by Sarra Cannon
I moved my weight from one foot to the other. "I need to go down there alone."
Jackson stepped toward me, eyes narrow. "Absolutely not. We're doing this together," he said. "I'm not going to let you go down there by yourself. We don't have any idea what kind of traps they might have set up."
"Listen, I know this isn't what you want, and I know we were planning to go together," I said. I placed my hands on his biceps. "But I didn't expect her to be all the way in the basement. It's too far. There's no way we're going to just walk through the house with no one noticing us, and it's too dangerous to shift into demon form and fly down there. It would pull too much energy from the life in this house. Someone would feel our presence too quickly and we'd be caught for sure. Besides, if it's a trap, then at least they'll only have one of us. If I don't come back, you can go for help."
"You can't do this on your own," he said. "If we can't both go, then let me go by myself."
"How is that better? You only have access to demon magic," I said. "Any magic you cast is going to be detectable. I can use the human side of my power to go invisible. It's our best chance. Besides, you don't even know how to get down there."
"I don't want you to go alone," he said. "How will I know if something's gone wrong?"
I walked over to him and placed my hand over his heart. His heartbeat was strong against my palm. "You'll feel it," I whispered.
The room around us was silent except for the pounding of my heart in my ears. I waited, watching the confusion and struggle in his eyes as he tried to decide what to do next. I knew he didn't want to let me go alone, but he had to also see the logic in my plan. If we both went down there, we'd be putting everything at risk. But did he believe in my strength enough to let me go?
He lifted his hand up to cover my heart and we stood there for more than a hundred heartbeats, our eyes locked.
"If I feel even for a second that you're in trouble, I'm coming down there," he said. He leaned toward me, then pressed his forehead against mine. "Please be careful."
I threw my arms around him. "I will."
I kissed him, then turned to the door that led downstairs and into the main part of Winterhaven. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, feeling my shoulders rise and fall as I relaxed and drew my witch's power into my body.
A blue energy poured into me and it felt so familiar as the glamour took hold. So much like home. I opened my eyes and lifted my hand in front of my eyes, watching it disappear.
Where Guests Were Not Allowed
I didn't see a soul on the second floor.
I walked with the lightest of steps, careful to keep far away from anything I might bump or knock over. The last thing I needed right now was for my clumsiness to get me into trouble. I kept my magic on full alert like my demon training had taught me. Ready to act and embrace both sides of my magic if I had to.
At each turn, I paused to make sure my connection with my sister was still strong. I had a map in my head, but I also knew I couldn't afford to make any mistakes.
I made it down the grand staircase and headed toward the kitchen. As I looked around, I noticed that everything in this house was white with pops of blue. The floors were normal wooden floors for the most part, but all of the walls and ceilings were painted a pristine white. Almost every piece of furniture was white, and despite the number of children who must have grown up here, there wasn't a single marred edge or flaw to be seen.
A blue glass chandelier hung from the ceiling above the staircase. A blue and white vase held a bouquet of blue hydrangeas. A rug thrown across the floor downstairs was mostly white with a blue floral design.
How could someone so dark stand to be surrounded by so much light?
Priestess Winter was all about appearances, even down to the last detail here in her home. Everything about this place felt fake and manufactured. Created to give the impression of purity. Holiness. To me, it just felt cold and sterile.
She has a cold stone where her heart should be.
The tiger witch's words popped into my mind as I studied the house. Yes, Priestess Winter was cold. And calculating. I don't know why I hadn't noticed the chill in this place the first time I was here. I guess time and distance gave me some perspective on the kind of person she really was.
I felt my sister's energy below me, pulling me down to her. Could she feel that I was here? What was it she was so afraid of? I shuddered to think what Priestess Winter might have done to her.
Following her energy, I made my way through the living room toward the back of the house. I passed through the pristine kitchen and opened the door to the basement.
A dark staircase led downward. It was too dark at the bottom to really make anything out, but I knew I was close now. I hurried down the stairs, relying on memory to make my way in the darkness. I knew this part of the basement was beautifully finished. An extension of the house above, and not like a basement really at all. But when I finally reached the narrow wooden door where my vision had stopped, a feeling of darkness overcame me.
I had the distinct impression I was about to enter a part of Winterhaven where guests were not allowed.
Was this where I would find the priestess waiting for me? I had come too far too fast. Too easy. But I couldn't stop now.
My hand trembled as I reached for the doorknob. I turned it slowly, my heart racing in my chest. What horrors would I face behind this door?
The darkness beyond was suffocating. A black abyss.
Somewhere in the distance, water dripped. The air smelled mildewed down here, like a wet towel left in a dark place for far too long. Something skittered along the wall beside my head. I covered my mouth, stifling a scream.
I needed light.
I searched along the wall for a switch, but couldn't find one. My breath became rapid and my chest tightened. I knew I couldn't go any further without my sight. I let my invisibility glamour fall away and conjured a dim white orb.
Dark gray cement walls rose up on either side of a slender hallway, closing me in tight. I gulped for air, desperate not to lose my connection with my sister's energy.
