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I again glanced into the pit from our vantage point, safely in the periphery zone. In fact, there were dozens and dozens of translucent human figures at the bottom of the pit. Perhaps almost a hundred. None of them looked up at us; they merely drifted over the tan earth of the bottom, staying well clear of the orange-tinged vines that ringed the perimeter of their prison.
“Why aren’t any demons attacking?” Hudson asked uneasily, facing the dense smoke at our backs.
Tempest’s answer was ominous.“Andras sent them elsewhere.”
“What do we do, Tempest?” I asked. We needed to rescue Mel’s mother and get away from this creepy place. “What’s keeping the souls trapped?”
“When they get desperate enough to attempt to climb the walls, the vines feed off of them, causing excruciating pain. Sometimes, a spirit attempts to flee while another keeps the vines distracted. Unfortunately, their souls are tethered here.”
“I’ll watch our backs,” Nico offered as the rest of us stepped closer to the pit to see what she meant.
Thin bands of sickly yellow magic wrapped around the spirits’ arms, ankles, and throats, tethering them to a point in the far wall on the infernal realm side. Magic chained the witches’ souls here, making escape impossible.
“What if we destroy the hook they’re all leashed to?” Hudson asked.
“You must, in order to free them,”Tempest agreed.
“Can a teleportation circle move spirits?” I wondered aloud.
To invoke the power of my magic circle, I would need to touch its outer ring. Which meant I would have to go down into the pit if I really wanted to try this. The thought sent goosebumps prickling along my skin.
“No.” Nico turned back to grab my upper arm. “I’m not letting you go down in there.”
“Letting me?” I scoffed and shrugged off his hold. Then I jerked my head behind us. “You’re supposed to be watching our backs.”
Nico’s concern for my safety made me feel strange and uneasy, but I wouldn’t let him see me hesitate. Not when he’d been forced to save my ass earlier.
“I’ve never seen vines reach the center of the pit,”Tempest mused.
“But he would have to cross the vines to get down to the center,” Hudson pointed out, his voice tight. My brother never liked it when I took risks, unless he went with me. It had been that way since the childhood accident that had earned me my scar.
Mel took a deep breath, but she didn’t have to say a word. With her own magic circle, she could lift me up and place me in the pit. We could do this. The plan formed in my mind’s eye. And yet…
A pit at the edge of hell, filled with vines capable of torturing witches’ spirits? We didn’t know much about how all the magic worked here.
“What if we kill the vines?” Hudson cast a brilliant orange fireball at them, but it seemed to go right through them. The flames crashed on the edge of the pit, illuminating the vines from the inside out. They weren’t physical vines, but magical ones, and his flame had no effect other than to illuminate them.
Nico also reached a hand toward the pit. His brow furrowed with concentration, and the earth around us shook. He planted his feet, raised both arms, and gritted his teeth. The earthquake shook even harder.
After another moment, Nico’s shoulders slumped, his arms fell to his sides, and the ground stilled. “I can’t budge the earth of the pit at all. Like it’s… made of something else.”
“Then we don’t know if you could even inscribe your sigils in the ground down there,” Hudson told me. He stated it as though that would be enough to discount my plan, as though that was the end of that.
“I can at least try,” I argued. “And Mel can lift me back out if not.”
“I don’t like it,” Nico ground out, as though he had some say over how I used my own magic.
I gritted my teeth, prepared to argue with him as well, when Hudson added, “Teleporting them won’t do any good if they’re still tethered.”
“Then figure it out!” Mel shouted. “Stop telling us what won’t work, and start helping us figure out what will.” She took a deep breath, before glancing quickly each of us, guilt clearly etched in her expression. “Sorry, I just…”
Hudson pulled her against his chest and kissed her forehead. “We’ll figure it out together.”
“Tempest, do you know how we can destroy the vines? Or the hook the tethers are attached to?” Mel asked.
Since it was on the far side of the pit, I wasn’t sure how we could reach it with any degree of accuracy. Tempest had already told us that wading into the center of the eternally burning moat was out.
“The vines…”The hellfox paused, and even the lightning in her tail went out.“They’re fundamental to the infernal realm’s nature. I don’t know if it’s possible. But the hook itself… it should fall to magical attacks.”
