Page 61 of Hidden Sacrifice
“I wanted to do that,” I grumbled. She was constantly doing the same thing with her shoes.
“I know,” she said with a smile, hopping off the counter.
“Princess?” Jasper called loudly from the bedroom, causing Mor to stop mid-step on her way toward me. The mischief in her eyes instantly switched off as she looked over to the door.
She turned away from me, heading towards the central area. As her hand reached the knob, she looked back at me. The look she gave me was pure fire as she slowly raked her eyes up and down my body.
“Maybe next time, Jace,” she said with a smile full of promises before leaving the bathroom.
Well, at least I wasn’t worried about the god wearing my face anymore. I think she said his name was AJ. I shrugged it off for now as I decided I may as well go out there and see what all was going on. Jasper probably just wanted to watch a movie.
* * *
Amovie would have been far better than this. We were back in Andemeron. To make matters worse, it was in the middle of the night. The night is typically preferred for vampires, but this realm was different. There seemed to be more monsters out at night, and I had a feeling many of those monsters wore human faces.
We trudged onwards in the swampy marsh, with nothing more than candles in jars marking the path to lead the way. Justice was at the front of the group with Mor, leading everyone towards some witch that could go into the veil. After Mor’s comments about what she learned from the god, Justice’s mind went to work. We were here to find Mor’s killer.
A howl went out from the woods behind us, making each of the hairs on my body stand at attention. I knew that sound, though I had only heard it one other time. It was the sound of a werewolf, the type that kills vampires.
I turned to look back to Mor and noticed the slight outline of a hooded figure standing in the path ahead of our group. “Person,” I called out to let the others know.
“Witch,” the mysterious figure called back to us.
“That was Jace. You can ignore him,” Justice called back to the hooded figure.
The witch didn’t respond, patiently waiting for us to get close enough to see her. She had long white-blonde hair with black streaks running through it. Most of the hair on the sides of her head was braided in thin strands bundled together, proudly displaying her sharp pointed ears.
“I am Wren,” she said with an edge to her voice that spoke of many years of hardship.
“Hi, I’m Morrigan.”
The witch ignored Mor’s outstretched hand. She chose instead to scoff and then nod. “This way,” she said, turning away from the path and walking into the darkness.
We followed with a collective shrug, trudging through the swampy land until we came upon a small wooden shack.
Wren opened the door wide before gesturing for us to come inside quickly. The interior was warm and dry, with a large fire. The space was otherwise small, with various pieces of nature repurposed as household staples. A small child sat on the floor near the fire, with white-blonde hair and caramel-colored skin. She looked just like Wren.
“This way. Into the bedroom and be quick,” Wren said, shooing us towards the back of the shack, where a broad slab of tree bark served as a door.
Behind that was a tiny room with a solitary mattress. I was pretty sure it was stuffed with straw. A small hand-stitched stuffed bear slouched by one side of the bed, holding on to the shape of a much smaller dip than the other side. The child slept here as well.
“Join hands, and do not let go under any circumstances. I will take you with me into the veil searching for the soul that killed you,” Wren said, looking to Mor as she extended her hands.
I looked to Jax with concern, unsure if he would be able to get through something like this. I watched him swallow hard before nodding. He didn’t look at me before I heard his voice in my head, “Can you hold my other hand?”
Immediately, I shuffled my position, so I was on one side of Jax while Mor grabbed his other hand. Jasper grabbed ahold of my free hand, with Justice on his other side. At the same time, Mor and Justice held Wren’s hand, and the entire world went black.
Blinking away the darkness, I searched around, finding myself alone on a small floating island in the middle of a dark mist. “Can anyone hear me?”I mentally shouted out to the rest of the group.
“I’m here!”I heard the sweet sound of Mor’s voice as it settled into my mind. I took a deep, steadying breath, knowing that at least she was here.
“Where is everyone? Why are we separated?”I hoped Jax hadn’t let go.
“I don’t know,”Mor responded.
I got to my feet, dusting the fine dirt from my pants. It was almost like sand. There was a path made from the fine soil separate from the barren wasteland. Taking one step after the other, I followed the trail. It weaved around a small island, giving me a tour of the sparse leafless trees and bunches of wild grass. Within a few minutes, I arrived back at the start, having toured it all.
“It’s a test,”Jax said into my mind, and part of me was shocked at how relieved I felt to hear from him.
