“She used to trust me.”
The conversation devolved from there, until Kara was vowing to go online that very night to see what it would take to trade her scooter in for something freeway legal.
They pulled off the interstate a few miles past Jamul and parked in a dirt field. Kara turned to him. “I don’t understand why it worked out that way, but you have to move on. You are a great guy, and hot—in a human sort of way. You’ll find someone else.”
Inspiration lit his eyes. “Yeah…maybe that would make her jealous.”
Kara moaned through her smile and patted him on the cheek. “You’re hopeless. You know that? Stay in the car. You weren’t invited, and I don’t think we want to piss them off.”
“Be careful. Call if you need me.” He patted the holster under his arm. He was the type of cop who probably showered with his gun.
“Thanks.”
Kara got out and walked to the middle of the clearing. There weren’t any people, but several vehicles were parked in a line along the rusty barbed-wire fence. Some were expensive, and some looked like they wouldn’t beat Kara in a footrace. She looked around but couldn’t make out much until something caught her eye in the distance. She squinted, thinking she spied rocks piled against the mountain.
She approached the strange structure—a portal of some kind—took a deep breath and walked on through. When nothing happened, she almost laughed.
That was easy.
The passageway was carved in the earth, running straight into the mountain. It was lit by torches, dancing and sputtering in old sconces along the wall. A few feet inside the tunnel was a woven basket with a sign above it. The words,
No weapons beyond this point
, were burned into a wooden plaque, and a line was drawn in the dirt there, as if a child had run his finger through the dust.
“Screw that,” Kara grumbled. “There’s no way I’m going in there unarmed.” She didn’t expect trouble, but she wasn’t an idiot.
She stepped forward, and suddenly, it felt as if electric ribbons were whipping through the air, cutting her to shreds. She stumbled back and fell to her knees in the reddish-brown dirt. “Okay, okay. Shit.”
Any more voltage and they might as well have tasered her ass.
She pulled the knives from her waist and thigh strap and plopped them in the basket. It felt like giving a bully her lunch money. Then she eased a toe back over the line, and when it seemed like she wasn’t going to get fried, she proceeded down the hall.
“Hello?” she called, rubbing her arms to see if she could abate the sting left behind by the ward.
As she walked, she noticed strange symbols on the walls, written with what looked like red paint. The way they shifted in the firelight was creepy. Kara snorted. Torches and caves were too theatrical for her taste. Demiáre could fly, and they still enjoyed modern conveniences when they were available. This place screamed,
We’re scary witches, be afraid!
But as much as it irked her, the ambiance worked. Once the portal leading outside was out of view, she had to force herself to put one foot in front of the other to continue down the dimly lit path.
No less than fifty yards in, she came to a three-way split in the tunnel and paused to consider her options. “Now this is just rude.”
Focusing all of her energy on her hearing, she detected the resonance of low voices coming from somewhere deep in the mountain. Maybe some of the tunnels connected, because it sounded like they could be coming from anywhere.
“I’d suggest you go left,” someone said, and Kara jumped.
She glanced down the passageway to the left and saw a woman a few yards in, leaning against the wall. “Sage,” she spat. “What are you doing here?”
“Playing tour guide.” Sage straightened up and ran a hand over her black locks to smooth them. She wore a thin black tank top that showed off the canvas of her skin. It was like the tattoo artist had needed the money and decided to cover enough of her to meet his mortgage. The multihued tail of some sort of serpent or dragon wound around her throat like a jeweled necklace.
Kara arched a brow. “Not much of a welcome committee.”
“Maybe I should have let you try another path. If you miss your appointment…
whuac
.” She drew a finger across her neck, as though slitting her own throat. “But I didn’t want to miss your meeting with Claudius or hearing your excuses. You know, I’d never met one of the Fallen before you.”
Kara glared in her direction. “No, I didn’t know that.”
Sage stepped into the middle of the path that she’d said Kara should take. “It was disappointing, really. I mean, what can you do, Kara? You can’t fly. You can’t do spells. At least it explains why you never did fit in with Abbey’s friends.”
