The Ninth Door

Chapter 15 -Keys

Sienna

The following morning was awkward. Joy gave me a sheepish smile when she saw me. She blushed deeply when she saw Emmerich on my heels. Before I slept last night, I read her texts of apology. I reassured her that it was okay and that it was our fault that we were making a lot of noise. I was curious, however, about why I hadn’t heard of Joy or Silas shifting. Talk about cat shifters seemed to be forbidden in the family.

I just did – but not as a house cat, which was the Kelley family’s natural form, but as a leopard.

Why?

Worry and annoyance filled me as I wondered if the shift meant I could open a door or two, when there were still mysteries within my family that I couldn’t figure out. What if that was what it meant to know who I really was – as Annette and Sienna? That I needed to explore the little secrets that plagued us.

Words that remained unspoken. Abandoning the Junction only to renovate it. My mother's murder. My father’s identity. The loyal servants.

“Where are we going exactly?” I asked Emmerich. Did he really believe the doors would open within the same space where the first one did?

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I don’t know all the rules. When I ended up in your apartment, I didn’t have all the answers. I still don’t.”

“Wait. How did you travel from your world to mine?” It had been bugging me, and I wanted some answers. I felt like I should know more about my companion to understand the direction we were taking.

“I heard you calling,” he said simply, repeating what he had already told me before.

“That’s it? That was several years ago,” I murmured, although I knew that he came from even further back into the past. To make it all worse, he might not come from a different time at all – at least not one rooted in reality – but from a book.

Not real.

“It wasn’t ideal at first to come to you,” he said, sounding miserable. He looked at me with his pale blue eyes. There was something there that I hadn’t seen before. I couldn’t identify it exactly, but there was something deeper there. Sadness? Regret?

“You needed to shift?”

“Yes. A witch was compelled to control me, but there were moments when something broke through. It was as if my Maker made it possible.”

“Your maker?”

“The man who made me who I am. The man who had shown himself here in the Junction. Eric Wester.”

“Wester. Why does that sound so familiar?” I wondered aloud, testing the name on my tongue.

“Mm. I don’t think Wester was ever mentioned in your book.”

“I’m not surprised that they would censor the violent parts from my book,” I said, shrugging. “Are you alright, Emmerich? Is something bothering you? D-do you still want to do this? This quest?”

“Of course I do,” he said, but I still wasn’t convinced. The days we spent on the road were more cheerful than this. It was as if he was fading in energy and enthusiasm, and we had barely scratched the surface of our mission.

“Promise me something, Emmerich,” I said, my throat feeling raw. It was hard for me to say the words. After all, I wanted someone to accompany me on the road to revenge. I wanted it so badly. Yet, it didn’t feel right to have someone do it when their heart was somewhere else.

“Yes. What is it? If it is within the realms of possibility, I promise.”

Emmerich was solemn and careful. Sincere. He was here because he felt responsible for me. That was no longer enough.

“Promise me that if you need to go back to your world – that if it’s what your heart desires or that if someone or something there needs you back, please return. I will be okay. I’m starting to feel a lot like the Sienna I was as a child, and maybe, that’s all you needed to do to help me.”

“No, Sienna.” He shook his head, brows furrowed as if frustrated. He threaded his fingers into his hair, and my eyes followed the movement. His blond hair was shinier now. It was almost the same shade of mine.

I’m distracted.

This time, we stopped in one of the hallways beyond the occupied parts of the Junction. I realized our voices had gone low, like lovers in a tryst or partners in crime. We were neither lovers nor criminals, but we were keeping secrets. Pretending to be someone else to each other. Why was it again that I couldn’t tell my family? I just knew I shouldn’t tell them. I could be wrong. Anyway, we were here in this dark corner, looking for answers we might not get. One more turn, and we would be back to where we opened the first door.

“I can now turn into a leopard for some reason. Maybe you were meant to turn me so that I can defend myself,” I continued, feeling the urge to keep on talking or else I would change my mind.

Last night, I felt something. No, it wasn’t just a hard d**k under my belly as I fell on him after I leaped as a leopard and quickly shifted back into a human. I was surprised at how unashamed I was with him. I was comfortable as if I had known him for a long time, not just as a storybook character, either. To be dependent on his presence was a dangerous thing, when I was starting to see him as a -

A what exactly?

It was just a silly crush. Neither Annette nor Siena got around. So, being close to a handsome man was doing things to me that it shouldn’t. Emmerich was Lady Mary’s man. I was just a damsel in distress – a side quest.

“I made a pledge. I came a long way to help you, Sienna Kelley. Of course, we will open the nine doors together.”

