Divination (Spells and Sins)

Chapter 18

Chapter

Eighteen

"One spark of doubt can smother even the brightest flame of magic."

Lunara

W ith her lips brushing against the shell of my ear, Elysia whispered, “What if they come down here.”

As a shiver traveled up my spine, I eased away from her, snatching my panties from the ground, before slipping them on. “This place had been abandoned for years before we discovered it.” I gathered up the rest of my clothes, dressing quickly, just in case. “I highly doubt they’d discover it now.” Still, I didn’t want to be in a state of undress if I was wrong.

Elysia followed suit, grabbing her clothes and haphazardly throwing them on, paying no mind to which direction her skirt sat on her hips. “Why do you seem worried?”

As the footsteps continued overhead, I kept my gaze focused on the sound. “Because we don’t exactly have permission to be down here.”

She blinked a couple times, weighing my response. “But you said?—”

I ripped my stare from the trapdoor, turning my strained brow on Elysia. “I know what I said.” With my jacket back on my shoulders, I zipped it up halfway in the off chance I’d put my shirt on wrong-side-out.

“We’re going to get caught.” Elysia’s hands clung to the stairs as if they might somehow save her from a precarious situation.

Growing weary of my time in this tunnel, and feeling the weight of that ominous message on my shoulder, I gave a clipped response. “We’re not going to?—”

Elysia’s phone rang from her pocket, cutting off my words as it echoed off the surrounding walls, announcing our location to anyone in the vicinity.

“Shit.” She fumbled around for her phone, barely sparing it a glance as she silenced it as quickly as possible. “Do you think they heard that?”

Wide-eyed, I lowered my head and flattened my lips in a judgmental line. “The only way they didn’t hear it is if they can’t hear at all.”

“Hello?” A wary female voice called from overhead, answering Elysia’s question.

“What if they come down here? What if they realize we’d been poking around the back room and?—”

I covered her mouth with my hand as a soft scratching sound echoed overhead.

“Is there someone down there?” If the inquiring woman poked around long enough, she would definitely discover the mysterious trapdoor and find us cowering down here where we didn’t belong.

I kept my hand on Elysia’s mouth, gently guiding her to a darkened corner in case the worker managed to find our hiding spot. While our skin still glowed with our shared magic, I tucked our exposed skin between us as best we could and waited with bated breath.

“Hello?” the voice called again.

I begged the gods with everything in me to prevent the woman from opening that hatch. Seconds felt like minutes as my lungs felt the strain of limited oxygen.

When the footsteps finally receded, I breathed the smallest sigh of relief.

Once I removed my hand from Elysia’s mouth, she asked, “What do we do now?”

I shrugged, taking a step back from Elysia lest we end up in another precarious situation.

“How are we going to get out of here without being caught?”

She had a lot of questions that I didn’t have the answers to.

“I’ll go up first and see if the coast is clear.”

As I started to walk away, she snatched my hand, stopping me. “And if it’s not?”

“I’ll wing it.” It wouldn’t be the first time I had to explain why I was somewhere I didn’t belong. Not that I ever felt like I truly belonged no matter where I was.

I placed one foot on the bottom rung and instantly felt Elysia tugging on my jacket. “Wait.”

“What?” I spun around and ended up back in her arms as she plastered a kiss to my lips. When she released me, my eyes slowly opened. “What was that for?”

“For luck.” She offered a smile that had my heart beating a mile a minute. This connection we had was even stronger after sharing our magic. I didn’t know what I was going to do if she couldn’t or wouldn’t go back to Faerie with me.

I gave a smile in return, keeping my eyes on hers a moment longer before I ascended the stairs, then slowly hefted the hatch open a fraction as I peered into the private space.

With the light overhead suddenly blinding me, I was forced to blink a few times before my irises adjusted. I just hoped I didn’t end up face-to-face with one of the workers, forced to explain away how I ended up in this tunnel beneath their shop.

