Saved by the Spell (Anna Wolfe Series, Book #2) (6 page)

Chapter 5

Anna

The sound of locks clunking and sliding wakes me from my empty dream. I listen as the door to the other cell creaks open begrudgingly. I roll over just in time to see the scary looking wolf-guard dumping two blondes in the cell next to mine. I sigh with relief that my cellmates are women.

“Oh my gosh, Anna!” Corrah exclaims, amazed. She slaps Hannah’s shoulder, advising her to turn around.

“Oh, hey girl!” Hannah adds excitedly.

I lift myself from the bed, walking over to the bars that separate us. “Hey,” I reply glumly, unable to replicate their cheerfulness.

“We were so worried about you,” Hannah states.

“Yeah, we thought for sure Micah would have forsaken you like the rest of them,” Corrah discloses.

I’m confused.
Forsaken me like the rest of them?
“What do you mean ‘forsaken’ me?”

Hannah eyes enlarge. “So, you don’t have any idea what you’re in for, do you?”

I shake my head no, nervous to learn the play-by-play of my fate. There’s something extremely unsettling about not being able to read your own life’s playbook.

Corrah taps on her shoulder repeatedly, silently begging her not to say anything with the twist of her head. Hannah shoots her a glare before rolling her eyes at her innocent theatrics. “Micah has kidnapped numerous witches… witches he thought were you—
a Grand Witch. He used them to try and find an important book that probably doesn’t even exist...” Hannah trails off.

I keep my mouth shut, choosing not to prove her wrong. For all I know, Micah can be using them to find out how much I know. I signal for her to continue by widening my eyes.

“It’s a book that holds every spell, power, chant or whatever. For decades, he made it his primary goal to search and apprehend any and all witches he thought might be a Grand Witch. He wiped out hundreds of very powerful witches, you know. Many were killed because they refused to help him or they failed at finding the book.”

Corrah rushes over to Hannah, gently patting her on her shoulder again. “Maybe we shouldn’t tell her all of this,” Corrah suggests adamantly. “What if he finds out? We can get into more trouble!”

Hannah shoos her away. “Stop being such a fraidy-cat,” she spits. Hannah turns back to me, spearing her gray eyes into mine. “Micah is dangerous, but I’m sure you know that. He will torture you until you give him what he wants or he’ll dispose of you.”

“Kill me?”

Hannah shakes her head. “No, much worse. He will banish you to Hells Hallow.”

Chills crawl over my skin at the frightening thought of what
a place like that might look like.
Hells Hallow
. I repeat the name silently, mulling it over in my mind. “It can’t be that bad… right?” I ask sheepishly.

Hannah throws her head back, bellowing at my ignorance. “Are you kidding me!? You really have no idea, do you? Hells Hallow is the worst place of exile in the Netherworld. Imagine a pitch-black, never-ending
maze! It's a labyrinth of turns, dead ends and passageways. It’s a torture maze, one you can never get out of. And if that isn’t bad enough, there are horrible creatures you have to fend off to stay alive. No magic, no communication, and no one can pinpoint you; not even the best trackers in the Netherworld will be able to find you.”

I’m not prepared for that amount of detail. I was thinking something more along the lines of a barren area, like a really enormous desert. Somewhere I could wander around for centuries, bored to death. “Is that where all the witches are now?”

“I guess,” she shrugs. “Some are thrown in there, but most are tortured and killed. Only a lucky few he marries.”

I cringe at her definition of the word “lucky” and marrying Micah isn’t one of them. “Why?” I inquire. I don’t understand the logic of my question, but the lack of symmetry between his intentions and wants doesn’t add up.

“He wants what every power-hungry, narcissistic man wants: an heir.” She arches her eyebrow matter-of-factly. “Besides, no witch has ever been strong enough to carry his child, but my guess is he thinks you might be the one.”

“Fuck,” I mutter. He better not get any ideas. I’ll kill myself before he tries to infuse me with his
progeny. Our episode in the tunnel lingers at the backdoor of my mind, reminding me of what almost happened. I shake my head in disgust. I must figure out a way to resist his magic.

