Chapter 25: Last Encounter

Hollie

Where was I?

I remembered trying to find Kaine before I was brought here. In fact, I found him. He lingered somewhere in Germany. I confronted him at a field of poppies. It was beautiful. He wouldn't tell me where he hid Evelyn. His face looked even more smug than usual.

I tried to fight him, but he was so much stronger than usual. I failed to even land a punch. I barely had any time before he hit my head and I blacked out.

And now here I was, in this place I knew nothing about.

Spider webs hung from the top of the ceiling. As I walked, my feet lifted clouds of dust off the ground. The place was filthy. I could tell that the sun was just rising because the wooden walls were already starting to give way, allowing a soft shimmer of light to escape through its gaps.

My head was still giddy from the fight. Kaine had really hit me hard.

I pushed myself up into a seating position and tried to steady my mind, resting my hand on my head. I wanted to just lie down there and close my eyes until the headache went away. But I had no time to do such useless things. Evelyn was missing and I had to find her.

I stood up and walked toward the wooden walls. They were falling apart; it shouldn't be hard to knock one of them down. I could even knock down the whole house if I wanted to.

But something didn't make sense: Why would Kaine drag me all the way down here?

I pressed my hand against the wall and pushed as hard as my muscles allowed me to. Nothing. I furrowed my brows. Something wasn't right. I threw my hand at the wooden wall, trying to punch it down.

A large force repelled me back from it. It hit my chest, pushing me across the room. My head fell into contact with the wall on the other side, and that wall repelled me too, this time against the ground. My face landed straight onto it.

I forgot to blink for a moment. I had just been juggled around by a house. I was never treated like this by anything or anyone before. My headache got even worse.

I looked up at the house with a vengeance. I hated the walls. My raw instincts urged me to rush up and punch them once more, but that would just be stupid. I would be juggled around once again.

The house had beenspelled.

I lied down on the floor and took a few deep breaths, waiting for the pain to dissipate. It didn't take long for it to mellow into a soft ache at the back of my head.

Kaine was great with spells. He was even better than the best of witches-a hard feat since witches, even though we created them, were much more adept than us at harnessing the power of magic. I was attuned with barrier magic, but breaking Kaine's spell would still prove to be a difficult feat.

I dragged myself to my feet and made my way to the front door. It was time to break this spell. I had to find Evelyn. Adan counted on me for it.

And Angie. I doubted that neither Adan nor Jason would try to protect her. Who knew what would happen to her if I weren't around? Jason was danger. He wanted to kill her.

The thought of Angie being in danger made me panic. I needed to get out of here. Quick. I immediately started to work on my magic, trying to decipher the spell.

It was difficult without a spell book. The witches had invented over a hundred barrier spells over the last hundreds of years. I felt around the magical aura. The soft nature of it let me narrow it down to fifty other spells that could have been casted.

Fifty. That didn't make much of a difference either. I couldn't memorize every single one of them.

I bit my lip in frustration. "Shit."

The aura didn't seem right though. It didn't feel... natural. Like another force had invaded. There was only one other explanation.

Someone else was working on breaking it too.

That gave me newfound hope. With more hands, the spell could be broken faster. I started recalling all the spells that I had memorized. Each spell was at least a few pages long. It took me decades to learn most of them.

I cursed at myself for not starting my obsession with barriers a few decades earlier. That way, I wouldn't be struggling to break this one spell right now.

The magical aura felt slightly off. Like it was a completely unconventional spell. Kaine had specially designed an odd one to keep me in here. No wonder the person at the other side was taking so long to break me out of here.

I closed my eyes and worked the waves with my fingers. This honestly sucked. My headache started to get worse with the sheer concentration I needed to manipulate the magic. It wasn't just basic memorization work that could break this spell. Each one of them had to be tweaked in a bunch of other ways.

It had only been twenty minutes when the other person's magic had stopped. My heart sank. It would take longer now that he gave up. He left me alone to break it.

I focused on the situation at hand. Evelyn and Angie needed my help.

My mind started to get tired from all the concentration. Sleepiness tugged at me. I forced my eyes open.

And when I least expected it, the spell had broke.

I had only used a simple spell, the very first one I could memorize. But the spell was tweaked in a very odd way, something that took me an hour to figure out.

No wonder the other guy couldn't break it. It was the least expected spell for anyone to use and it was necessary to maneuver it as such. Luck had made it so that my headache prevented me from recalling any of the other barrier spells properly.

I eagerly pulled the door open and stepped out of it. The sun had not fully risen. A soft orange glow tinged the clouds.

I scanned my surroundings. I recognized this place and it definitely wasn't Germany. I reached down into my pocket and expected to grab my phone. It wasn't there. Kaine must have taken it. I cursed under my breath. Adan might have needed me for something.

An old lady passed by the house.

I wanted to go down and ask her where we were when a voice stopped me. "Where have you kept Jane?"

I spun my head around toward the familiar voice. Jason stood there. "What do you mean?" I asked. He made it sound as if I've taken her. I thought that we all came to the consensus that Kaine did.

It was only then did I notice a dead body hanging at the top of the roof. Its head was missing and blood was spilling out its neck and dripping down.

The other guy that had helped me. Jason killed him.

Jason rolled his eyes. "You've finally come out of hiding. You, Adan and Kaine. All of you planned this didn't you? Where is Jane? Is she in there?" He pointed to the house.

I was thoroughly confused. "I was trapped in there. By Kaine."

"LIAR!"

"What are you talking about? Do you know how ridiculous you're sounding?"

"Me, ridiculous?" Jason let out a low chuckle that made me stomach turn. "Yes. Yes I am ridiculous. I'm ridiculous because I've let you insult me all these years. I let you run around and disrespect me, even though I created you to be below me."

I stared and him and swallowed. This was the first time Jason seemed so threatening.

He narrowed his eyes. "It's time for me to put you back in place."

I looked at the sun. It was still dawn. I just needed to stall him for a few more minutes. Then he wouldn't be able to kill me.

"I never took Evelyn."

"Call her Jane."

I tightened my jaw. "I never took Jane."

"I know what you're doing Hollie. Don't think for a second that I will fall for it."

"Fall for what?" Jason had found out my scheme. It was too obvious. I was done for.

Just a few more seconds. That's all I needed. Of course, he wouldn't allow it.

I stared at him, as if that would make a difference. "Where is this place you say I belong to?"

He growled and barred his fangs at me. "In hell." His claws lengthened. I imagined them tearing into my flesh—exactly what he would do in just a few seconds.

And then, he lunged.

I didn't stand a chance.