Of Time & Spells

by Jennifer Snyder

  “Let’s sweep everything, even the furniture,” Jasper insisted.

  My hands hovered over everything in sight as I worked my way through the section of the room I was in. Nothing jumped out at me. No touch of magic lingering on, around, or behind any object I spotted. I shifted to swipe my palms along the wall behind me. Smoothness met with my fingertips for longer than it should.

  “No.” My heart stilled in my chest as I took a step back.

  There was no way out.

  Our exit had vanished. Again.

  Chapter 10

  Where was the archway we’d walked through? I scanned the room, but it wasn’t there. We were trapped. My chest tightened as my breathing accelerated. While I wasn’t claustrophobic, I was beginning to think certain characteristics of the phobia were sprouting within me.

  “Where did the archway go?” I asked, hating how scared my voice sounded.

  “Damn it,” Jasper ground out as he spun in a slow circle. He crossed to one of the two windows along the far wall and attempted to open it without any luck. “This house is impossible.”

  “Is it stuck?” Tristan asked.

  “Yeah, like they’re nailed shut.” Jasper heaved again, but the window didn’t seem to budge.

  “Remember what the old woman said,” Anna insisted.

  The old woman’s riddle about mice floated through my mind again.

  “Maybe there’s something we’re missing.” Tristan inspected the wall behind him.

  “Let’s continue sweeping the room, Piper,” Jasper insisted. “Anna, you and Tristan see if you can find an exit.”

  No one argued. Instead we each split apart to do our assigned task. The room fell silent as we focused.

  “Nothing.” I puffed my breath out and placed my hands on my hips. There wasn’t a single thing in the room that had a magical residue attached to it. “There’s nothing cloaked on this side.”

  “Nothing here either,” Jasper announced. He shifted his attention to Tristan and Anna. “I’m guessing you two haven’t had any luck finding a way out, have you?”

  “No,” Tristan said. Beads of sweat dotted his forehead.

  “I’m still looking.” Anna picked up a yellow sphere that decorated the mantel on the fireplace and spun it around in her hand. She was checking for a secret passage. “Move things around. Something might happen.”

  I prayed she was right as I gripped the chair closest to me. Soft fabric met with my fingertips. I pushed the chair to the side, hoping to reveal a trapdoor but found nothing. The sound of stone grinding against stone had me coming to a standstill.

  Someone found something.

  Anna had tipped one of the statues that flanked the fireplace forward, causing something to shift. A dull light spilled onto the checkered squares of tile in front of the fireplace, and another room had been revealed. Tristan stepped to where I stood and interlaced his fingers through mine again. The feel of his hand comforted me.

  “Looks like we’re about to go deeper into this rabbit hole. You ready?” he asked.

  I squeezed his hand in mine. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Jasper and Anna stepped through the fireplace and into the other room first. The sounds of their conversation floated to my ears, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. My legs shook beneath me as I started toward the passage. Did I really want to go deeper into this house? Did I even have a choice?

  I listened for my brother, waiting on him to tell me what was on the other side, but his description never came. Nothing did. A sudden silence had my ears humming with white noise. My feet rooted in place.

  “What’s wrong?” Tristan asked.

  “What if something crazy is waiting for us on the other side? What if stepping through the fireplace is a bad decision?”

  “It has to be better than this.” His opposite arm swung around, gesturing to the room we were standing in. “We can’t stay here. There’s no other way out. Might as well move forward.”

  He was right. Forward motion was better than standing still.

  I forced my legs to move at the same time the sound of grinding stone sounded through the room. The fireplace sealed shut, and the warmth of a roaring fire could now be felt across my skin again.

  “Must be on a timer,” Tristan said.

  “Yeah. Must be,” I muttered, hoping we hadn’t missed our only chance to get out of this room.

  Tristan reached for the statue we’d witnessed Anna move and tipped it forward. I waited for the sound of stone grinding against stone, but nothing happened. He tipped it backward. Nothing happened.

  “This was the right one, wasn’t it?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” I nodded.

  “Then why isn’t the fireplace opening?”

  My stomach hardened. “I don’t know.”

  I reached for the statue on the opposite side of the fireplace and pushed it forward and backward with no luck. My hand gripped it too tight as I struggled to calm my speeding heart with slow, even breaths. Now wasn’t the time to freak out. I had to keep my wits about me. We both did.

  “You said it might be on a timer, right?”

  Tristan nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Okay, then maybe that’s the problem. Maybe there’s a timer that dictates when it closes and how long it will be before it opens again,” I suggested. It made more sense in my head than when I said it, but at least it was a rational thought. Rational thoughts were needed in this situation.

  “It’s possible, I guess.” He scratched his head as his eyes raked over the fireplace. “So, we wait it out?”

  “It’s not like we have any other options. There isn’t another exit.” I crouched down until I was level with the hearth. “I don’t hear Jasper or Anna though. You’d think we’d be able to.”

  “Me either.” Tristan crouched beside me and pounded the palm of his hand against the along the front. “Hello?” he shouted.

  There was no response. At least not one we could hear.

  “Oh, this is so not good.” An ache built in the back of my throat. The threat of tears was real as I fought against all the what-ifs that wanted to torture my mind.