His eyes showed some of the fire I saw from him before, but there certainly was something more somber in them. I had admired his tall, imposing figure, the straight and disciplined back, and the lifted chin. It might be my imagination but the broad shoulders seemed to slump a little in resignation. The thought choked me inside, at the thought that a knight felt like this within weeks in my presence. He must be absorbing some of my misery and mixing it with his own. How could two lonely people survive this?

“Thank you. I can only hope that we will open two doors at once. I want you to find your peace, too, Emmerich,” I said. I meant it. Yes, I would miss him, but it wasn’t right to keep him here just because I needed support.

His throat bobbed, but he didn’t reply. Instead, he walked the same path we took the last time we were here.

“I want to show you something, but I wasn’t sure it would work,” he said.

“What is it?”

He took my hand, and it made me realize how chilly mine was. His own was warm, like someone running a fever, but at this point, I knew better. I would probably be terrified to find his hand as cold as it was during dinner last night.

“Nothing?”

“What am I supposed to feel or see, Emmerich?” I asked, chuckling a little at how his face had softened. I was glad to see some of the sadness dissipate, replaced by something softer. Boyish.

“Last night, while you were sleeping, I read some of the books you placed on the bedside table -.”

My cheeks felt warm. Oh no. I should have kept those books away from his reach.

“I’m s-so sorry you have to see t-those th-things,” I stammered, attempting to pull my hand away from his but he held on to it.

“Why? I like your books. While I’m adjusting to your language in a speed I can’t understand, it was still good to see the words on paper.”

But not with those books, I thought. I shuddered at the thought of Emmerich reading my romance books while I slept.

“So, what were you trying exactly?” I asked, my voice breathier than I wanted it to be. My cheeks tingled from the blush that I couldn’t quite recover from.

“Well, there was a part there that showed how the man and the woman shifters communicated through touch,” he said, his voice lower than usual. He was probably just as embarrassed as I was, but just needed to get his message across.

“Through touch?” I echoed.

“Yes. The man showed the woman -.”

“What happened to him. Showed her the visuals. Oh, I remember this part,” I said, slightly relieved that it happened before the parts that I hoped he hadn’t read yet. I would have to stuff those books somewhere where he couldn’t find them.

“Exactly,” Emmerich said, sounding triumphant but still holding on to my hand. Was he hoping I’d suddenly see a vision of his world?

Something did flash before me. A dark place. The musty smell. My stomach churned as my nose detected the stink of s**t and urine.

“That would be very convenient,” I remarked. I didn’t say that it would also be humiliating if one side were to see something that the other didn’t mean to show.

“It would. If you can make me come alive in your world. Maybe we can make some aspects of a book happen?”

“That’s a lot to aim for, Emmerich.”

Inexplicably, my mind wandered to the empty leather book with no title. No name. What if?

“Yeah, you’re right,” he admitted, sighing. His shoulders slumped again. It was only then that I noticed that his posture was more confident during the time he was talking about my book.

“I’m sorry. I wish I could solve my problem now so that you can go back to your own. I’m mourning, Emmerich, but I know I’ll survive this lifetime without revenge. I’ve also spent so many years in therapy accepting my mother’s death. But you, from the little you’ve told me so far, you’re needed in your world.”

He let go of my hand and backed away a few inches from me, and I felt like I said the wrong words. I felt a sense of loss and couldn’t help but search his eyes for any clue as to what he was feeling right now. His head was bowed, shielding his eyes from me.

“Sienna.”

“Yes?”

“Look down.”

On the floor was one large key. My heart leaped into my throat. What did it mean? Emmerich and I looked up at the same time, our gazes meeting. I could tell that he feared the same thing. What if only one door would be opened? What if we failed somehow?

He bent on one knee and picked up the key. As soon as he did, three more clattered on the floor as if from nowhere. A chill ran down my spine.

“Who’s your father, Sienna?”

It was a girlish voice. The tone was friendly, but it was anything but. I fell to my knees and checked the keys on the floor.

Eric.

Wester? We were just talking about the leopard shifter. Emmerich’s maker.

Emmerich.

There was no way it could be him. No. He was centuries too old to be my father, unless – unless he had traveled through time before. I wouldn’t be able to accept it.

Pete.

The thought of my mother’s rapist and murderer being my father made my stomach churn.

“Sienna,” Emmerich said softly. He was handing me the key that he picked up. It was the first key that appeared. Maybe it carried my father’s name. Hope bloomed in my chest. It couldn’t be Eric. I didn’t want it to be Emmerich for reasons I still couldn’t admit, and I didn’t want to be a monster’s child. No, not Pete. Oh God, not him.

I rose from the floor, pushing the three other keys into my jean pocket. I took the one Emmerich was passing on to me, trembling with excitement. The excitement died as I read the name.

Stefan.