by Mary Duke
“Well now,” I said. “You have no choice. Spill it.”
“Those of you who know magic, know that my abilities are not randomly given, they are inherited. I too come from a long line of witches, and wizards,” Cat looking to Kamara. “A coven that I did not feel as though I truly belonged in. The coven I am a part of is the Eryx Coven.”
Kamara gasped and reached for her heart.
“I know, I know,” Cat said, her hands beginning to sweat. “But like you, I swore them off years ago. I knew that their plan was not something I could live with aiding.”
“Okay, who’s the Eryx coven?”
“Gatchel is the suitor sworn to marry Kamara...he is my brother.”
“You shouldn’t be here,” Kamara said.
“Listen,” Cat said. “I am the only hope you have. I am the only person willing to help you. Without me, there is no one who can undo the spell used to divide your soul.”
Kamara shook her head and started to pace.
“Are there any other bombs you’d like to drop?” I questioned.
“Not at the moment, and none that would make a difference.”
“I don’t know what to say,” Kamara said stopping in front of Cat.
Cat looked her in the eyes. “You don’t have to say anything. All you have to do is trust that I am here to correct something my family did. Believe that I am on your side and that I have no reason to cross any of you, but every reason to aid.”
“That is asking a lot,” Kamara responded.
Cat smiled, “Go big or go home.”
“Sooo,” Foley said attempting to change the subject. “What do we need from here?”
“Right,” Kamara said, walking along the back wall. “How did you guys find this place?”
“When we were in Purgatory,” I explained. “Foley and Kyrell bottled some of the magic leaking from the cave you trapped the Original Coven in.”
“Bottled how?” Kamara questioned.
Foley pulled the egg from her bag.
“That’s some clever thinking. But how in the world did you manage to get your hands on a dragon's egg in this Realm?”
“It wasn’t easy,” Foley answered.
“You could say that again,” I agreed, recalling the night in which we got it.
“And you what, just did a locator spell?”
“Yes,” Foley answered, picking up the things that Kamara pointed to.
“But that doesn’t make any sense. I had nothing here that would have drawn you.”
“Look around,” Kyrell said. “Is everything as you left it, exactly how you left it?”
Kamara turned, taking in the small hut as a whole. “No,” She answered after a moment.
“What’s out of place?”
“Those jars, they don’t belong on that shelf. In fact, I’ve never seen them before.”
I picked up the glass jars, which appeared to be filled with sand.
“Be careful,” Cat warned me. “We don’t know who left those here.”
“Or how anyone else got in here,” Storm added. “Am I the only one who doesn’t see a door or a window?”
Kamara answered Storm as Cat took the jars from my hands and sat them on the table, using her magic to open them. “That’s because there are none. We’re deep in a mountain, the only ones who could come and go as they please are those of us who can create gates and know of this location.”
“Great!” Storm replied sarcastically, picking up another book from the table.
“Well, this explains what brought us here,” Cat said letting the rings fall to the table.
“But not how they got here, or who put them here.”
I looked to Kamara as Foley stepped closer to the rings to inspect them. “Are you sure you didn’t bring them here? You did hide them, right?”
“This was my sanctuary. The one place I was free to be me. There’s no way I would have tainted it with my family's magic.”
“That’s not the only thing in here,” Kyrell said holding up a bone.
Kamara gasped, “Xander.”
“Did you ever bring him here?”
“I did...once. Just once. This was our first hideaway after I locked my family away. It’s where we stayed till I made sure everything was safe.”
“All he needs to do is be able to picture this place clearly.”
“But he couldn’t make gates...he had no magical ability aside from the power the ring gave him, which I made permanent.”
“If he could envision it, anyone with our ability could take him there.”
“I...I didn’t know that,” Kamara replied now standing in front of Kyrell.
“Is there anything else we need here?” I asked, taking the bone from Kyrell and squeezing it into my hand until it disappeared.
“Just a few things,” Kamara said. “They may come in handy.”
Foley followed her picking up the vials, books, and trinkets.
“Are you okay?” Damari asked running the back of his hand down my cheek.
I forced a smile. “Yeah. Just...just tired.” I lied. I was more than tired; my body ached, my heart raced, and I had no idea what was going on. Why was this happening? What was going to happen? Will I make it through this?
Chapter Three
“Any idea where this next place is?” I asked Kamara just before Cat created the gate.
“Sorry,” she apologized shaking her head. “I wish I did.”
“In time,” Storm said. “You’ll get your memories back, and your strength. We just have to finish what we’ve started.”
I muttered under my breath as I walked towards the gate, “If it were only that simple.” The instant I walked through the gate I knew something was wrong. It wasn’t like before, there were voices. By the time my eyes adjusted to the dimly lit room, it was too late. I was blindsided, attacked by one of those monsters. I struggled to free myself from his grasp, but the more I moved, the tighter his grip became.
Damari and the others were quick to follow me through, however, though I struggled to warn them the only sound that escaped my lips was the remaining air left in my lungs.