  “Think they’ll wait around for us?”

  “I hope so.”

  Jasper would freak out, I knew that much. However, his freak-outs always looked different. He could try to bust through the fireplace to get to me, or he might decide to continue through the house, hoping to meet up with me.

  “I’m gonna try the statue again,” Tristan insisted. I didn’t stop him.

  I prayed it would open the passage this time. My eyes zeroed in on his hand as it hovered above the head of the statue.

  “Here it goes.” He tipped the thing back.

  Nothing happened.

  He tipped it forward.

  Nothing happened.

  My arms wrapped around my middle, and I exhaled a shaky breath. We were stuck in this room. We were separated from Jasper and Anna. What were we going to do? Hot tears stung my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I blinked them away and pulled in a deep breath, gathering myself. Now wasn’t the time to fall apart. I needed to collect myself.

  Tristan stared at the roaring fire. His jaw clenched as his nostrils flared.

  “What now?” I asked, breaking up the silence we were settling in.

  “I don’t know. I guess we can either wait and try again in a few minutes, find something to help break through to the other room, or search for a different way out. What’s your vote?”

  I wasn’t sure what we should do. Waiting and then trying again seemed reasonable, but breaking into the next room sounded more actionable. I didn’t want to sit here. Each second that passed was more time my brother was most likely wrestling with his decision to leave. What if we never found him again in this crazy house? The thought was enough to send me back into a tailspin of panic. Already, I could feel cold tingles slipping through my chest.

  “I say we try to break through while we wait to move the stat
ue again. Maybe Jasper and Anna will hear us beating against the thing and help out from the other side.” My theory was if they heard noise they might stay where they were.

  “I was hoping you’d choose that option.” Tristan grinned. “I can’t sit and do nothing, and searching for another way out seems pointless when we know this is one. Plus, it’s the way your brother and Anna went. We need to stick together.”

  “I agree, but first we need to figure out how to put that fire out.”

  “Easy.” Tristan reached down and twisted a knob I hadn’t noticed. A click sounded and the orange flames dimmed to nothing. “It’s a gas fireplace.”

  “Cool.”

  My eyes darted around, searching for something to bust through the brickwork with. Not much could hold up to that sort of force. Everything seemed too fancy and breakable. The large chandelier hung from the center of the room was made of antlers, and the tables were made of glass, even the legs. The only things of use were the chair I’d moved before the passage had been found and the statues on either side of the fireplace.

  Tristan must have come to the same conclusion because he grabbed the statue on the opposite side of the hearth and gripped it in his hands like a baseball bat. I took a step back to give him room. He crouched down and inched forward, readying himself to swing. He slammed the base of the statue into the bricks with loads of force packed behind it, but other than a loud bang echoing through the room, nothing happened. An annoyed puff of air burst past his lips as he readied for round two. Nothing happened. The bricks were solid. I frowned when he reared back for a fourth time and placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him.

  “Don’t,” I whispered. It was obvious we weren’t going to get anywhere. “Let’s give the statue a try again.”

  He stood up straight. “Okay.”

  I stepped to the statue and placed my hand on its head. Coolness met the skin of my palm. I held my breath as I tipped it back and waited. Nothing happened. My teeth sank into my bottom lip as I fought back tears. This couldn’t be happening. There had to be something we were missing.

  I flinched as my cell rang. The melody echoed though the room. My fingers fumbled to retrieve it from in my back pocket while I prayed it was Jasper calling.

  “Who is it?” Tristan asked.

  “Jasper.” A wide grin sprang onto my face as I swiped my thumb across the screen to answer the call. “Hey.”

  Static filtered through the phone. Apparently there wasn’t a good connection inside the house. Big surprise there.

  “Piper, I tried…can’t break…moving…double back for…” Jasper’s words were cut off, but even with hearing only a few I was able to get the general idea of what he was saying.

  They’d tried to break through the fireplace too and weren’t able to, so they’d decided to continue forward and would double back for us.

  “Jasper, I can’t hear you,” I insisted, even though I thought I’d understood what he was saying.

  “Stay… promise, I… somehow…” His words broke up again, but I knew he’d told me to stay where I was and he was promising he’d come back for us somehow.

  The connection faded.

  “What did he say?”

  I moved to sit beside Tristan on the floor. “The connection wasn’t the best, but I got the gist of what he was saying, I think.”

  “Which was?”

  “They tried to break through and weren’t able to, so they’ve decided to move on, but they want us to stay put. He promised they’d figure out a way to get back to us.”

  “And you think they’ll be able to circle around somehow?”

  I wasn’t sure how to answer him. Did I think it was possible in this strange house to circle back when it seemed you couldn’t ever go the way you came?

  “I’m not sure,” I whispered.

  While I always chose to believe in my brother and the massive amount of determination he harbored, I wasn’t sure it applied to this situation. Things were beyond our control here. We were at the mercy of the house, which meant we only went where it wanted us to go. Back might not be an option.

  Chapter 11

  “I can’t wait around.” Tristan moved to his feet. We’d sat in silence for far too long after my brother’s call. “I have to do something.”