It wasn’t only Sage’s attitude that bothered Kara…the sweaty smells in the tunnel were all wrong. Her lips peeled back in a low growl. “Thanks for the directions. Now step aside and let me get on with it.”
Bitch.
Sage laughed. “Oh, that’s classic! Did you really just growl at me? I thought it was figurative. I didn’t know you all could really do an imitation of a pissed lapdog. I guess the wings are what threw me. Have you ever tried to caw?”
Kara’s teeth clenched together. She had to relax her jaw to get the words out. “Listen, I’m here to see Claudius Sellers, not talk you through your wing envy.”
Sage’s eyes narrowed. “Envy? I don’t think so. I don’t envy the Fallen. I would feel sorry for you if you didn’t deserve all the shit coming your way. You were never good enough for Abbey. You were always trash, and all the guys at our school knew it. Derek screwed you just to see if you put out, but it was
me
he took to the prom. From what I hear, spreading your legs is still your only talent.”
Kara couldn’t stop the rumble in her chest. She hated thinking back on the worst four years of her life. Even after all this time, Sage’s sharp words stung like poison-tipped darts in her veins. A part of her wanted to defend herself, explain that she probably couldn’t keep a boyfriend in school because those guys were the wrong fucking species. But she didn’t owe Sage crap, much less an explanation.
“Why are you such a bitch? Is it really because Abbey chose me over you when we were girls? Have you ever considered getting a life?” Her blood pounded so hard through her temples, she was proud she could even put sentences together.
Sage laughed bitterly. “What a mistake that was. She puts her trust in you, and you bring her into your filthy Fallen world and get her hacked up. The day you moved into town was the unluckiest day of her life.”
Kara couldn’t handle it anymore. She lunged at Sage, leaping from across the corridor to wrap her hand around Sage’s throat and shove her head into the dirt wall. If she’d had claws, she would have torn the bitch’s voice box out. “Abbey is everything to me!”
Suddenly, pain shattered her hold, shooting from her spine in a white-hot burst of agony. She fell to the ground and rolled into a ball, but before she could process what had happened, men gathered around her, taking turns pummeling her prone body with staffs and boots until all Kara could do was cover her head and struggle to draw breath.
“That’s enough.” Sage walked into Kara’s line of vision, rubbing her throat and smiling. “You’ll have to learn to control your temper in witch territory, Kara. An attitude like that could get you killed.”
Kara could tell from the glee in Sage’s voice that she’d gotten exactly what she wanted. She’d provoked Kara, and Kara had taken the bait.
Stupid ass
, she berated herself
.
Her body ached all over, and when she coughed, she spat out a mouthful of blood.
“Help her up,” Sage said. A man hefted Kara up by one arm, but she couldn’t stand straight with the crimp in her back.
Sage grimaced in disgust. “Look at those clothes.” Kara glanced down to see her nice outfit was stained with red soil and blood. “You always were a filthy little castoff. I guess it fits.”
Kara shook off the pain, straightened her spine and brushed the dirt from her clothes the best she could. Blood coated her tongue, but she swallowed it down. “Are we done? I believe I have an appointment.”
“Yes, an appointment with Claudius. But you and I aren’t done yet, not by a long shot.”
Kara smiled, her cut lips stretching wide in true anticipation. “You just brightened my day, Sage. Now I have something to look forward to.”
Sage laughed, as though Kara didn’t mean every word she’d said. Kara would play nice for now and do what it took to make it out of this hellhole alive. But she and Sage would have their reckoning.
Kara followed her down the tunnel, trying for her pride’s sake to hide her limp and the pain jarring her bones with every step. She was pretty sure they’d broken at least two ribs and had done something to a disc in her back. She’d heal, but that knowledge didn’t take the pain away. What she wouldn’t give for Abbey to know Sage’s true character. If the jealous witch had been a snake in school, she was a full-grown spitting cobra now.
