Anathema (Causal Enchantment #1)(89)

And who would tell them about our plan? I wondered bitterly. It was as plain as day, the threat Mage was laying before me. Transport us now or we throw your friends to the horde. Then, when you come back, you get to die a horrifying death too.

I glanced back at Caden and the others. They seemed so far away. I swallowed the painful lump forming in my throat, feeling the unbearable weight of the situation pushing down on my shoulders. “Well then, we need to get everyone out of here before that happens.”

Mage beamed, pleased with herself.

“The scamp is lying,” Rachel growled.

Mage chuckled softly. “She would never risk doing something like that—give us such expectations, only to try deceiving us. Especially when we’d see it coming and have to react accordingly,” she added, smiling as she delivered another silent but clear, equally deadly threat.

What a silver–tongued vampire.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Rachel scoffed with an arrogant smirk. It was promptly knocked off as Jonah lashed out, striking her cheek and sending her flying. Rachel was on her feet instantly, wiping a drop of blood from her lip. She was seething with rage.

“I warned you, Rachel,” Mage calmly said, glancing at Jonah. Another strand of Merth magically appeared in his hand.

Rachel growled. Her eyes darted to me, sizing up the distance between us. I knew what she was thinking. Could she get to me before Jonah or Mage intercepted? No. She decided she couldn’t.

With a deranged shriek, she lunged for the next best way to tear my heart out of my body without needing to lay a finger on me.

Caden.

It was like witnessing a horrific car crash in slow motion, though I knew they were moving at warp speed, fast enough that I shouldn’t have been able to discern any of it.

Thankfully, Caden outmaneuvered Rachel’s flying, clawing hands before she could grab hold of him. She plowed into the statue with enough force to make it teeter several times before finally toppling. The ground shook with the crash.

“Now look what you’ve done, Rachel!” Mage scolded. “You’re lucky it didn’t break. Evangeline may not have been able to come back!”

Rachel had no opportunity to reply, though, as Jonah threw a cord of Merth around her neck. She dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes, immobilized but facing me, her icy glare still boring into my body.

The statue’s new horizontal position gave me a clear view of the woman’s hand. I had never seen it so close before. The statue’s hand. Sofie’s request. My return into the clutches of the Council and Rachel had banished Sofie’s suggestion from my thoughts—until now.

I crouched to peer closely at the hand. Her fingers were contorted into an unnatural, uncomfortable pose, as if to hold something small and awkwardly shaped. Like … a heart.

My pendant.

I yelped in pain as a jolt of electricity shocked me at the same time that an eye–popping burst of blue light exploded from my pendant.

24. The Portal

My eyes widened in alarm.

“What is it?” Mage exclaimed, clapping her hands. She was a female version of Viggo. Likely just as devious. They’d get along well.

“I don’t know,” I answered, puzzled. I touched hesitant fingertips to the glowing blue heart. It was icy cold. What did it mean? Is this blue light how the pendant communicates? Have I stumbled upon the portal?

Another brilliant flash of blue light and painful shock answered.

My mouth dropped open. It was answering me.

“It’s the statue, isn’t it? That’s the portal?” Mage whispered, her eyes wild with anticipation.

My mouth clamped shut as I clenched my teeth together. Stupid perceptive vampire.

A murmur of anticipation hummed through the decaying room, the first indication that the other Council members were capable of speaking.

“I’m not sure yet,” I answered honestly, gazing down at the statue’s hand again, studying it more closely without making my focal point obvious. So, all I have to do is place my heart into it? I asked the pendant. The pendant glowed and shocked me again in response.

It was answering my questions!

But I couldn’t take the pendant off or I’d die … Maybe I don’t have to take it off in order for the spell to work?

Another glow, another shock.

How was this working? I quickly tested it. If I’m right, you’ll shock me? I asked. I felt the responding shock. If I’m wrong, will you shock me? Nothing. So a shock and blue light meant an affirmation. I eagerly began rhyming off questions in my head. Can I bring more than one vampire back? Yes, it told me.

How will it know to bring Caden, Fiona, Amelie, and Bishop? I waited for about five seconds but there was no shock or glow of acknowledgement. But maybe that question was too open–ended. Do I need to be touching them? No reaction. So the answer was no. Is there something else they need to do? Yes, it told me. What, though? Again, an open–ended question that the pendant couldn’t answer.

I sat quietly, biting my bottom lip, staring at the statue, pondering possibilities.

Anger flared deep within me. The portal had been in front of us the whole time and I was too stupid to look. It should have been the first place I looked—it was so obvious! I could have finished this blasted curse and freed us long ago.

So they don’t have to touch me … Do they have to touch the statue? Yes, it told me.