Of Time & Spells

by Jennifer Snyder

  “Don’t worry. I’ve got you,” he whispered.

  “I hope this is over soon. I need something solid beneath my feet.” I coked out. The cool wind was making it hard to breathe.

  “Me too.”

  We didn’t have to wait much longer because our feet collided with something solid seconds later. Every muscle in my body softened. Until I realized we were still shrouded in blackness. Tristan’s laughter filled the air and vibrated his chest against me.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “I finally got a taste of what it feels like to fly,” he joked.

  The prick of a smile tugged at the corners of my lips. “Guess so. Did you like it?”

  “Of course. What about you?”

  “Eh. I think I prefer my feet on the ground.”

  “I can change that,” he insisted. “When all of this is over and I get my magic, I’ll change your mind about that. Promise.”

  “Do you always keep your promises?”

  “Always.”

  His grip on me loosened as he shifted around. A light cut through the darkness an instant later. It was coming from his cell.

  “Oh my gosh. Why didn’t we think to use our flashlights when we stepped into the stupid foyer before?” I asked.

  “We should have—” Tristan paused mid-sentence.

  My breath stilled in my chest once I followed his light with my eyes. A trail of blood dotted the marble floors in front of us.

  Chapter 12

  My heart pounded against my rib cage with too much force as Tristan followed the blood trail with his flashlight. I held my breath as I waited for whoever the blood belonged to to become visible. What if it was Jasper? Or Anna? Or some horrible beast lurking in the shadows waiting to pounce?

  A moan filtered through the darkness. I flinched at the sound. It was male, that much I was sure of. Tristan’s light touched a large dark boot and the breath I’d been holding seeped out of me in a rush. It wasn’t Jasper. He didn’t own a pair of boots like that.

  Did he? My mind glitched as panic gripped me. Jasper wore boots, but I couldn’t remember what kind.

  As the light trailed up the man, I was able to see the rest of his attire. Dark jeans and a regular shirt. Jasper wore both. What had he been wearing today though? I couldn’t remember.

  As the light reached the man’s face, relief trickled through me. It wasn’t Jasper.

  It was Liam.

  A cut ran along his bottom lip and another ran across the bridge of his swollen nose. Blood dripped from his nose to pool in his lap. His left cheek harbored a huge knot and a bluish tint. The rattled sound of his breathing grew louder the closer to him we came. Someone had beat the crap out of him, and I had a feeling I knew who.

  “Please, just leave me be.” His arm came up to block the light from Tristan’s phone.

  “What happened to you, man?” Tristan asked without lowering his light.

  “What do you think?” Liam spat to his right. Blood mixed with saliva streamed from his mouth. He wiped it away with the back of his hand.

  “It was Jasper, wasn’t it?” I asked.

  “Yeah. It was.” Liam coughed and then groaned as though the pain was agonizing.

  “Why?” Tristan asked.

  “He thought I knew the way out of this bloody hellhole.” Liam leaned against the wall behind him, his head lulling to the side. “Figured I knew how to get back to the living room you two were in. When I told him I didn’t, he beat my ass.”

  Sounded like something my brother would do. Jasper could be irrational at times, especially when he thought I was in danger. “What did you tell him?”

  “That I didn’t know.” He switched arms, blocking the light with his other one. “Can you shine that thing elsewhere?”

  Tristan lowered the light, but didn’t take it completely off him. He was smart not to. Just because Liam was injured didn’t mean he was trustworthy. He could have charged my brother and Anna, and that was how he’d gotten his ass handed to him. He’d betrayed us, I wouldn’t put anything past him now.

  “How do we get out of here?” Tristan asked.

  “Through the only door.”

  “Which is where?” I snapped.

  Liam pointed to my left. I didn’t need Tristan’s light to see what he was talking about. A thin line of light framed out a door a few feet away. The desire to run to it surged through me, but I remained where I was. I’d learned with the last door that it was best to think things through before rushing ahead.

  “Is that the way they went?” Tristan was smart to ask.

  In the living room, there had been two possible ways out. While we hadn’t stayed in the dining room for long, there could have been two ways there too. We hadn’t looked. Luck had been on our side. Jasper and Anna could have taken either.

  “Yeah. There’s only one way out of this space,” Liam insisted. “I’m not saying whether that’s a good thing though, lad.” A smug grin stretched across his face, causing him to wince.

  Knots formed in my stomach as my mind ran wild with thoughts of what could be waiting for us behind the door. I hoped it was my brother and Anna this time and not creepy darkness.

  As though he could feel my tension, Tristan whispered, “I don’t want to go in there either, but we don’t have a choice. Besides, Jasper and Anna could be waiting behind the door for all we know.”

  “I know.” I started toward it.

  Tristan followed closely behind me while keeping the flashlight glued to Liam. It helped ease the fear I had of Liam lunging after us the instant we looked away.

  My fingers trembled as I reached for the knob. I didn’t want to be the first through the door this time, but I didn’t have a choice. It was more important to me that Tristan kept his attention focused on Liam. I licked my lips and exhaled a small breath before gripping the knob and twisting. This time no cold wind reached for me, and no blackness leaked through. I swung the door open all the way, revealing a long hallway. “Um, there’s nothing here, Tristan.” My brows furrowed. “It’s just a hallway.”

