Pinehurst

by Nicole Grane

  * * *

  Down, down, down. We descended slowly into the fiery depths. The sky had long since left us. We were now deep into the underground, surrounded by charred rock and ash.

  Oh dear God. I just stepped on something crunchy. Eww, eww, eww! Don’t look, don’t . . . oh my God! Bones . . .

  Antonio gripped my hand tighter.

  “I hate to be the bearer of bad news,” Havoc giggled. “Okay, yes I do, but we’re about to enter the Ragno’s den.”

  I froze. “Ragnos? As in, more than one?” Please say no, please say no.

  Antonio pulled me into his side. “We need a plan.”

  “A plan, yes!” Havoc was jumping up and down. “Let’s see. Oh, I know! We’ll send the Child of Light in first and while they’re feasting on her, we can sneak around—”

  I was squeezing Havoc’s scrawny neck in the next instant. “You witch! You’d like that wouldn’t you. I’ll bet my dad isn’t even here. This was all a sick trick to bring me here so I can open your stupid door and let all you monsters out!”

  Havoc choked and sputtered. Her little face began to turn blue but I held tight.

  “Evie! Let her go!” Antonio pried my fingers off her neck, yanking me away from her. He wrapped his arms around me like a vise. I thrashed to get free.

  Havoc brought her hands to her neck, gasping and coughing with each breath of air that passed through her. I watched angrily as she rubbed the circulation back in her throat.

  “Oh you will pay for that, Child of Light. Find your own way!” Poof!

  “Where’d she go?” I broke free from Antonio’s hold, and spun around frantically. She’d disappeared! “I didn’t know she could do that!” I exclaimed, still searching the tunnel for any trace of her.

  “Once in Hell, her powers are much stronger,” Antonio explained.

  Who needed the annoying little pest around anyway, insulting me at every turn? Good riddance!

  “Come.” Antonio pulled me along. He was clearly in a bad mood now. Why? What did he care if she was gone? It's not like they were “BFFs” or anything. “She could have helped us,” he explained.

  “Antonio.” I reached for his arm, halting him. “What if she’s wrong? What if you were wrong? What if my dad’s not even here?” What if I brought us here to die? A tear escaped my eye.

  “Don’t think like that.” He turned toward me; his hands softly rubbed my arms. “It will be okay. We’ll find your father, Evie, and you will return home.”

  I stared into his chocolate brown eyes, guilt consuming me. I would return home . . . but not Antonio. My heart melted into a pool of despair . . . and then it stopped.

  “Evie, what is it?” Antonio gripped my shoulders firmly, shaking me to attention. “Evelyn!”

  “We’re in . . . Hell.” The last word stuck in my throat.

  “Yes.”

  “You said you couldn’t leave unless you offered a soul,” I prompted: “A soul other than your own.”

  His hands dropped. “That is correct.”

  “Please tell me that you offered mine.” I waited for his response. Nothing! “Antonio! Tell me that you offered my soul!”

  His hand reached up and caressed my cheek. I‘ll die before I let them have you. “How could I condemn you here?” There was love in his eyes!

  “Yes. There is love in my eyes and in my heart. I traded my soul for yours, Evie.” His devotion was unwavering.

  I was speechless—a common response for the day’s “shockers.” I stepped back, my eyes truly taking him in for the first time. He was tall and strong. His body muscled and disciplined. His eyes and heart, determined to see this through.

  Foolish man! Back at the school, he spent his time distancing himself from me. Pretending he didn’t have feelings for me. Saying I was too young for him . . . for what? Some obligation he felt to my father? My age? But here, here he’d kissed me. Here he’d admitted his feelings for me. The look in his eyes now confirmed that it was more than mere attraction he felt for me. The look in his eyes said he’d protect me ferociously. The look in his eyes said he was in love with me. Forget the look. He’d admitted it! He loved me.

  My eyes narrowed. There was no way he was going to get away with this. I shook my head. “Undo it. I won’t let you trade your soul for mine. No way.”

  It’s too late. It is done.” In other words, the subject was closed for discussion. The hell it was! I’d find some way to break this vow, even if I had to beg Satan himself.

  “The Ragnos!” Antonio jumped in front of me. His staff extended.

