It was coming from the wall of rock in front of her. She went to the rock and pressed her body against it, trying to hear better.
Smoke-slime-magic puffed all around her, and a door-shape appeared in the rock, like it was created by a giant chisel. Sage gasped and stepped back, and the door shape changed—melding into an actualdoor.
Sage stared, ready for anything. Nothing more happened, so she went to the door. She waved away some magic, then followed a strand of it down to the keyhole where it was collecting. Sage put a finger to the keyhole.
CLICK—the lock disengaged.
SQUEAK—the door swung open like it was pushed. Faded scents of burnt popcorn and incense rushed out.
Sage’s heart sped up, and adrenaline dumped into her gut. She snuck a look behind her, and saw no one, so she hung onto the doorframe and peered into the gloom, her heart in her throat. What she saw was a cavern, enormous and mostly dark, with a rock ceiling that soared thirty feet above her head. Dim shapes of plants dangled here and there. The side walls were lined with handmade wooden planks, and the back wall was caverock. Dozens of staked torches burned on the walls. The floor was wooden in some places, made with rough lumber, and solid rock in other places. Tree roots and ferns dangled and drops of sparkling water dripped down them. There were stone wells, like wishing wells, situated around the room.
A few feet from her sat a massive table covered with all sorts of small things, like bells and dolls and stacks of handheld mirrors, and even some taxidermied foxes.Ew, creepy.She looked away, realizing whatever this place was, it belonged to her Nana.
Smoke-slime clustered in foggy banks between and around everything. To her left were armoires stuffed with crap, shelves overflowing with oversized books and leather ledgers, plus two rows of bells, some of them as big as her, some with thick ropes and cords hanging behind them. To her right, with plenty of space to walk around it, was a strange, stand-alone room—four brick walls and a flat red ceiling, sitting in the middle of the cavern, like an office inside a cave, with no door or windows that Sage could see. Past it was another room just like it, and past that was one more. Sage looked over everything, fascinated and curious, fighting the feeling that she was being watched because she didn’t want to leave.
Her phone! There it was, lying on the table! Sage ran and picked it up, but right away knew she’d been wrong. This wasn’t her phone, it was too big, and the case wasn’t hers. She put it down next to a man’s wallet.
A dark form swooped past her head, and she ducked away from it, stifling a cry, thinkingbat, bat!Her foot struck something and she looked down, almost crying out when she saw it was the head of a bear—she was standing on a bearskin rug! Sage gagged and jumped off to bare floor, her stomach heaving when she realized the rug next to it was wolfskin, and the one next to that was cougarskin. She blanched and lurchedaway from the rugs. Her butt hit brick and she turned to see it was a well. She tiptoed away from it, between the rugs.
Something glittered from inside the well closest to her. She headed that way, curious. The well was full to the top with cat’s eye marbles. She picked one up, crying out and throwing it back on the pile immediately.
“Oh gross, gross, gross,” she said, rubbing her hand on her jeans frantically.
The thing had been wet, slimy, and yielding, like a real eyeball. She backed from the well until her butt hit the wall of the room inside the room. She pressed against the wall for support, trying to forget what she’d touched.
‘Sage. Sage. Sage.’
The sound drew her attention up to a metal box suspended above a pipe situated above a well, twenty feet above the ground, with haze moving through the pipe to another pipe in the wall. The voice was back, calling her name, and it was coming from this metal box.
Sage took a few deep breaths, trying to wrestle her nerves under control.
‘Sage. Sage. Sage.’Her name pulsed in rhythm with her own heart.
“Me?” she said softly. Her voice echoed softly back to her from all around.
‘Yes, yes, yes, take me with you.You’ll never have to go to treatment again.’
“Treatment… where… what are you?”
An image came to her mind, an image of a gold pendant affixed to a chain, hanging from an invisible nail. The pendant twirled, then slowed. On one side of the pendant was a side view of a snarling wolf’s head. On the other side was an angel with head and wings bowed. Sage’s mind worked quickly, thinking the image over. She’d heard that thevodhad a prophecy aboutnew mates promised from Rhen—the One True Mate Prophecy—and there was an object of power involved. Nana White had been trying to get her hands on it for a long time—but if this was it, why would it be calling hername?
A gong sounded, scaring her half out of her mind. She jumped, then settled, taking deep breaths, as the gong sounded several more times. She looked around, realizing it was the gong clock sounding out 5:00.
Oh no.Sage froze, as close to panic as she’d ever been in her life. She was late for treatment, but more importantly, Nana White was expected back by 5:00. She could be on the grounds now, walking to her office. She could be in the passage. Sage stared at the door, knowing what would happen if Nana White walked in on her. There would be hell to pay—hell that would leave Paisley unprotected, and as Paisley’s mother, that was the one thing Sage could never risk.
Sage ran out the door.
“Please lock up,” she whispered to it.
Click.
Relief filled Sage.
“Now disappear?”
The door melded back into the rock like it was never there.
Feeling surprisingly powerful, Sage picked up her flashlights and ran headlong down the passage.
