Page 125 of Shadow Witch

“Must have been horrible. I’m ready to cut and run now and we’re together.” Dewey landed on her shoulder, handing off the flashlight.

Paige slid the beam around, searching the blackness for anything.

“What’s your compass say?” Dewey asked.

Paige pulled it from her pocket and studied it. “It’s just spinning around wildly, and I can’t read anything on the outside. We should have brought Luna down here.”

“She’s too busy ogling the sexy vampire.”

“She’s supposed to be helping us find my mom.” Paige took a few steps forward before she let her eyes rise to the top of the pyramid again. “Where is Drucinda? We need to move on.”

“Trying to figure out a way to open the door up there and come down a normal way,” Dewey answered. “Let’s explore while we wait for her.”

“Yeah, I’m a little nervous about that.” Paige plopped down on the floor in a cross-legged seat. “I’m going to sit right here and watch that opening to make sure it doesn’t close.”

“What difference does it make if it closes?” Dewey asked. “I mean, what are you going to do? Scale the wall and open it yourself?”

“Maybe,” she answered. With a roll of her eyes, she climbed to her feet and aimed the flashlight into the darkness. “Fine. We’ll look around.”

“Maybe we’ll just find your mom hanging out in a dark corner, and then we can get out of here,” Dewey answered as he fluttered around within the light beam’s reach.

“Yeah, I’m sure she’s just sitting in the corner,” Paige answered. “She’s just being really quiet in case we’re the bad guys.”

“Look, Paige’s mom, we’re not the bad guys. We’re the good guys. So, if you’re hiding somewhere here, just come out. We won’t hurt you.”

“That’ll do the trick, I’m sure,” Paige said as she shuffled across the floor, shifting the light beam left to right as Dewey settled on her shoulder again.

“Nothing so far,” Dewey answered. “This is getting tedious.”

Paige rubbed her hands against the stone walls before she pivoted and searched in another direction. “You didn’t think it would be easy, did you?”

“Yeah,” Dewey answered. “I thought the soul compass would just lead us right to her. You’d cry a little, not a lot. Enough to tug at the old heartstrings, but then you’d get yourself together, and we’d go on with life.”

Paige screwed up her face as she twisted to study him. “Seriously?”

“Yeah, seriously. I did not think we’d be back in a temple, wande–” His voice cut off as the ground dropped out from underneath them.

A scream escaped both Paige’s and Dewey’s mouths as they plunged deeper into the temple.

CHAPTER 28

Paige’s stomach twisted into a knot as she clapped a hand over her mouth to stop the frightened scream from escaping from her.

Dewey continued his frantic shouting. “Help! Help! We’re falling!”

Paige wrinkled her nose as she continued her downward trek. “Wait, we’re not falling.”

“Ugh, Paige…we’re moving downward…at a decent clip, we’re falling.”

Paige shook her head, glancing down at her legs. They weren’t falling, they were sliding. “No, we’re not…we’re…sliding downward.”

“Huh?” he shouted.

“Sliding. We’re sliding. Like on a big sliding board.”

“Who put a sliding board in the temple?”

Paige shrugged seconds before they spilled onto the floor. “I don’t know, but I’m glad they did. That would have been a big fall. I wouldn’t have survived it.”

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