Page 14 of Alan

She chuckled. “Something fancy. You might be surprised, but everything we need is at our fingertips here. We can bring nearly anything into existence if we wish it so.”

“But you still live in a cave. Why live here if you could go anywhere, bring any sort of home into existence?”

Another sigh, like the one just before she told me her name. “There is much more at stake than what meets the eye. Many, many centuries of history. There are good, solid reasons for why we remain secluded as we do.”

“I know I shouldn’t ask because it’s really none of my business, but you sort of made it my business when you brought me here.”

“It was not our fault that you traveled here from your home.”

“I realize that.”

“And we have not managed to survive all these centuries by taking chances. Allowing outsiders to learn about us, then turning them loose.”

All these centuries? “What do you normally do to people who find you? And by the way, you found me. Not the other way around.”

“Normally, we would have erased the memory of the person involved, but that became a bit messy. Memories are funny things. It isn’t always possible to locate memories specific to one experience and only those memories.”

“You wiped people out accidentally. Is that what you’re telling me?” I could imagine a bunch of witless, directionless people wandering around until they died from starvation or exposure.

She nodded. “Not many, in case you’re worried. Come to think of it, we rarely find outsiders anymore. There is a reason why you were lost.”

“How did you know I was lost?”

She shrugged. “Remember, we feel things. It was fairly strong, your sense of confusion.”

“Got it.” Because I was definitely confused.

“A long time ago, we decided it would be best to place a series of enchantments and shields on the entire area. Rather than risking the presence of further trespassers, we made it impossible to find us. And our friends.”

Friends. They had friends? Were there more witches just like them? I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.

I was about to ask her to tell me more about their coven when a very loud, very familiar scream ran out through the cave.

Callie gasped and hurried out of the cell.

I scrambled after her, thinking this might be my big chance, but rebounded off the invisible wall. Damn it.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing to me?”

I knew that voice. Tears filled my eyes.

When she appeared, coming out from one of those tunnels, she was surrounded by a half-dozen witches who were doing their best to subdue her. They weren’t successful.

“The spell didn’t work!” Hecate shouted. “I can’t keep her quiet!”

Keira.

Seeing her alive and in one piece was a relief, even though she was in big trouble.

It was like something out of an action movie. No matter what they threw her way, she kicked and punched and elbowed like she was in one of her MMA matches. I held my breath as I watched. There was no way she would be able to keep them off her forever, outnumbered the way she was.

But she was doing a damn good job of it.

“Enough!” Selene’s voice rang out even louder than Keira’s had, and I jumped back from the cell walls like I was afraid of getting into trouble. It was a reflex.

Something about Selene made everything stop. Even Keira stopped fighting and stood still—was she amazed? Was she scared? Or just under Selene’s influence?

The other witches might not have been strong enough to stop her, but Selene was.

The witch just about blinded me when she smiled. “I believe we found the one who is missing.”

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