Between Shadow & Ruin (Fangs & Fae Saga Book 2)

twenty-seven.

I pulled the key from my pocket and placed it in the lock. The door opened and when the four of us stepped through the doorway, we found ourselves in a foyer with a staircase and two doors on either side of the stairs on each floor.

"How the hell is there an upstairs? Where do all of these rooms go?" Chris said. The door we stepped through closed behind us. Zane reached for the door and the handle once again disappeared.

"Guess we have to figure it out from here..." I walked towards the door on the left of the stairs and everyone else followed behind me. The door sealed itself behind us and again, the handle disappeared.

"That's getting old..." Chris said.

"Chris!" The door caught fire and Val pulled him away. "Are you okay?" He nodded.

"Now what? That looked like our only way out." I looked at the table in the center of the room; there was a bunch of herbs and other things on the table with a piece of paper on it.

"Wait!" Val was about to reach for it when I grabbed her hand. "It's spelled." Val did something to it, and I saw the spell break around it. She picked it up and read it to herself.

"Okay, so it looks like we're going to have to make a potion to get back through that door."

"Can you do it?" Zane asked.

"It seems simple enough..."

"Can I read through it? I doubt that Adriel would've been straight forward in her instructions..." Zane came over and looked at the paper. He and Val went back and forth about the potion while Chris and I searched through the drawers and shelves looking for anything to help. In the drawers I found another paper that contradicted the one on the table written by Adriel.

"So, which one is the right one?" I asked. Zane placed both of the papers on the table and placed one hand on each paper. The first one caught fire. He held up the paper I found in the drawer.

"I told you it wasn't going to be straight forward."

"How did you know which one was real?" Chris asked.

"I didn't. I used a spell... Adriel and her fucking tricks. This isn't her handwriting... Zipporah actually wrote this one and Adriel wrote the right one. She wanted us to believe that because Zipporah wrote it, maybe we could trust it more. It's not going to be easy trying to find shit here."

"Okay, we'll keep looking while you two make the potion to get us out of here," I said. As I looked through the bookcase I heard a rumble coming from above. "Guys? Did anyone else hear that?" Chris nodded and the two of us looked up. There was dust at the edge of the ceiling. "Val, Zane... I think you two should hurry up."

"Shit..." Val said quietly.

"What is it?" She put the finished potion down on the table.

"There's not enough for the four of us," she said, quietly.

"What do we do? I'm not going to let any of us die in here," Chris said.

"Val, Chris, you two take the potion. Get out through the door," Zane said.

"What!?" the two of them yelled out. Zane grabbed Chris by the collar.

"We don't have time to fight about this! Take the damn potion and get Val out of here!" They hesitated before taking it and we touched hands before they headed towards the fire. Val gently stuck her hand in the flame and reached for the doorknob. It turned and she and Chris rushed out.

"What are we going to do?" I asked. Zane grabbed my hand and dragged me into the corner with him. "Are we just going to die?" I asked nervously.

"Do you trust me?" he said.