  Liam’s laughter captured my attention. Was this a trap? Had he lied? Did Jasper and Anna even go this way? Leprechauns were tricksters.

  “Nothing is as it seems,” Liam said as he continued to laugh. “Isn’t that what the old woman said? She was right.”

  “Just go.” Tristan urged me forward.

  “There isn’t anything there though!” I refused to step into something that looked like a trap. It was just walls. Dark walls with cream-colored wainscoting. No pictures. No doors. Nothing. How would we get out once we stepped in? What if the door disappeared behind us once we closed it like the others?

  “We don’t have a choice. Besides, he said Jasper and Anna went this way. We have to keep moving forward,” Tristan insisted.

  “And you trust him?”

  “We don’t have another choice, Piper. We can’t go back the way we came.” He ground the words out slowly, emphasizing each one as Liam’s laughter continued behind us.

  I blew all the breath from my lungs and took a step forward. “Okay.”

  Tristan’s body pressed against mine as he stepped into the hallway behind me. I spun to face the door, watching as he closed it to see if it would disappear. It didn’t. Were we too close for its magic to happen? Or was it because I was looking at it?

  “I’ll stay here and watch the door,” I said. “That way if Liam comes through behind us, we’ll know, and I can watch to see if it disappears too. I think it’s still here because we’re standing close to it or something.” I knew I sounded stupid, but it was the only explanation I had.

  “You sure?” Tristan eyed me. Something in his stare had me pausing my train of thought.

  I realized what he was asking; he was asking if I really thought it was a good idea for us to separate. It wasn’t, but I didn’t know what else to do.

  I released my grip on him. “Just hurry.”

  Tristan didn’t waste any time searching th
e hallway for a way out. I glanced between him and the door, monitoring his progress as the seconds ticked away. There came a point when the hallway seemed to become narrower the farther down it he went. Tristan’s arms brushed against the walls once he reached the end even though they were at his sides.

  “It’s a dead end.” His voice echoed to me.

  “Feel around,” I suggested. “Maybe there’s a passage somewhere.”

  My eyes shifted back to the door, making sure it was still there, before coming back to Tristan. He skimmed his fingertips along the smooth walls.

  “Nothing.” His fingertips continued to skim the walls as he made his way back to where I was standing. “I don’t understand.”

  The second he was within reach, I laced my fingers with his. Relief slithered through my body, and my muscles relaxed.

  “What do we do now? You were right about this room.”

  I chewed my bottom lip. “But Liam said it was the way Jasper and Anna went.”

  “He could have been lying. I think he has more points in the betrayer category than anyone else.”

  I sighed. “I know. Maybe he meant they came in here, but they didn’t get anywhere so they went back through the door and found another way.”

  “So, you think we should go back out the door we came in?”

  I eyed the wooden door beside me. “I don’t see what choice we have.”

  Tristan placed his hand on the knob but paused before turning it. “Liam could be waiting to jump us. Maybe that’s why your brother beat the crap out of him.”

  I hadn’t thought about that.

  “Jasper did a good number on him,” I said, meeting his gaze. “I think we can take him, if that’s the case.” I meant it. I’d take down Liam if he tried to attack me, and this time I wouldn’t let up until he was unconscious or dead.

  “Damn, you’re pretty badass, you know it?” Tristan grinned.

  I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help the smile that worked its way onto my face.

  Tristan removed his hand from mine and counted with his fingers while mouthing the words at the same time. One. Two. Three. At three, he swung the door open. My muscles tensed, ready for a fight as I stared through the doorway.

  “What the hell?” Tristan breathed.

  What waited on the other side of the door wasn’t possible. Then again, we were in the house of the Vodun witches, and there hadn’t been anything normal about it yet.

  “Ditto,” I said, taking in the area before us.

  The room was small. The walls were eggshell white. Shiny white tiles made up the floor, and there wasn’t any furniture, not even a single decoration, only a spiral staircase made of black metal that disappeared into the ceiling.

  It looked like a stairway to heaven.

  Chapter 13

  I wasn’t sure how much time passed before Tristan and I decided to step out of the hallway and cross the threshold toward the stairway, but when we did the door slammed shut behind us as though the house was aggravated we’d taken so long. It disappeared afterward.

  “Guess there’s no place to go besides up.”

  “I guess not.” I frowned. The stairs looked like they went on forever. I craned my neck to see if there was anything waiting at the top. Whiteness was all I could see.

  “After you.” Tristan made a sweeping gesture with his hand and motioned for me to ascend the stairs before him.

  “Thanks.” The word flowed past my lips with more bite than I intended. My nerves were shot. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could handle this crazy house, and I hadn’t even gotten to the hard part of my day yet—breaking the cloak on the mirror with my blood.

  On instinct, my hands extended to continue my search for it as I climbed. The walls were still bare no matter how high we went. They were slick and smooth to the touch.

