by C E Dimond
I prayed for my mother, for the Coven, that everything I was searching for would find its way to me. A little prayer never hurt anyone right? I certainly hoped not.
Once I’d offered up what I had for prayers, I made my way into The Crypt.
Entering the long-darkened crypt instilled a feeling of familiarity I couldn’t shake.
I tried to bury the feeling as I took in everything the crypt had to offer. Everywhere I looked there was some new ancient relic, statues, books, altars. The stocks were eerie, as I imagined prisoners being caught in them, waiting for their punishment. There was even a mummified cat and rat…actually. That, I probably could have gone without seeing.
When I put my hand against the wall I froze, an electrifying sensation coursing through my body.
“I can hear them!” A woman’s voice whispered, trembling in fear.
“They won’t find us, I promise you.” A man replied.
The two of them were huddled in the hollow of a tree, his thick, woolen cloak lifted to cover the opening. He had tried to sound reassuring but as the sounds of horses’ hooves grew closer, he wasn’t sure he could keep his promise.
Suddenly a bright blue light appeared, and an unearthly voice echoed around the two.
“Use the sword,” It whispered and as the light began to fade, left next to the pair was a fresh, glowing sword.
The lovers looked at one another questioning before he reached for the sword, closing his fingers around the hilt, he lifted the heavy metal. Dropping the woolen cloak, he turned the sword toward the opening and to his surprise he watched as the bark of the tree began to close around them.
Then, behind them, a path appeared. A small floating light guiding their way to safety.
I gasped, taking my hand away from the wall like it was on fire. For the moment I’d been in a trance, I hadn’t been able to see, to hear, I’d been in my mind.
My eyes darted around but no one else seemed to have noticed.
It was the same two from my visions, my dreams.
Who were they? What were they trying to tell me? To show me?
Suddenly, I didn’t want to continue my tour anymore. When I stumbled out of the church, I realized how much time had passed. The already grey sky had darkened further.
I was just starting the walk back to the hostel when my phone buzzed. It was a message from Keilan. It looked like she’d tracked it, but the text had nothing more than an address.
I ran the rest of the way back to the hostel, changing into darker clothes, beginning to feel a bit like a spy. Black stretch pants, a long-sleeved, navy hooded sweatshirt, and sneakers. I pulled my long blond hair back into a high ponytail off my face.
It was time to find my Mom, finally.
I typed the address into my phone and mapping the journey, I took a screenshot of it on my phone and began the trek there.
On the way, I dawned on me that I probably shouldn’t have gone alone. Having Keilan as backup might have made it easier, but who knew what Cormac thought of Wolves, I didn’t want to put her in any danger.
The address she’d given me took me far outside of the city centre. The streets were growing darker and quieter with each step I took along the route.
Hours seemed to have passed and eventually there appeared to be no signs of life, only dark, derelict buildings.
This couldn’t be right.
If Cormac was holding my mother, he had to have enough respect for trying to get me on his side to take good care of her…right?
Maybe it was wishful thinking, believing that my father had some sort of sense of goodness left in him.
Perhaps he was completely blinded by his ambition.
No, something didn’t feel right.
“Well, well. Fancy seeing you here Princess.”
The voice made me freeze mid-step and its distant familiarity sent a chill through my entire body.
“Here we thought we were going to have to hunt you down again and instead you just walk on into our home.”
I turned around and my eyes found them in the darkness, the same three men who had been outside the bar. The same men that had tried to corner me in the street.
A feeling of dread came over me, sinking to the pit of my stomach. Could I have really been this wrong? Had I misread my new friend? Had Keilan led me directly into a trap?
All my doubts were shoved aside, as I dug within me to find some fight. My Mom was here, I wasn’t going to let my fear get the best of me this time.
So, my eyes traveled from the men to the building they had appeared from. Dark, and in serious disrepair.
“You call this home?” I managed out, trying to give fire to my fight among the fear. “Seems a little sad. You should think about asking your employer for a raise.”
“Maybe we’ll consider it.” They began moving forward then and this time I held my ground. My eyes looked them over and the familiar metal glint on their wrists told me exactly why my magic hadn’t worked the last time. They were protected. It was the same metal cuff that had been locked onto Tyler’s wrist at the dance.
The only difference was that these men didn’t seem like they were being controlled.
I don’t know why I hadn’t considered that the goons from the bar may have been involved in the whole web of things from Broadhaven.
As I stood there now, watching them move closer it made perfect sense that everything was connected. I observed them closely as they took each step, I watched and made note of their weaknesses.
