Letter 19 – Isadora to Callum
My dearest,
I received your letter, but I could not leave town even though you asked me to.
From the moment I stepped into the Royal Library I’ve sensed the secret inside the sealed vault pull me towards it. It’s as if it has a claim on my very soul. I know how that sounds, but I don’t care. It’s the truth. I don’t think it’s the evil itself that calls to me. I think it’s the secret surrounding it. And now, after what I’ve learned tonight, I’m certain of it.
When I arrived back at the library, I found it as quiet as a tomb, as though nothing I’ve told you about guards and such had ever happened. I spent hours walking the hallways, checking the stacks, and searching every back room. The door to the basement remained locked. Frustrated, I returned to my archivist chair.
I’ve never told you about my desk. It’s made of mahogany and while it has scratches and scrapes, it’s sturdy enough for my work, and I’ve not had the time to replace it. Having searched everywhere else in the library, I turned my attention to it.
In a hidden compartment beneath the second drawer, I found a letter. My heart stopped. It bears no date and reads as though it were written yesterday. I’ll copy the whole of it here, so you can read it just as I did:
To my daughter,
The vault should never be opened. But if you are reading this, it means the spells that held it shut are loosening, the evil forces within our realm are gathering strength, and the end of our civilization is nigh.
In my time, I did what I could to strengthen the seals. But I fear my magic was no match for the darkness that grows in this world.
Let me explain. The vault holds an evil older than the Accord. A group of witches used spells to lure and trap the soul-devouring beast that lies hidden inside it. Vampires, whose strength has no equal, helped seal it in its prison. Together they buried it deep in the earth and built a library above it, a place of knowledge to stand watch. After that act, the Accord was born.
I have spent my life learning all I could about this evil, hoping to manage. But I fear all I have done is delay the inevitable. The beast wants out.
The truth is darkness lives in each of us and that is the true danger. Most of us ignore it and live with a sense of righteousness. My greatest fear is that someone in the group who put the beast away will be swayed by the darkness within them and help it escape.
You have found this letter because the process of awakening has begun. When the spells that kept the vault closed began to weaken, the spell to release this letter became active.
You are the chosen one. Only you could find this letter sealed by enchantments meant for you alone. Only you can face what comes.
Fear not my dear daughter, for fear feeds evil.
You were chosen because you have a good heart, an old soul, and a strength of magic few possess. You must open the vault with a spell and then use a second incantation to end its existence.
To open the vault, stand in front of it and hold your hand on your heart. Speak these words:
By blood of earth and bone of night,
By salt and shadow, ash and blight,
What iron holds and silence keeps …
What we have sealed in restless sleep must now awake.
I call the darkness to know my name, Isadora Lane
I call the dark to speak the same, Isadora Lane.
Face me.
The act of speaking your name will weaken the beast but not kill it. You must have courage to face it and cast the final spell:
By the light that has no shadow, I call you to your end.
I give you back to the earth that made you.
I give you nothing — not memory, not name,
only the end you deserve.
Be still. Be gone. You are done.
Sweet Isadora, trust the current that has carried you this far. When your quest is finished and the weight of it settles on you, trust the universe will not leave you to bear it alone. Worthy souls are moving toward you. Watch for them.
You are the greatest love of my life. Death does not change that.
With my whole heart, now and forever,
Your mother,
Leanna Isadora Lane
I don’t have words for what I felt when I first read this letter. My mother was an enchantress! I am the chosen one! I’ve always known I possess some magic but have chosen not to use it. All of this is too much to hold in my mind, but I don’t have the luxury of time to make sense of it.
The library is empty now. I can feel the beast stirring beneath the floor, testing the ties that bind it, working them loose one by one. The walls shudder when it moves. I must be ready to confront it.
I will practice the incantation and face it tomorrow night.
With the great of affections,
Isadora
P.S. I wish with all my heart that we could have met, that we’d had our chance. I long to see your face, to run into your arms, to finally be together. But I fear that was never meant to be.
Letter 20 - Callum to Isadora
My darling,
I arrived just before dawn and found you asleep in your chair. The candle was still burning. You must have waited for me. I could not bring myself to wake you. You looked, for once, at peace, and I would not rob you of that. So, I leave you these words instead, to speak what I could not say aloud.
I am yours in this fight. Your mother’s death will not go unanswered, and the injustice that has shadowed you will be dragged into the light. My kind are not given to causes beyond our own survival. But I am given to you, and that changes everything.
We will contain the beast. But this time, there will be no whispered half-truths, no careful silences to protect the truth. What has gone unspoken must be spoken plainly, and the world must finally reckon with what we all carry within us. A darkness. A hunger. It does not announce itself. It waits, patient and quiet, for the moment we stop watching.
The creature feeds on the unwitting. It has done so for too long.
I will rest in the shadows while the sun holds dominion, but I will come to you when it releases its grip on the sky.
Until then do not open the door to anyone but me.
All my love,
Callum
Dear Reader,
I hope you are enjoying Isadora and Callum’s love letters as much as I am, and I hope the latest two have surprised you. Only 4 more letters to go.
Have a great week,
Jo-Ann
Of course he turned up - wouldn't expect anything else of him
Now that is a cliffhanger to leave us with this summer.