“She’s over here!” I heard Foley shout.
“There’s another one!” Storm screamed before yelling the same spell that Cat was using.
Everything around me became distant: the dim room, the magic, my friends’ voices, the pain. Finally, the monster that held me went limp, and Damari, in his wolf form, became visible.
I couldn’t move. Hell, I couldn’t feel anything. All I could do is lie here and wait for my friends to try to escape this alive.
Damari nudged me with his nose trying to get me to sit up, but every time I tried the feeling of unconsciousness crept closer.
The next thing I knew, the room around me was no longer dim; instead it was lit brightly with candles.
“Is she going to be okay?” I heard Damari whisper.
“She’s healing,” Foley answered, and I could feel her hands carefully rubbing across my rib cage counting them.
“I don’t see how,” Cat added. “Her bones were crushed. There was nothing left.”
“She,” Kamara said. “Is a Hollow Wolf. Narah will heal, we just need to give her time.”
“More like a shot or two of whiskey,” I gasped in an attempt to roll onto my side.
Damari grabbed ahold of me, helping me roll over and sit up. “Well, look who decided to join the land of the living.”
I forced a smile, before wincing at the pain. “Awe come on, there’s no need to exaggerate.”
“It’s no exaggeration, love,” Foley said, lifting my eyelids with her thumbs and checking my eyes. “After what you did, you’re lucky to be alive.”
“What I did?” I questioned. “All I did is walk through that damn gate. I don’t think I even made it all the way through before that thing had ahold of me.”
Kyrell chuckled. “Well, you sure got payback on the others.”
I shook my head.
; “She doesn’t remember,” Kamara said looking me over with Foley.
“I don’t doubt that,” Foley said. “She was pretty much hit by a damn dump truck.”
“What don’t I remember?”
Foley ran her hand down my cheek, “You tapped into your inner badass, hon. I don’t know how you did it, but one minute we were getting our asses kicked and the next you’re over here muttering spells and those other three monsters just...well, incinerated.”
“There were more of them?” I questioned.
Damari answered, “Yeah, four monsters and a few wolves.”
“And I did magic?”
“I saw it,” Damari said. “We all did.”
Kamara took my hands in hers, looking at my palms. “What did it feel like? Can you feel it now?”
I shook my head. “I don’t remember using magic. I don’t remember anything after Damari killed that damn thing that had ahold of me.”
Cat ran her finger across my palm. “There is magic in there, alright. She’s just going to have to learn to control it.”
I shrugged them off. My mind unable to focus, let alone comprehend any of the words coming out of their mouths. “Where are we?” I asked, looking around at the makeshift hideout.
“I don’t know,” Kamara answered. “My only guess is this is one of the places Xander used to hide from me.”
“So you’ve never seen it before?” I questioned, looking around at the piles of stuff.
“No, I’ve never seen any of this before,” she answered.
“Have you guys found the rings yet?” I questioned turning back towards them. “Because this stuff is...well, I really don’t want to be the one digging through it.”
Damarai walked up behind me wrapping his arm around my waist. “You shouldn’t be digging through anything, you should be sitting over there on your ass.”
Foley answered my question, “I think we have all the rings; I don’t know if the reading came from the monsters or rings already here.”
“Check her pocket,” I said rolling over one of the women with my foot.
Damari bent down, sticking his hand in her blood-soaked pocket, before pulling out a small white bag. “How did you know that was in there?”
“I don’t know,” I said taking the bag from him. “Intuition?”
“Well, that’s it, smarty pants,” Foley said, snatching the bag from my hand before I could open it.
A growl escaped my lips before I could stop it, as I snatched it back, emptying the contents onto my hand.
“Impossible,” Storm said, looking at the tooth that had fallen into my hand.
I hesitated, before balling my hand into a fist, absorbing it.
“Nothing showed up on the map.” Storm said pulling his phone from his pocket, checking his picture. “There shouldn’t have been any bones here.”
“It was in her pocket,” I said, leaning back against the wall and sliding down to the floor. “She could have been any of those dots.”
“Or,” Foley said, picking the little white bag. “The bone was cloaked inside this.”
Kamara looked at the bag in Foley’s hand. “I like Narah’s answer better.”
“Why?” Cat questioned. “The thought of cloaked hidden bones doesn’t sound like fun?”
Kamara rolled her eyes, as she crouched down beside me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah,” I muttered, closing my eyes for a second as I leaned my head back against the wall. “Absolutely perfect.”
Damari sat down beside me, “I think we should let her rest for a couple hours before we move on to the next place.”
“No way,” I said my eyes snapping open, as I struggled to get to my feet. “This place stinks, and I’m not making anyone stay here longer than we have to.”
“You wouldn’t be forcing us,” Foley said. “You need to heal. We get it. If it was any of us, you’d say the same.”
“Nope,” I argued, bracing myself against the wall. “I wouldn’t. I’m just not volunteering to go first this time.”
Foley sighed.
“Let me see your map again,” Kamara said. “I think I may know a safe place to go.”
