Page 18 of A Witch-ish Guide to Protectors and Pendulums

Without so much as a goodbye, he walked out the same door I couldn’t pull open, slamming it behind him. Great. Just freaking great. I found myself trapped in someone else’s home with no way to get out. And as far as I knew, I was stuck for the entire night.

Chapter

Six

Why did my parents have to die before having a chance to explain about my magic and supers, for that matter? I hated not knowing. One thing was certain: Connor might have locked me up in here, but he clearly forgot about Jeffery’s phone.

My life’s ambition was never to be Nancy Drew, but a man dying took precedence over any other life choices. Especially when that man meant something to me. When I turned on the phone this time, an image appeared in my mind. It took me so off guard that I dropped the phone onto the rug. The image of a woman with long, dark hair, dark eyes and mediterranean skin filled my inner vision. She opened her mouth and I’d swear in a court of law that I heard her say, “Simone.”

My legs buckled underneath me, sending me down to the carpet along with the phone while I tried to slow my racing heartbeat. What in all magic was going on here? I’d never had a vision before.Never. I had taser fingers once a month. The month should’ve reset. Not fair for the universe to change things up on me now. We had a system. I (mostly) held back fromtouching people one day a month then went on with my life all the other days. But visions?

Visions?

A person really needed to be mentally prepared to deal with this revelation and clearly, I wasnot.

Since Connor really happened to be the only one who knew about the mess my life had become, I wanted—like,reallywanted—to talk to him. The problem being, he’d neglected to leave his number and he never told me his last name for me to look it up. Even if I tried google searching every Connor with a phone in the Tri-County area, I’d be here till next Thursday making phone calls.

I walked to the kitchen, rummaging through cabinets. This was a coffee moment. Coffee: the delicious elixir to ease the cruelty of life. Where did he keep the stuff? I needed itstat. He had a refrigerator filled with fresh fruit and vegetables. In his pantry: oatmeal? Protein shakes? What exactly did he expect me to eat? Where were the snack cakes or processed food? I thought Connor might’ve been trying to torture me. How about bread? Or mayo? Some cheese and olive loaf… Was that too much to ask for?

Heathen—the man was a complete heathen.

Now I wanted to eat more than ever because he didn’t have any real good food. I paced the floor of the kitchen like a caged animal, getting more and more irritated. Too restrictive. I needed more room to roam. I needed freedom. I needed?—

Finally, I found myself in front of the door again, more frustrated than I’d been in forever and I screamed out that frustration, kicking at the door. I grabbed the handle again, jiggling it, and screamed once more, “Open already!”

Then the craziest thing happened. It popped open. He supposedly had wards keeping me locked inside like a freakingprisoner. I tried the door. It’d refused to open for me. I was far from crazy. It wouldnotopen. Now, just like that, it opened?

Whoa. I walked outside into the fresh, clean air. It felt like I’d been locked up for fifteen years. Okay,maybeI exaggerated a bit. Still, it felt good to be out. My beautiful jeep sat parked where he’d left it, but my hopes for escape were dashed when I realized that he never gave me back my keys.

“Universe,” I said to the sky, “How do you expect me to drive without my keys?” Again, with the angry reflex actions, I threw my hand out, bringing it down on the hood, yelling at my jeep. “Why can’t you just start?” I cried out, only to have the engine turn over.

It did.

At first, I thought I might be cracking up. To test it, I climbed inside, then pressed the brake to shift into drive. I expected it to stall when I pressed the brake, like when I pressed the brake on my old car after engaging the remote start, but I’d forgotten to put the key in the ignition. It didn’t stall. Good jeep. Another hurtle down. So I drove.

To Raven.

To Connor.

He’d be pissed to see me, of course. But what could I do? This was huge. Huger than huge.

When I parked in front of the cemetery, I sighed, relieved that the jeep never stalled on my way. “Thanks for getting me here safe,” I said to my car. “You can shut off now.” The magic twitched under my skin in more than just my hands and the jeep shut off. “Wait here,” I told the car like an idiot.

The padlock unhooked before I reached it tonight. The path lit up for me, even though I remembered the way. The burning footprints led me back to the mausoleum, where the darkness seemed both darker and not nearly as dark simultaneously.

Once I reached the wrought-iron fence, I told the air, “Don’t let him know I’m here just yet.” Nothing happened when I reached the door except that the footprints disappeared and—poof!The door popped open. I waited, set off to the side of the mausoleum in the darkness, for Connor to come charging at me. The only light in the cemetery came from the stars and a slightly less-full moon. I gave it a few minutes to make sure he wasn’t going to get the jump on me. When the coast seemed clear, I entered the stairwell, glowing red, with no shadows this time. It actually felt like I’d been invited inside. It would’ve been rude not to go. Iwasn’trude—I mean, unless I landed in the unfortunate circumstance of dealing with Connor. At least when he talked.

If we were really meant to be together, the universe messed up. I did a quick check to make sure I was alone and then slipped down the stone staircase. The red light shone up from the bottom of the ancient building. The wall had metal plates with images of demons and other magical creatures all along the spiraling stones.

It looked like I’d walked into a real-life version of Dante’sInfernomeetsThe Goblin Market. And it was warm, but not overly hot. Considering the red light, I figured it would be boiling. My feet should have made noise against the stone steps, but every step remained silent. And I finally saw where the red light came from: a wall of fire. As soon as I reached the bottom, I became surrounded by those walls of fire on three sides.

The space opened up wide—no place to hide. I watched silently while scantily-clad women hung all over each other and the men in the room. It appeared I’d entered a waiting room. There was a hallway off the waiting room where the bottom half of the walls were made of fire, but the tops had windows showing the inside of offices, where people milled about working. I thought I might’ve stumbled into a supernatural office building.

And no one noticed me. No one. I moved through the waiting room to the hallway, completely carefree. This was amazing. The door at the very end of the hall opened and I stopped short—sucking in a sharp breath because Connor emerged from the office with Luc’s hand pressed in a friendly manner to his back. They were both laughing. Connor laughing was a thing of beauty.

Luc suddenly looked over to where I stood and we locked eyes—or I thought we locked eyes until he twisted his head left and right like he was looking for something, but he didn’t call me out. He leaned in to say something to Connor, who stuck his nose up and sniffed the air.

I mean, come on, it wasn’t my fault. He stuck his nose in the air and sniffed like a bloodhound. How could I not laugh? But I kept it down to a low snicker. Well, I kept it to a low snicker until he picked up the trail heading straight for me. He stopped abruptly only inches from my face, reaching his hand out too. I managed to dodge it, stepping to the side.

---