“It’s a Keep Secret hex,” she explained. She pulled against his hold; he didn’t let her go. She lifted her gaze to him and frowned. “It’s okay, it’s not dangerous,” she reiterated.
The expression he gave her told her he didn’t believe her, but his hold on her loosened, and she was able to put some space between them. She walked away and began to scan the area. “It seems like Stanthos wasn’t just good at hiding. This spell work is amazing.”
“Who is he to you?” Alek asked, as he watched her walk around the living room. “He couldn’t be family.”
“He was a friend of my uncle,” she said, stopping before a photo, leaning down she spotted something. It was a picture of her uncle, Stanthos and someone she hadn’t seen before. Grabbing it she shrunk it and placed it inside her long coat. “I was going to visit him, but someone beat me to the punch.”
Lanias turned away from where the picture had been. She continued her search, not finding anything else, she walked out of the living room and down the hallway. As she navigated her way through the house, she still could feel the magic vibrating. Lifting a hand, she pressed it against her forehead. “Do you feel that?” she asked Alek who’d followed her.
His expression turned thoughtful. “Slightly, what is it?”
“It’s like a pulse of magic, and it’s not stopping.” Lanias explained, she faced forward once more. As she continued forward the magic pulse grew stronger. She stopped in front of a door and frowned. Lifting her palm flat, she pressed against the surface. The door was hot and throbbed. If she wasn’t accustomed to such strong magic, it would have made her sick.
The sound of metal scraping against metal, caused her to glanced over in time to see Alek had pulled his sword from within his coat. She quirked a brow at this, “What are you doing?”
He offered her a smile with a bit of fang peeking out. “Preparing for the worse.”
“Oh.” Moving her hand down to the door handle, Lanias smirked. “Well, then let’s see what’s on the other side.”
With little hesitation she pushed down and as if a damn had been broken, magic light flooded the corridor. Alek blocked her; her eyes widened as she spotted what looked like a person running out. Alek turned, swinging his sword over her head, he brought his sword across.
“Wait,” she yelled, just as his sword slammed into what looked like a staff. The resulting strike had her and Alek staggering back. Lanias jerked her hand up as the light exploded before dimming abruptly.
“Who are you?” Alek’s tone was cold, dropping her arms quickly, Lanias found herself staring at a teenager. Wide brown eyes stared at them in shock. The teen’s staff was on the ground and sweat coated his skin.
“If you don’t speak…” Alek brought the tip of his sword to the boy’s throat. “I’ll have no choice but to assume the worse.”
The teen’s eyes widened in terror, as he scooted back. “W-wait.”
“Stop, you’re scaring him,” Lanias said, slapping his back. “He won’t tell us anything if he’s scared.”
Alek glanced at her over his shoulder. “I find that to hold little truth. I’ve gotten the most intriguing confessions after removing a limb here and there.”
She shot him with a heated look. “You’re not going to remove his limbs, at least not yet.” Turning her gaze to the kid whohadn’t moved. “Hey, you took us a bit off guard. Could you tell us why you were here?”
The boy shot a look at Alek’s cold expression before looking at Lanias. She appeared to feel a bit of pity for the boy, he clearly thought Alek was the scarier of the two. Looks could be deceiving. “I-I was waiting for Stan to come back.”’
Hearing this, Lanias side-eyed Alek. “Stan? And why were you waiting for him?”
“He was going to take me to the place where the others are for protection,” he revealed, only to press his lips together and lower his head. “I’m not supposed to tell you that,” he muttered.
“That’s obvious,” Alek muttered from behind Lanias, withdrawing his sword. “Name?”
The young one looked at him with suspicion. “Why do you want to know?”
“We could just take your head,” Alek warned, unsheathing his sword again. His red mist encircling the boy’s neck. “That option is more appealing to me honestly.”
“Stop,” Lanias said, unable to hold back her humor. She looked down at the boy. “You should rethink that answer. Especially since we’re going to bring you with us and ask you a few more questions.”
“No, how am I supposed to know you’re not one of them,” the youth said, quickly scrabbling to his feet. He moved back so that he pressed against the opposite wall. “You could be out to kill me.”
Alek scoffed from behind Lanias, he leaned forward and whispered. “Let’s just kill him, I’m sure there is some magic we can use to control his ghost to answer our questions.”
“Hush you,” Lanias snapped softly, she turned her attention to the teen. “I will be honest with you kid, if Alek or myself were interested in killing you. You’d be dead. We’re not known for our patience. The fact you’re still standing before us, means youshould count yourself as lucky. So, I’m going to ask you once more. What’s your name? And then if you’re needing our help, we’ll help you.”
“Who will help who?” Alek demanded clearly not interested in helping anyone.
She almost turned around and kicked him, almost.
