by Lili Black
“Grab his feet,” I grunt. “We’ll lock him in the outhouse. We can dump his phone there, too.”
“I’m going to hell,” Donovan moans as he crouches and grabs the guy’s ankles.
Between the two of us, we carry him to the outhouse, then prop him against the wall.
Donovan holds him upright while I open the door. None of the usual stench I associate with outhouses comes out. It must be here as a prop only, like the bucket.
Grunting, Donovan lifts the man to get him over the short lip of the outhouse, then shoves him forward. The man lands on the closed lid of the hole for waste.
Donovan steps back and reaches for the door.
“Wait, we shouldn’t leave his gun.” I step into the outhouse, wrestle the snap open on his holster, then pull out the gun. It feels cold and heavy in my hand, and I hold it gingerly. I’ve never touched a gun before—never had reason to—and I can’t say I enjoy the experience.
“I can take it,” Donovan offers, then holds up his hands when I glare. “I can show you how to pull the magazine out so at least it’s not loaded?”
It’s a reasonable offer, and I really don’t want to carry around a loaded weapon. I far prefer magic.
I step forward, and my shoe catches on one of the forest ranger’s boots.
As I stumble to the side to catch my balance, Donovan flings a hand out to catch my shoulder. “Careful!”
“Shh.” I look around. “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what?” Donovan takes the gun before I can stop him, and the clip slides out into his open palm.
Bemused, I stare at the weapon he now holds, marveling at how easily he took it from me and how familiar he seems to be with it.
Then, the beep sounds again, and my attention shoots downward to the roll of toilet paper that digs into my hip. Carefully, I step away and pull the roll off the holder, revealing a solid metal bar with a red, glowing light on it. I lean my hip forward once more, and the beep comes again.
“What is that?” Donovan breathes.
I look up at him with excitement. “The secret lair.”
Donovan checks out the blinking red light, then stares at me. I can’t tell if he’s upset that we found something, making Macey’s claims true or at least possible, or if he’s upset that we found something when he didn’t think we would.
“How do you think we activate it?” I ask, waiting to see if he comes up with the right answer immediately.
Shrugging, he responds. “I have no idea. Maybe there’s a button or something to pull.”
Well, that wasn’t helpful. Examining the metal bar, I don’t see any buttons. It’s just a smooth bar with the light at the end.
Side-eyeing Donovan, I try pulling the bar.
Nothing.
I squat in front of it to look at it from a different angle. Nothing stands out on it or the wall. Placing my hand on it, I use it to help me stand. The bar rotates, and the light at the end turns green.
“What did you do?” Donovan looks around, trying to figure out if anything around us has changed, then he grabs me and pulls me from the outhouse, partially covering me with his body.
The warmth of safety overwhelms me, and I start to sink against him only to shake off the feeling and step back. “The bar turned when I put pressure on it.” I glance around the area, but nothing stands out. “We need to figure out what changed.”
Without waiting for Donovan, I walk around the small outhouse, but everything looks the same as it did when we walked over here.
I head back toward the cabin.
Nothing initially stands out, but I walk along the outside walls of the cabin.
When we make the turn to the far wall, I wonder if we’re wasting our time because nothing appears out of place. It could be the bar unlocks something miles away, so Macey was able to trick me.
Shoulders slumped, I lean against the wall. “There’s nothing back here.”
“Oh no, you don’t. You can’t quit on me now.” He stands in front of me, face hard. “We have to see this through, for both our sakes. You need your answers, and I need to know the truth. We have to figure out how to get through this, so we can work on getting us back to us because I could really use my girlfriend right now.”
The pain in his voice rips through my heart, but I push it down, down with the other pain of loss because I could use my boyfriend, too. I just don’t know who that is anymore. The girl that had an amazing boyfriend died next to Hattie.
“I’m sorry you lost her.” I peel myself away from the wall. “Let’s avenge our loss, then.”
This time, I head to the front of the house to start again. Maybe something inside will give us a clue. At the front, I pay closer attention and notice that the front stoop of the cabin doesn’t attach to the cabin anymore.
Donovan points. “Do you see that?”
Glad we’re both seeing the same thing, I rush over and kneel next to it. “It’s different from when we got here. I was so focused on the door, that I missed what was right in front of us.”
