Page 86 of Rogue Witch

“She has been through a great deal,” he cuts in. “She deserves better than to be dragged back to The Academy by Watchmen.”

I can’t stop him from going. Raith can.

“Let’s go see, Raith.”

“You can fill him in. I’ll head to the potionary.”

Yeah, the only way to stop him is by force, and that would raise too many suspicions. If Leilah were any other student, I would be sending him on his way.

“Let’s go,” I say.

We head out and I pull my phone from my jacket pocket and text Raith.

Leilah left Academy grounds—I’ll explain how later. Domini is insisting on going after her. We’re on our way to the potionary. I’m taking the long way. I suggest you try to get there first.

Ethan

Chapter Thirty-Seven

LEILAH

I open the basement door and stare down into the darkness. I’m going to live in this house for the rest of my life. I can’t be afraid of the basement. The washer and dryer are in the basement. The thought makes me laugh. Yeah, I have to conquer my fear so that I can do laundry. I look at Stony. There’s no leaving her here. She’ll just shift into a monkey or something and open the door, then follow me down the stairs.

“You have to get down the stairs on your own,” I say. “You’re too heavy for me to carry.

She gives an indignant sniff.

“You’re the one who finished off the lo mien and fried rice.” I flip on the light switch.

Stony shifts into a mouse and quickly climbs up my pant leg, then my sleeve to my shoulder. I start down the stairs. The fourth step doesn’t creak like I remember. Now that I look closely, the stairs look new. Three quarters of the way down, I catch sight of the hole in the cement to the left. I continue to the bottom, then cross to the hole. Stony squeaks.

“Yeah,” I say. “I thought the hole would be bigger, too.”

I’d expected a hole the size of an abyss, but it’s only about a foot deep and didn’t break through the cement to the ground below the house, much less into the ground. Stupid, I guess. It’s not as if the hole would really open into Hell—or Shadow Hell.

I groan. “Grams, you really did lose your marbles.”

I recall her words in the book I must give Leilah a chance at a real life.

My heart squeezes. “Damn you, Grams.”

Had guilt driven her to grasp at straws in an effort to find absolution for abandoning me? Now that’s stupid. Grams was a tough old bird. Her body would go long before her mind. Right or wrong, she believed what she wrote in that book. If I’m honest, she was right far more often than she was wrong. She believed the god of the angels had to be freed…to help fight The Shadows? If He really is locked in Hell, could that be why The Shadows were so powerful during the last war? They were also very powerful during the fifth century war in Greece. His angels hadn’t done a great deal to help us during the war. Was their power diminished with Him in Hell?

If He really is locked in Hell, why isn’t that public knowledge? The answer is too easy. No way the angels would want that tidbit to make the evening news. If demons knew the god of the angels was trapped in Hell, they would call forth the four horsemen and we would be living Armageddon, baby. Yeah, I can see why the angels would keep that secret. How did Grams find out?

I track my gaze around the hole. We love to think of Hell as down below, but it’s just another plane of existence that sometimes intersects with ours. That hasn’t happened since the Hell Gates were locked, though. So why does it feel like we intersect with Hell all the time?

I recall Raith and the sadness and hurt in his eyes when Nova stabbed him. Raith has had one foot in Hell since that day just as I have since the day Grams locked her door against me.

I squat and Stony scampers down my arm to the concrete, then shifts back into a pig. I touch the edge of the hole. Grams wasn’t trying to dig her way into Hell. The Shadow magic she used was so powerful it simply blasted a hole in the concrete.

“If Grams wanted to open the Hell Gates, why try to enter Shadow Hell?” I murmur.

Stony’s brows scrunch in an approximation of a frown and she grunts, “Good question.”

“Grams said that if she didn’t return, Olympia was going to have to follow her. Did she mean follow her into Shadow Hell?”

Stony nods.