Of Time & Spells

by Jennifer Snyder

  “Am I helping at all?” he asked.

  “Not really.”

  His hands dropped from my arms. “This is ridiculous,” he stuttered. “We can’t stay here. We’ll freeze to death.”

  “I know. We have to keep walking though. There has to be something here.”

  I spun to take in the whiteness pressing against us from all angles. A few yards to the right of us there was a cut out section of fog. The sight had me pausing mid-step.

  “Do you see that?” I pointed at it.

  “Yeah.”

  My eyes watered as another gust of icy wind bit at my face. “Think it’s a way out of this icebox?”

  “God, I hope so.” Tristan started walking toward it. “We’ll never know unless we go check it out.”

  It didn’t take long to reach the area. The fog butted up against an invisible wall, creating a barrier. Past it, the shiny white tiles we’d been walking on became glass squares. Through the glass, there was another room, only it seemed to be outside.

  Tristan scoffed as we stepped onto the first section of glass.

  “What?”

  He locked eyes with me. “My mind wants to question how it’s possible for there to be a room of that size with so much greenery and sunlight below us, but it also knows this house, so I won’t waste my time.”

  I knew what he meant. It was easier not to question the things you witnessed inside this house and go with the flow. If you got hung up on the details you’d lose it.

  Sunlight glinted on lush green leaves and bright flowers. I bent at the waist and touched my fingertip to the glass. I’d hoped to feel warmth, but coldness was the only thing that kissed my skin.

  “How are we supposed to get down there? Shouldn’t there be a passageway or a cut out of some sort of a ladder?” I moved until I was on my hands and knees and smoothed my palms along the icy glass.

  “There should be.” Tristan crouched beside me and began feeling along the icy glass sections as well. “Look!”

  My heart beat triple time. “What is it? A way out?”

  “No, better. It’s Jasper and Anna.”

  Lightness entered my limbs as warmth bloomed through my chest. Thank God we’d found them.

  I shifted to Tristan’s side, eager to get a glimpse of them both. My heart kick-started at the sight of them. Somehow they were right below us.

  Jasper held his hands out in front of him, while Anna seemed to be looking the room for a way out. They’d stuck to the original way of going about things, not letting the house throw them. Smart.

  “Jasper!” I banged my palm against the glass. He didn’t seem as though he could hear me. Either I was too high up, or the glass was too thick.

  “How the heck did they get down there?”

  “There has to be a way. Keep feeling for a door or something.” I gave up on trying to get my brother’s attention and put all my focus into finding the exit. It had to be here somewhere. Jasper and Anna had found it, and we would too. We just needed to keep looking.

  My hands were red and stiff. My knees hurt. My eyes were watering from the cold wind. Still, I moved along the glass floor in search of a trapdoor.

  “Got it!” Tristian yelled from a few feet away.

  I hurried to where he was, blowing on my poor hands as I went. “You found a way out?” My teeth chattered so hard when I spoke that I thought I would crack a tooth.

  “Yeah.” Tristan breathed. His breath froze in the air before him the instant it pushed past his bluish lips. It was dire we leave this room. “I think so. Feel right here.” His fingertip circled a small area on one of the glass sections.

  I crouched down on the floor beside him. My body hurt to bend, but I ignored the pain and ran my fingertips along the area he’d pointed out.

  “Feel the indent? I traced it with my finger. It forms a square large enough for us to fit through. I think it lifts up, but I don’t have the strength to do it myself.”

  I could feel what he meant. A thin crack made a square that seemed like it would be big enough for us to slip through one at a time.

  “What happens when we open it though? I don’t see a ladder or anything on the other side. It’s too far to fall.”

  “Jasper and Anna made it,” he quickly pointed out. “We have to risk it, Piper. We can’t stay here. We’ll freeze.”

  My body trembled as though reinforcing his words. “I know.”

  “Your lips are blue.” He brushed his thumb along my bottom lip. Pain stabbed at my heart because I couldn’t feel his touch. The cold had numbed me.

  “Yours are too.”

