Anticipations (Evie Cortez Book 2)

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

Kevin used a powerful spell to knock me unconscious. When I woke I was on a hard slab of concrete. As I gathered my bearings I realized the floor looked like an incomplete basement. I inhaled deeply and tested the air; there was no scent familiar to me. We weren’t back at the coven compound.

My body was achy as I struggled to sit up. Whatever spell Kevin used was meant to having a lasting effect, probably so I couldn’t run.

Miranda came trotting over to the room, where the wall and door should be were cell bars. “I told you this would happen. I got it all ready for you.”

“You didn’t best me; you got Kevin to do your dirty work with false promises.” I hissed at her. She knew damn well even though I didn’t have as much training as I her I always bested her in a fight.

“Kevin came though and the Elders will give him what they promised.” She was smug; the smile across her face was bright and wasn’t going anywhere. “I win. I get Kevin and you’re locked away.”

“Whoopee. When are you going to understand, I never wanted Kevin, I never wanted to be apart of any of this. I was out and you had the chance to become the perfect poster child you always wanted to be. But oh wait you still couldn’t because you aren’t good enough.” I did take satisfaction in putting her down when I could. I tried for years when we were kids to be her friend but she always managed to make me the enemy.

Her dark eyes flared and yet her smile widened. “This is going to be so much fun.” She threw a big burst of magic at me I couldn’t block. The bars of the cell were meant to let magic in but not out. I couldn’t fight back.

I lay there as a crumbled mess on the dirty floor. My body felt like I had just gone through the electric chair meant to kill but being immortal I couldn’t die easily and she knew it. She took sadistic pleasure in it.

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed; it felt like hours when she finally walked away with a bounce in her step. I couldn’t move but my brain was still functioning and I knew I had to find a way out of there without magic or anyone’s help. I only had me.

Gritting my teeth to hold back sobs of pain I managed to sit upright.

I looked around the room for anything that could help me pick a lock. There were coven witches guarding the place but the lock on the door was of a traditional human variety.  They probably figured the spell keeping magic from leaving the cell was enough to render me useless.

Working and living with Michael for so long I learned a few things about criminal life. The Winston’s ran legit businesses but there were others….not so much.

I wanted to crawl up into a ball and sleep the pain away but I knew if I did that my chance at escape would pass me by and Miranda would be back with more torture. There wasn’t much in this damn basement, certainly no hairpins or paperclips I could use to do some damage to the lock. All I had to do was get past the cell door and my magic would be back.

“You never back down, you know there isn’t anything on your side and yet you still look.”

My heart stopped at the sound of the voice behind me. “Mom always said I was born stubborn.” I owned my guilt and turned to face her.

The years I had been gone changed her from a young girl to a beautiful woman. Her eyes were sad, that type of sadness you couldn’t hide because it was buried so deep into your system. “Did you get my letter? I’m not sure how long Kevin was playing both sides.” Elissa said with a faint shrug of her right shoulder.

“I cursed him out and I think that’s what finally let him go what the elders wanted. I got your letter, I read it over and over.”

“And?”

“And? Should we be talking abut this here?” I looked past her down the hallway that most likely lead upstairs. I couldn’t be sure no one was listening.

“Miranda’s leading the show until Mahon gets here.” She said of the elder I remembered from my childhood, he hadn’t been very pleasant. “She’s too busy in her own world to pay us any attention right now.”

I nodded. “I want you to have the life you want, whatever that entails. I didn’t want to leave you.”

“But you did and I had to deal with our parents fighting every day about whose fault it was. The elders wanted to point the finger and it all landed on mom and dad because it was their responsibly to keep you in line. Damn it Evie.” She threw a burst of energy that had me falling back on my ass.

My hand brushed across the floor to find my bearings, that’s when I felt the pin. I looked at her with wide eyes. She was crying, her lower lip shook as she looked at me with a look I carried for a long time; the need for freedom.

“I’m going to make this better.” I promised her, mustering up all my strength to smile. “One way or another.” I couldn’t convince myself what came next would be easy, no it was going to be hard with a very good chance I wouldn’t survive it but I’d make sure she at least could be happy at the end of it all.

“They agreed to let me see you one time before they move you back to the village compound. I’m going back now.” My sister was smart, she knew how to hide her true words in the mix of other sentences.

“Ok.” I watched her go and sat there with nowhere to go, yet. I had to wait until some time passed so she wouldn’t be accused of helping me.

I smiled sadly as I thought of her grown up face, it was a lot like her baby face. Her grey eyes were still the same, she knew exactly how to grip my heart with only a look. She needed help and I was going to give it to her. As my sister I knew she looked at every other possible choice before writing that letter, before pouring her heart out into words with her subtle plead for freedom. She had to be careful before the coven found out. She was planning slowly with the long term in mind. That made her smarter than I could ever be.

I wasn’t thinking about tomorrow, I was focused on right now and getting the hell out of there. Getting the cell door open was the easy part, getting past the group of high witches upstairs and possibly an elder, now that was going to take some planning.