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With a flip of her long hair, she turns and strides out of sight. My knees give out, and I collapse to the floor as tears leak from my eyes. She had to be lying. There’s no way Steph is dead. I’d feel it in my gut if that were the case, and all I feel is fear and anger.
No. Steph is still alive, and so am I. But why?
Pushing myself to my feet, I pace the length of my small cell. Why would the witches lock me up instead of just getting rid of me while I was unconscious? I stop pacing and close my eyes.
Jesse. Of course. They want to use me as bait. There’s no doubt he’ll come for me, and when he does, they can ambush him.
I guess killing me and waiting for him to die as a result doesn’t fit in their timeline.
I’ve got to get out of here. I move to the door and lean my shoulder into it. I push with all my might, but it’s solid. Moving back, I try kicking it open like people do in the movies, but all I get is a sore ankle.
“There’s no use.” I stiffen as Tamelen’s face appears in the window. “This door is solid steel and protected by a barrier spell. You’re not going anywhere.”
Then, as if to negate her words, the sound of a latch releasing echoes around me, and the door swings inward. So much for pushing on it.
Tamelen stands over the threshold. In her hands is a bowl of something hot and steamy. The scent of beef stew makes my stomach growl, but I ignore my hunger and prepare myself to launch forward. This may be my only chance to escape.
Letting out a primal yell, I rush toward the door. Tamelen doesn’t even flinch. I realize I’m going to run right into her, but that doesn’t stop me from barreling through the opening.
No, what stops me is an invisible barrier that feels like running into a lightly padded brick wall. I bounce off it, stumbling back and landing on my ass with a dull thud. Pain radiates through my tailbone, but it doesn’t bother me nearly as much as Tamelen’s dark chuckle.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” she says with a smirk.
“Bitch,” I mutter, climbing back to my feet.
“Now, now. No need for name calling.”
“Do you like traitor better?”
“Going against my own kind would be the true betrayal,” she says. “The vampires are our sworn enemies. Don’t blame me for Franklin and Jesse’s gullibility.”
I ignore her attempts to goad me and study the doorway between us. If I squint just right, I can see the barrier shimmering. Like a mirage in the desert.
Steph and Bernadette’s voices ring in my ears, reciting the spells to create and dissolve a barrier like this one. Focusing all of my energy, I start to whisper the words I memorized while watching them practice together. My voice grows in volume as something tingles under my skin.
“Stupid woman,” Tamelen says, her gaze narrowing with anger. “Only witches should know those words. They had no right to teach them to you.”
I continue to chant as a hollow feeling blooms in my gut. It rises up through me, surrounding my pounding heart before traveling up my throat. The feeling spreads, leaving me weightless as my voice echoes off the stone walls surrounding me.
“Stop this, Eden. You’re not a witch. It isn’t going to work,” Tamelen shouts over my booming voice, but I barely hear her as I rush forward.
This is it. Either it works, and I’m free, or I knock myself unconscious. Either way, I have to try.
I slam into the barrier, but instead of bouncing off it as I did before, I keep moving forward. The barrier collapses with an audible pop just before I crash into Tamelen. The bowl of stew hits the floor with a crash, and Tamelen slams into the wall behind her before dropping to the floor.
I stumble back a step and look down at her, horror washing through me as I watch red blood pool around her head. I can’t tell if she’s breathing, and I fight the urge to drop down and check for a pulse.
She’s complicit in kidnapping Steph and me, and she’s holding me captive to use me as bait to murder my mate. I don’t know if that means she deserves to die, but she definitely doesn’t deserve my concern. Or my guilt.
Hopping over her prone form, I run. The hallway is lit by dim wall sconces every few feet, and there are several other doors lining the walls with grated windows like the one that locked me in my cell.
When I reach the end, there’s a normal wooden door with a knob. Grabbing it, I grunt with relief when it turns with the slightest effort and the door swings open. My relief fades when I realize it’s just a small storage closet, but I jump inside anyway and close the door behind me.
I need a few minutes to come down from the adrenaline rush of escaping and figure out what to do next. Spotting a small window near the ceiling, I grab an empty bucket and flip it over. Climbing onto the bucket, I rise up on my tiptoes and peer through the glass.
All I can see is a large grass lawn and the blue sky above. I’m obviously in a basement, because the grass is level with the bottom of the window. There are no landmarks to give me any hint as to where I might be.
Climbing off the bucket, I sit down on it and take a few deep breaths as questions roll through my mind on repeat.
