SACRIFICIUM (THE UNDERGROUND Book 1)

by Allie Doherty

  “Need some help?” She asks.

  “No! I need to do this on my own…” It’s a pride thing now. “I need to learn the fundamentals of survival.”

  “Oh, these are not the fundamentals. These are about three levels up from the fundamentals because believe it or not, most street kids aren’t witches targeted for assassination and a lot of us don’t steal range rovers from court houses within our first week.” She laughs, crossing her arms and leaning against the car.

  “I believe it.” I sigh.

  “Seriously, for someone who has spent their entire lives in a protected academy, you’re doing great, T…”

  A smile forms on my lips. “Thanks...”

  The switch is complete and the new plate is in place. I take a relaxed breath.

  “Okay, all set!”

  My legs are fuzzy and numb, and my eyes dot black with the rush of standing up too fast. I steady myself and get back in the car. Maeve passes me a slushy and another bag of chips. She turns up the music and we're back on the road.

  The rest of the drive is actually kind of fun. We play ‘I spy’ for a while and even though we both know its super lame, we can’t help but laugh.

  “I spy with my little eye, something beginning with… C,” I say, an eyebrow rising. She’s never gonna get this one.

  “Canary!” She yells. “At least try to find something not-obvious.”

  “How the hell did you see that?”

  “Oh, please! That damn bird has been flapping its wings in the back of that car for the past hour. Wait, did you only just see it?” I don’t say anything. “… If you really want to learn how to drive, you should probably start by practicing your observational skills.”

  Ouch!

  ‘Observation is what keeps you alive, Theodora. You need to be watching your back at all times outside of the academy. Not every witch you meet will be friendly or practice good magic. Not every mortal you meet will be run-off-the-mill. Warlocks, Hunters, Demons… they are out there and they want all of us dead. If you’re not being observant, you’re making it easy for them!’

  Maeve’s comment was meant as a joke, but Darian’s voice in my head is serious. He taught me to be observant and yet I wasn’t able to see the true intentions in his eyes, or him sending me to my death. I also wasn’t the one to notice the hunters on the road… Maeve was.

  In fact, if Maeve hadn’t stuck around this long, I’m not sure I would be alive and that bothers me. I never want to be dependent on someone else for my own safety ever again – least of all a mortal.

  I side glance her. Her ability to deal with tough situations is astounding and it makes me feel like I could depend on her to handle everything that doesn't require magic. As she taps her fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the radio and her wild, purple hair moves with the wind, I think that I’m thankful to have her around. She’s more mentally evolved than I am – more adept to handle the real world – and although I hate to admit it, her 'just go with it' attitude is infectious. I kind of like how carefree and fun she is... but I refuse to use her strength as a reason to stay weak.

  I need to be strong too…

  If I’m not then the hunters will find and slaughter me; ending my whole line with my life. It’s a hard thing to have the survival of a dynasty on your shoulders and I can feel it weighing on me.

  I’m too concealed in my thoughts to play, and the game dies down. Maeve turns up the radio. If she feels awkward about my sudden silence, she doesn’t show it.

  It doesn’t matter, really, if the Raven-Hill line ends with me; childless old and alone on my deathbed… but allowing the Jacobian hunters to exterminate that proud bloodline is not an option.

  I declare right now that it’ll never happen. I will kill every single one of them if I have to. No matter how many Raven-Hill witches they've killed in the past, they will never get me!

  On the phone, Tavis told me that the underground is a safe-haven for the witches with nowhere to go… but it’s also a training camp for those ready to stand up for the survival of our kind.

  When he asks me if I’m underground to hide or the fight, I will tell him that I am there to become a fatal assassin. Maeve will teach me in the art of combat and I will train my powers with the witches until I no longer pass out from exhaustion, until I no longer feel the pain of my mortal body. Until I am so strong that I’m no longer hindered by the need for companionship or the dependency that my human form so desperately craves.

  …Until I’m impervious

  ***

  “I spy with my little eye something beginning with… D and C.” Maeve smiles at me and I roll my eyes.

