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Close your eyes, open your mind, and see what's right in front of you.
My chest heaved as I sucked in one ragged breath after the next. Who was she and why did the sound of her voice hurt my heart so much to hear?
I squeezed my eyes shut tight, doing as she bid. My heartbeat slowed down to a crawl as I forced my body to relax.
Voices came from somewhere in the dark behind me as someone crashed loudly through the woods. They were looking for me, coming to my aid, not knowing that I'd willingly wandered off into the woods on my own. Likely they thought me a dumb girl too stupid for her own good who'd wandered off in the dark and needed a male to come to her rescue and save her. Maybe at one time I'd been that girl, but no more. Those days were long since over. It hadn't happened when Vivian had died. It hadn't even happened when Rain came into my life. But somewhere along the way I'd learned to stand on my own two feet and how to fight back. I had a feeling it had a lot to do with my coven believing in me. Their faith meant everything.
I opened my eyes and looked around, seeing things in a new light.
Behind the vines covering the big, old tree in front of me, an opening appeared beside the tree. I pressed forward, shoving vines out of my way, careful not to trip over any of the giant roots sticking out of the ground. Several trees were clumped together and covered in long vines. I walked up to the opening and swept the hanging vines out of the way.
A dark cave appeared. The cold, icy air that blasted out of the darkness sent an ominous shiver racing down my spine. Death lurked inside this cave, I could sense it. It waited for me to discover it inside its dark depths.
I had a feeling I knew what else waited for me inside, and it wasn't something I could run away from and leave behind. It was the sole reason behind my coming into the woods tonight. The reason why I'd done all the awful things I'd had to do as of late. There was no turning back now.
I held up my hand, flicked my fingers together, and a flame burst to life in the palm of my outstretched hand. The heat of the flame didn't burn me, it only served to light my way.
The vines fell closed behind me with a slight rustle as I stepped into the cave without looking back. The crashing sounds of men coming through the woods faded away to nothing with the closing of the vines behind me. If not for the flame in my hand, I would have been plunged into complete blackness.
My body immediately began to shiver as the cold seeped into my exposed skin. I wrapped the long, heavy robe tightly around myself with my free hand that was not holding the flame out in front of me. The hood covering my head was large enough that only my face was exposed to the bitter cold.
The walls on the cave glistened with the ice covering them. The dirt and pebbles on the ground crunched under my feet with each step I took further into the cave. I cursed the heels I'd been forced to wear, missing my combat boots that laced all the way up to mid calf. I supposed I should have just simply been happy I wasn't wearing flip-flops, I would have lost those suckers on my run through the woods, not to mention my little toes would have probably gotten frostbite in here. The black kitten heels sucked, but at least my toes were covered. Not so much for the tops of my feet. The robe swished when I walked and brushed over the tops of my feet, but no warmth came from it. I wished I could hold my hands up in front of my face and blow my heated breath into my cupped palms, but I would rather freeze to death than be plunged into darkness.
I followed the path that took me deeper into the cave and what felt like further into the ground. I could see my breath in front of my face, and the further along I went, the colder it seemed to get.
I came to a fork in the path. Left or right? Which way to take to get to where I needed to be?
Something in my chest tightened and instinctively I knew to go left.
My footsteps echoed against the walls with each step I took, making me flinch with each and every noise. The urge to look back over my shoulder was strong, but I fought it, too terrified to look back into the dark behind me, and pushed forward.
It felt like I walked for forever, hours and hours on end, before a large, wooden door appeared out of the dark in front of me. I paused, hesitating before reaching out. My palm slid across the smooth wood, sensing something ingrained in the surface. Magic, old, and probably placed there by a witch with a great deal of power. It had faded through time and the death of its creator.
I had no idea how long the Council had been in possession of the motel they were staying in, but I had to assume now after everything I'd learned about them that they had it far longer than Quinton and my coven had known of its existence. Up until now, I'd been unable to figure out why. Feeling the magic left here by someone very powerful a long time ago, I was beginning to understand why the Council would be drawn to this place, especially if there was more than just this down here. Perhaps the Council had been here the whole time and it had been an original member responsible for this. But the question ate at me—why hadn't my coven known anything about it? Quinton’s and Tyson's families had grown up in the area we lived in now, you'd think they would have known if the Council had been their neighbors the whole time. Right?
The door opened with just my touch. I hadn't even had to concentrate on it, it just swung right open. I didn't want to think about that, whether it was a trick or not, but I stepped through anyway.
Moonlight was the first thing I noticed. I blinked several times, trying to allow my eyes to adjust to the difference in the light.
I looked up, seeking out the moon, and my eyes widened at the sight before me. My hand closed around the flame in my palm, dousing the fire. I stepped free of the door and it creaked loudly as it closed behind me. The noise made me flinch, and I frantically looked around to see if there was anyone around to hear it.
As far as I could tell, I was still very much alone. And that worked just fine for me. For now.
I'd walked into some type of old building that had perhaps been a house at one point in time. The ceiling several floors above me was half gone, which was where the moonlight came in from. The floors above had holes all over the place and was mostly missing on the first floor above my head. A set of wooden stairs was directly across the room from me and it actually looked sturdy enough to walk up. Who knew though, I wasn't about to test it at the moment so I could fall through a step.
The walls were brick and covered in years of grime. It looked to be a basement of some kind, with tiny, rectangular windows up high on the walls. The glass had been long since gone from the windows and the floor was covered in dirt and things I didn't want to know about.
The only positives I could see were the light and the fact I no longer felt like I might freeze to death. It was still cold, just not bitter, and it didn't hurt to breathe anymore.
Careful not to step on something and find myself face down in the dirt, I walked around the room.
Underneath the stairs was an open doorway with a set of stairs that went down, down, down into a whole new level of darkness. I felt claustrophobic just looking down there and I hadn't even taken a step down yet.
I felt that tugging again in my chest, coming from my soul, telling me I was headed in the right direction and down, down, down into the blackness I needed to go.
I was starting to think this whole thing just wasn't worth it, but it was far too late to turn back now, and second-guessing myself and doubting really wasn't doing anything good for me.
I held up my hand and flicked my fingers together again, snapping and bringing another flame to life in my palm.
