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There’s no way they would have let her come alone.
It takes a second for Cheryl’s announcement to sink in, but when it does, the ball of dread in my stomach grows arms and legs and starts beating me up from the inside out.
No. Fucking hell, no. I can’t lose my pack like this. I need to get to them.
Running for the gate, I stop short when I blink and find myself on the porch, next to Cheryl, Amanda and Noah. Before we can move to the door, we’re swept inside by an invisible force, dragged into the hallway one by one and dropped onto the rickety floor.
I look up into the rain as the floor rumbles under us, feeling like the mouth of something monstrous that hasn’t been fed in a damned long time. The rain’s still pouring down as the house plummets downward, mud starting to slide into the hall from the open entrance.
We’re thrown into the air and Cheryl does something magical to stop us from smacking back into the floor. The feeling of floating might be more fun if it didn’t feel like the landslide of mud that keeps coming in the door was going to bury us in this hallway. It’s coming in too fast. Bringing water with it.
“What was that?” I ask, keeping my voice low.
“It’s how he makes sure his debts are paid,” Cheryl says.
“I think I might puke,” Noah groans, looking a little green.
She touches his hand, and he sighs in relief.
“You’ll be okay,” she murmurs.
He looks normal now. He nods.
Cheryl moves toward the staircase, motioning to us to do the same. “Everyone follow me. We need to get to the highest point in the building. It’s where they’ll be.”
She meanseveryone.My pack, and the Dark Lord.
The first few stairs are already covered in mud. It must be sliding in the broken windows, as well as the doorway. All the rooms have broken windows. There’s no way this place is ever coming back out of the ground.
We float around, following Cheryl and Amanda up the staircase. When we hit the third floor, she lowers everyone to the ground gently.
I can see a mass of forest growing to our right, and the left looks kind of like it’s decked out in the same carpet and wallpaper that’s in my living room at home. The wallpaper is a leafy pattern, and it’s absolutely atrocious. I don’t know where his aunt got it, but I’m surprised Silas has never insisted on changing it.
“What is this?” I ask as we take in the weird surroundings.
“It’s fucking weird,” Noah mutters.
“I don’t know,” Cheryl admits. “It doesn’t feel like magic, exactly. I’m guessing it has something to do with the spirits.”
“Wait,” I mutter. “I think I remember Silas saying something about a kind of poltergeist that can create illusions. Maybe that’s what this is?”
“It could be,” Cheryl says. “Do you remember anything else that he said? Did he mention what to do if you might have to walk through one of those illusions?”
I shake my head. “It was a really boring conversation. I zoned out a bit.”
“So, what do we do?” Amanda asks. “Can we just cast a spell to locate everyone?”
Cheryl shakes her head. “I can sense how many of us are in the house, but something’s stopping me from casting a locator. They must have some blocks against magic in here.”
“Goddess, I can’t even teleport to the other side of the room,” Amanda says, clearly alarmed by the discovery.
I don’t blame her. We dragged her and Cheryl out here and they might not be able to help us by the looks of things. Dante and Kelly didn’t arrive before the house sank so they’re not going to be able to get inside.
Cheryl clears her throat. “Okay, listen up. We stick together, and we search this place until we find the stairs that lead to the attic. This isn’t quite the highest point in the house. We need to get up there.”
We nod in agreement, and she points out the side with the atrocious wallpaper.
“This way. Look for hatch access above, or stairs off to one of the sides. It might be harder to see what’s actually there because of the illusion so everyone take your time and feel your way along the walls as we go.” She moves forward, hand out to the wall. “Let’s go.”