  “How can something start with a D and a C?’ ‘

  She bites her lip and looks at me with a tilted head and a look in her eyes that seems to say, ‘observe, T.’

  And so I do. I look out of the windscreen to the car in front of us. My first thought is that I’m searching for a dog or a cat or maybe some sort of crazy hybrid but then I see it… The road sign welcoming us to Denver, Colorado.

  “Denver?”

  “That’s where the underground is, according to hot guy number one’s directions,” she tells me.

  “His name is Tavis and the other guy is called Knox…” I snort. “I don’t think they’ll respond to hot guy one and two.”

  “Speaking of hot guys, it’s a shame that I have to be a fugitive with you… because Detective Mendez was all kinds of fine.”

  I roll my eyes, amused. “You are crazy.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing,” she says, sticking her tongue out at me.

  Around ten minutes later we pull up outside of a big, red-brick building and I’m not sure what I’m looking at. Apparently the underground isn’t as underground as first thought. In fact, it looks more like a mix between a bank and a bunker.

  At first glance it doesn’t look all that safe… But that doesn’t matter much; I don’t plan on staying longer than I need to.

  Just long enough to lose the long claw of the law that seems to be aiming for me and learn to defend myself.

  Maeve parks the car in a structure around back and I get out, searching for an entrance… and that’s when I realize that the underground is a fortress.

  My hand reaches for the handle of the main doors and an electric volt shoots up my arm and blasts me back. I land on my ass five-feet away and I’m winded. Gasping for air, I attempt to get back to my feet. Maeve arrives and offers a hand. I ignore it and push myself up.

  “Are you okay?” She asks.

  I nod. “What the hell was that?”

  “It’s a defence mechanism…” A male voice comes from nowhere. I search around with my eyes and find nothing but air.

  “Neat trick,” I yell. “A glamour?”

  “More like a camouflage.” The voice is so close to my ear I can feel his breath and I shudder. It's deep and playful with the same amount of snarky that annoyed me in the store.

  “Not-Knox?” I ask and he laughs. I can feel his body shaking against my back. Spinning on my heel with a hand extended, I grasp a fist full of his shirt. My power is buzzing like crazy inside of me and I use it to fight through his hidden shield and pull him into the visual-realm. When I do, he’s grinning and it’s glorious to look at. My breath hitches as his body presses against mine. I take a step back and let go of his shirt.

  “It’s Tavis…” He tells me, again.

  “Right...” My lips upturn slightly and then a realization hits me. “How long were you out here? Did you see me try to open the door?”

  His grin widens and I scoff. “A warning would have been nice!”

  “I swear I was going to yell out but… I wanted to see what would happen.”

  “Oh, so I’m a guinea pig?”

  “More like an experiment… I knew the door worked. I wanted to see what it would do to you specifically.”

  It’s a challenge and like a moth to the flame, I’m drawn in and prepared to burn. Flexing
my arms and cracking my neck, I approach the door once more. My power is still buzzing hard – mostly with annoyance at Tavis – and I want to control it.

  He doesn’t think my power can overcome the defences and it’s begging me to prove him wrong.

  Stretching my fingers, I take a deep breath and grab the handle. The electric pulses shoot up my arm and I cry out in pain but I refuse to be repelled backwards again. The shooting strikes lower under my command and the pain lessens. Then, I imagine the spell causing the electricity as ropes, tied into knots that needs undoing. They are thick and brown in my mind and tied so tightly that I can’t see where one rope stops and another begins.

  It’s going to be hard but it’s not impossible.

  Taking a breath, I get to work fraying the knots but with each fragment loosened, the rope coils and constricts; making it tougher to break. They’re refusing to budge. My fingers can physically feel the ropes and they’re rough against my skin; so much so that if they were real, my hands would bleed before I managed to unfasten them. Whoever cast this defense is strong – or at least their powers are – and it’s taking longer than I thought it would for me to break through. The electricity shooting up my arm is now a numbing sensation rather than a pain and barely noticeable as my power comes in waves to me. I sigh, not wanting to exhaust myself or my magic on such a trivial thing but at the same time, Tavis is watching me intently and failure is not an option. He’s testing me and I have something to prove.

