The day I met the Shadows

Chapter 16

I take out my book which I packed and create a portal to Aressall. We step through and within a fraction of a second, we are in the town square of Aressall. I nearly trip over my legs when Ace catches me.

"Watch it there," he says, planting me on my own two feet.

Lana looks around using the looking far rune to see where Vander might be.

"I know where they are. Or rather say, Vander with Avery's mom," she says, then adds, "We need to cross that river over there," she says pointing across the city.

"Then we head downhill and there is Vander's cabin," she says. We walked for about 20 mins, with me dragging myself forward. The pain in my head is getting stronger the more we reach the cabin. Ace asks me frequently if I'm okay. I just shrug it off.

"Okay this is it," whispers Lana. I spot my mom chained up in the middle of the room in the cabin. Vander is pacing around her like a crow around its prey. He's holding a dagger in his hand. I'm shivering from the cold wind. I now know that Vander is someone who the Midnighters hate from their souls.

"The question is how do we get in without being noticed?" asks Elijah.

I didn't quite figure that one out, but I know that there is a rune that grants invisibility and soundlessness all at once, however that's not from the Black book and I don't know if it will work but it's worth a try.

"I think I know what can help," I say and start drawing the rune on the ground, it shines when I'm done with it, blurring my vision for a second. From there I lift it from the ground and transfer it to my skin. It burns a little which makes me wince but after a second it's gone.

"I still don't know how in the world you figured that out," mumbles Elijah.

I glare at him.

"Do you want to get in safely or do you want to get killed?" Lana asks him.

He raises his hands in surrender.

"No I don't," he says pleadingly, though I'm sure Lana could easily have slapped him. She nods satisfied.

"Should I make another rune?" I ask her.

Lana shrugs, "Maybe you could try but I'm not so sure if it will work on all of us three. We don't have the same skin properties as you. You see, Midnighters have special skin structures that make them vulnerable to certain things," she says hands on her hips, looking like she accomplished something glorious.

"Well, it's worth a try," I say and repeat the process of drawing, transferring runes onto their skin. Finally, when I'm done we silently enter the house through the front door making sure we don't make a single sound when closing the door. I lead the way choosing my steps carefully. Horror grips me when I see what Vander's face looks like. It's scared on the side still visible, tiny beard hair pads his chin and cheeks. His jet black hair looks like spikes on a porcupine, while his piercing blue eyes show nothing but pure coldness. I reach for my Setra blade that's strapped on my back gripping the handle until my palms hurt.

"Do you think that I'm that stupid Midnighters?" laughs Vander from out of the blue. His booming laugh sends shivers of fear up my spine but hatred swells up in my heart.

"You've come all this way, just for your precious mom how caring yet so stupid of you Avery," he continues. "Your mom is a treasure to me, I would never hurt her, don't you agree?"