“What makes you think that?” Storm questioned pulling the map out of his back pocket.
“Here,” Kamara pointed before he unfolded it all the way.
Cat looked at the map.
“This was a cabin Xander and I had. It’s high up in the mountains.”
“Yay,” Storm said sarcastically folding the map back up. “A place with a view.”
“Perhaps,” Cat answered. “If it was exposed to the elements, there’s no telling what we’ll find.”
“Ahh, but you see, I thought of this too. As much as I liked to travel, and as indecisive as I was when it came to choosing one place to stay. I sealed my homes with magic. They should be in the same condition I left them...or Xander left them, I guess. Depending on who was there last.”
“Well, there’s an idea I never thought of,” Foley said as she ran her hand through her pale lavender hair.
“It's saved me,” Cat said. “On more than one occasion.”
“I am sure,” Kamara said, still unsure whether or not Cat could be trusted.
“Well, you’ll no longer be in need of hideouts,” Foley said, a smile spreading across her face. “You have a home now. Hell, as far as I’m concerned, you all have a home. Anytime. Always. My door, the door...That huge ass fucking thing at the front of the castle, it’s open.”
Storm rubbed his chin, “Noted.”
Foley’s face twisted, she didn’t quite mean to include him in that statement, but hey, whatever.
“I’d like to say the same,” Kyrell added. “However, I’m not sure any of you would like to spend any time away in Purgatory, especially with my crazed brother on the loose.”
“I wouldn’t mind,” Foley said wrapping her arm around his waist. “I think you and I would make a killer team. No pun intended.”
“I’m not sure your people,” Cat said. “Would go for that alliance.”
“They will go for whatever I tell them to. Whatever will keep their heads above water...or the ground...or whatever. But, just for the record, before anyone's panties get in a bunch, one, I know it will never happen...and two, it’s only a matter of time before McKinnon returns and Kyrell will be freed from his Kingly duties in Purgatory, and will come and take on some Kingly duties with me.”
“Now there,” I said turning to them. “There is something I can stand behind.”
“Something we can all stand behind,” Damari added.
“Okay,” Cat said, not sure she wanted to hear any more of that conversation. “Everyone ready to go?”
Chapter Four
“See,” Damari said as we walked through together after Kyrell. “There was no way we would find them back to back like this.”
“Oh no,” I argued. “With our luck, I’m more surprised we didn’t walk in on another pack of those things.”
“Especially,” Storm added. “Since there is a bone here.”
“There is,” I agreed as my heart sank in my chest.
Damari looked at me. “Are you okay?”
“I think I could use some air,” I admitted. “Why don’t you guys search, see what you can come up with? I’m going to go sit outside for a minute.”
“I’ll come with you,” Damari added.
“Are you sure?” I questioned. “You never know what you’ll find in a place like this.”
A cheesy grin stretched across his face. “I’ve found everything I need.”
I smiled as I walked towards the door. I could feel my cheeks start to turn red, knowing for sure everyone else heard that comment too.
“Don’t wander too far,” Kamara warned. “The barrier is only a thousand feet around this place. I don’t remember what I did to seal the outside world away, and I don’t know if you’ll be able to find this place if you leave it.”
“Noted,” Damari said as he foll
owed me out. Once he was sure no one inside could hear us, he spoke again, grabbing my arm to stop me. “What’s wrong...what’s really wrong? And where are you on a mission to get to?”
Emotions were bottling up...not just my emotions, but Kamara's too. It was suffocating. “I can’t,” was all I could manage to say.
“You can’t what?”
“Anything,” I muttered, trying my best to keep from losing my shit.
“I don’t know what you mean?” Damari questioned, cupping my face in his hands, gently forcing me to look at him.
“I can’t think. I can’t focus. I can’t even breathe,” I explained. “This, whatever the hell this is. It’s suffocating me. I don’t even, I can’t even...” I said stumbling on my words.
After a moment he whispered, “What do you want to do?”
“Run,” I answered. “Run and never look back.”
“That’s not who you are, Narah.”
I knew he was right. I knew I wasn’t the type of person to run from my demons, but I’ve never dealt with this before. This isn’t a matter of dealing with something from my past, or something that’s gone wrong in my life. I can’t just accept this. My knees began to grow weak, and I started to sink to the ground.
Damari didn’t say a word; he held me as we sat together on the rocky hillside. Though he had never been exactly in my shoes, he knew what it was like when someone else’s life threatened to consume yours.
“I don’t know what to do,” I finally whispered after the emotions were once again muffled. “I mean I know what I have to do, I just don’t know if I am strong enough.”
“Are you admitting defeat?”
“It’s not as simple as winning and losing. Actually, I don’t even know if there is a winning. I mean I guess there is because winning would mean my people were free, that they’d have their lives back.”
I heard Damari’s heart skip a beat as he squeezed me tighter.
“I guess I should suck it up, huh?” I said looking up at him. “I mean one sacrifice to save thousands...or hundreds...however many of us are left.”