Flamebound A Lone Star Witch No(32)
“Shit,” Lily gasps, bending nearly double to protect herself from the leaves and twigs and rocks the wind has transformed into missiles. “Your boyfriend sure has pissed someone off.”
“It’s a talent of his.”
She looks around, nearly gets a twig in the eye for her trouble. “I guess.” She opens her purse, fumbles around for a minute. “Why didn’t I bring my sunglasses?” It comes out as a wail.
“Because it’s the middle of the night and neither of us was anticipating playing the role of Wicked Witch of the East.”
She looks confused. “Don’t you mean the West?”
“The East is the one who got caught in the tornado and had Dorothy’s house land on her.”
If possible, Lily ducks even more. “Great. Now I have to look for flying houses,” she mumbles under her breath.
“Flying houses might be the least of our problems,” I tell her as huge, angry-looking storm clouds move in directly above us. Though no rain is falling, lightning is flashing and thunder rumbling. “You need to get out of here, Lily.” I give her a little shove back toward the car.
“And what? Leave you here? I don’t think so.”
“I’ll be okay.”
“Then so will I, because I’m sticking right next to you.”
Scared for her, and for the man who has come to mean so much to me in so little time, I scream his name to be heard over the wind and thunder. “This isn’t safe. You guys need to get out of here.”
“I’m almost done,” he shouts back at me. “It’ll be fine in a minute.”
His definition of fine must be very different from mine. Because at that moment, a huge lightning bolt shoots out of the sky and slams into the earth only a couple of feet from where Declan is standing. The next thing I know, he’s hurtling backward through the air.
“Declan!” I take off running straight at him, Lily right behind me. Has he been electrocuted? What kind of shoes is he wearing? Is he—
“Stay back!” he shouts, sounding a little worse for wear.
Still panicking, I ignore him. But the closer I get to him, the more my feet start to tingle. That’s when I remember that I’m wearing boots instead of tennis shoes—the ground must still be holding on to some of the charge.
It doesn’t hurt, though, doesn’t burn, so I keep going. By the time I reach him, Declan’s pushed himself back to a standing position. I glance down at his feet. Thank the goddess. He’s wearing thick, rubber-soled hiking boots.
“I thought I told you to stay back,” he tells me even as he wraps his arms around my shoulders.
“Yeah, well, you aren’t the only one who doesn’t listen to directions.”
“Obviously.”
“What the hell have you done, Declan?” Lily yells from a few feet behind us. “Unleashed Armageddon?”
“Close enough,” he answers, reaching out for her wrist and yanking her—and me—behind him, just as another bolt of lightning strikes the garden. “Hold on.”
“What now?” Lily demands.
He doesn’t answer, just turns his back on the spot where he’d unraveled the safeguards, wraps his arms around us to shelter us. “You don’t want to know.”
“What’s that supposed—”
Before I can finish, a loud crack sounds, ripping through the night air. It silences the thunder, stops the lightning and the wind, even stills the shaking ground. Then, before Lily’s and my astonished eyes, the ground in front of us splits wide open.
Ten
“What. The. Hell. Is. That?” I demand, pointing to the gaping hole in the ground. “And how the hell has no one called the police on us yet?” Yes, it’s the middle of the night and this part of downtown is just about completely deserted. But still, there are a few people around. A few cars on the street. What I just witnessed is abnormal enough to have attracted the attention of anyone in the vicinity.
“They can’t see us, right?” After clearing her throat a few times, Lily finally manages to get her vocal chords working again. “Because of the safeguards.”
“I thought Declan unraveled the safeguards. Isn’t that what all this fuss was about?” I pull against the strength of Declan’s arms until he finally gets the hint and lets me go reluctantly.
“There are different levels of safeguards. Those meant to keep humans from discovering this place and those meant to keep witches out.”
“You left the human safeguards in place.”
“I did.”
Now that all the excitement has died down—and now that there’s a clear path laid out in front of me, the compulsion is stronger than ever. I walk straight up to the opening in the earth.