Suffocate In Spirit - Shadows of the Night 4

Chapter 26

Hi,

I couldn't post yesterday and I forgot to give you a heads up - sorry for that. But I'm trying to make up for it now! Okay, so here's the new chapter, and I'm very excited about this one. Please let me know what you're thinking! :-)

Lara

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Chapter 26

Pendant gripped firmly, I held out my hand in front of me, moving forward. I didn't look down, didn't search with my eyes. If I was right, none of my human senses would help me. So I did the complete opposite of what my instincts told me. I closed my eyes, opened myself to that space inside that lived and breathed in magic.

Planes of existence opened up in front of me. Aerial particles that sped up and down, gray matter in between as I went beyond second sight – deep down into that plane that showed everything that was magical.

Nothing.

I frowned, kept moving on blindly. Still, nothing. This had to be it, right? Either that, or I was all alone in an abandoned forest. I concentrated, shoved myself – mind and body – into the magical planes of existence until all I could see, all I could feel was the in between. Nothing, but my own breathing as it bled into my perception, the only thing that felt real in that alien stillness of the gray in between.

The pendant in my hand came to life, warm and vibrant – powerful. Small, almost unrecognizable – there it was: a disturbance in the air. A whiff of something familiar. Nothing a human would see. Nothing a vampire could sense. Nothing that would make sense to them. I stepped forward, ready to embrace it.

Planes turned and folded inward only to explode in my mind. It was as if someone lifted a veil from my eyes. It was there, right in front of me. A wall, fed and packed with power, coloured and dusted in red, hovering in the air, a dream-like celestial castle.

They were good. And I mean, really good. I doubted the Circle could have come up with anything coming close to it. I recognized the spell – work and magic – a handwriting that was unmistakable. It reeked of protective spelling. What I was looking at was the biggest and most powerful invisibility spell I'd ever seen. The wall would reflect what was around it, give a perfect illusion of an endless forest, and no one the wiser. I still couldn't see what was beyond it, but at least I knew it was there. And it was less than a hundred feet away.

I let go of second sight and the world spun in front of my eyes, readjusting. Another deep breath. No way back now. I righted myself, straightened my back and started walking.

The wood seemed to grow thicker and thicker the longer I walked, and for a moment I believed the illusion was real – that my imagination had conjured up the wall.

The pine trees were casting long shadows in front of me. The sound of insects and random lizards crossing my path. And then something else, sounds that I couldn't identify. Motion in the humming lullaby the forest emanated. Probably the soft swish swish of paws, the muffled roar of animals far bigger than an insect. And wasn't that a comforting thought?

You've gotta be kidding me. I threw up my hands, sighing.

A twig snapped right behind me. I froze.

"Don't fucking move, or you're dead."

Whoever said it spoke in Italian, he was male, and he used one hell of a dialect I should have been familiar with. As it was I had trouble making out the words at all.

I turned my head around. The world accelerated and narrowed down. A branch of pine and green needles slammed into my view. I got knocked back in mid-motion, slammed into hard forest soil. My shoulders made a popping noise at the impact. Blinding darkness flashed in my retinas.