  “Think we’ll ever reach the top of this thing?” Tristan asked, breaking the silence we’d been locked in.

  “I hope so. My thighs are already burning.”

  “It is good cardio, isn’t it?”

  I chuckled, thankful he was here with me. “Whatever you say.”

  After a few more steps, I decided to use the rail to aid me in continuing the climb. Nothing magical seemed to be here and exhaustion was starting to grip hold. I leaned over the rail and glanced up, hoping to finally be able to see an end to the stairs.

  “Jesus, this thing goes on forever.” I huffed. Sweat beaded across my brow as the ache in my upper thighs grew. “Is it a trick or something?”

  “Could be.” Tristan leaned over the rail to glance up and then down. “We have to be at its center.”

  “That’s it? You don’t think we’re farther?” We had to be. While I didn’t have a watch, I knew hours had to of passed. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep going.” “We have to,” Tristan said. “Want me to give you a piggyback ride?”

  I scrunched my face up at his question. “Are you crazy?”

  “You said you were tired.”

  “You can’t carry me up these things. They go on for miles.”

  “I’m stronger than I look.” He frowned as though I’d damaged his manhood.

  “I’m fine.” I started up the stairs again. “Thanks though.”

  We lapsed into silence. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was lost in his head, or if I’d bruised his ego.

  “What are you thinking about?” I asked unable to handle the silence any longer.

  “Nothing good.”

  “Duh,” I scoffed. “Why would you be thinking about anything good while we’re trapped on the endless stairway to hell?”

  He let out a small chuckle.

  “Care to elaborate?” I pressed. Having a conversation might make this go faster.

  “You really don’t want to know.”

  “Why not?” I shrugged. “It’s not like I have anything better to do besides listen to you talk.”

  “Okay, fine. I was thinking about the spell, the one where you place the dragon magic back inside me.”

  “What about it?”

  “Think it’ll hurt?”

  I hesitated, unsure how to answer his question. “I think if you follow through with whatever Anna tells you to do, you’ll be fine.”

  “What if we don’t find Anna and your brother again? What if we take a wrong turn and find the mirror first?”

  I hadn’t thought of that. Finding my brother was my motivating factor. I assumed when I found him, I’d find the mirror as well.

  “Have you thought about doing the spell without Anna and Jasper’s guidance?” Tristan asked.

  “No.”

  “Can you?”

  I thought long and hard before answering him. “Yes.”

  I thought I could, but I wasn’t one hundred percent sure. Tristan didn’t need to know that though. I knew the basics of cloak breaking. Jasper had trained me for this each time he cloaked my damn keys, even if he hadn’t realized it. He’d forced me to use my magic, fine-tune it, and get to know it. I’d also been there to help him remove that hoodoo cloak for Kenna when Randal had gone missing.

  The more I thought about it, the more I realized I could do this on my own if I had to.

  My foot lifted to climb another step, but I was surprised to learn there wasn’t one. We’d made it to the top.

  “How are we at the top?” Tristan asked. Confusion darkened his tone.

  “I don’t know, but I’m not complaining.”

  “Me either, I’m just saying.”

  “Maybe it was another trick of the mind,” I suggested. “Seems to be what this house is made of. Maybe once we stopped focusing on the stairs and started talking about something else we were able to reach the top.”

  “This place is so crazy I actually believe that,” he said with a chuckle.

  I squinted my eyes against the bright whiteness of the place and glanced around. The Vodun continued their sterile white up here as well.

  “What is this place?” I asked.
<
br />   While I’d hoped there would be a hallway with actual doors or a bedroom we’d stepped into, I didn’t see anything. We’d been swallowed by solid whiteness.

  “I don’t know. At least it’s not darkness this time,” Tristan said.

  I’d take the light any day, even though it was so bright it caused me to squint and made my eyes water.

  “Should we walk around?” Tristan asked.

  “I guess. There doesn’t seem to be anything up here, but we both know looks can be deceiving in this house.”

  “No need to remind me,” I said as I took a step forward into the unknown.

  Chapter 14

  Fog rolled in from all angles. It congregated around our ankles as we continued walking. Drops of water collected across my bare skin and dampened my clothes. A shiver ran through me. The temperature seemed to have dropped in the last few minutes.

  “Are we in the sky?” I asked, breaking the silence we’d been locked in.

  “Feels as though we could be in the clouds, doesn’t it?”

  “Yeah.” My teeth chattered as I spoke. “I’m freezing.”

  “Me too.” Tristan released his grip on my hand and stepped behind me. He rubbed his palms along my arms in an attempt to warm me. His touch was too cold though. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we were in the clouds; those stairs went on forever. Hopefully we’ll find a way out of here soon and be able to move on to another room. Someplace warmer this time. I’m getting sick of the cold.”

  I was too. I didn’t like anything cold or wet, and in here I was feeling both.

  A chilly breeze whipped my hair around, causing me to shiver and my teeth to chatter together harder. I wrapped my arms around my center, struggling to keep hold of the little warmth I had left. Tristan continued with his attempt to warm me, but it was pointless. He was only exerting himself further.