Witches in Training (#2 in the Witches Trilogy) [rewrites ongoing]

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Reunited

VERA

"Anne?" I say in disbelief. There's no mistaking Annabelle's red-rooted brown hair, though, and Jon is only a step behind her. "What-how did you-"

Anne's eyes are blazing. "It seems her spells aren't as good as she thinks they are."

Jon steps out of the shadows with a steely look on his face. "Vera, it's Kieran. He needs you to come, and quickly."

"What's happened?" I ask urgently, scenes flashing through my mind. Kieran hurt, badly injured, in trouble...

"I don't know. When we saw him he was running away, told us to get you."

"From Gale?"

"I suppose so." Anne's brow furrows. "He was fighting her. It was really important that you came."

"Still fighting her?" Kieran is one of the most powerful people I've ever met. Either Gale is extraordinarily good, or he's holding back. "Why does he need my help?"

"I've told you, I don't know." Jon says with a hint of impatience. "Hurry!"

I turn around to look at Aea. "Can you stay here for a while?"

"It might be a long while." Anne warns.

"I'll be fine." She says, miffed. "I can take care of myself."

"All right. Where is he? I'll just teleport there, it's faster."

Anne shakes her head. "The place he's in restricts teleportation. We've got to run. Hurry!"

I hesitate a split second before bolting after them, tiredness forgotten, a million questions in my head. What's happened to Kieran that he needs my help so urgently? How did he find Anne and Jon? How did he manage to pass a message to them, tell them where I was? How did they break the spell, break out of the Exiles' control, when Kieran had to use his strange magic just to snap Aea and Roy out of it?

Jon and Anne skid to a stop outside a set of hangar doors. "In here," Anne says, accessing the doors. It slides open, revealing a chilling darkness. Faint sounds of a conflict come from its depths. Jon steps forward, takes a deep breath, then beckons me in. We step in together.

The second we cross the threshold Jon vanishes, and the door slides smoothly shut. I don't even have time to react. I'm left in a darkness that I'm slowly growing accustomed to, my enhanced fairy sight adapting faster than I normally would have. It's a plain room, large, but empty. I don't know what its purpose is.

I twist around to look at the door. I could easily teleport out. But when I try, my feet stay planted firmly on the ground. I don't move an inch, much less teleport across distances. It's always been the one power that's worked for me. I try flying. Nothing. My feet don't even leave the ground. In desperation, I focus on a point far, far away from me and will it to explode. Nothing. It's as if my magic is completely gone.

Gone. I'm left alone, defenceless, in the darkness penetrated only by my enhanced vision. Otherwise it would seem to be total blackness. I keep reminding myself that it's all right, to keep a tab on my so far (fairly) unpredictable strikes of claustrophobia. None of my magic is working. I'm stuck in a room in a completely strange place. Without anyone I know here. Trapped in an Exile building. Nope. Nothing to worry about. Absolutely nothing.

Oh, who am I kidding? I realise how dependent I've become on magic as I'm stuck here without it. No means of teleportation or using magic to aid me... this is what it's normally like. A normal life seems so hazy and foreign, even though I only left it a couple of years ago. A life without magic. It'd be so incomplete.