After the Turning [c o m p l e t e d]

Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Last Encounter

Hollie

Where was I?

I remembered trying to find Kaine before I was brought here. In fact, I found him. He lingered somewhere in Germany. I confronted him at a field of poppies. It was beautiful. He wouldn't tell me where he hid Evelyn. His face looked even more smug than usual.

I tried to fight him, but he was so much stronger than usual. I failed to even land a punch. I barely had any time before he hit my head and I blacked out.

And now here I was, in this place I knew nothing about.

Spider webs hung from the top of the ceiling. As I walked, my feet lifted clouds of dust off the ground. The place was filthy. I could tell that the sun was just rising because the wooden walls were already starting to give way, allowing a soft shimmer of light to escape through its gaps.

My head was still giddy from the fight. Kaine had really hit me hard.

I pushed myself up into a seating position and tried to steady my mind, resting my hand on my head. I wanted to just lie down there and close my eyes until the headache went away. But I had no time to do such useless things. Evelyn was missing and I had to find her.

I stood up and walked toward the wooden walls. They were falling apart; it shouldn't be hard to knock one of them down. I could even knock down the whole house if I wanted to.

But something didn't make sense: Why would Kaine drag me all the way down here?

I pressed my hand against the wall and pushed as hard as my muscles allowed me to. Nothing. I furrowed my brows. Something wasn't right. I threw my hand at the wooden wall, trying to punch it down.

A large force repelled me back from it. It hit my chest, pushing me across the room. My head fell into contact with the wall on the other side, and that wall repelled me too, this time against the ground. My face landed straight onto it.

I forgot to blink for a moment. I had just been juggled around by a house. I was never treated like this by anything or anyone before. My headache got even worse.

I looked up at the house with a vengeance. I hated the walls. My raw instincts urged me to rush up and punch them once more, but that would just be stupid. I would be juggled around once again.

The house had beenspelled.

I lied down on the floor and took a few deep breaths, waiting for the pain to dissipate. It didn't take long for it to mellow into a soft ache at the back of my head.

Kaine was great with spells. He was even better than the best of witches--a hard feat since witches, even though we created them, were much more adept than us at harnessing the power of magic. I was attuned with barrier magic, but breaking Kaine's spell would still prove to be a difficult feat.

I dragged myself to my feet and made my way to the front door. It was time to break this spell. I had to find Evelyn. Adan counted on me for it.

And Angie. I doubted that neither Adan nor Jason would try to protect her. Who knew what would happen to her if I weren't around? Jason was danger. He wanted to kill her.

The thought of Angie being in danger made me panic. I needed to get out of here. Quick. I immediately started to work on my magic, trying to decipher the spell.

It was difficult without a spell book. The witches had invented over a hundred barrier spells over the last hundreds of years. I felt around the magical aura. The soft nature of it let me narrow it down to fifty other spells that could have been casted.