by Alicia Rades
It should’ve destroyed me already, I told myself. There was a reason witches didn’t try to handle magic above their skill level. But maybe this was different, since I was trying to harness the power rather than drain it.
An earth-shattering crunch filled the air.
“Rae!” Sondra cried to get my attention.
My gaze shot between us. A huge cavern had split the floor in two. I grabbed The Wise Owl and scurried backward, hugging the wall as the floor continued to crumble and the cavern grew. Above us, the crack in the ceiling widened to reveal the dark, clouded sky.
Sondra’s eyes lit up. She shouted across the space between us. “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!”
“I’m not doing anything,” I assured her. Only trying to hold the magic in my body back.
“Yes, you are!” she called back. “We can do this together.”
Sondra’s lips moved, but I could no longer hear her over the sound of shattering earth around us. She continued to drift away from me as the rift between us widened. The rumbling of the earth was so strong that I was certain I was never going to hear again.
When it felt as if Sondra and I were miles apart, she caught my eye and yelled something at me. There was no way in hell I could hear her from here, so I tried to read her lips. I was a terrible lip reader.
She pointed to the Owl and then gestured to the cavern. Was she suggesting I throw it in? What would that do if smashing it hadn’t worked before?
She continued to point at the cavern. It looked like she was encouraging me to gaze into it. Slowly, I got to my hands and knees, though it was difficult to maintain my balance as the earth rocked around me.
Daringly, I peeked over the edge. Dirt and rock stretched down for miles, ending in a red glowing pit.
Holy shit! The earth’s crust had broken apart to reveal a layer of magma.
“Throw it!” I just barely heard Sondra’s instructions carry through the wind.
I hesitated. I could keep The Wise Owl—keep all the power for myself.
No, I countered instantly. I wouldn’t take that power from everyone else.
I heaved the heavy stone up in my arms and then hurled it over the edge of the cavern. I watched it tumble over and over again, until it became just a small dot and then disappeared from view completely. I knew the moment it hit the magma because I felt its power whoosh out of me.
And then everything went black.
10
I lay on my back. The earth was perfectly still, and the white ceiling above me had been untouched by any natural disaster. My head spun.
What the—?
I pushed myself to my elbows and glanced around the quiet exhibit hall. Five bodies lay sprawled on the floor beside me. The next room was pristine, as if it hadn’t been burning just moments ago. I was so confused that I could hardly process the images in front of me.
The sound of clapping reached my ears. My head snapped in the direction of the opposite doorway just as a woman in a black dress stepped through it.
“Well done, Rae,” she said. “I’m impressed.”
Reality came crashing down on me. It took my breath away, and not because I was upset. I was beyond relieved. It wasn’t real. None of it. Tears sprang to my eyes.
Beside me, everyone else began to wake. Venn sat up. Though confusion filled his eyes, they were full of life. Happiness swept through me and consumed the very core of my soul.
I sprang to my feet and tackled Venn with a hug. “You’re okay!”
He squeezed me back so hard I thought he might crack a rib, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to feel his arms around me.
He nuzzled his face in my hair. “Of course I’m okay. I thought I’d lost you!”
“Me?” I drew away in surprise.
“Yes,” he said, tears brimming his eyes. “The ceiling collapsed on you. It felt so real.”
I bit down hard on my lower lip and shook my head. “In my version, you were the one who died. All of you except Sondra.”
Venn pushed my hair out of my face and stared longingly into my eyes. My heart cartwheeled around in my chest under his gaze.
“So, that thing you said about my sister…?” I asked. “It wasn’t true?”
Venn’s brow furrowed. “What thing?”
Thank God!
I whirled around, shooting daggers at Genevieve. “What did you do to us?”
She smiled and stepped further into the room. Her heels clicked against the tile. “Relax. You did exceptional.”
“That was a nasty-ass prank,” Teagan bit from behind me.