The tunnel weaved through the clay soil, going deeper into the earth. Every so often, the walls showed the sparkle of granite boulders that had been bored with either a very powerful drill or even more powerful magic. At the end of the long path stood a large iron door with the same red markings as the walls. One of the men who’d beaten Kara rushed forward to open it for Sage. Kara tried to memorize his features, just in case she was ever lucky enough to cross paths with him again when she wasn’t outnumbered five to one.
Her heartbeat kicked up a notch when she walked through the door and entered a huge cavern. Unlike the manmade tunnels, this place looked as if it was made by time and the hand of God. Glistening stalactites hung from the roof, and a tiny stream intersected the room. The stalactites were brightly colored and crystalline, like the inside of a geode, but unlike the stalactites Kara had seen in pictures, these weren’t met at the floor of the cave by corresponding stalagmites.
Apparently unhappy with her pace and her fascination with the hanging stones, a man shoved her forward. “You’re not here for the sightseeing.”
Her hands tightened into fists, but she willed herself not to spin around and pummel him. Instead, she cast her gaze forward and searched the dimly lit cavern, sifting through the people seated in the center of the room.
There was a small arc of five hooded witches, each seated on a short, decorative stool. A low fire burned in the pit before them, the flames rising in a rainbow of colors. The man in the center wore a long robe. It billowed around his stool, enfolding him in red velvet. As Kara approached, she was taken aback by the eerie kaleidoscope effect in his eyes created by the firelight while the rest of his face was shadowed in darkness.
He rose to his feet and pulled back the scarlet hood. His brown hair was slicked in a tight, short ponytail, and a white dress shirt peeked out from under the collar of his robe. “Kara Reed.” His voice was smooth and sure. “Thank you for answering our summons.”
Claudius Sellers looked too young to be Abbey’s uncle. Kara had been imagining someone who looked more like an aging relative and less like a hot young college professor. “Thank you for inviting me,” she said, trying to keep the derision out of her voice, but not quite succeeding.
The man holding her arm nudged her hard. “Speak to the high priest with respect.”
“What? You don’t think I’m serious?” she asked the man, then turned back to Claudius. “Besides just having the shit beat out of me, I am glad to be here, Mr. Sellers. I believe when you understand what happened, you’ll see that I had nothing to do with Abbey’s injury. In fact, I’ve done everything I could do to help her heal.”
“Please, sit.” Claudius gestured to the dirt floor before retaking his seat.
The man beside Kara shoved her down. Her body cried out as gravel poked into the tender flesh of her knees, but she clenched her teeth and smiled, determined they wouldn’t provoke her again. “This is a beautiful place you have here. I didn’t even know it existed until tonight, and I’ve known witches most of my life.”
“It’s one of many gathering spots, but I’m glad you like it.” Claudius’s smile was pleasant. “I’ve wanted to meet you for years, Kara. I’d heard so many things about Abbey’s unique friend. We doubted you were a witch, but we never suspected you were one of
them
.”
“Them? Demiáre?”
He sniffed. “Fallen.”
Funny how that word had never bothered her until she’d seen it accompanied by such blatant prejudice. “Yeah, well, we prefer Demiáre.”
One brow tilted as he smiled. “You can call a vulture a sparrow, but that doesn’t take the stench of rotting flesh from its beak.”
The word
ambush
was coming to mind, but she still couldn’t believe it. She’d lived peacefully beside the witches since she was a girl. She’d thought she
was
one for most of her life. That they despised her now made a churning pit in her gut.
“Can we just cut to the chase, please? I know that Abbey is your future high priestess, and you’re really upset about what happened to her, but I promise you that I’ve done everything I could to help her—and I will continue to.
No one
feels worse about this than I do.”
Her eyes moistened from the humiliation of having to defend her relationship with Abbey. No one else on the planet mattered to Kara as much as her oldest friend, and that anyone would accuse her of less stung in the deepest recesses of her soul.