Page 217 of The Demon's Spell

I hesitated. Last time Grant touched one of my portals, he’d been blasted backward. My portals were impassable. “I haven’t perfected my portal magic yet. Someone could get hurt.”

“We’ll get hurt if we stay!” Chloe insisted. “We should at least try.”

I raised my hands. I pictured the first thing that came to mind—the abandoned mansion. It was protected, so the mob wouldn’t be able to find us there.

But nothing happened.

Desperately, I turned my focus inward, but I couldn’t feel my magic. “Fuck!” I growled. “The Waning!”

I’d only just started getting my magic back since the last time I was affected, and now this? This was the worst fucking time.

Chloe lifted her hands, but I didn’t see even a spark of magic. “I’m out, too.”

Miles started to panic. “We all are!”

“If the whole coven’s affected, how did they create that spell out there!?” Grant demanded.

“It makes sense that this would happen under attack,” Charlotte said. “The coven is attacking its own people, so it’s hurting our magic even more, and dividing us further.”

She lifted her hands. Wisps of silver magic swirled from her fingers. “My magic is still working.”

Everyone tried, but only Charlotte and Nadine could get their magic to work.

“Why us and no one else?” Nadine wondered, like it was a puzzle she was trying to solve that might help us escape.

“There are talented supernaturals among us,” Charlotte explained. “That’s why I was called onto the Imperium Council. Even though you were the only Curse Breaker, we’ve suspected for some time you may be a talented supernatural. The Waning will still affect you, but not as intense as it will your friends.”

That’s why Nadine’s magic returned sooner than mine when we were tossed in the jail cells. She was only becoming stronger every day.

Nadine looked down at her hands. “If I’m strong enough to maintain my magic during the Waning, then maybe I can stabilize the space-bending spell and get us out of here.”

Nadine walked up to the wall and splayed her palms over it She closed her eyes, and her brow knitted together in concentration. Nadine’s hands lit up with her signature deep blue magic, and the confusion on her face settled into an expression of confidence. She might actually be able to do this…

Another blast rocked the school. Nadine was thrown off her feet and slammed hard against my chest. I caught her as we both crashed to the ground. Our friends all lost their footing, and thuds sounded around us as they were thrown to the ground. Talia screamed, and Oliver screeched as I landed on his tail. My head spun—wait, no. It was the room.

Gravity shifted, and my friends and I began sliding across the floor. Our cats yowled and clawed at the hardwood. Objects fell off shelves and spun around us. We landed against the wall, which had become the floor now. The room kept spinning, until we were on the ceiling. Finally, gravity settled, but the room was upside down.

Talia rubbed her head and groaned. She’d hit it against one of the supply shelves, and blood matted in her hair.

Grant immediately scrambled to her aid and checked her wound. He grabbed a towel that had fallen off the shelf and pressed it to the back of her head. “They must’ve broken through the ward.”

Nadine winced as she sat upright. “That wasn’t the mob. It was me. There’s too much magic in these walls for me to stabilize it on my own. The magic backfired. Tal, I’m so sorry.”

“I’ll be fine,” Talia said, but she flinched as Grant shifted the towel slightly.

“Guys!” Chloe yelled. She pointed to the walls, and my stomach plummeted to my toes. The room was shrinking as we spoke. We’d be squished if we stayed much longer.

“Let’s get out of here!” Miles cried. He grabbed Chloe’s hand, and they led the way as we all scrambled to our feet and sprinted through the upside-down doorway. I nearly tripped over Marley and Bella as the cats scurried along at our feet.

We entered a long, dark hallway with stone walls. The hallway narrowed with each passing second as the walls inched closer together. It had to be one of the halls in the basement of the school, but there were no doorways like there should have been.

Miles skidded to a halt, and we all stopped behind him. We glanced around, looking for a way out. I whirled around, but the doorway we’d come through had vanished. The hall seemed to elongate and go on forever.

“There’s no way out!” Miles yelled.

“There has to be,” I barked. I wasn’t letting my friends die here—not like this. “Come on!”

Nadine and I locked hands as we sprinted down the hall, but no matter how far we ran, it seemed we got nowhere. We were literally stuck in a living nightmare. The coven had fucked up their own space-bending spell, and now the school was folding in on itself.

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