying not to focus on what was being carried on trays for the Reapers in the room.

First, the bidding would start. Following that would be the show of all those high bidders and their unlucky victim for the night. Then the vile breeding show would begin. At that point, bets would be placed on who was the lucky one who would be welcoming a new magician in 9 months. The female magician would suffer; it would be vile, violent, unadulterated horror, and she would suffer with an audience.

The Ravens continued to move around the first floor. Picking up conversations, trying to find anything that would be useful to the Resistance. Serphina could feel it, though: eyes on her. She knew she was invisible, but she felt eyes on her. She looked up, and frightening  blue eyes were looking at her. Maybe they didn't see her, but they were tracking her.

Elios Prince, he was there. He was at the Dollhouse; she had never seen him there, not even at the other Beltane Nights, years prior.  From intel, she knew he was high up in the ranks of Reapers. The second in charge, from her understanding. His horrible father was the only one above him, and then the Sovereign. Elios had to be the third most powerful magician on the continent, and he was there in the Dollhouse.

Her eyes, not visible to anyone, looked to see who sat with him. There next to him were the chaos twins, Jane and John Corbin. His brother too, Caden. Oh, how Serphina loathed him. Caden had been horrible in their youth. The younger Prince, who had made it his mission in life to humiliate her, unlike Elios.

Elios was unlike his younger, worse sibling. Caden frequented the Dollhouse, owning it in fact, and Serphina and the other Ravens made sure to never touch him. Never to get too close where they could become his victim. Yes, they would listen to him talk, but never with a body he could see. He was too much of a risk to their safety; ending up in his clutches would no doubt end them.

They knew this from before the war. Even when they went to school with him, Caden was a risk they refused to take. But Elios, he was different. He was shrewder than his younger brother. However, he was still a Reaper, and what he was in their youth was not what he was now. Now he was a killer. A killer with a vicious, ruthless reputation among the other Reapers.