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“We have to move fast,” Mom said, and I nodded. She was right, we had no choice. Erol was here to kill anyone who stood in his way, and we had to get out as fast as we could.
Flashes of the night we’d escaped from the dungeon came to me, and my stomach curled and twisted. I felt sick, and I worried I would throw up as we ran.
Mom somehow found the way to the dungeon. I hesitated at the top of the stairs that spiraled downward. It was like a black hole, and I was terrified if we went in there, it would suck in our freedom, and we would be stuck down there again.
Erol’s power pushed against me from behind. He was on his way, following us—following the light. It was ironic that the very thing I’d wanted him to do all this time was what would allow him to kill us. We were beacons of light in the darkness, and he was on his way, not to join us, but to eradicate the light once and for all.
Fear laced every decision, every thought, every breath I took.
Nylah turned to me. “It’s not your fear.”
She’d taught so many people that exact thing. This fear didn’t belong to me, it was born from dark magic, and it was the essence of Conjurite magic.
I didn’t tell her that a lot of it was my own fear as well. It didn’t matter.
I took the first step down, and another, and another. I hoped that with every step, it would get easier, but it didn’t. I felt like we were descending into hell itself.
When we stood in the long hallway between the cell doors, I moaned with fear and anguish. This was it; we’d reached hell.
“Marilla!” Mom shouted, running from cell to cell, seemingly unbothered by the memories of our time here.
“Over here! Vanya!” Marilla called out, and we moved to the only closed door. The dungeons had been empty for a long time, but that didn’t make any of this easier.
The door was jammed shut by magic. Mom rattled it, tried to open it, to no avail.
“We’ve tried for hours,” Agatha said on the other side. “I don’t know how we got here, it was this darkness that dragged us down, and now we can’t use our power to get it open.”
The hexed stones in the wall, I realized. They prisoners couldn’t use their magic.
But we weren’t prisoners. We could still do what needed to be done.
“We have to do it together,” I said.
I flattened my hands against the thick metal door. A shiver traveled through my body.
Erol was at the top of the stairs. His darkness preceded him, a force to be reckoned with. It crept down the stairs, slowly, a predator looking for its next kill.
“Come on,” I urged Mom and Nylah.
Mom’s eyes were wide, rolling in her sockets. She felt the pain of the past, too. Memories plagued her as much as they plagued me.
“As soon as we get them out, we can get out, too,” I reminded her. It looked like we took turns being strong for each other.
Mom and Nylah flattened their hands against the door just as I did, and we turned our attention inward, to the light within us. We tapped into the same collective power, into the light Terra had put into us. The metal door warmed under my palms, and a moment later, the lock clicked open.
Marilla swung the door open from the inside. She looked haggard, her hair matted and knotted, her face dirty. Her eyes were sunken, and she was skin and bones. Agatha looked just as bad—it looked as if they’d been down here for years and not just a day.
“We don’t have time,” I said when Mom stared at them in horror, trying to find the right words.
The darkness was on us, and if we waited a second longer, trying to escape would be pointless—we would be dead. I had no doubt that Erol had only one goal in mind: to kill us all.
Zita and Nylah sprang into action, grabbing Marilla and Agatha by the hand.
“This way!” I called, and they followed. Mom finally sprung to motion and brought up the rear as I followed the all-too familiar route to the dining hall where we’d eaten so many meals as prisoners.
The hall was deserted, a thick layer of dust covering everything. The large counters with food dishes were empty. I was acutely aware of the lack of guards.
We ran toward the kitchen. This was how we’d escaped last time.