I walked as fast as my feet would carry me, but when I almost stumbled, I had to force myself to slow down.
So far, all I could see down here was this long, claustrophobic hallway. No doors or rooms. Just an endless path forward.
Finally, the hall opened up into a large square room with three new possible paths. A crossroads. I stood in the middle and had to choose. But which way?
I thought my connection to my sister was drawing me to the right, but when I took a few steps down that path, I felt her presence pull away. Confused, I stepped back into the middle. I took several deep breaths and concentrated again, releasing all of the tension from my body and letting my inner instincts take over.
Left. She had to be down the left hallway. But when I turned and started down the left hallway, I felt her pull away again.
Damn. What was I doing wrong?
Out of frustration, I picked the only other option and nearly took off at a run, but something stopped me. This wasn't right.
My sister wasn't down any of these hallways.
I clenched my jaw tight and wanted to slam my boot against a wall. Had I lost her somehow? What had I done wrong? Standing here in the center of this crossroads, I could clearly feel that Angela King was near, but the second I committed to any path, she grew distant.
So, where the hell was she? I'd gone every possible direction.
My skin began to tingle and my breath stopped in my chest.
Wait.
Not every direction.
Slowly, I lifted my eyes toward the ceiling. I hadn't gone up.
No Song To Sing
Above me, iron cages hung from the tall ceiling.
My hand flew to my mouth and my eyes widened. There had to be at least twenty cages up there, and from the looks of it, there was a body in every one of them.
It was too dark and too far up for me to tell
exactly where my sister was, but I knew instantly she was in one of those cages.
She plans to make her a bird. Trapped in a cage with no song to sing.
Again, the voice of the tiger witch echoed in my memory. I shivered.
The bodies above me twitched. Jesus. What were they doing to these people? No one deserved this.
A drop fell from one of the cages and landed near my boot. This was the source of the drips I'd been hearing, but it wasn't water like I originally thought. It was blood. In horror, I yanked my foot out of a pool of sticky red. I looked up and saw that whoever was just above my head was bleeding rather badly.
Please don't be my sister.
But I already knew it was her. I could feel it deep in my bones and in my racing heart. She was hurt and losing blood. I counted back. She'd been here three full days already. Had she been bleeding this whole time? It was a miracle she was even still alive.
I had to get her down from there.
I looked to the edges of the room, searching the walls for some kind of lever system that would bring the cages down, but there was nothing. Whoever put her there must have flown her up there. I'd taught myself to levitate once upon a time, thankfully, and would have to use that magic here again. I couldn't risk using my demon magic just yet. Not when I'd come so far without being detected.
I stilled the panic in my core and concentrated instead on lifting my body from the ground and up to the cage. It took a few tries. My hands trembled out of control and my knees had gone weak. These poor people. I knew my sister had only been here a couple of days, but what about everyone else? Some of these people could have been here for years.
I had to steady myself. If they caught me down here, they might decide to put me in one of the cages too. I couldn't live a life like that. Besides, if Jackson felt that I was panicking or in trouble, he would risk everything to find me.
I breathed in and out. In and out. I let the horror of the situation fall to the back of my mind and focused only on my sister. She was the only one I had come here for. I would worry about the rest of these people later. For now, it was all about my sister.
My feet left the ground and I rose slowly toward the cage, levitating. I kept my eyes on the person above me, not daring to look at anyone else captive here. There was no telling what state I would find them in, and losing my concentration now would mean falling to the very hard cement floor. As I rose, matted black hair came into view. A single pale hand lay near the edge of the cage bars, streaked with dried blood.
Tears sprang up and my concentration faltered for a moment, but I forced myself to be strong.
I had to get her out of this place.
Once I was level with the hanging cages, I could see them in more detail. A small ledge jutted out beside the door to the cage. I lifted myself up to this ledge and grabbed onto the side of the cell.
The cage swung slightly as I placed my weight on it and I held on tight, my breath coming in ragged gasps.
My sister stirred. Her lips parted and she groaned, her forehead wrinkling in pain. Or fear. I tried the door, but it was locked tight. I crouched down close to her face.
"Mrs. King?" I cleared my throat. "Angela? Can you hear me? It's Harper."
I touched her hand. Her feverish skin beaded with sweat. Her hair was caked with blood and dirt. My chest ached. She was here because of me. How could someone put her in a place like this?
I reached my hand through the cage a little farther and shook her shoulder. "Angela, wake up. Come on, we've got to get out of here."
She groaned again. Her leg kicked out and she jerked her head violently to one side, smacking it against the bars. Every piece of me tensed. What had they done to her? She seemed to be locked in some kind of nightmare. Her eyes were still closed, but I could see them moving rapidly behind her closed lids.
What if I couldn't wake her up? Maybe leaving Jackson upstairs wasn't the best idea after all. There was no way I would be able to carry her. I don't know why this hadn't occurred to me earlier. I would have no choice but to shift with her and fly her up to the third floor. I would have to move incredibly fast if we were going to have any chance of escaping this place.
