AN: Sorry for the long delay but this chapter caused me a lot of trouble and I don't even know why! But now it is here and I couldn't make it any better. It isn't double-checked so they might be even more mistakes than usually - I didn't dare to read it again, because I was afraid that if I did I would delete it again!
Thank you for the reviews (please leave some for this chapter too...) and thank you for reading it at all!
Chapter 7.
Piper felt amazingly calm and excited at the same moment. It was a strange feeling but she knew where it came from. In the last year, with Wyatt around she slowly lost the leading role in the family. Yes, of course she was still the eldest sister but in magical matters Paige took over her place mostly. Now though she was in top form and was preparing herself to match with a very powerful demon. She had to admit that she was hungry for the challenge. She often complained about the disadvantages that came together with being a witch and champion of good but she loved it. In moments like these she felt that she did something really important. And being on an adrenaline-high wasn't such a bad feeling, either.
She stood in front of a house… or something like that. They were in the Underworld, in the area where – due to Chris – Gardior lived and supposedly this was his house. It looked like a medieval castle carved into the rocks.
She touched the amulet that she wore around her neck, took a deep breath and blew the door open.
She came into a large room that was almost empty except the few huge columns that were decorated like those in the ancient Greece. Piper looked around and then did as Chris suggested.
"Gardior!" she shouted as loud as she could. "I challenge you to a duel in accordance to the old demonic law! Come and meet me!"
There was a sizzling sound and the demon appeared on the opposite side of the room.
"Do you want to die, witch?" he asked in a grumbling voice.
"No intention of dying, thank you!" Piper and raised her hands to blow up the demon.
His left arm vanished and he screamed out but the arm grew back almost immediately.
"If I were you I wouldn't anger myself" he said and waved swung his renewed arm.
Piper felt the magical power engulf her but the amulet prevented it from working and she stayed steady.
"Interesting…" the demon mumbled and came closer.
Piper lashed out with her power again and the strength of the explosion threw Gardior against one of the columns so hard that the building seemed to quiver.
This went on for a while and the demon exerted more and more power, so much in the end that it already an effect on Piper and she found herself on the ground more than once. But to her joy the demon looked more and more battered than her.
She guessed that she spent enough time here and decided that she should finish the so-called duel. They had a very accurate plan and she knew that in a few minutes she should be at the meeting point.
Gardior was on the ground at the moment and Piper didn't hesitate: she let two columns explode in rapid fire and the pieces practically covered the demon.
Piper threw a last glance at his unmoving body and then rushed out of the palace and turned right. Chris had drawn a quite detailed map of these part of Gardior's empire that they all memorized before departure. Where Chris got this kind of information he didn't tell but until now all his data proved to be correct.
Piper was running in the direction from where she saw smoke flying up. She knew it was caused by Chris who got the task to distract the guards until Paige and Phoebe got Cole out.
Soon she saw not just the smoke but also heard the shouting and screams and when she came even closer she glimpsed Chris fighting two demons at once and she saw five others lying around. She also saw some heaps of ash that indicated that some of the guards weren't lucky enough to stay in one piece.
Then suddenly Chris waved with both of his hands and the two demons flew in opposite directions. Piper stopped dead in her track. What the hell? Piper thought. This was definitely telekinesis but how?
Chris looked around and glimpsed Piper. She clearly saw as he blushed.
"You are a witch!" Piper said stunned.
Chris licked his lips and his eyes were quickly darting around as if he were looking for some way out. Then his shoulders slumped in a submissive manner.
"Yes."
There was a kind of sadness and pain in his eyes that Piper has never seen before and she quickly reconsidered the accusing words that were on her tongue.
"We will talk about this later" she said instead. "Let's go!"
The relief on the young man's face spoke volumes and he followed Piper without another word.
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Paige and Phoebe appeared in a dark tunnel. They both had backpacks with that contained the explosives that Chris gained from somewhere. At the moment they could only hope that they were in the right place. A few torches lit the area and it was grimly quiet. From the distance though they could soon hear some noises. They carefully started forward without saying a word. The plan was made, so they didn't need to discuss it further. After a few meters they turned into a more lit part and glimpsed two demons standing in front of a barred gate. Phoebe threw the potion they brought with and both demons turned into ashes. It went quite smoothly and they went on but in front of the gate Phoebe stopped and made Paige stop as well. Five men and two women were there huddled together at the back of the cave wall fear evident on their faces. Paige instantly remembered what Chris told them about Gardior having human slaves.
"We can't leave them here" Phoebe whispered and Paige had to agree. They looked so vulnerable and hurt.
"But how could we save them?"
Phoebe took out a piece of paper that Chris draw them to show where the best place would be for them to break the wards with an explosion.
"I think we could break out here."
"But it's already the edge of the suited part."
"It's still good."
Chris said that behind the cave walls there was another tunnel-system, a much older one that wasn't protected. Where he knew this from he didn't tell but he seemed very sure about it. He has drawn the part of the caves where the two systems connected.
"We find Cole, come back here and put the explosives into place."
Paige threw a last glimpse at the people in there and nodded.
"Okay."
Further in the tunnel there were some other doors, these though were wooden doors closed with heavy bolts. On the top of every of them was a small barred window. Most of the cells were empty but when Paige looked into the last one he saw something in the farthest corner.
"I think this is the right one" she whispered and took out another vial from her pocket.
They drew backwards and then Paige threw the vial at the door. There was a small explosion, some smoke and they could open the door.
Phoebe went in first and rushed to the heap in the corner. Paige could see the dark hair peeping out from under the ragged blanket and knew it had to be Cole but he didn't react at all. When Phoebe pulled the rag away from his body they could see that he was trembling heavily.
"Cole!" Phoebe said gently trying to wake him up by touching his shoulder and shaking him carefully.
He slowly opened his eyes but the trembling of his body didn't stop. His eyes were still fuzzy, however there was a slight light of recognition in them.
"It's me, Phoebe. I'm sorry, but you have to stand up, dear. Please, help me" she addressed it to both Cole and Paige. So Paige went closer and took Cole's other arm.
Together they managed to bring the man into a standing position but even after he was standing they didn't dare to let go of him as he seemed to be very shaky on his legs.
"All right. Let's go and hope that Chris and Piper will arrive here soon."
Paige and Phoebe struggled to keep Cole on his feet. He might have lost a lot of weight that he couldn't gain back in the last few weeks but he was still much taller and heavier than the girls. He was staggering and shivering constantly and a few times he almost managed to knock them over. But after some struggling they managed to get back to the larger cave.
Paige took out another vial and did the same trick on this gate as well. They slowly edged inside and saw that the people in there drew back even further into the wall.
"Don't worry…" Phoebe said quietly and calmly however Paige could see that she was quite overwhelmed by the strong emotions in the room. "We are here to help you out."
She released Cole and Paige did the same which caused the man to slowly sliding to the ground. The girls put down their bags and packed out the dynamite. They needed Chris to activate it but they wanted to be ready for the fleeing.
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