~~
Trinity
~~
Reece and I both put on a pair of gloves and joined Star and Artem as they sorted out the rocks and tried to put them in numerical order. They had one through fifty done when we got here, so they were about a third of the way done. With Reece and I helping them as well, we were sure to get this done in no time at all.
Slowly, we pulled rocks out of the bags that they were in. Star and Artem had taken the time to separate them by groups of tens. I think that was mostly to make it so that they didn't get them mixed up at all. It was a good method though and it meant that we were able to focus on one group at a time.
It only took us five minutes at most. And that was with us moving slowly and making sure that we got everything into the proper order. After that, we double checked that they were all correct and then stood back.
“There we have it. One hundred and fifty-two rocks all in order.” I looked at all the glowing numbers that were visible to us all now, courtesy of Talia and her magic that was just like mine.
.....
“Should we turn them over now?” Reece asked. I could sense the apprehension in his voice. I knew that he wasn't in a big hurry to find out what these people wanted to tell us so badly that they went through all this trouble.
In truth, he was probably only feeling like that because of what happened in that room recently. Having that man die like that, killing himself in custody the way that he did, was not a good omen for what this message was going to say. The man had been there at the beach. He had been watching us. And so was the other one. The one that got away. There had been two of them that were there. At least two of them. There might have been more that weren't discovered like the other two. Maybe there was a third one that was better at concealing themselves. Or maybe there was one that just didn't flinch when they had all the nonhumans searching the crowd for them. Whichever it might be, it was possible that there were more than the two confirmed cultists that had been watching us.
And that made me wonder for a moment. How many other scenes had they been at? Did they have a way of making sure that we didn't see them at all the scenes? Were they following us? Did they have someone at each crime scene that was waiting for me and Reece to come and investigate.
They clearly knew who we were. They knew that I was Queen Trinity Gray. They knew that I was the leader of these people. And that meant that they were taunting me along with killing people. They were doing this to mess with me even more than they already had. They were killing people like it was some sort of game that we were wrapped up in. They were saying 'come and get me now, Miss Queen'. Only they didn't tell me where the game was supposed to be taking place. They didn't tell me where to go and I was left to follow after them and to catch up on a regular basis. And I didn't like this game one bit. If they wanted to come after me, then why didn't they? If they wanted to send me a message, why use dead people to do it? Why couldn't they be direct with me? Why couldn't they just tell me what they wanted so that we could figure this out like adults? Why did they have to kill so many people?
And if that rally was the case, how many of the people died just so that these bastards could draw me out? How many of them were just messages for me? I was guessing all of them.
“Trinity?” I vaguely heard someone calling out to me.
“Trin?”
“Little Bunny?” Two more voices added to the one that had already called out to me. But I was still lost in thought. I was trying to put some pieces of this puzzle together inside of my head.
“Trinity?” Artem called out to me again. I recognized his voice this time around.
“Trin?” Star was next. She sounded like she was concerned about me.
“Little Bunny?” Reece was last, speaking a little more forceful than the other two were.
“Hmm?” I looked up at Reece with a curious look on my face. “What's up?”
“What's up? Really? That's what you have to say to me. You were just spacing out. I asked you a question and then you just drifted off into La La Land. Where did that mind of yours go anyway?”
“Sorry Reece. I just started to think about things. And, well, you know how my mind can be sometimes. One thought led to another and then another and another. And before long, I was nowhere near where I started out and I couldn't even find my way back.” I was smiling at him, but I didn't feel like I was making any sense at the moment.
“Well, welcome back to the land of consciousness. Can you please make a decision here for me?” He was rolling his eyes and smiling at me at the same time. Exasperation and laughter, that sure was an odd mix.
“A decision on what? Sorry.” I apologized once again.
“Should we flip the stones over?” He asked me a shortened version of his question from earlier.
“Oh. I will take care of that. It's best to get it all done in one go.” I nodded at him. “Hold on.”
I faced the multitude of rocks and called my magic toward me. A little bit of wind magic mixed with a little bit of levitation magic. That was all that I needed here. I would make the stones float and then the wind magic would flip them over. It needed to be a small amount of both magics. I didn't want to destroy the room and I didn't want to send the stone flying across the room either.
“There, that should do it.” I nodded as I saw the stones all flip over in a one hundred and eighty degree turn. Now that they were word side up, I lowered them back to the table and was done with it. They were ready for us to read.
“Thank you, Trinity.” Artem smiled at me. “Let's see that message now.” He didn't sound happy about it as he stepped forward with me and Reece. Star was the only one that stayed back. I don't think she needed to see it like we did. She wasn't as active in the investigation like Artem was.
I stood there with Reece and Artem on either side of me. We were looking at the table from the bottom so that we could see the words from the top down. That would make it so that we didn't have to read upside down or backwards. Not that I couldn't do that, I just didn't want to right now.
I started to read the message and was instantly feeling like my stomach was turning and my anger was flaring. The person, or people, who had done this were sick and crazy. They needed to be stopped. Even more so than before.
'You dogs, scoundrels, magical fiends, and other monstrous creatures have sought us since our mission has begun, yet you are nowhere near finding us. You use your magic, strength, and power to search for us, though we continue to evade you. You claim to be strong, but you are not. You are weak when compared to our faith. Faith in our mission and the one we serve. You seek to muddle the human race with your tainted bloodlines, but we will not let you accomplish that feat. We will put an end to your reign of terror. We will dominate over the monsters of this world. We have taken the fight to your own backyard. And soon, we will give you a royal fight in your own courtyard. We will end this soon enough. All monsters will be executed. And soon enough, the world will see the reign of the Jaegan begin.'
“That name there, Jaegan, that was the man that was in the third interview room.” Reece noted as he read to the end. I had already finished it and was rereading it again. Though my eyes had stopped and seemed to be stuck at one particular place.
'And soon, we will give you a royal fight in your own courtyard.'
What did they mean by that? If these murders here in California were supposed to be in our backyard, figuratively meaning that the entire United States of America was my domain and anyplace outside of my actual home was considered my backyard, then what was supposed to be my courtyard?
“Reece?” I called out to him when it clicked inside of my head. “Our courtyard, do they mean Colorado? Do they mean that they are going to be taking this fight directly to our doorstep next?” I could feel the blood freezing in my veins. And that was not a metaphor either. I was getting so pissed off right now, that I knew my magic was on a rampage. I was freezing myself. I was letting it get the best of me. And when I looked up at Reece, I could tell that I was seeing him through a thin film of ice. It was already settling over my eyes. “Reece, they are going to go after our children next. Are they going to Colorado Springs? Are they going to hit Trinity Falls?”