“And it looks to me that he has plans for you,” she adds with a smirk.

“What do you mean?”

Hannah’s eyes trail me up and down. “He’s already playing dress up,” she says, pointing to the tiny cloth barely draping my overexposed body.

I glance down at the sickening hooker-inspired outfit, as the realization hits me. “Shit.”

“Yeah
shit
is right. He only dolls up the ones he’s thinking about knocking up.”

My jaw sets in a tight line and angry
fists form at my sides. “Never. I won’t allow it to happen,” I declare adamantly.

Hannah grins, knowing I have very little say in the matter. “We shall see.”

“How do you two know so much?” I inquire. They both look young, too young to have such depths of knowledge. Corrah shoots Hannah a worried glance, causing me to question why she’s in a constant state of panic.

“We’ve been in and out of here plenty of times,” Hannah answers, walking over to her moldy cot and plopping herself on it without a care.

“Yeah, unfortunately, we’ve gotten pretty used to it here,” Corrah adds.

“What are you in here for?”

Hannah shrugs. “How should I know? Every chance the idiot gets, he drags us here, puts us on display in the Dark Court, and then locks us away for a few weeks of awesome torture.”

“You have to have done something…”

“If you call being a fairy something, then I guess that’s my charge,” Hannah replies, with a snotty air.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I’m just trying to piece all of this together.” More fairies. Micah and his father must really fancy this form of supernatural being.

Corrah sighs. “We can see stuff. That’s why he drags us here. He questions us, then humiliates us in Court when he doesn’t like our answers.”

Hannah rolls her eyes, clearly not appreciating Corrah’s tell-all moment.

“What things do you see?”

Corrah opens her mouth to speak, but shuts it quickly when Hannah holds up her hand to object. “We’re tele
pathic, as my sister was saying, but our real talent is in revelations. It allows us to have visions.”

I arch my eyebrow. “Revelatio
ns? So you have visions of what, the future?”

“Don’t make it sound
that
remarkable,” she chuckles. “They’re just flashes—flashes of everything, everywhere, during any time period. It’s more of a nuisance than anything else. Lately, however, they’ve been to Micah’s advantage.”

“Did you see me?” I question quickly.

“Sort of.” Corrah jumps in with a little more enthusiasm. “We didn’t see your face, but we felt your magic. Once we saw you in the Dark Court, we knew you were the one in our visions. We tried telling Micah he was wrong, but he knew it was you.”

“Can you share with me what you know?” I plead.

“That’s the thing, we don’t really know anything. We predicted a Grand Witch and then a glimpse of you flashed through our minds, but your face was so blurry, it was impossible to make it out.”

Hannah stands up and walks towards me. A strand of buttery blonde hair falls from her messy bun, prompting her to slide it behind her ear. “Anna, Micah knows what you are. He will stop at nothing until he finds that book,” she says, narrowing her eyes. “And yes, we know it’s
The Book of Imperium
he seeks as well as The Scholars, who have been guarding it for centuries. We’ve been down here long enough to know mostly everything that goes on. You can’t let him find either of them, no matter what.”

“I know,” I reply sternly. “I’ll die before I help him.”

Hannah rolls her eyes. “There’s one problem with your heroine arrogance: he can use magic on you, as I’m sure he already has. Since your magic doesn’t work down here, you need to be vigilant.”

I tap my chin with my finger. “That’s what I don’t understand. If I’m so powerful, then why is my magic restrained?”

“Micah has hundreds of witches in Ignis spelling this city around the clock. No one has ever been allowed to practice magic, except him. Before he brought you here, he made sure to imprison hundreds more just to keep you in check.”

“My magic can be influenced then?”

“As a Grand Witch, you have more power than you know, and it could be limitless really. I’m not saying you couldn’t break through his barriers, what I’m saying is, it will take you a great deal of time and energy. Neither of which you presently have.”