  “We have to go. Now.” He motioned to the floor. “Help me lift this thing. Let’s get out of here.”

  I tucked the tips of my fingers beneath one side of the glass square. The pressure of the movement sent sharp stings of fire through the tips. I took it as a good sign. It meant no nerve damage had been caused, right?

  “One. Two. Three. Lift,” Tristan instructed.

  With our fingers pried beneath the square, we both lifted it up and slid it to the side. Warm air blasted in my face, sending the sensation of pins and needles prickling across my skin, but it was welcomed. Anything that would chase this cold away from me was.

  “We did it.” Tristan pressed his lips to my forehead. More pinpricks stabbed at me there, but at least I was able to feel something.

  “Yeah, but now what?” No stairs had appeared. No ladder. Not even a rope. “How are we supposed to get down there?”

  “Simple, we jump.”

  “You can’t be serious.” I scoffed. “It’s too far.”

  “Jasper and Anna did it and lived.”

  “I’m getting sick out you saying that.”

  My gaze drifted through the hole in the floor. I hated the thought of jumping. My mind filled with images of broken bones and our bloodied bodies lying sprawled across the ground. We’d be warm to the touch but still dead.

  “It’s the only way, Piper. We have to jump,” Tristan said, breaking through my thoughts.

  “I don’t know if I can.” My teeth chattered as I spoke, but this time it wasn’t from the cold—it was from fear.

  “You can. I know you can.” He kissed my temple. I lifted my gaze to lock with his. He flashed me a wicked grin and winked. “You’re badass, remember?”

  I pursed my lips together, forming a thin line. I’d never felt like less of a badass than I did right now.

  Chapter 15

  “It’s all a front. I promise you,” I insisted.

  Tristan shook his head, but his gaze never wavered from mine. “No, it’s not. You can do this.”

  My teeth sank into my bottom lip as I gauged the distance between where I was and the sun-covered ground below. While I’d never been great at math, I knew the distance between the two wouldn’t kill me if I landed the right way. However, it would break a bone or two.

  Tristan tipped my head up. “You can do this.”

  He leaned in and pressed his lips to mine. Flickers of warmth bloomed through my chest at the sensation. His tongue slipped along my bottom lip, begging for entrance. I opened my mouth to allow it. His icy fingers dig into my hip, but I didn’t mind. The warmth expanding through my chest and lower belly was blissful.

  “Why didn’t you do that before?” I asked between kisses. “Best way to warm me up is to kiss you apparently.”

  A chuckle rumbled through his chest. “I have no clue.” He pulled away from me, breaking the contact between our tongues and lips. It left me hanging in a warm bubble, which was dissolving in the coldness of the room too quickly.

  “You can do this,” he repeated. He swallowed hard. “Besides, you have no choice.” He shoved me, and I went flying through the hole.

  My heart lurched to my throat at the same time a scream forced its way out. I grabbed for him as I fell but missed. Something else caught me though. At least I thought it did. No wind whipped past me. No sense of free falling into nothing squeezed at my gut.

>   I was safe.

  A sense of something solid pressed against me from beneath. Roughness scratched at my skin as I moved into a sitting position. Stone. I’d landed on stone. The fall must have been instant, or maybe it hadn’t happened at all. Maybe I was dead.

  I tipped my head back and glanced up. A blue sky with puffy white clouds was what I found. Off to the side, a square had been cut out. Inside it was Tristan, peering down. He waved, but I didn’t return it. He leaned forward, and an instant later he appeared beside me.

  “I don’t understand, but I’m not even questioning it because I’m warm and out of that damn ice box.” He grinned wide.

  “You pushed me!” My hand flew out, and I slapped him on the shoulder as hard as I could. “How could you push me? You tried to kill me!” Emotions I couldn’t tame burned through me.

  “Ouch! I didn’t do it to kill you.” He rubbed where I’d hit him as his smile turned into a full-fledged shit-eating grin. “I did it to save you. We had to get out of that room. You know we did, and you also know you wouldn’t have jumped by yourself. I helped you.”