As the room slowly came into focus, I scanned my surroundings to find the woman who had called out moments ago was now gone. With the back room now safe, I pushed the trap door open, carefully resting it on the shelves before I climbed out.

“Coast is clear,” I whisper-yelled to Elysia and watched as she scampered up the stairs.

As her head jutted out from inside the tunnel, she took a moment to look around before setting her feet on the wooden planks that separated the shop from the tunnel below. “Let’s get out of here,” she said once she cleared the final step.

“You read my mind.” I did my best to lower the trap door quietly back into place, slowing its descent as the hinges gave a disobedient creak. When I felt the wood settle into place, I snuck toward the beige curtain that concealed our presence and stuck my head out, scanning for witnesses.

With no one in sight, I grabbed Elysia’s hand and yanked her out of the back room, darting down a side aisle before traversing the outer wall of the shop.

I barely had time to even think about breathing as I hauled us through the shop and out the front door.

As the fall breeze whipped around us, I finally took the opportunity to inhale a full breath as I leaned over, resting my palms on my thighs.

“Holy shit, that was exhilarating,” Elysia squealed as she caught her breath.

“Wanna go for round two?” I grabbed her hand, pulling her close.

“If you keep plying me with amazing sex, we’re never going to find that orb.” While her words may have been in opposition to my proposition, her hands roamed up and down my arms as if she could be convinced.

I shrugged, trying to hide my newfound disdain for the orb. “Orb, schmorb.”

Elysia laughed, playfully swatting my arm as she walked around me, heading to her car. “Joke all you want, but I know how important it is to you and the rest of your people.”

I was just about to tell her I no longer cared about the stupid artifact when her phone began to ring again.

Elysia withdrew her phone from her pocket and stared at the screen. “It’s Morgana. I should probably get this.”

As she spoke, I felt an icy chill in the fall wind and began looking around for the dark entity that had slowly begun taking over Hallow Ridge Grove.

Elysia stepped to the edge of Mystic Brews and Tomes while I waited alongside her car.

“No. No. NO!” She cried, tears pouring down her face again.

Shit. That wasn’t good.

I rushed to her, pulling her into my embrace as she white-knuckled the phone and listened to Morgana.

“She’s really gone?” Her voice trembled with every word.

That was really not good.

“First Nova. Now Thalia?” Elysia took a rattled breath. “We have to find out who’s behind this.”

I kept her close, running my hand up and down her back in an effort to console her.

While she didn’t pull away, I wasn’t exactly sure she realized I was there beside her, but that didn’t stop me from supporting her through this.

“I’ll be there soon.” It was the last thing she said before she hung up the phone.

I tried to pull her closer, but she eased from my grasp, sending an anvil ripping through my chest. When I couldn’t take the distance between us, I asked, “They found Thalia?” My words were solemn and cautious.

Elysia nodded, pressing her back against the bookshop’s outer wall. “I need to get back to Morgana’s before someone else goes missing.”

“I’ll come with you.” I stayed at her side, joining her as she rushed back to her car.

“No.” She stopped cold in her tracks. “You need to find the orb.” When she wouldn’t meet my gaze, I knew there was no changing her mind. “We’ve gotta put a stop to whatever is tearing apart my family.”

I knew when I wasn’t wanted. Still, it ripped my heart out to think that Elysia didn’t want me with her, especially after what transpired in the tunnel beneath the shop. “Fine.” I tucked my hands inside my pockets, more out of a need to hide my emotions than to ward off the chill. “You go be with your family .” I didn’t even try to hide the disdain I felt toward being excluded from Elysia’s crisis.

“Lunara.” She called after me, but I was already walking toward the center of town. “Lunara, I’m sorry.”

I shook my head, refusing to turn back. I didn’t want to see the look of sadness on Elysia’s face. I didn’t want to feel the pain I knew she was experiencing. I just wanted to find answers and maybe, potentially, find the demise of my life on this planet.