“Oh, good,” I said, casually, as if I wasn't watching a coven of witches suffocate a warlock with energy.
She writhed on the floor, gasping for air. “Stop!” she screamed.
“You've needed to die for a very long time, Megan Lee.” With a final tingle of energy from my chest, the warlock was crushed and breathed no more.
Cindy dropped to her knees, sobbing. Leo put his arms around her, and I ran forward.
“Are you okay?” I whispered, crouching beside her. “That was some intense magic.”
“It's not that,” she said through her sobs. “Megs was my sister.”
I rocked back on my heels. What had I made her do? “I'm so sorry.”
Leo stood, pulling Cindy with him. “I'll leave Circe with you to make portals, but this is where our coven leaves you. I can't make her continue, and we're much less effective without her.”
“I understand,” I said. “Thank you for your help. We’ll be in touch.” They slipped out through a portal that didn't take them to the Junta. Leo had to pick Cindy up and one of the other coven members picked up the dead warlock and followed, into what I was pretty sure was the mountains of Tennessee.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
RILEY
We watched the portal close. I was thankful for the witches’ help—we'd certainly already be dead without them—but I was scared about what was coming.
“Now what?” Anthony asked.
“Now we go through that door.” I pointed at a wooden door that I hadn't noticed in the corner. I turned to Elias. “If you could?”
He rubbed his leg. “She got me pretty good, and I'm not totally healed yet.”
Anthony laughed. “Got it.” He kicked the door in with as much force as Elias had.
We've got to explore this strength thing a bit more. It's hot.I felt like we hadn't been using their strength to its fullest potential.
I created a fireball for light, and Axoular did the same. We walked through first, having no idea what else Dumadi could've set up to kill us.
The next room was circular and had six doors leading off of it, each in a different color. “Seriously?” I asked. “This is some Alice in Wonderland stuff.” I sighed. “We gotta go through them one by one. And are we still in Bali? I feel like we might be somewhere else. This doesnotseem like an underground temple to me,” I said.
Circe breathed deep. “It smells like the ocean, so that doesn't help.”
“Wherever we are, we still have to get through those doors,” Axoular said.
“Okay. One at a time.” I walked to the first door on the right. It was blue. I turned the handle, unlocked. Nerves assaulted me. There was no telling what I'd find behind that door.I hate that Leyak psychopath!
The door opened but nothing was behind it. “We'd have to spell that one, to reveal the hidden opening,” I said.What if Linna is behind it, or Kára's kids?
“Where did they even get this stuff?” Anthony asked, inspecting the stones in the door. “They're supposed to be non-magical.”
“Let's try door number two,” Elias said. He opened the next one, green, and stepped back so we could see what was behind it. Another dark tunnel.
“No,” I said. “Should we check the others or explore this one?”
“Check the others,” Axoular said. He walked up to the purple third door.
“I really like the color purple. Maybe this one will be good luck.” He opened it and jumped back. The room behind it was painted stark white and filled with harsh fluorescent lights.
“These are definitely portals then,” I said. How else would you get a fluorescent light in a cave?
“Of course, they are. Which means we have to pick the right one to go through because they'll probably close it behind us.”