  I frowned, knowing he was right, but kept my mouth shut. There was no way I was admitting it.

  “Piper?” The sound of Jasper’s voice made my heart hammer in my chest. “You in here?”

  “Over here!” I shouted, hoping he could follow the sound of my voice, because I didn’t think I’d be able to use my noodle-feeling legs anytime soon. My gaze shifted around, searching for a marker he could use to find me by. “By the white metal table.”

  “Don’t move! I’ll be right there.”

  “I don’t think that’ll be a problem,” I muttered.

  “Why?” Tristian’s hand smoothed over my leg closest to him, jumpstarting the nerve endings in that area and causing blood to rush to my cheeks. “Are you okay? Something hurt?”

  “No. I’m fine.” I arched a brow at him. “Just a little shaken up is all since being pushed to my death is all.”

  “Sorry, okay? I thought I was doing the right thing.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I like to think you’d have done the same if our roles had been reversed.”

  “Oh, I would have,” I said with ease.

  “It really is you!” Anna shouted as her and Jasper appeared from behind a large bush. “I thought it might be another trick the house was playing.”

  “Nope, it’s really me.” I grinned, thinking the same about them.

  “Did you have to jump through that cut-out in the floor of the freezing fog room?” Jasper held out his hands to help me up.

  I allowed him to pull me to my feet. “Yeah.”

  I eyed Tristan. His face paled, and I wondered if it was because he thought I might tell my brother he’d pushed me. Was he afraid Jasper might do something to him?

  Jasper’s arms wrapped around me the second I got to my feet. He squeezed me tight enough to pop a blood vessel, but I didn’t complain. I was just as glad as he was we were back in the same space. Traveling through this madhouse had been scary as hell without him.

  “Jasper had to push me because I wouldn’t go. I couldn’t.” Anna frowned.

  “It was for her own good,” Jasper said.

  Tristan winked at me but didn’t say a word. He was gloating. I could see it brightening his gray eyes and twisting at the corners of his lips. I hated it when guys gloated. It was unattractive. I narrowed my eyes at him before shifting my attention back to my brother.

  “Why didn’t you stay in the living room like I told you?” he asked before I could say a word.

  I placed a hand on my hip and glared at him. “Did you really think I would?”

  “No, but you should have.” He pulled me into another bear hug, squeezing the breath from my lungs this time. It left me in a whoosh. “I’m glad you didn’t, but you should have. You’re rebelling against me too much lately.”

  “Jesus.” Anna pulled on his arms. “You’re going to suffocate her.”

  “I might have prompted her to leave the room too,” Tristan admitted. “Two exits appeared, so the motivation was there as well.”

  “Two?” Anna spat. “I’ve been trying to figure this place out, but it keeps throwing new things at me every time I think I’ve got something nailed down.”

  “Don’t kill the messenger.” Tristan held up his hands in surrender.

  Her face softened. “I’m not. I didn’t mean to sound like it either. This place is frustrating me.”

  “Yell,” Jasper suggested. “Scream. Cuss. Throw your hands up in the air and growl at the damn ceiling.”

  “What are you talking about?” Anna asked.

  “You said you’re feeling frustrated. That’s what I do when frustration has me by the balls,” my brother insisted.

  I rolled my eyes and chuckled. “He really does. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard growling or shouting coming from his office.”

  Anna shook her head. “Tea. That’s what I need. A nice warm mug of calming tea.”

  “I don’t think there’s any tea lying around here, sweetheart.” Jasper pulled her flush against him and placed a kiss on her forehead.

  “So,” I interrupted their moment. “What is this room?” I glanced around, taking in our surroundings.

  “Besides being warm,” Jasper said. “I think we’re in a courtyard.”

  “Fancy,” I grumbled to no one in particular as I continued soaking the place in.

  Natural stones covered the ground. A rectangular water feature with grassy plants poking from the water stood at my right. Trees and shrubs had been placed around the area in large planters. Warm air touched my skin and the soft scent of flowers tickled my nose. The place was beautiful, but I still didn’t want to be here.