I hadn’t thought I could fight them before, but now; I knew I didn’t really have another choice.
The ring leader favored his right side which told me he’d likely injured the left. Maybe when Keilan had taken him down a few nights earlier. At least that was something I could work with.
I waited until he was within arm’s reach before I made my first strike.
I lunged forward, ducking down beneath his arms as he reached out for me and struck him right in the side of his left knee and watched with relief as it buckled.
I rolled smoothly out of the way as he collapsed to his knees with a loud yelp of pain.
I stumbled back to my feet, once more bracing for the other two to come forward. I tried to think back on everything Cian had taught us.
This was the moment he’d been preparing us for, the moment where we couldn’t use magic to defend ourselves. It just came a little sooner than I’d anticipated.
“I don’t want to fight you,” I said, hoping my one lucky hit may have been enough to deter them from trying again. “I just want my mother back, and then I’ll go”
That was the truth. I was only there for one reason, I didn’t want anything to do with them. If they stepped aside, I’d walk away with her. It was just that simple.
Sadly, they didn’t seem all that inclined to accept my offer. The shorter one ran at me then and I was fortunate that I had the speed to move out of the way.
Turning, I threw out my palm to hit him square in the back with the heel of my hand, knocking him off balance when he’d tried to come to a quick stop. It was a good thing too, as the other one grabbed at my arm a moment later.
I twisted myself around which managed to loosen his grip and yanked him toward me. Lifting my knee up, I put all my force into it catching him right in the stomach. I heard the groan and it seemed the pain was enough to get him to let me go.
Maybe I could really do this.
My confidence was pretty short-lived. It looked like I had been right that first night in the darkened street. Three on one were terrible odds for anyone, especially an amateur fighter.
I had gotten in a few skilled, and maybe lucky hits.
I became clear rather quickly that it had been mostly because they’d underestimated me.
It didn’t look like they were ready to make that mistake a second time.
Still, I wasn’t ready to give up the fight. Every kick, and hit I delivered to my opponents were solid until I seemed to slow down becaus
e those hits were suddenly being returned tenfold.
I was hurting, and I knew I was losing this fight I had entered into with such false bravado.
My fight or flight response had shifted from one to the other. But before I could run, they had me in a tight hold, my arms held firm behind my back by one of them, while the other two stood, out of reach, and out of breath before me.
I took some satisfaction in that fact that it looked like I’d given them a good workout.
“Let me go!” I screamed trying to fight against the hold, but they pulled tighter and it caused my already sore limbs to surge with more pain. My screams of protest only served to make them laugh now.
My upper hand was gone.
“Sorry Princess,” one of the men standing before me said. “We don’t take our orders from you.”
The next hit they delivered was hard. The contact was blunt, and a searing pain surged through my skull, right to the other side of my head.
In that moment, I saw nothing but darkness.
10
It was the voices I heard first when I came to, the same ones from the alley.
It was all a reminder of my glorious failure of a fight.
“This wasn’t part of the plan, now we’ve had to move the one, and what do we do with her?”
I assumed they were talking about me. Unless, it dawned next, that perhaps they were talking about my mother.
Slowly, I blinked open my eyes.
I had expected to see a dull, dingy room. Only, I found my head was covered in, what felt a lot like burlap. There was a sack over my head.
How original.
I was beginning to think that these would-be villains, had learned everything they knew from bad crime movies.
I almost spoke up. Opening my lips to call out to them something about their lack of flair, when I thought better of it.
No. I would stay quiet.
I realized that I would learn more by listening to them, than I would ever be able to try and get out of them in conversation.
So, I made a real effort to remain still, so they wouldn’t know yet, that I’d stirred from my violent sleep.
“We’ll send the other one back,” Another voice grumbled. “That curse has kept her well out of it, she won’t know today from yesterday by the time she gets home.”
“But she will notice her daughter’s missing you idiot! No, we need to call him. He’ll know what to do next.”
“I don’t want to be the one to make that call.” The third voice, one I didn’t recognize, chimed in.
I wondered if it came from the shorter man, the one I’d knocked off balance earlier. He had been the only one who hadn’t spoken that first night outside the bar.
“Why? He’ll be happy, won’t he? We have the girl. That was the whole plan.”
I hadn’t been able to hide my gasp, and that sharp movement of my body had shifted the chair I was shackled to, causing the boards beneath my feet to creak loudly.
Their sudden silence told me that it hadn’t gone unnoticed.
So much for listening in.
“Sssh,” one of them said, and I heard his footsteps creeping towards me, floorboards creaking with each step. He may not have known it, but he was giving himself away too.
