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“Jax…” I warned.
“I’m going in there,” he stated with a determined gleam in his eye. “We’ve got to get the rest of them out.”
“We don’t know what might happen to a living soul if one of those vines touches you.”
“Mel will keep me centered.”
“Can you two give us a minute?” I asked, yanking on Jax’s elbow.
I hated feeling helpless when it came to my brother.
When we were a short distance from Nico and Mel, but out of earshot due to the eerie sounds coming from the pit, I confronted him. “You look miserable. I want to make sure you’re not on some suicide mission because of Nico.”
Jax glared at me but didn’t immediately reply. Something passed behind his eyes, an emotion I couldn’t identify before it disappeared. Normally, I could read my brother like an open book.
“What did Nico say to you back at the safehouse when Mel and I gave you two some privacy? Tell me that’s not what’s driving you to this crazy scheme.”
“It’s not…” He broke eye contact, staring over my shoulder back at Nico and Mel. “Yeah, okay, he said stupid shit. It doesn’t matter, I just…” He shrugged.
I sighed. I couldn’t believe we were having this conversation right now, but I couldn’t let Jax throw his life away just because of a lover’s spat. “Jax, people say dumb things when they’re upset. Especially people like Nico, who never learned to talk about their feelings. Remember how Mel and I pushed each other away at the beginning, and how you kept trying to bring us back together?”
Jax nodded, but his shoulders were still slumped. “I know but… Nico and I have spent so much time pushing each other away… I think the gulf is too wide to cross now.”
“You’re wrong.”
Jax’s head whipped up, his eyes blazing with misery and hope.
“Nico wants you, Jax. He’s trying. So you have to survive. For Mel, if no one else. Don’t do this.” I gestured to the pit.
“This is where you’re wrong, brother. If I can inscribe my sigils down there, I’m going to teleport those spirits at the very least, and maybe us as well. One way or another, we’re leaving this place together. We got separated from Mel in here once before. I’m not doing it again. I saved my teleportation for exactly that scenario. We’re leaving together if we’re leaving at all.”
He brushed past me, and my hopes fell. Jax was going in there whether I liked it or not, putting himself in grave danger.
Mel pulled Jax to her and gave him a hasty kiss. “I love you. Thank you for risking yourself for my mother.”
Neither of them gave me another glance as she stepped on her magic circle, which glowed a pale cyan as she activated it. Without hesitating, she gently lifted Jax off of the uneven terrain. He held his wand in one hand his quicksilver blade in the other, for all the good it would do him. We’d already seen that the vines were unaffected by fire magic, but perhaps he’d have more luck with quicksilver.
“Be careful, Jax,” Nico called, his eyebrows drawn down.
Mel levitated my brother far up into the air before positioning him over the center of the pit. I appreciated that she carefully kept him clear of the vines, centering him before lowering him into the pit, but I still found myself holding my breath as they implemented their insane plan.
The vines that weren’t busy torturing witch spirits stretched from the edge of the pit as far as they could toward the center… toward Jax. My lungs burned for air as I stared at my brother hovering above near-certain doom. But even the longest vine didn’t come anywhere close to reaching the center of the pit. The spirits — and Jax — were safe as long as they didn’t approach the perimeter.
The vines’ distraction with Jax was just what the spirits needed. Even more of them made a break for it, and this time, most of them succeeded in floating free of the pit. Without anything keeping them chained here, they passed us by, seeking a quick exit from this hellhole.
At last, Jax’s feet touched the ground at the center of the pit. His first sigil easily burned into the tan earth, and he wasted no time drawing his large magic circle around him. Spirits surrounded him, some watching what he was doing, others warily watching the vines.
Jax yelled something, but we couldn’t hear him over the wailing of spirits still trapped in the vines. We had to get them free.
“We can’t leave any of them behind,” I said just as Mel stepped forward onto her magic circle.
She reached her hands into the smoke and shadows, her brows furrowing in concentration. If it hadn’t been such dire circumstances, I would’ve called her cute. From the corner of my eye, I saw a massive shadow come careening out of the smoke toward us and instinctively stepped in front of Mel.
“Move, asshole,” she grumbled, ducking her head to see around me.
Then she levitated what looked to be a giant chunk of slate over to the pit and smashed it into the top of the vines, where they originated in the trench. Dark flames from the trench rippled along the edges of the stone, but had no effect. But the vines she’d crushed? They twitched and released the spirits in their clutches, then twisted and tried to push the stone off of their roots.
Mel pulled the stone back before they could, using it to smash into other vines along the perimeter of the pit just as Jax finished his circle.