  “Have you figured out how we get out yet?” I asked. A black rod iron gate caught my attention. “How about through there?”

  “Nope. It doesn’t open.” Anna sighed. “I tried all the obvious things first, the gate and the door at the top of the stairs, but nothing opens.”

  I spun around until I found the stairs, then focused on the door at the top. “Sometimes there’s a timer on things. Or at least that’s how I’ve been thinking of it. Doors and ways out appear after a certain amount of time. That’s what happened with the fireplace in the living room, I think.”

  “A timer?” Anna repeated.

  “Or like someone is screwing with us,” Tristan chimed in.

  “What do you mean?” Anna asked.

  “You know, like someone’s watching, waiting to flip a switch whenever he or she thinks we’ve stressed enough about how to get out. Maybe they can even give us two ways out, like in the living room. A test to see which one we’d choose?”

  Shivers ran along my spine. I didn’t want to think of anyone watching us. It made this place seem like a maze, and we were the mice. Like everything was a game.

  “What did the old woman say before we stepped inside?” Anna asked. A dazed expression worked its way across her face.

  “That we weren’t trapped in a maze. To remember we weren’t mice.” Goose bumps prickled across my skin. “And that everything isn’t as it seems.”

  “I think I understand now.” Anna’s eyes brightened as they locked with mine. “I think I know what we have to do.”

  Chapter 16

  I waited for Anna to fill the rest of us in on her thoughts, but she didn’t. Not right away at least. The gears still seemed to be shifting behind her eyes.

  “What are we supposed to do then?” Jasper asked, his tone sharp.

  “I’ll get to that in a second, first let me say there isn’t a cloak on the mirror. If I’m right, that is, and I think I am,” she said.

  My brows pinched together. What was she talking about? There was a cloak on the mirror. We all knew it was there. If not, we would have found it by now. Besides, it was how the story went. The dragon magic had been trapped in a cloaked mirror for seven years.

  “But there is,” Tristan argued. “My tribe has dealt
with it for years. It’s why they couldn’t find it.”

  “It’s why they needed my blood,” I added.

  Anna shook her head. “No. There’s no cloak on the mirror, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a cloak in place.”

  “I don’t understand…” My words trailed off. She wasn’t making any sense. “How can there be no cloak on the mirror?”

  “My guess is that was something the Vodun witches wanted Tristan’s tribe to believe. Another layer of protection for them. If they had the dragons searching for a cloaked mirror that didn’t exist they’d be left alone.” Anna paced back and forth as she talked. Her hands moved in wild gestures with each word.

  “The mirror does exist though,” Jasper insisted. “You were able to locate it here with your spell.”

  “I was.”

  “But you just said the Vodun had the dragons searching for a mirror that didn’t exist.” I scoffed.

  “Because it doesn’t.” Anna tossed her hands up as a wide grin sprang onto her face.

  She looked nuts, like she’d completely lost it. I cleared my throat. Was anyone else thinking the same? Tristan’s mouth hung open, and Jasper’s eyes were narrowed on her.

  “There is no cloaked mirror. There’s a mirror, but there’s no cloak on it.” Anna said.

  Even though she had clarified what she meant, I still didn’t understand what she was saying.

  “Then where is it?” Tristan asked before I could. “Why hasn’t my tribe been able to find it?”

  “Because it’s in a house that’s cloaked.” Anna motioned to the courtyard we were standing in. “This house. It’s why we’ve been going from one strange room to the next. It’s all a spell. All a part of the cloak.”

  My gaze focused on her. Was what she was saying possible? While I believed the house was spelled somehow, I wasn’t sure about the mirror not being cloaked. It went against everything we’d been told, everything Tristan’s tribe knew.

  “Why aren’t we able to sense it then?” Jasper asked. “If what you’re saying were true—and I’m not saying it’s not, I’m only looking at it from all angles—then why weren’t Piper and I able to sense the cloak on the house? I mean, that’s sort of our thing.” He crossed one arm over his chest and stroked his chin with his other hand.