  “What are you going to do? Trying to break through wasn’t getting us anywhere. We just have to wait.” A puff of air pushed past my lips. I wished I could think of another alternative, but nothing came. We were trapped either way you spun it.

  In my peripheral vision, I noticed Tristan move to the statue. He tipped it back and the sound of stone grinding against stone rolled through the room. I jumped to my feet as a wide grin sprang onto my face.

  The passageway inside the fireplace was open again.

  “It worked!” Tristan shouted. He knelt down to peek through the passage and cupped his hands around his mouth. “Hey, you guys,”

  No one answered him, and I felt my stomach twist. Jasper and Anna had already moved on.

  Light in the corner of my eye caught my attention.

  The archway we’d originally walked through had appeared again. Apparently the house would let someone go back the way they came. Imagine that.

  “The door came back.” I pointed to it.

  Tristan stood to his full height and glanced in the direction I was pointing. He didn’t speak. Neither did I. Seconds ago we were trapped in this pea soup colored room, and now two exits had randomly presented themselves.

  “What do you want to do?” Tristan asked. “Looks like we have two ways we could go.”

  My heartbeat grew sluggish and the tips of my fingers cold as I debated what we should do. If we continued forward, heading through the fireplace like Jasper and Anna we might meet up with them again eventually. If we headed back the way we came though, we might be able to make it back outside. The idea of being out of this madhouse was tempting, but being with my brother and Anna sounded better. Plus, moving forward would put us another step closer to finding the mirror. We needed to find that damn mirror.

  “Let’s head through the passage.” I said my throat tight as the words clawed their way up.

  “You sure?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. Let’s go. I don’t want to risk this thing closing up again before we make it through.”

  “Time does seem to play a factor.”

  Didn’t it always? God, it seemed like all my battles lately were made of time and spells.

  Tristan stepped to my side and grabbed my hand. His warm fingers interlaced through mine setting my frenzied nerves at ease.

  “Ready?” His deep gray eyes met mine as he squeezed my hand in his.

  “Yeah.”

  “You know, every room might not be like this. Maybe this one was a fluke, and the others won’t screw with our minds as much.” His words were hopeful, but we both knew they were a lie.

  This house was evil, just like the witches who had inhabited it. Every room would screw with us. Maybe not in the way this one had with its exits, but there would always be something. I was sure of it.

  Crouching down, I slipped through the passageway in the fireplace and into the next room without releasing my grip on Tristan’s hand. He crept through behind me. A dining room waited on the other side. Similar decorations and the same shade of pea soup green from the previous room had me crinkling my nose.

  “Jesus, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much of the same color in a house before,” Tristan said as he stood to his full height once outside of the fireplace.

  “I know what you mean.” I glanced around, searching for hints of other colors. A large mirror above the fireplace we’d came through caught my attention. It was framed with the same antlers I’d noticed the chandelier in the other room had been made of. “These witches had no taste.”

  “You could say that again.” Tristan snorted. “Hey, look. A mirror. Think it’s the one?”

  I shook my head. “Jasper wouldn’t have left if it was. Plus
, I don’t feel any magic coming from it.”

  “You’re probably right. Would have been nice though.”

  ”Yeah.”

  My gaze drifted around the room. Besides the fireplace, the two floor lamps flanking it, and a circular table with four chairs in the center of the room, there wasn’t anything else here. There was, however, a door.

  “Look!” I ran toward it, dragging Tristan along with me. Maybe he had been right and the passageway in the other room was a fluke. This room might actually be normal. It would be a heck of a lot easier to find my brother if that was the case.

  “Awesome, but slow down,” Tristan said. “You can’t go through it.”

  I gripped the knob with my free hand and rolled my eyes. “I know that.”

  I twisted and pushed, swinging the door open with more force than was necessary. The second I did, I wished I hadn’t. No room waited on the other side, only darkness.

  Cool wind reached out from the abyss to wrap its arms around Tristan and me, pulling us into the space of shadows and the unknown against our will. A scream rushed from somewhere deep in my chest as my feet lifted off the ground. Tristan’s grip on me tightened as he lifted into the air behind me. My fingers scratched at the doorframe as I desperately tried to hold on the something stable. No luck. Ice crept through my veins as the cool wind pulled harder.

  “Got it!” Tristan shouted over the rushing wind. He’d managed to catch hold of the doorframe, stabilizing us in midair.

  “Don’t let go!” My fingers were nearly numb from the cold already, but I fisted his T-shirt and clutched on to him as tight as I could.

  “I can’t…hold on…for much longer…” His words ripped from his throat as he closed his eyes and focused on keeping his grip.

  The suction tugging at us was too strong. Tristan’s grip slipped. We were sucked into the abyss.

  Weightless. That was how I would explain the sensation if someone were to ask.

  We floated in the darkness with a sense of control neither of us were responsible for. My eyes bounced around, searching for a tiny glimmer of light but found nothing. It was like being in the foyer all over again, only worse because I couldn’t feel the ground beneath my feet. There was no up or down. Only this strange in between. The wind picked up, swaying us from side to side. My stomach twisted, and I tightened my grip on Tristan. He kissed the crown of my head.