  “Undo!” I command and get nothing. Taking a breath, I close my eyes and try again. “Solve fasciculos!”

  The Latin incantation packs a harder punch than its English alternative and finally the knots begin to loosen. With a smile, I push forward, the sensation of the tightness breaking in my hand is so satisfying that I begin to laugh. It’s unravelling before my eyes. The spell is putting up a fight but I’m stronger than the witch who performed it and I’m winning.

  I feel the knots release along with the power behind them and the door opens. I turn to find Tavis, mouth-gaping and looking at me in awe.

  “That spell took me two days!” He gasps. The upturn of his mouth and the undertone of his voice tell me he’s impressed. He turns away from me and opens the door, throwing over his shoulder the words, “… which means you can put it back.”

  I groan.

  He and Maeve walk through the door and I follow. Stopping behind them and holding up a hand, I push heat through my palm. Rather than the knot defence, I watch as the doors meld together creating one, big steel block between them and us. It’s tough, strong and unbreakable by any mundane or the average witch.

  “That works too, I guess… I think you’re going to be an asset around here.”

  My ego is fluffed and a smile makes its way across my face.

  Maeve stares at Tavis’ retreating back and flicks her eyebrows at me. “He’s so freaking hot!”

  She’s not wrong but I can’t notice that right now. I’m too busy looking around in awe.

  When I said the underground was like a fortress, I didn’t know how right I would be. There are maybe thirty teenagers huddled together in a corner, practicing the elements; fire, water, earth and air. On the other side are ten more, preparing what looks to be beef stew for the entire horde; the smell makes my stomach growls loudly as my mouth fills with drool… I can’t remember when my last meal was that didn’t involve chips and dip.

  The academy may be dangerous for me, but their nightly feasts are something that I would happily risk my life for right now.

  “Everyone listen up!” Tavis yells and all eyes snap towards us. “This is Theo and Maeve. They’ll be staying with us from now on. Be nice and hospitable. Every witch or friend of witch is welcome… you know the rules!”

  With that, he throws us one last smile and leaves us to the wolves. I take a gulp of air and try to muster a friendly smile. Maeve looks at me with her eyes wide and stares at the descending pack with a face that couldn’t be called welcoming. Her stance screams ‘back off!’ but nobody seems to get the message.

  “Well, be still my heart… if it isn’t Theodora Aurelia Blackthorn.”

  The voice turns my head and my eyes land on its owner, causing my mouth to drop open in shock.

  Well, damn…

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  River stands in front of me with a smile on her face and Penelope at her side. She holds out her arms for a hug but I’m too shocked to move. She laughs and envelopes me in her embrace.

  “I can’t believe you’re alive!” She says, but there is no worry in her voice. It’s more like she’s stating a crazy fact. Her blonde hair is in my face and I keep my mouth tightly closed so that I don’t swallow any of it. “You’re like such a legend right now.”

  Her voice irks me. It’s so high-pitched that it makes me physically flinch when it enters my ears. River has always sounded like she’s prepping for an audition to star in a new-new-reboot of Beverly Hills 90210; like the phrase ‘OMG’ is forever on the edge of me her tongue, just waiting for the right moment to escape.

  She pulls away from me and without missing a beat; she begins to flatten down her hair, as though a thirty-second embrace was enough to cause imperfections. Her deep brown eyes are so alight and happy that it’s hard to believe she’s living in a bunker, on the run from the witches; which brings me to my next point.

  “The coven tried to kill you, too?” I try to keep the disbelief out of my voice. Darian said that they weren’t worth killing. “Why?”