The uneven creaking told me it was the leader favoring his weight on one leg once more. By the time he reached me and pulled the, what I had correctly guess, burlap sack off my head, my sensitive blue eyes squinted up at him as they took a moment to adjust to the lighting.
After they finally seemed to adjust, I realized it was mostly due to the fact that they had shoddy, but bright lights set up facing directly at me and toward the entrance. Like bad studio lighting.
Were they getting ready to shoot my ransom video?
As I looked around the room I was disheartened to see, or rather not see, my mother nearby. It was just me, and the three of them.
“Well look at this, sleeping beauty’s awake. How long’s that been for?” He leaned down toward me, so his face was level with mine his eyes staring directly at me, menacing, threatening.
That was his first mistake.
“Where is my mother?” I growled at him.
I was in no place to bargain. I realized, as I tried to shift in my chair, that they had me chained to it with Iron.
Iron, which apparently, stifled a Witches power. It was an unfortunate time to discover the rumors were true since nothing I’d been trying was helping me get free.
“That’s for us to know, and if I have it my way, you’ll never find out Princess.”
That was his second mistake, threatening my reunion with my family.
I may have been powerless, in the traditional, magical sense, but I still had one move up my sleep I knew had worked once before.
In a swift motion, I’d pulled my head back and forcefully smashed my skull right into the bridge of his nose.
It was becoming an old favorite at this point.
I knew I’d succeeded when his eyes teared immediately and he was soon staggering backward.
I couldn’t help but smirk.
I may have just signed my own death certificate, but boy, had it been worth it to make a grown man cry.
“You little-” he’d never had the chance to finish that statement.
Just as he was heading back toward me, blood streaming from his hopefully broken nose, the doors at the entrance of the building flew open with surprising force.
It only took me a moment to recognize the long strands of black hair and emerald eyes that glinted in the bright lights.
It was her.
It was Iseult.
It quickly became pretty clear that whatever training I had done with Cian during my few months at Broadhaven, was nothing compared to the instruction my sister had received from our father.
My eyes widened in both shock and awe as I watched her combat the others. She moved with such ease, not even having to attempt to use her magic to take them down. It was smooth, like a choreographed dance as she weaved through and around them, defeating them, one by one.
I’d never really been the type of girl who’d had a hero before, but in that moment, without a doubt, it was her.
With one precise and strong blow, she knocked out my last captor, the man I’d given her a head start on.
She wiped his blood off her hand on the hem of her black t-shirt, before turning her green eyes to me in triumph.
“I thought you weren’t going to watch my back anymore,” I challenged her.
“Yeah well, and I thought I told you to leave the Country,” she countered, stepping around the bodies, she fished through their pockets for keys before making her way to unlock the chains restricting me.
I heard the iron chains drop as the metal hit the ground, the clang echoing the sound of my freedom. I stood with caution, a bit unsteady on my feet, from using my head as a weapon.
She reached out and grabbed my arm to steady me.
“Guess listening problems are genetic,” I added with a shrug, unable to suppress my amusement and watched as she rolled her eyes in response.
“I’m starting to think a lot of things are genetic, like attracting trouble.”
She might have been right about that.
Our strange moment of sisterly bonding was cut short once I remembered the reason I’d come there in the first place.
“Wait! My mother! I tracked her here!”
Looking around with hope, it was obvious, as I had gathered the first time I’d looked, that the warehouse was empty. If my mother had ever been here, which I figured she had at one time, she was now gone.
“She’s not here.” My sister confirmed. “I was looking around long before I busted in here. I think they had her here but, they might have moved her while you were knocked out.” She checked my head then, the bruises and cuts I’d forgotten about for a minute.
I couldn’t tell from her pokes and prods which of the wounds had been self-inflicted and which had come f
rom my captors. Once she seemed satisfied that I could handle myself, she motioned to the entrance she’d burst through.
“Come on, let’s get out of here before they wake up!”
I couldn’t argue with that.
Now, once I was sure that I was steady on my feet, I followed her out of the room and up the stairs. She threw open the front door one more. We made our way back to the street and she mounted a cherry red Ducati that was parked on the street and glistened in the light rain that had started to fall from the night’s sky.
“Whoa,” I admired.
Tyler would have killed to have had a chance to see this up close and personal. I knew he’d been begging his parents for one and the moment he graduated, I had a feeling it’d be his first big purchase.
“Get on!” She demanded and tossed me an extra helmet. I blinked, pushing the awe aside for a moment as I placed the helmet on and climbed onto the bike behind her.