Page 60 of Shadowed Spirits

My white Chucks squeak on the floor as I pace, but I don’t have it in me to care right now. I wipe my clammy hands off on my ripped light-wash jeans and fidget with my black band tee, making sure it’s perfectly tucked for the hundredth time.

We’re checking whether Lua is here every five minutes, but the wait is excruciating. We’ve been up since midnight, not wanting to chance missing her arrival. It’s now nine in the morning, and we’re all pretty worn out and on edge. If our next check doesn’t yield anything useful, I’m going to suggest that the guys just go to bed. I can wake them up if I find anything.

“It’s time, wildcat.” Luca’s deep, rumbling voice jolts me from my thoughts.

Looking up at him with slightly wild eyes, I give him a jerky nod. I drag my feet as I approach the map, unsure whether I’m more nervous that there won’t be anything or that Lua is here. Blowing out a breath that ruffles the strands of my blonde hair floating around my face, I call on mycuramagic. I’ve gotten a ton of practice with it the past week, and it’s almost second nature to use it now.

As my magic funnels into the compass and surrounds it in a purple glow, I hold my breath as I wait for it to do something. I let out a disappointed exhale when the compass just sits there like a hunk of stone. I’m turning away when I hear something scrape behind me. Whirling back, I see the small gold pendant scuttling across the map, the purple needle frantically wavering back and forth.

We all crowd around the map as we wait to see where the compass lands. When it reaches Italy, the pendant stops moving and the purple haze surrounding it fades.

I look up at Luca with wide eyes. “I guess we’re going to Italy.”

He nods solemnly before we all rush around to get our last-minute preparations done. At some point, Bishop slips a bulletproof vest over my head. I glare at him, but he smirks at me and returns to packing up his bag.

Since it’s not worth the fight, I keep the silly looking black vest on and sling my purple backpack over my shoulder. It’spacked with all sorts of attack, defense, and healing potions from Gran. I’m still trying to adjust to the fact that Anya’s actually Gran, but I haven’t had much time to focus on anything other than Lua for the past week. Once my bag is secure, I swipe the compass and put it around my neck, the cool weight of it comforting against my breastbone.

No more than a minute after the compass showed us where to go, we congregate around Levi. He opens a rift to the Italian mountainside. Since we already know where the cave is, we can portal right to it. Because we don’t know what to expect, we’re starting outside the entrance. That way, we can hopefully assess the situation, rather than walking blindly into a trap.

Levi is the first through the portal, and I follow right behind him. While the wolves and Bishop don’t like me going ahead of them, Levi and I going first is the smart move. We’re the two most powerful magic users of our group, so we have the best chance to defend against any ambush or attack.

Stepping through the portal, I’m relieved that everything is calm, albeit wet. It’s a light rain that doesn’t soak through my jacket, but it does dampen the toes of my Converse. Once everyone is through, we make the short trek up the slippery mountainside to the rocky cave. This is supposedly one of the places Doyle met Lua. At the cave entrance, I pull out the compass and feed it a bit more of my magic. When the indicator points into the cave, I know we’re in the right place.

A large part of me wants to leave and pretend we couldn’t find Lua. While burying my head in the sand is appealing, it doesn’t keep the people I care about safe. So, even though my hands are shaking and my heart is pounding with how terrified I am that something will happen to my mates, I still start walking toward the entrance.

Predictably, Levi quickens his pace to reach the entrance first. I roll my eyes at him but don’t protest as we reach the palelimestone cave. Everyone other than Levi pauses on the damp, grassy opening. Levi transforms into his screech owl form and silently flies into the cavern. I bite my lip and tap my toe as I wait for him to return.

What feels like a lifetime later, but is probably only a minute or two, Levi soars back out and transforms into his human form midflight. He lands on the ground on nimble feet, and I’m jealous of his natural grace. If it were me, I’d have face-planted. “The main cave is empty, as far as I can tell.”

I give him a nod and walk into the cave. Pale limestone, varying between cream to light yellow to faded gray stacked in wavy layers, makes up the sides of the main cavern. The ceiling is rough and pitted beige stone that’s probably a story tall, and the floor is a sandy pebble mixture that shifts under our feet as we walk to the center.

Unlike the other caves, this one has a main entrance that branches off in five directions. Without the compass, we would have to wander through each tunnel and hope we don’t miss Lua. Instead, I grab the pendant and funnel mycuramagic into it. The needle glows purple as it points to the center path. “I guess we’ll be taking door number three.”

We walk toward the passageway as a group, but we have to go single file since the limestone tunnel is only barely wide enough to fit one of us. Levi leads, and the rest of us follow in tense silence. We’re all lost in our thoughts as we cautiously walk through the narrow cream stone passage.

Every few minutes, I glance down at the compass to make sure we’re on the right track. It never points to any of the caves that branch off the tunnel, so we continue to go straight for probably fifteen minutes. My gaze is wandering over the vaguely sparkly limestone when Levi stumbles in front of me. I don’t notice it in time to avoid doing the same thing as I trip over the foot-tall drop as the tunnel ends abruptly. Levi’s hands dart outto catch me as I steady myself on the slippery obsidian that lines this part of the cave.

Unlike the tunnel and main cavern, this part of the cave is entirely shiny black rock. The floors, curved walls, and domed ceilings are all the same dark stone that seems to be glowing faintly from the inside. Something about this cavern feels… unnatural. I’m not sure what it is, but it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up and my arms prick with goose bumps.

When we’re all in the cave, we hesitantly walk toward the center. The compass needle has fallen still, and the purple glow has faded. I’m taking that to mean Lua is supposed to be here, but I don’t see her anywhere.

“Took you long enough,” a bored feminine voice calls from somewhere in the cavern. With how the sound echoes, I have no idea where it’s coming from. I spin in a circle, frantically looking for who I’m pretty sure is Lua. “Over here, sport.”

Looking up at where the voice sounds like it came from, I see a woman perched on a rock jutting out from the wall about three quarters of the way to the ceiling. Lua has the same olive skin and deep black hair that Levi does. Instead of mostly black eyes, she has bloodred eyes with a thin, almost slitted, pupil. I can’t be sure from here, but she looks to be about my height.

She’s fairly average looking, other than being absolutely covered in blood, that is. Her long black hair is speckled with red and drips crimson droplets down her bare arms and back. Her flowing, floor-length, sleeveless dress, that was probably a light color once upon a time, is completely soaked with dark red blood. It’s leaving a growing crimson puddle beneath her and trailing down the rock under her.

Along with all the blood, the woman also has two short swords strapped to her back, a wicked-looking curved dagger on each hip, and a bandolier of throwing knives strapped across her chest. She’s packing some serious heat.

“Ah, Isabel Gallagher,” she drawls, her alto voice taking on a slightly crazed lilt when she says my name. “Oh, how I’ve been waiting for you. Can you believe that the fates had the audacity to tell me that a little human could defeat me? Isn’t… that… hilarious?” Lua punctuates each of the last three words by launching a throwing knife at me so fast, I don’t have time to bring up a shield.

CHAPTER 32

IZZY

By the time Levi puts up a shield, there are three throwing knives embedded in the ground, with one between my feet and the other two on either side. I look back at Lua with wide eyes, and she cackles, the sound unhinged. “Hysterical,” I agree dryly when I get over the fact that I was almost a shish kabab.

Lua tsks at Levi and his shield. “Oh, don’t be like that, boy. Don’t you want your mommy to be bestest friends forever and ever with your human mate? I did always tell you as a wee, annoying babe that if you disappointed me, you would be cursed. And what do you know? The fates agreed and cursed you with a human mate.”

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