I hear a mild scuffle behind me and I wish I could turn to see what was going on but I’m pretty much locked in being a conduit for Asher as he works.
“Dude stop trying to get past him he’s not going to let you get to Sage.” Kyle chuckles.
“But why won’t he?” Kai whines.
I manage to look over my shoulder without breaking the contact with Asher just in time to see Ghost pick up a rock roll his eyes at Kai which makes my grin widen and then he throws the stone at me and Asher. He is so focused on the door that he doesn’t even realise that anything has been going on. Three out of seven of the stones are now dulled instead of glowing so I’m guessing that he’s on the right track.
The guys call out in surprise starting to admonish Ghost who completely ignores them, the stone gets a few centimetres away before it hits some sort of force field surrounding us that’s invisible to the naked eye. As soon as it hits it, it completely obliterates and turns the stone to dust.
“Ah so that’s why we can’t get near them. I got you.” Kai says after a couple of moments of silence and we all end up chuckling. “No touchy, touchy.”
Ghost rolls his eyes at him.
“Sassy bird.” Kai retorts.
I chuckle at their exchange, the others grinning.
It falls silent again as we all turn to watch Asher again. He’s managed to get two more of the stones to dull and I try to feed him with more power so that he can get the last two stones to unlock.
He smiles at me gratefully and it only takes him a couple more minutesto finally get the last two stones to unlock.
We all gather around the door, our weapons ready as Levi prepares to open it. He counts down and on three pulls the door open. I have no idea what I thought would be on the other side but it sure as hell wasn’t a set of stone steps twice the size of a normal set of stairs and full of around one hundred cautiously hopeful yet still terrified faces.
“We’ve been waiting for you child.” The woman at the very front says directly to me.
I study her in shock. She is the only supernatural that I have seen so far with grey hair that actually looks older than thirty. She must be ancient I’d be willing to bet that she is one of the original Centre’s to be taken.
“Sagely-Wren!” The distinctive voice of my mother rings out and I’m quickly embraced in her arms as my dads all push their way forward past the elderly Centre who moves to the side with ethereal grace.
Chapter Twenty-Five
My mom finally lets me go and I take a step back and look at them all standing on the steps leading down into what looks like from here to be a huge cavern.
Holy fuck I know that I knew that they were in here but the reality of the sheer number of them is finally starting to sink.
“I’m sorry I know you guys want to catch up and reunite but we really need to get going.” Levi says firmly but gently at the same time I have no idea how he manages to do it so flawlessly.
“Yes of course.” Thomas says, his voice just as serious.
“Is this all of you?” Levi asks taking the lead and directing the question to the elder Centre who is clearly the leader as all of the others stay silent and wary behind her.
“Yes dear.” The elder replies her voice soft and calm despite the horrific things she must’ve been through in her life.
“I thought there would be more of you.” Kysen comments, frowning.
“There were.” She replies sadness shadowing her eyes. “Some of them didn’t have enough faith that you were coming. They’ve been through a hell of a lot and decided to try and escape. They were caught and we were made to watch as the Order brutally murder them all deeming them too much of a risk and not worth keeping alive in case they convinced the rest of us to try and escape.”
“They murdered one hundred and fifty of us.” My dad growls.
“That’s fucking disgusting.” Ty snaps.
My blood boils as rage tries to consume my vision and sadness takes root deep in my soul.
“I’m so sorry. They will pay.” Levi says sadness and anger fighting for dominance in his voice, he takes a deep breath trying to calm himself before continuing. “Are you all well enough to travel? Its not going to be easy to get you out.”
“They haven’t brought any infants in for years so our youngest are around fourteen or so. We are all physically fine but when they have no use for us they give us something that suppresses our gifts. We are magicallyuseless and unfortunately anyone who was caught practising any sort of fight skills was punished so it became too dangerous. We only have minimal skills in that area to. Apart from the older of us who were trained in the old ways. We are more than capable to help take out a few of the bastards.” She grins viciously.
She is truly an inspiration after all they’ve clearly been through she hasn’t lost her fight, I admire that.