Sondra stood and spoke calmly. “It was a test.”
Genevieve stopped in the middle of the room and crossed her hands in front of her. She smiled a knowing smile.
I glanced between Sondra and Genevieve. “You knew.” It wasn’t a question.
Sondra nodded, never tearing her gaze from Genevieve. “I suspected something wasn’t right, but I didn’t realize Genevieve was behind it. I tried to tell you, but when you didn’t hear me out, I figured the best thing to do was go with it. The vision wasn’t going to end until we destroyed the artifact.”
Ryland helped Fiona to her feet and pulled her into a hug. It was like watching ghosts. The vision had felt so real.
“Precisely,” Genevieve confirmed.
“At some point, our visions must’ve diverged, showing us each our worst fears,” Sondra theorized as Venn and I stood.
Ryland leveled his gaze on Genevieve. “You better have a damn good excuse for doing this. That was beyond cruel.”
Genevieve pursed her lips. “I may break the rules every once in a while, but I am not cruel. Not without purpose, at least.”
Fiona crossed her arms. Even she wasn’t taking any of this shit. “So, why exactly did you have to make us watch everyone we love die?”
“To test you,” Genevieve said simply.
“Test us for what?” Teagan demanded. “You already know what we’re capable of.”
Genevieve shook her head. “The Wise Owl is a very delicate artifact. It requires much more than experience to get to. I had to know if your team was capable. If you couldn’t make it through this, you’d never make it through the real thing.”
“And we passed?” There was almost no emotion in Sondra’s voice.
“Yes,” Genevieve said proudly. “You were each shown your worst fears to test your resilience—how quickly you could bounce back from hardships. You’re going to need it when you undergo the true obstacles. Only one of you failed.”
She shot a look at Fiona, who dropped her head in shame.
“You were then each tested on your intentions, how well you could resist the power of The Wise Owl. Only one of you passed.”
Genevieve looked at me. I glanced around, wondering if she was looking at someone behind me, but everyone was now standing side by side. Surely she didn’t mean that I was the only one who could resist the power.
Genevieve pressed her lips together in thought and stared at me. “Strange, though. I designed the deception to replicate the powers of the true artifact. You shouldn’t have felt as much connection to Synchrony as you did. You should’ve only had the power to block magic, not steal it.”
I glanced to Sondra, wondering if she could explain what that meant, but she looked as confused as I did.
Genevieve waved her hand nonchalantly. “No matter. You were still able to resist the power. That’s good enough for me, but it means that if I am to trust you in the location of the true artifact, you must all promise that Rae will be the one to retrieve it. The rest of you will act to protect her through the obstacles.”
“Why trust us at all?” Sondra asked skeptically. “You never have in the past.”
Genevieve pursed her lips. “Because I agree with you. This power should not exist. Everyone should have a right to their own magic. I would destroy it myself… if I thought that I could. But we both know I couldn’t resist magic like that, not once it was in my hand
s. And so, I need you to do it for me.”
Understandable, I guess.
“But next time, you need to be more prepared,” Genevieve warned. “I guarantee that when you face the Artifact for real, the earth isn’t just going to open up and swallow it whole.”
“Does your book mention how to destroy it?” Sondra asked. “The real Artifact?”
“It’ll take more witches than you have at your disposal,” Genevieve said. “This artifact was not created alone, nor can it be destroyed alone. There is strength in numbers, and you’re going to need a helluva good team of witches to disperse the power it holds.”
Sondra jutted her chin out confidently. “We can work with that.”
Genevieve nodded her approval.
“Is any of this real?” I asked, gesturing around the exhibit hall. “Or are we still sitting in your lounge with teacups in our hands?”
Genevieve’s laughter reverberated off the walls of the museum. “Yes, this is real. I do not have the power to produce visions on my own. I needed a bit of… help.”
