Page 50 of Catastrophe

A cheerful, hopeful person remarked, “If Elizabeth and Karin are on the outside, then maybe they’ll rescue us.”

And then that person was torn down by a negative, monotone person who replied, “I wouldn’t bet on it. Karin is the reason we are here, and Elizabeth’s main priority is not saving us. We are doomed.”

It had escaped my notice that Elizabeth also wasn’t in the cage, and I was glad Charlie wouldn’t lose his birth mother. I sighed. And I wouldn’t feel responsible for ensuring her safe return.

Perhaps she is already with Charlie.

As the witches became more and more distressed, I still didn’t catch sight of Clawdia, Baelen, or Charlie. I prayed Baelen kept his promise and they were all somewhere else, somewhere safe. I hoped Savida, Daithi, and the protector were alive and well too.

“Can you not say something positive?” another person snapped.

The monotone witch replied again, “What’s positive about this situation? I’m positive we are going to die here. Make peace with the goddess, because we’ll be reunited with her soon.”

“Die?” the squeaker squeaked.

Just as the whole cage was about to descend into panicked chaos, Marianne clapped her hands and stood up. The witches quieted and gazed at her like a savior, as if she were hope personified. “Stop. Stop. You’re all causing each other to panic, and that isn’t productive. Now, let’s do a quick headcount and plan our next move.”

“Zaide? Are you awake?”

Joseph, the faei representative of the supernatural council, shuffled across the floor to me and became visible in the blue hue. His usually smart-looking clothes were torn and hung limply from his shoulders. His hair resembled a bush.

“Yes,” I croaked and cleared my throat. I made myself comfortable, crossing my legs and arms and keeping as far away as possible from the nervous creatures near me.

Joseph wasn’t nervous and sat close to me as he spoke in a low voice, “Quite the predicament we find ourselves in.”

“It certainly seems that way. How many of us are here?”

He hummed. “About fifty, I’d say.”

I let out a breath and asked, “All the council are with you except Elizabeth?”

“Yes.” He pointed in their direction, and I could make out Samuel crouched and shaking. Joseph continued, “Unfortunately, Samuel’s beast is struggling with the cage and has rendered him useless in our escape.”

“Escape?” I asked slowly.

He made a humorless chuckle and replied, “Of course. You didn’t think we would lounge around in our enemies’ grip for long, did you?”

“You can escape from this cage?” I clarified, because that information would have been important to all those panicking witches a few moments ago. They needed hope. I glanced over at Marianne to see her leaning over a group and whispering. Maybe that’s what she was doing.

“With your assistance, I don’t doubt it,” Joseph said confidently.

I blinked, then rushed to ask, “What can I do?”

“While the witches work on the spell to bring down the shield and I ensure the task team can locate us, you will need to bend the bars. You can do that, correct?”

“I can.” With new hope rising inside me like a bird launching into the sky, I smiled widely. But where would we escape to? The hunters would surely hunt us down. I frowned, then asked, “You are hoping the task team will be close by to rescue us?”

He nodded. “All the council have a chip inside them with a locator spell on it since we should be reachable by all our people, but I believe it to be blocked by some spell. When we don’t check in with the task team, they will come looking for us. Hopefully, by then, I will have already circumvented the spell and freed us.” He eyed me. “You also have a special connection to your soul pair. Can she find you through that?”

I pursed my lips, thinking back to when Clawdia went missing and how Charlie and I followed the feeling of her pain to her, or made us rush automatically toward her, our bond taking over. I wasn’t sure what was correct, but we found her.

My bond with her differed from Charlie’s, so I replied slowly, “I’m not sure if we can find each other, actually. What are you doing to unblock the locator?” Perhaps I could do the same to unblock my bond with Clawdia. But I didn’t mention this to him. I didn’t want him to worry if he couldn’t get the task team to find us.

“Oh, I’m just creating an illusion shield to block their block.”

Not something I could do. “Ah, yes. Faei illusion magic.”

“I’m sure with a friend like Daithi, you know it well.”

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