Squatting next to me, Donovan runs his fingers along the edge of the wood. He stops and bends over, head almost touching the ground as he looks at what he stopped on.
“There’s a latch here. Step back while I open it,” he instructs.
Doing as he asked, I stand and take a step or two back. With a soft snick, the three feet by three feet platform pulls away, only to reveal a much stronger, metal door underneath. This one with a heavy locking system associated with it.
“Shit. How are we going to get through that? It looks like it takes two keys to open it, and maybe more.” Donovan runs his hands over the tarnished locks.
“Leave that to me.” Thank the gods I was given an ability to help me here.
I place each hand over the locks and push my magic into them. In addition to the keys, magic also holds the door in place, but because it’s some sort of locking spell, I’m able to break through it. Once my magic works, the metal door slides back, under the house, revealing a ladder down into a dark pit.
“Well, this is fitting.” I turn to head down the ladder, but a hand on my shoulder stops me.
“We agreed I would go first, remember?”
“Trying to hide all the evidence before I can get down there?” I quip, excitement building in me that we’ll get some answers.
“Absolutely not. I need that evidence, one way or the other, but if I go down into the deep, dark hole first, I can pretend I’m the knight in shining armor, here to save the day.” He wiggles his eyebrows at me and ducks down into the hole.
Once I lose sight of him, I follow him down.
Not being able to see the bottom makes me nervous for the first time since we started this. I can’t figure out if the nerves are from the unknown or the building excitement, knowing we’re closer to our goal.
Donovan’s hands—at least, I hope they’re his hands—grip my waist as I get close to the bottom. Since I can still see the light from the opening, he can probably see me, even though I can’t see him.
“Are we going to just keep our fingers crossed that we can find our way, or should we go back up and see if we can grab a lantern?” I ask.
After spending so much time in the cave, the dark doesn’t scare me, but I’d like to be able to see if we’re going to run into a hole or some other trap.
“No need.” The jingle of keys rings through the cave, and a small light illuminates the way. “I have a tiny flashlight on my keyring. My driving instructor said a light can come in handy in many situations, and that always stuck with me.”
That little generic comment about regular life hits me harder than I expected it to, and my chest tightens. So many little things we never knew about each other. If we would have had more time, we could have figured some of them out. Now, we’ve lost it all.
I crush the unwanted thoughts. There’s no going back. We’ll never have what we once had since it was all a lie.
Quiet now, Donovan leads the
way.
So far, no traps have sprung on us.
We don’t walk far before the tunnel opens up into a larger space. Three doors, one of each of the other walls, are closed. The center of the room is empty except for a ring of chairs surrounding a small firepit. The vent above the pit must align with the fireplace in the cabin.
“Where do we start? Should we split up?” Donovan swings the flashlight around until he finds a light switch. He flips it up, and overhead industrial lights illuminate the room.
“I don’t think so. We started this together. We end it together.” I shouldn’t have to remind him I don’t trust him not to find and destroy evidence but, also, leave me locked down here for his dad to deal with.
“Right.” Donovan turns off his mini-flashlight and puts his keys back in his pocket. “Let’s just start here and work our way around.”
With no better option, I follow along.
Donovan examines the top part of the wall, while I check the bottom section. The wall is made of up cinder block, painted white. No cracks show in the paint, and my magic doesn’t reveal any hidden doors to unlock.
When we come to the first corner, Donovan checks around the ceiling as well. He pulls back some of the ceiling tiles, then puts them right back when there is nothing about it but the beams holding the cabin or ceiling up. This room looks bigger than the cabin so, at some point, we won’t be underneath it.
As we round the next corner, Donovan holds his hand up for me to wait while he cracks open the door. When nothing bad happens, he pushes the door open to reveal a simple half bath. I check the mirror while Donovan checks the toilet paper holder to see if any other secret rooms open.
Finding nothing, we continue down the wall, Donovan popping up ceiling tiles every now and then. The wall opposite the tunnel opening vibrates under my hand.
“Magic,” we say at the same time.
“There’s something hidden back here. Probably in that room.” I stride to the door.
Again, Donovan stops me. “Let me try first.” He puts his hand on the door and turns the knob. “Never mind. It’s locked. You’ll have to try.”