  The spiders were invading our den—hundreds of them. I looked at my staff. There was no freaking way I was going to fight off a fraction of them. Antonio was already battling. He was a true Slayer; a warrior in every sense of the word; killing any and all Ragno that got within a yard of us. He was so cute!

  “Evie, watch your back!”

  I spun around and uttered the first word to come to mind. “Fotio!” The Ragno was frozen, suspended in air. Cool! And it wasn’t even sucking much power from me.

  “Your hands!” Antonio grunted as he ran his staff through another Ragno. “Look at them.”

  I held them up to my face. They were . . . glowing? A tremendous amount of force was building up as the light pulsated from them.

  Use the light to turn them to stone. A voice echoed inside my head. I looked at Antonio. He was busy fighting off a particularly nasty looking Ragno. Green goo was now dripping from a wound in its abdomen.

  Use the light! There it was again. I hesitated for a moment. Petra! The voice commanded.

  I didn’t think about it. I aimed my palms away from me. “Petra!” The light radiated from my fingertips, and shot across the cavern. Anything in its path was instantly turned to stone.

  Antonio spun around. He leapt toward me, slaying a Ragno that had snuck up behind me. I held my chest, trying to hold my heart in place.

  “Evie, look out!”

  “Petra!” I shouted over and over again, my hands aiming in all directions. We were surrounded in seconds by hundreds of stone Ragnos.

  My hands ached. The light had gone from them, leaving a red burn across the palms.

  “Evie!” Antonio caught me as I crumpled to my knees. His arms encircled me, pulling me into his chest.

  “Your eyes . . .“ He studied them for a moment.

  “What? What’s wrong with them?”

  “Never mind,” he shook his head. “It must be my imagination.” He turned my palms up. “Here, let me take care of them.” He reached into his pack.

  “No! I may need them again. I don’t want them restricted.” Small blisters had already begun to form.

  “You were amazing. Where did you learn to do that?” Antonio ignored my request, and applied the ointment anyway.

  “Ow! I didn’t learn that. I’ve never done that spell before. The voice told me to do it.” I studied my hands, examining the welts that covered them.

  “A voice? What voice?” Antonio looked uneasy. I couldn't blame him. I'd just said I was hearing voices in my head for crap sake. He probably thought I was losing it!

  “I don’t know? I thought it was you at first, but then . . . it sounded like . . . never mind.” I brushed the ridiculous thought away. There was no way my dad could have told me to do that. I mean, I’d have known if he could talk to me like Antonio, telepathically. There was no way he would keep something like that from me, right? Like he didn’t keep the fact that he was a famous Slayer from me, or that I was in mortal danger from being kidnapped by demons from Hell. I suddenly felt like I should be eating a piece of humble pie. Damn! I hated the thought of having to apologize to Havoc. My dad was here. It had to be his voice I heard.

  “Can you walk?” Antonio helped me to my feet and wrapped his arm around my waist for support. It wasn’t necessary, but I didn’t protest.

  I looked up at him. His lips were so close to mine. I stared at them, longing for another taste. My heart began to pound with su
ch intensity I swear he could hear it.

  He smiled. Antonio was looking at me like he did that day in class when he’d thrown me to the ground, his body pinning me down for twenty glorious seconds.

  “You are so beautiful.” The words flooded my head. He thought I was beautiful! I squealed with excitement—in my head of course—which he heard.

  You are more than beautiful . . . He leaned in, his lips grazing mine once, twice.

  “So you finely agree I’m a grown woman?” A stretch I knew, but hey, this was an incredibly romantic situation. I wanted Antonio to view me as an equal, not as some kid.

  He laughed heartily, a rarity for him. “That’s still debatable.”

  “But I’m datable right?” I know, I know. I was totally showing my age by pressing the issue. I needed confirmation. Some kind of verbal assurance that Antonio and I were a couple now—we had to be!

  He wasn’t about to give it to me. In Antonio's mind, time for us was fleeting. He had me in a lip-locking kiss before I could argue the point. I decided we could resume the argument later, when my head wasn’t up in the clouds. Man could he kiss! I sunk into the little bit of Heaven I’d been given.