Page 23 of Witch Please
So, I did.
There was no other option; I had to do something drastic to snap her out of it, so I did the only thing I could think of—I slapped her so hard that her head flew to the side and the elastic band holding her ponytail together flew off. Strands of blonde hair covered half of her face as she brought a hand up to rub at the stinging skin on her cheek.
"Snap out of it!" I hissed, my own anger boiling up again as tears started streaming down Sissily's cheeks.
“Holy crap! That hurt.” Gasping, she gave me such a look of shock a stab of shame pierced my chest.
“You told me to hit you.” I defended lamely, my face heating up in shame. “Sorry.”
“I meant zap me with a bit of power to shake off whatever magic was cast on us, you jerk. Not for you to peel half of my face off.” Rubbing her cheek, she glared at me. At least she wasn’t falling asleep.
“Well, you shook it off, didn’t you? See? Helpful.” I pointed at my own chest. “Not so helpful.” I pointed at her chest. “Who’s the jerk now?”
“You are seriously mental.” Sissily deadpanned, but her lips twitched at the corners.
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Bumping my shoulder on hers, I looked down at River who was sleeping the entire shit show away.
I wished we could trade places.
“We need to find a way out of here.” Crouching, I touched the back of my fingers to his skin. It was clammy and cold to the touch, which sent my heart racing. “He seriously doesn’t have much time. I don’t think he deserves this fate, although I’m tempted to just leave him here because he didn’t warn us of what could happen.”
“He’s here because he wanted to make sure we were safe.” She kneeled on his other side and checked his pulse. “Well,” her mouth twisted in a grimace. “To make sure you are safe. In their eyes, I’m just a convenience appointed to stay close to you. And I’m okay with that.” She rushed to reassure me.
“I’m already feeling like shit girl, no need to lay it on thicker.” Unaware of my own actions, I brushed a lock of hair from his forehead with a curled-up finger. When I realized what I did, my eyes snapped up to Sissily who was watching me with a sad face. “We have no other option but for me to use my magic and blast us out of here. It worked in the hallway to find this place. I don’t see why it wouldn’t work to get us out.”
“It’s not like we have anything to lose.” She agreed with me, worry for River clouding her eyes. “I’ll be ready to fry anything that dares to try and stop us after you make us an exit. Do it.”
Jumping to my feet, I dusted off my pants and eyed the wall. Logically, if I slammed power into the spot where the door used to be before Leviathan hid it, it should appear for us again. That being said, nothing worked as it should in this cursed goddess forsaken realm. For all I knew a water buffalo would pop up and start belly dancing if I tried to find an exit.
“Any day now.” Sissily encouraged very unhelpfully.
So, not helping right now girl.” Shaking my hands off to get rid of the nerves I blew a nervous breath. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Yeah, well if you don’t do it, River will have no feeling at all. So just blast the thing.” Her hand sliced the air indicating I should cut the stone open.
With what? My sharp wit? Not that I would say that out loud. They counted on me, and I had to make sure they got out of this alive; and the same species as when they entered here.
With a deep breath, I held it and closed my eyes then called on my magic.
The voices started eagerly whispering their gibberish of nothings and I felt the power gathering in the center of my chest. Something was still telling me that I shouldn’t be doing this, but what choice did I have. We had to get River out of the Underworld. No matter what happened I had to at least try. He was in this mess because of me. It was as sweet as it was infuriating.
I used those feelings to fuel my magic, and slapping both hands on the stone wall, I released it full force. It did nothing to the wall, but it sure paid me in kind for my idiocy; not. Life was much easier and less painful when I thought I was a dud. The impact of my magic against the stone threw me back on my ass hard enough I thought my tailbone broke. With a yelp, I curled on my side rubbing my ass to soothe the crippling pain.
You, okay?” Sissily rushed to my side and helped me stand up.
“That was dumb.” Taking her offered hand, I glared at the untouched wall. “I feel like we are missing something. That should’ve opened a hole directly in front of my house. Look at it. It doesn’t have a mark.”
Sissily unleashed a torrent of flames, wind and even lightning bolts on it with the same luck I had. An unmarked stone mocked us from across the room. Finally, the archdemon took pity on us and his voice floated to my ears from all sides at once.
“I feel generous for some reason, Miss Byrne.” His amusement was loud and clear in his tone. “I will give you an opportunity to prove you are worthy of your powers. If you do that, I will let you leave.”
“All of us will leave, right?” I wanted to make sure in case he tried to trick me again.
“It could be arranged.” He mused. “Do we have a deal?”
“Hazel, don’t. I don’t trust him.” Sissily whispered under her breath but what choice did we have?
“Deal.” I hissed, stewing from the helpless situation.
