Enemy Fire | J. Saltzman - Legacies [3]

T H I R T Y - T W O

As Josie walks through the house, the walls watch her, closing in behind her as though the whole building isn't just emptiness. Words and shouting echo from below but the house itself is quite drab, the walls old and crooked with scratches along the wood.

Descending into the dungeon below, Josie follows the dim lights down the hallway. In the back of her mind, she wonders if, in the real world, Aaron is succeeding in his part of the plan, but her focus remains on her eljun.

She finds her in a dark corner of a stone cell, her wrists chained to the wall behind her with glowing ancient words attached to the metal. "Stella," Josie breathes, passing through the door with ease in her corporeal form. While she may not be able to feel much, the imprint of tears on Stella's cheeks breaks her heart.

The girl looks up, her blue eyes the only color in the room. "Josie?" She rasps before she jerks up, the jingling chains grating her ears. "Josie, you can't be here, ok? You have to go."

Josie rushes over to cup Stella's face, but her hands pass through the girl. She is but a ghost when she needs to be real. She needs to be here to break those chains, to wipe her tears away, to free her. "Where are you? What happened?" Josie asks.

"I-I was on my way back with the cat when this thing grabbed me. I tried to fight it, but it was too strong. It brought me here." Stella looks around, the only light coming from the lamp above them. "I can take it, ok, but you have to stay safe. They won't hurt me. They need me."

Josie shakes her head. "They've already hurt you. We're coming to get you, ok?"

"You can't! They'll win—"

"No, they won't."

Stella takes a step back as her brows furrow. A breeze brushes her hair back as Josie manages a smile at the warmth spreading through her veins like a fire raging across the seas. "You took back your magic," Stella whispers.

"I did." Josie nods, pursing her lips to keep the tears from sliding down her own cheeks. "And we can win this, together. You just have to tell me where you are."

Stella holds up a hand, her gaze darting to the door. "You have to go. Now. He's coming back, I can feel it. He can't know you're here."

Josie can too. The impending doom, a darkness spreading across the stone walls and converging on them. It slithers towards them steadily.

"I can't leave you," Josie says. She can't bear the thought of leaving Stella alone to them and to whatever they have planned for her.

"You have to. I believe in you, Jo."

As Josie opens her eyes, rage fills her mind. Boiling, overflowing fury seeps into her body, filling it to the brim as she rises to her feet, Stella's chained image suck before her eyes even as she turns to the demigod beside her.

He glances back at her, but she doubts he actually takes the moment to look at her as he turns back to the map spread before him.

"Did you find her?"

"I'm sorry." He shakes his head. "It's like she's everywhere. The magic won't lock down..."

As his voice keeps going, Josie's mind blocks it out as she places her hand against the wall. If she were looking, really looking, she'd notice her reflection in the mirror with the smiling snake curled around her shoulders, her eyes narrowed into slits. She would notice the otherworldly rage darkening her vision, the way her gaze glowers into his back as if to break it.

Thrusting her hand forward, the rage takes over. Josie knows what the darkness feels like—what dark magic is supposed to feel like, but this is something else. It is not dark. It is not light. It simply is. It molds to her fury like clay to a hand, solidifying with each passing second into something twisted and coiled, ready to strike.