Her eyes locked on something behind me. I turned to stare past the open doorways. A stone carving of a coiled snake sat on the display where the Owl had been in my vision. The strong tingles of magic I’d felt earlier danced across my skin.
“This is the artifact responsible for your visions,” Genevieve explained. “I arrived an hour ahead of you to ensure you would only see what I wanted you to see. Obviously, you didn’t all pass my test, but that would be nearly impossible. It’s clear to me that you all care very deeply for one another, and I’m confident that you will make a good team.”
She was right. We did care deeply about each other.
Genevieve sighed. “Having said that, it’s time to tell you the truth.”
11
I remained speechless the whole time Genevieve explained the truth to us.
“The true Artifact is hidden in a cave,” she’d said.
Of-freaking-course it was. The top of a mountain or the bottom of the ocean, I was down with. Why did it have to be a cave? They were dark, damp, and creepy. Worst of all, they had very few escape routes, and that was the part that scared me most.
“A group of witches brought The Wise Owl to the States sometime in the early 1800s,” Genevieve told us. “They wanted to make sure it wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands but didn’t want to destroy it in case they had to use it to protect the world from a vengeful witch. After years of hiding it and searching for the best solution, they laid it to rest in a cave that remains unexplored to this day.”
She wanted us to explore the bloody cave.
I, apparently, was the only one bothered by the idea of a spelunking expedition. Who knew what could happen to us? We could get lost and starve to death. The whole thing could cave in and trap us there. We could suffocate.
I couldn’t exactly back out now, though, not when Genevieve assured us that I was the only one who could resist its power and destroy it for good.
I worried about Jenna, and my mind continued to flicker to the map Clarita had given us. But I couldn’t get what Clarita had said out of my mind, about how we had to finish our current quest first before going after my sister. Every fiber of my being told me to say screw it and race off to Gregor Island on my own, but another part of me—my intuition, perhaps—told me that I should listen to Clarita. Maybe it had something to do with being the only one who could resist The Wise Owl’s power.
I didn’t know. Frankly, I didn’t know anything these days, and it put me completely on edge.
Genevieve was deliberately vague on the details, saying that the less we knew, the better. She offered to sponsor our journey, which meant booking us a five-star suite in the Twin Cities while she got the rest of our affairs in order.
“You need to rest,” she’d said. It sounded like she honestly cared about our well-being. I was starting to think that Genevieve wasn’t all that bad, that there was a good heart hidden beneath all the black lace and dark makeup.
And a crapload of money, too, I thought as the six of us stepped inside our hotel room.
Hotel room was a massive understatement. It was a freaking royalty suite. My jaw dropped to the floor. Fiona went bug-eyed beside me.
“Holy moneybags,” Ryland muttered under his breath.
A vast room bathed in beige tones stretched out in front of us and met up with a row of floor-to-ceiling windows. On the other side of them, a balcony overlooked the city, which was hauntingly beautiful beneath the dark night sky. Two long couches faced a flat-screen TV that practically took up the whole wall. Another seating area surrounded a gas fireplace. Beside that, six chairs sat around a dining room table next to a full kitchen and bar.
I managed to tear my gaze from the main room and glanced into one of the bedrooms. A huge king-sized bed took up the space. On the opposite wall, a smaller TV hung above another fireplace. A private bathroom sat beyond an open door.
“Ohmigosh!” Fiona called from another room. “You have to see this.”
I whirled around and almost slammed straight into Venn’s chest. I stumbled backward. He stared down at me with a soft smile, like he wanted to say something.
“We get this room!” Teagan called, pushing past us and breaking our stare. She dropped her bag on the king bed.
“Rae, come look!” Fiona popped her head out of one of the doors and gestured for me to follow her.
I dropped my gaze shyly, wondering what Venn was about to say to me, but I stepped away from him and followed Fiona.
In the main part of the suite, Sondra held the small black bag Genevieve had given her. She pulled a pinch of a powdered substance from it and mumbled under her breath as she sprinkled it in the corner of the room.
