Page 130 of Witch Undecided
“Wait.” Sloane grabbed my arm. “It could be spelled.” She smiled at me. “Check it.”
“Me?”
“You know how to.” Poppy gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “Do it.”
We’d covered testing for spelled items in training. Two runes needed to be drawn in the air above the item, surface, or room you were testing. I hadn’t had the chance to try it out. Yet.
With a grin I brought the runes to mind, visualizing them in my head, and drew on the power inside me. It spiraled hot beneath my diaphragm and then trickled up my arms and into my fingertips. I traced the patterns in the air. They glowed silver briefly and then a silvery haze kissed the door before melting away. If there’d been a spell on it, the door would still be glowing.
Jessie used more advanced runes, ones that detected and disabled. I wasn’t there yet.
“We’re good.” Sloane pulled open the door to reveal a dark, cupboard-sized space occupied by a set of steps leading down. “Ominous much?”
Let me.Rune slipped between us and into the darkness.
I followed with Sloane at my back and Poppy making up the rear.
I kept one hand on the wall, each step measured because my night vision wasn’t as good as Rune’s. Sloane had a hand on my shoulder as we descended.
I was about to suggest a little magical light when the world below grew gray. Rune’s huge body became visible.
There was light down there.
The steps ended in a basement-like space, but it was kitted out as a lounge with a TV, pool table, sofas, coffee machine, and mini fridge. Two freestanding lamps lit up the space, one by the pool table, the other by a desk strewn with papers and piled with books.
“Bingo,” Sloane said. “There should be some info here.”
She strode toward the desk and goosebumps burst to life over my skin. Sloane froze, her head turning slowly to the side, breath pluming in the air as the temperature dropped sharply.
There was a fizzing sound, and the metallic scent of magic hit me. Rune growled in warning.
“What is that?”
“Out. Now!” Sloane ordered.
We rushed toward the steps. Rune hit them first but was thrown backward, his body twisting mid-air so he hit the ground on all fours.
He shook himself and blinked at me.I was not expecting that.
“Fuck!” Sloane pulled her cell out and stared at it. “No reception.”
A gust of icy air blew my hair back. “Sloane, what’s happening?”
She rubbed her hands together and fell into a defensive stance. “We just tripped an alarm, cupcake. Get ready to fight.”
Poppy flanked me, power crackling off her like heat off a radiator.
Rune positioned himself in front of me, body bristling with menace as the world in front of us split and a humongous, viscous cloud of darkness slid into the room. It expanded so it was two meters wide and three meters high, blocking us off from the exit and swelling to take up the room.
My blood ran cold and panic seized my mind, because the last time I’d come face to face with this thing it had been a fraction of this size, and it had almost sucked out my soul.
It had almost killed Jasper.
And it had already killed several potentials.
It was lethal.
And we were trapped in a room with it.
The slau pulsed steadily for a moment and then it rushed at us.