I stood and studied the door again. About halfway up on the right side, there was a keyhole. I tried to use my magic to flip the lock mechanism inside the iron enclosure, but it wouldn't budge. I looked around for something I could use to try to pick the lock manually, but what? Inside the cage, they had all but stripped my sister down to nothing. She was wearing a torn t-shirt and workout pants that were ripped and bloodied. She didn't have any jewelry on or anything in her hair.
Wait. I reached up to the butterfly bobby pin in my hair. Zara's gift. She'd said it was the key to getting my sister out of here. I had a feeling she hadn't meant it so literally, but I wasn't sure what else to do.
I pulled the jewel from my hair with shaking fingers, nearly dropping it down into the muck and blood below. I inserted it through the rusty keyhole and searched inside until the end of the bobby pin locked into the right place. I smiled through my tears. Thank goodness for my years as a delinquent.
Carefully, I turned the butterfly pin in the lock and held my breath as it clicked and the door to the cage fell open. I stuffed the pin back into my hair.
I crawled in and sat down beside Angela, leaving one leg outside to hold the door open.
"Angela," I said, I shook her harder this time. Still no response.
I looked around, not even knowing what I was looking for. I just wanted something, anything, that could help me wake her up. I desperately needed her to be conscious. I wasn't even sure I could carry her if I shifted and tried to take her with me that way. The only object I'd ever really shifted with before was the sword when I'd sparred with my father. I had to hope this would be as easy.
I thought of splashing water on her face, but there wasn't even any water here in the cage with her. I had no idea if she'd eaten or had anything to drink in days. How long could a person live without water?
Panic surged inside of me. I should have planned better.
There had to be some way out of this.
Think.
There had to be some kind of clue I was overlooking. Steeling my nerves and stomach, I looked around at the faces in the other hanging cells. Almost all were women. And everyone was passed out just like my sister. I couldn't really see anyone else clearly, but I could tell there were two men among the crowd. Seventeen people in total. Three empty cages.
What were the odds everyone here would be asleep or passed out? Even though I had made some noise, no one had so much as stirred. And they all seemed to be dreaming just like Angela.
They were in some kind of trance or forced sleep. Probably to prevent them from using their magic to escape or fight back.
If it wasn't for the obvious nightmares, I would have said it was a blessing to be asleep. I knew from my time in the torture room at Shadowford that being awake in a prison like this would be horrifying.
I gripped my sister's hand and leaned my weary back against the iron bars. How could I break this magical spell that was keeping her asleep?
I wasn't a healer or someone who was naturally gifted at this sort of thing. I wasn't even sure it was possible for me to break the spell.
I placed my hands against her skin and visualized her waking up. I could feel some of my power flowing into her, but this only seemed to intensify whatever dream she'd been locked into.
The tears I'd been holding back began to flow down my cheeks. My only choice was to shift into my demon form and carry her with me. Since I'd never tried it with a person before, I wasn't exactly sure how it worked. The only thing I was sure of was that my demon power was bound to pull enough energy from my surroundings to let Priestess Winter know I was here. It would put both me and my sister in extreme danger. Jackson too.
This completely sucked.
But what else could I do? I was out of options and running out of time until dawn.
/>
I wiped away my tears and gripped Angela's hand tight. I took a long, steady breath in, prepared to shift.
Just as I began to exhale and disappear into white smoke, a voice stopped me cold.
"I knew you would come for her," the woman said with a raspy laugh. "Harper the hero, risking everything for the people she loves. What noble bullshit."
I gasped, cold tingles crawling across my skin like spiders made of ice.
I recognized that voice. I turned in the direction of the sound, realizing with surprise it was coming from one of the nearby cages. I stared at the bloodied woman sitting up three cages over.
She wasn't wearing her pearls or makeup and her hair was shaved close to her head, but her eyes were the same cold blue I'd stared into many times with fear or disgust. I could tell from the contempt in her voice and her fevered stare that she blamed me for being held captive here.
And it was my fault. In a way.
She'd betrayed my mother and had her killed in an attempt to steal the power of the prima line. All I'd done was tell the priestess about her betrayal. Was it bad that I almost took joy in seeing her here like this?
I'd thought no one deserved this fate, but maybe I was wrong. If anyone deserved to be here, it was Lydia Ashworth.
All Magic Has A Cost
"You probably thought I'd be dead by now," Lydia Ashworth said.
"Your own actions got you here," I said, leaning back against the bars. "Am I supposed to feel guilty about that?"
She laughed, then leaned forward as wet coughs wracked her body. I grimaced. That didn't sound good. Had she been here since the day the Order tried to kill me? That was months ago.
"I know this might come as a surprise to you, but I don't blame you for what you did," she said once her coughing had stopped. "I was headed to this place from the time I was fifteen years old. I tried to play their game, but I guess I always knew this is where it would all end."
I bit my bottom lip. Was she trying to gain my sympathy? She was the one who had made a pact with the crow witches. She was the one who had betrayed my mother and had her killed. She'd been playing with fire since before she was my age.