Page 82

I almost expected him to physically stop me from going through with this, to pick me up and carry me back. He didn’t. Warrick did trust me, and he respected me. No matter how much he hated what I was about to do, he believed in my abilities, and that meant something.

The sound of the falls reached us long before we saw them, growing louder as we walked.

Finally, we rounded the path and there they were. Furious white foam exploded high from a rocky outcropping, a torrent of fury forced down into the blue water below before snaking away through the barren land poisoned by dark magic.

I pushed forward when everything in me wanted to turn around and run the other way. The evil surrounding this place was so thick it was stifling. Warrick had to feel it, too, but he said nothing and kept following me.

The water came down with such velocity that it was hard to see the gap behind the falls themselves. But there was a cave hidden behind all that water, and I walked along the rocky path, a narrow lip in the rock that led to the cave. It was cold and loud, the water a moving wall between us and where we’d just come from. It felt like a different world in here.

I turned slowly as Warrick closed the space between us.

“Christ,” he said, taking in the stone walls.

The witches who were brought here were wrapped and placed on ledges dug out of the wall itself like ancient bunk beds. Their dark magic pulsed around us, drenching the small space. I didn’t know how deep it went, the darkness seemed to swallow the cave, hiding its secrets. I didn’t want to uncover them. I had no need to.

I could do what I needed to right here.

“Now what?” Warrick asked.

He was so close to me his body brushed against mine as if he were afraid to put distance between us, like he thought I was about to be snatched away.

I lifted off my satchel and moved to a small, raised dais, placing my knife on the white stone. “A blood spell, and I need to lie here while I do it.” There was no missing the blood already staining the stone. Blood from the witches laid to rest here and witches who had come to this place like me—some for good, some for not so good, purposes. I didn’t let myself think about that either.

I stripped quickly and set my clothes by my bag on the floor and climbed up. The stone was rough and cold, hard against my bare skin. Warrick watched me do this, jaw tight, eyes flickering like there were flames dancing there.

“Why the fuck are you naked again?”

There was no hiding how much he didn’t like this. “Because that way you’ll see any injuries that I get in the dream state. Only wake me if it looks serious.” Visions of the dream I’d had flashed through my mind, my sisters, all of them dead. How real it’d felt. “I might scream and thrash. Ignore it. Ignore any bruises that might appear on my skin as well. Broken bones, blood, that’s the only reason to wake me.”

He bit out several words in that coarse language I’d heard him use when he was talking to Maddox. I assumed it was more cursing.

“How do I wake you?”

“Lift me off the dais and I’ll be dragged back. Ready?” I asked.

His jaw tightened. “No.”

“It’s going to be fine. Just don’t let me stay under longer than thirty minutes.”

He didn’t answer with words, just dipped his chin, his expression carved in stone. My blade was gripped in my hand, and I made a long but fairly shallow cut along my forearm and watched as the blood bubbled to the surface then slid down to pool on the stone. The dais warmed under me almost instantly. I handed the knife to Warrick and closed my eyes.

“Crones of Shadow Falls, I offer you this gift of mortal blood from coven Thornheart. In return I ask that you take me into the shadows of my mind and help me seek the ones who would harm me and mine.”

I repeated the words over and over. The stone beneath me grew hotter, and the dais began to vibrate beneath as if the ancient rock hummed. A rumbling sound reverberated through the space, and shadows gathered at the edges of my mind, closing in more and more until I was surrounded by the kind of darkness I never knew existed. So black and cold and dense, there was no way of knowing up from down.

I was suspended in nothingness, in horror, in fear. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out, then the crone’s hands, so many hands covered my mouth, my eyes, tugged at my hair, pulled on my arms, my legs.

They were going to kill me, they were going to—

Something cool brushed my feet.

The hands released me, vanished.

I blinked several times. Home. I was home again, laying in the grass. I got to my feet. The cemetery. Mom was with Art, weeding the herb garden. Else, Mags, and Rose sat in the long grass, Roe’s cheeks pink, smiling, laughing at something Iris said. Bram sat on a headstone, in bird form, Nia lying beside them. I smiled, warmth filling me, and went to join them.

A small yipping sound had me turning.

A large, orange fox stood just beyond the edge of the cemetery. My fox, my Renny. “Ren!” I waved, overjoyed to see him. I couldn’t remember why, but I’d missed him. He’d been somewhere far away from me.