“Come on,” Fiona encouraged. She led me into a huge bathroom, complete with a glass-door shower with a rain-fall showerhead. Beside that sat a jetted tub fit for at least two.
Venn and I could fit.
Wait. Where had that thought come from? Hold your horses, girl. You haven’t even got to second base yet.
Still, the tub looked inviting. I couldn’t remember the last time I actually took a decent bath, considering my apartment only had a shower, sans tub. I longed to fill it and let the jets massage away all the tension I’d been bottling up these past few years. It wouldn’t hurt to spoil myself, would it?
“Dibs on the tub!” I blurted.
Fiona laughed. “Come on. Let’s go check out the other rooms.”
The last room was a double queen suite. I did the calculations in my head, and unless Venn decided he wanted to sleep on the couch, we were going to end up in bed together again. Which I had absolutely no qualms about. I mean, it wasn’t like we were going to do anything with Sondra and Fiona in the same room, but that didn’t matter as long as I got to snuggle up in his arms again.
But first, I was getting in that jet tub.
“Genevieve said we could order anything from room service and charge it to the room,” Sondra announced. She flipped through a menu on the coffee table. “Anyone hungry?”
“I’ll eat later,” I told her. “I’m really itching to get in that tub.”
Sondra’s eyes lit up. “That bathroom is amazing, isn’t it? Oh, hey. When you get out, do you want me to do a cleansing spell on your clothes? It’ll save you at least an hour on laundry.”
“That would be amazing,” I agreed.
I slipped into the bathroom while everyone else continued to explore the suite. Inside, I took a deep, calming breath. Tomorrow, I would worry about Matias, the Artifact, and the Soulless. Tonight, I was going to relax.
After a beat, I crossed the room and twisted the faucet. Warm water rushed out of the tap and filled the base of the tub. A neatly-arranged stack of toiletries sat on a washcloth on the ledge. I rifled through it and found a travel-sized bottle of bubble bath. After twisting off the cap, I turned the bottle completely upside down and let the whole thing pour into the water. Bubbles erupted under the fl
ow of the water. Satisfied, I turned to the switch on the wall and dimmed the lights before stripping off my clothes. I would’ve started soothing music on my phone if I had it, but I’d left it at my apartment the night we fled Nocton.
I climbed into the hot water and leaned my head back against the edge of the tub. The warmth seeped into my bones and eased the tension in my muscles. When the water reached my chest, I turned off the faucet and started the jets. Bubbles grew higher and higher, and the jets massaged away the rest of my tension.
It felt like a sin to soak in the tub when the rest of the world was drowning in turmoil. I bet there were vampires roaming the city streets right now who deserved a stake to the heart. And it wasn’t fair that I was sitting here warm in a tub when I had a lead on Jenna’s whereabouts and wasn’t doing a damn thing about it.
There’s nothing you can do right now, I reminded myself. Relax while you can.
With that, I inhaled deep breaths, taking in the lavender scent of the bubbles. For once, my mind wasn’t racing. I focused only on the rise and fall of my chest and the image of dark brown eyes—Venn’s eyes—behind my lids. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt this relaxed. It must’ve been years.
I stayed in the tub for what felt like at least an hour, but it still didn’t seem long enough. I finally decided to get out when most of the bubbles had fizzled away and the water temperature had dropped to lukewarm. I lathered shampoo through my long dark hair, then added conditioner and scrubbed the rest of my body with soap before getting out. I was disappointed that I didn’t get a chance to shave, considering my legs were starting to look like a gorilla’s and my pits were in serious need of a razor. That definitely meant nothing could happen between Venn and me anytime soon.
After I’d dried off, I twisted the towel around my head and slipped into the plush white robe hanging from the back of the door. At the sink, I took a swig of complimentary mouthwash and swished it around in my mouth. Then I gathered my clothes from the floor and stepped out into the main room.