I lower my eyes. “How am I supposed to fight his magic without any of my own?”

“Simple, you pretend.”

I lift my head, staring into her cat-like eyes. “Pretend? Pretend what?”

“Pretend to tell him what he wants to hear. Tell him you found The Scholars, but lie about their location. I’m sure you have an inclination as to where they are, so tell him the opposite. Play his game for a while to buy some time.”

I ponder her good and only advice suitable for my situation, but something keeps nagging me. “When we were in the tunne
l, Micah forced himself on me,” I begin awkwardly. Hannah’s eyes widen, waiting to hear more. “We… kissed… but only because I was under his magic. His hands started roaming places they shouldn’t have, which pissed me off. Before I knew it, I flung him off me with such force, he slammed into the wall behind us.”

A sparkle erupts in Hannah’s eyes at my disclosure. “Holy shit, girl! You
can
use your powers after all!” She turns back to Corrah, who’s sitting on the cot impassively. “Corrah, did you hear that!? She can use magic down here!”

Corrah shrugs in response like she's heard that a
thousand times. “Wow, I’ve never heard of anything like this… okay, okay,” Hannah says, sounding rushed. “What were you doing or thinking at that exact moment when you flung him off?”

I close my eyes, trying to replay the dreadful incident. We
were making out heavily. Jesus. We could have had sex had reality not bitch-slapped me.
Focus, Anna
. I was infuriated and I wished him off me. I was touching him. “That’s it! It has to be!” I shout.

“What!?”

“I was touching him when I focused all of my energy on flinging him off me.”

Hannah grabs the bars excitedly, wrapping her pencil-thin fingers around them. “Anna, do you have any idea what this means?”

I nod my head yes.

Freedom
.

“Holy smokes, this is amazing! I can’t believe you can harness an echo!”

I crinkle my eyebrows in confusion. “Harness a
what
?”

Hannah exhales
in frustration. “A magic echo. It’s when you snatch the remnants of someone else’s magic they just expressed and use it for yourself,” she answers. “No one has been able to do that for centuries!”

I shrug in complete bewilderment. This magic echo ability might just be the thing I need to escape from this hellhole.

“Okay, we need a plan and I have just the thing…” Hannah begins before abruptly closing her mouth.

The sound of my cell door unlocking forces silence into the room. Hannah releases the bars and sprints over to her empty cot. She throws herself in bed, facing her back to me, pretending to be asleep. Corrah follows her lead, only she hides her entire body under the sheet.
Thanks, guys
. My door flings wide open as Micah enters without hesitation. His emerald eyes glow when he stops in what little light there is in the room.

“Time to go, love,” he says in a low voice, extending his broad hand for me.

I shudder inwardly at the thought of touching him befo
re remembering what Hannah said.
Pretend
. I slide my hand into his, trying my best not to recoil. He leads me through the door, which one of his minions locks behind us. He makes a left, heading into a dim hallway. The blazing fires from the lit torches dance on the wall eagerly. A knot forms in my stomach at the thought of where we might be going. Micah pulls me sharply until I’m walking directly beside him. I feel his gaze penetrating me as we continue to stroll in silence.

“Since you won’t ask, I’ll let you in on a little secret,” he offers. “I’m taking you to our
Seeker Chamber where you’ll stay until you find the location of The Scholars and the book for me.”

Seeker Chamber?
Sounds fancy. I roll my eyes, knowing from this point forward, Micah will find creative ways to torture me. I refuse to lead him anywhere near them, but I need to be smart enough to buy myself some much-needed time. He stops, turning towards the tunnel wall. He presses his burly hands on the rock, chanting a spell in Latin. The wall glows in a jewel-colored purple hue, before an oak-paneled door appears. It absolutely wasn’t there before. Its features are that of an ordinary door, but nothing is ordinary in the world of magic. We step closer, and an uninviting vibe throbs in the center of it, warning me to turn around. The hairs on the back of my neck stand straight up as a shiver hikes down my spine. Micah grips my upper arm, pulling me into him.