  She scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Oh. Em. Gee! You would not be-lieve the story I have to tell you. Okay, so… Basically, right, you were like gone and everyone was like ‘where is Theo?’ and the coven were all ‘she took off for no reason’ and I was like, ‘okay, cool!’ but P was all ‘that’s not Theo’ and I was like, ‘OMG! You’re right.’ So we like totally went all CIA and did the investigating thing… but like, we got caught and had to run because they said we knew too much to live. I mean, we didn’t blast our way out like you did or anything. We literally just ran for our lives. It was not a good time.”

  My eyes flick to Penelope and her mouth is agape. She shakes her head, anger radiating from her silver eyes.

  “Not a good time? It was terrifying! Do you even feel human emotions anymore? Not everything is a goddamn teen-drama, River!”

  “Do not even start with me right now, P! I am like starving and I have a hang-nail, okay?”

  “Meghan is dead! Anna is dead! Allie, Mia, Krista, Stevie, Lisa… God! You don’t even think of anyone but yourself anymore, do you?”

  “Meghan is dead?” My voice breaks and my stomach falls. “How?”

  “Whatever! It’s not like it’s my fault that Meg didn’t run fast enough…” She flicks her eyebrow up and then scoffs and storms away.

  “Are you okay?” I ask Penelope.

  She nods and a small smile crosses her face. “It’s nice to see you, Theo. I really thought you were dead until we got here…”

  “Yeah, it’s good to see you too!” I pull her in for a hug and she doesn’t object. It is nice to know she’s alive and unlike River, I actually like Penelope. “P, this is Maeve…” I say, pulling back.

  Maeve steps forward and holds out a hand. Penelope shakes it twice and then she walks away with her head down. I reach out for her and my hand collides with her arm. As soon as my flesh touches hers, a million images of Meghan flash in my mind and my heart breaks… only it’s not my heart that I’m feeling. It’s Penelope’s.

  “Oh my God.” I flinch back. “P, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know that you and Meg were…”

  Tears coat her eyes and her lip trembles. A sob escapes her throat and she crumbles.

  “Nobody did.”

  And then she’s gone; walking fast around a bricked corner and out of sight.

  ***

  The rest of the day is spent with Maeve by my side as we attempt to ‘branch out’ – as Tavis called it – and meet some new people.

 
; I haven’t seen Knox yet but I know he’s around here somewhere because I keep hearing Tavis talk to people about him. A really quiet guy named Mateo – Or Matt, as he apparently prefers – has been acting like a messenger boy between them for most of the day; running back and forth with notes and updates.

  He’s a really young witch, possibly the youngest here, but there’s a deep sadness on his face that invites pity and I can tell his life hasn’t been easy. Still, the kid doesn’t complain as he rushes from one end of the underground to the other with notes, letters, and even food.

  It’s a full scale, two-helm operation and Knox is at one helm while Tavis is manning the main one. The energy in the place is mostly relaxed and carefree, but there’s an underlying sense of fear among the masses. Tavis, especially, is constantly on alert. I don’t think I’ve seen his shoulders drop in the fifteen hours since we arrived. Even now, as we’re about to sit down to dinner, his muscles are tensed and his eyes are surveying every corner of the room we’re in; as though he’s expecting for hunters and witches to drop from the ceiling, ready to kill us all.

  People pile in around me as I sit on one side of a very long, wooden picnic bench that is being used as a dinner table. Maeve is on my left side and a girl that we just met, named Amalie, is on the right. River is talking to an equally as glamorous girl across from us about a boy named Ben, and Tavis is at the end of the table, watching me. My eyes flick to him and he nods, silently questioning how my first day went. I smile and give him a small nod in return.

  “We could just communicate like this, you know? It’d save the neck ache.” His voice lands in my head and I jump. He’s the first person who’s ever connected with my mind. Maeve raises an eyebrow and I avoid her gaze.

  I don’t reply and instead try to get to know Amalie. I find out that she’s a Gemini and focuses her power on the earth element because she likes how the world feels. She’s also a vegan. I’m sure those two things are unrelated.

  The food is served family-style and my eyes bug out of their head. It’s real, hot and smells delicious; full of the nutrients that gas-station chips seem to lack.