Page 42 of The Maestro's Mates
Rick was advancing on him now, his fangs sharp and shining, and Sebastian’s heartbeat pounded in his ears. All around him, his spirits vibrated in place. Were they charging their energies? He’d never seen anything like it, but his focus was on the giant vampire moving toward him.
“You’ll regret this, witch.” Rick laughed, a harsh and ugly sound. Taking a loud step forward, his black boot came down hard on the wooden floor.
Which, at the urging of Sebastian’s spirits, gave way underneath him.
His foot broke through the boards like they were made of paper, and he growled in frustration. The hole wasn’t large, and Rick stopped falling as his muscular thigh stuck in the opening.
It was slight, but Sebastian caught the tiniest bit ofmovement, the sides of the hole tightening on the vampire, the boards squeezing to keep him motionless.
“What the fuck?” Rick struggled, pushing himself up with his one free tree trunk leg, but to no avail. The boards would not release him.
Justin stood, the daze of Rick’s attack finally wearing off.
“What did you do?” The question wasn’t accusing, but curious. “And where are we? Rick has been dead for almost two years!”
“Guess I’m trying out a new kind of spellwork.” Sebastian grinned, unable to contain his surprise and excitement that his song had worked.
“Both of you are dead!” Rick screamed. He was starting to look strange now, like his body was having difficulty maintaining its shape. “You can’t stand against her.”
“Stand against who?” Sebastian crouched slightly to get closer to the floundering man. Rick said nothing. Sebastian pushed out an image to his spirits, hoping the goodwill he’d bought with his song hadn’t already expired.
Rick’s face whipped to the left as the strike of Sebastian’s strong slap rang out in the room. The gleeful spirits flickered in Sebastian’s eyes, bouncing up and down with a mischievous delight. He puzzled over howaggressivethese chaos spirits were.
“Stand againstwho?” Sebastian repeated.
“Your sister,” the man forced out.
Sebastian nodded and waved at Rick dismissively. With that, there was a loud splintering sound, like the house was coming apart. The hole opened up, and Rick fell through. He grabbed at the sides to stop himself from descending, but the wood cracked again, and the vampire’s handholds disintegrated in front of his eyes.
With another desperate scream, he was gone. Sebastian peeked down after him, wanting to observe the floor beneath them. He wished he hadn’t.
It was the abyss.
Rather than the first level of the house, there was a great darkness, a total absence of light that hummed with cruelty and malice. It was nothing but a hole, but Sebastian could sense a personality there. It wasn’t happy.
A crackle of deep purple lightning flashed as Rick fell into the darkness. Then, as quickly as it had come, it was gone, the floor repairing itself with the help of a few scattered chaos spirits. Sebastian was bent over at the waist, catching his breath.
“What…what was that? What is this place? Rick isdead. I saw his body.”
Sebastian sprang forward, holding Justin’s head in his hands and staring into his eyes, looking for any sign of trauma or pain. Instead, there was a curiosity there. He released his grip.
Glancing around the space, he noticed several strange anomalies.
“You see how that desk doesn’t belong in here? It looks wrong. And the shroud is peeking through where the walls and floor meet.” The dull silver was hard to catch, but once he’d noticed it, he couldn’t help but be aware.
“Yes, but what does itmean?”
“This is a dream. We’re in a dream.”
Justin hugged himself, shivering, as he glanced around the room, searching for what Sebastian was looking at. After a moment, he nodded slowly.
“How?”
Sebastian swallowed. This wasn’t good news, that Veronica had been able to reach him in the Circle’s house.
“My sister must have a dream witch on her team. Who knows where she managed to find one. They’re very rare, and if she was willing to reveal an ace like that in an attempt to get to us, I’m worried about what else she has up her sleeve.”
Justin crouched down, running his hand along the grooves of the wooden floor. He caressed the places where the planks met, his brows furrowed in consternation.
