If you’d won, the Warden would have the demigods he wanted,Oberi pointed out. For once, he wasn’t being snarky. He was trying to help, though it didn’t make me feel any better about what Alice had gone through.Who knows what would happen then?
“Exactly,” Ava replied. “We need to figure that out. Let’s keep moving.”
No one moved to leave the room, though. I was still trying to wrap my head around what happened there.
Oberi pushed his head against my hip.Come on. We don’t know how much time we have.
I forced myself to move, and we continued down the hall. Ava tried the next door, but the doorknob didn’t budge. Tingles spread across my skin.
Ava turned to Kallie. “You can pick this lock, right?”
“Hang on,” I said. Before Kallie could answer, I stepped forward and splayed my hand over the door. Energy buzzed through me. “There’s magic here— a ward of some sort. We aren’t getting through. If we try, the Warden will be immediately alerted that we’re here.”
“Unless we break it,” Marcus said. He strode up to the door and nudged me aside to inspect it. “Remember, I can break wards with my Curse Breaker powers. Usually, Curse Breakers can only work with witch powers, andsometimesfae powers, because their magic is so similar.”
“But this is the Warden,” Kallie said hopelessly. “You broke Hemlock’s ward because she’s fae, but this is angel magic.”
“And we’re demigods,” Marcus pointed out. “If I can overpower his ward, I can break it.”
“We can’t reinstate the ward like I did to Hemlock’s room,” Kallie stated.
“Doesn’t matter,” Marcus said. “This is bigger than us. We need to figure out whatever he’s hiding. At least if I break the ward, it buys us time. The Warden won’t know we were down here until we’re long gone.”
“Do you think you can do it?” Ava sounded uncertain.
Marcus hesitated. He may be a demigod, but he had yet to truly embrace his powers. He constantly held himself back. I wasn’t sure he could do this unless he believed in himself.
I placed a hand on his shoulder. “You can do this, Marcus. I believe in you. We all do.”
He drew a deep breath, like he was trying to work up the courage. “Everybody stand back.”
“Is it dangerous?” Kallie asked in a shaky breath.
“To break this, I have to transform the magic into something else,” Marcus said thoughtfully. “It has to be similar to a ward, and wards are protection magic, so I could make a shield.”
“Let’s get to work, then,” I stated.
I could hear Marcus rubbing his hands over the door. He drew several deep breaths, then began muttering to himself. “I’ve got this. I can do this. It’s simple.”
I knew the second Marcus began his spell, because I could feel the magic shifting around us. It was like an electrical current that made my hair stand on end. Something moved deep in the earth below us. I didn’t think the girls felt it, and I wouldn’t have either, if it wasn’t for my Nivita magic.
Marcus groaned, like he was trying to lift twice his body weight. The spell was too much for him. The ground began to tremble, and I was certain this time everyone could feel it.
Ava grabbed on to me to steady herself. “What’s going on?”
I don’t like this,Oberi said in a shaky tone. Rishi meowed loudly.
“Marcus, you need to stop!” I cried.
“I’m almost there,” he replied.
Kallie squealed as the ground began to shake more violently. I could hardly stay upright, and I had to steady myself against the wall. Dust rained down on us from above, and bones fell from their crevices in the stone wall and crashed to the floor. I could feel with my Earth magic that the entire Underground was losing its structural integrity.
I began to panic. I stumbled toward Marcus and yanked on his shoulder. “If you don’t stop now, this whole place is going to cave in!”
“If I stop, we’ll never get inside!” Marcus protested. He shoved his elbow into my chest, and I stumbled backward. I landed on the ground, and Kallie and Ava screamed as they fell over from the violent tremors.
“We’ll die!” I shot back. Of fucking course, Marcus had to be bravenow, when it could kill us.