When I place my hand on the doorknob and push my magic against it, a dark swirl of magic pushes back. “Dark magic locks the door. I think I can get through it, but let’s see if your blood can weaken it. I don’t want to be so worn out that we can’t fight off anything that may attack us.”
I don’t really think I would be too weakened, but I want to see if Donovan’s blood can do anything. It may also be another clue to him—if he really doesn’t believe his dad is evil—that his dad has something to hide.
Donovan nods, so I pull out the scissors, so he can prick his finger on it. Once the blood has pooled enough to drip, he smears the blood across the front of the handle. When I grip it one more time, my magic easily pops the lock, and the door swings open.
I peek over at Donovan to find him frowning at the door.
“Let’s not touch anything just yet. That may raise an alarm. For now, let’s just look around. If we find something of interest, we can look at it together,” I say as I walk into the room and flip on the light.
This must be his father’s office because a large desk made of yew wood stands in the middle. A simple wooden chair sits behind it. The top of the desk holds nothing on it except for an old book. The book looks to be covered in brown leather, and the pages have yellowed from age and wear.
On the right side of the room stands a bookshelf. These books have the same worn appearance as the one on his desk. Other than the books, there are a few random trinkets, none of which seem to hold any power.
“There’s nothing really here. Should we check out the books?” Donovan reaches for the book on the desk, but I grab his hand.
Warm tingles spread up my body as the familiar sensation of holding Donovan’s hand fills my mind with memories. I squeeze his hand, hoping to dispel the ache that now resides in my hand, and I question again if this is worth it.
Would it be better for us to just run away and forget everything and everyone, knowing deep down that, if his dad wanted to find him, he could easily do that, just like Donovan found me in the woods?
More importantly, this is my mission. My family deserves to be avenged, whether it’s his dad or someone else who did it. I will track them all down and exterminate them one by one.
“We can check the books, but those feel too easy. Almost a distraction.” I run my hand along the walls, and the same staccato of magic that held the door shut vibrates through the walls. “Do you feel that? There’s something else here.”
“These walls are all solid though, just like in the other room.” Donovan touches one of the walls and pulls back quickly, almost as if he was shocked. “Okay. Never mind. I see what you mean.”
“Is your finger still bleeding?” I ask and take his hand.
“No, but do we need it to?” He picks at the small wound, and the blood flow starts again.
I take his finger and draw the rune for sight on my palm, then I grab his hand with my other hand. Funneling my magic through the rune, I hope to find the hidden door this room protects. Instead of finding a door though, the illusion of the walls fade away, and a warehouse of objects stands in front of us.
“Wow,” Donovan says as he pulls me over to the objects on the right side. “He’s had to have been collecting this stuff for years.”
“You believe it’s your dad, now?” I ask as I trail behind him, pulling my hand free.
“It has to be him if my blood helped open this up.” He looks but doesn’t touch the stones sitting along the first wall.
“I agree,” I say as I notice a section with glass jars in the back and head over.
As I realize what fills the jars, I read the names and dates on the labels, and my heart jumps into my throat. A sob escapes me. I nearly turn back, but Donovan’s hand on my lower back stops me.
“What the…” He moves forward and stares at the jars. “Is this what I think it is?”
My stomach churns, and I bite back the bile trying to fill my mouth. “Yes.”
The container holding my mother’s heart sits next to the one containing my grandmother’s heart. My fists clench as I fight a new urge to lash out at everything in this room.
“No!” Donovan drops to his knees, a jar in his hands.
“What did you find?”
Knuckles white, he turns the jar so I can read the label on the top. Helen Crawford.
“This is my mother’s heart,” he spits out. “I’m in.” He stands and turns toward me, eyes cold. “Tell me what we need to do to take down my father and his dark coven.”
Sabine’s story continues in
Death Witch, New Witch
Also by Lili Black
SERIES BY LILI BLACK
* * *
Accidentally Dead
Children of the Shifting Gods
Manberry Witches
Museum of Magic, Mayhem, and Wonder
Spearwood Academy
For More Books by These Authors, Check Out
www.authorliliblack.com
About the Author
Lili Black is the young adult, paranormal romance pen name of authors LA Kirk and Lyn Forester.
For More About These Authors, Check Out
www.authorliliblack.com