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I had to make a quick decision. If Talia had been right and the Executors saw through the portal to where we were going, I couldn’t risk taking us back to the safe house. The priestesses would find us, and then rescuing Mandy and Tate would all be for nothing.
I had to take us to the one place they’d never come. We had to face the enemy of our enemy if we hoped to survive.
“Good call,” Chloe said in approval as she got to her feet. “The priestesses won’t follow us because it’s dangerous for them to be here. But don’t forget that it’s just as dangerous for us. Verla and Warren came here to find a way to the Abyss, but they don’t know we’re here, and we have no way to reach them. If we’re discovered by the fae, we’ll be killed.”
“Then we’re going to have to exercise extreme caution,” I said. “We can’t go back to Octavia Falls right now. The priestesses are hunting us, and if we return to the safe house, we’re putting everyone at risk.”
“Lucas is right,” Nadine agreed. “We weren’t expecting to come here so soon, but we’re here now. We need to find Verla and Warren and gain passage to the Abyss, so we can obtain the Mentalist and Mortana Wands.”
Grant’s eyes darted around the forest. “I recognize these woods. We can’t be far from Pruska, where we witnessed that deadly battle. This isn’t a safe place for us to be. We have to get out of this area.”
“We need to find a vantage point first to get our bearings.” I looked upward, to see if there was a tree I could climb, but all the lowest limbs were high above our heads. Instead, I conjured the enchanted broom I kept in my stash ever since we found it at Wicked Alchemy a year ago. I hadn’t used it since the night of the Burning. Nadine, Grant, and Talia all had one just like it.
“Be careful!” Nadine warned. “If the fae see a witch flying a broom, we’ll be dead.”
“I’ll keep near the tree line,” I promised. I mounted my broom, then kicked off. The broom was enchanted with a Mentalist’s telekinesis magic and followed my command. I used the broom to fly me high into the trees, until I could see far across the landscape. Mountains rose along the horizon, and a large city loomed ahead of us. Behind me, I spotted a small town that had to be Pruska.
Miles away, large creatures looped through the skies, and their bird-like cries and dragon roars could be heard from here. My stomach dropped at the sight of the shifters, though they looked like mere pinpricks in the distance. Nonetheless, Nadine was right—we couldn’t fly, or we’d be spotted.
I lowered myself back to the ground and subconjured the broom. “Pruska’s behind us, and there’s a large city a few miles ahead.”
“That’s their capital city of Dolinska,” Grant said. “That’s where we’ll find Verla and Warren.”
“We need to get moving,” I stated firmly. “Nadine and I are powerful enough to portal past the Malovian wards, but getting around safely is going to be a challenge. We’re lucky I portaled us somewhere secluded. I can’t portal us any closer to the city, or we risk being spotted, but we also can’t stay in one place for too long.”
“We need to don our disguises,” Talia said.
She conjured a pile of cloaks she’d made for this very purpose and handed them out. They looked nothing like the black cloaks we were wearing. These were colorful, with pretty embroidered designs all over the fabric and fur stitched along the hoods.
We ditched our black cloaks and subconjured them in favor of the robes Talia had designed. The one she handed me was a silky regal purple, with golden knots embroidered into the fabric. Nadine’s was a navy blue with snowflake designs all over it. Grant draped a velvety green cloak around his shoulders, and I recognized the fabric from the curtains in our den. Chloe’s cloak was red with a silver trim, and Talia’s was a plush pink with white fur outlining the edges. My friends and I certainly looked like fae.
As I observed my coat, I noticed a large pocket inside. “What’s this for?” I asked.
“The pockets are for our cats,” Talia said. She picked up Gus and tucked him inside her pocket to demonstrate. He poked his paws out the top of the pocket, looking particularly pleased. When she curled the ends of her cloak around her, I couldn’t even tell he was there.
We certainly couldn’t walk into Dolinska with our cats at our feet. Disguises or not, our cats would be a dead giveaway.
“Good idea,” I told her. I picked up Oliver and tucked him inside my cloak, and the others did the same with their cats. Oliver tucked close to my belly and remained quiet.
Grant conjured a small vial with a dropper. “This is the tincture I’ve been working on. Three drops under the tongue should disguise our scent for the next twenty-four hours. It’s powerful, but it was difficult to brew, so there’s only enough for one dose each. We can’t waste any time finding Verla and Warren.”
He passed the tincture around, and we all placed a few drops under our tongue. The cats took the tincture too, because if our scent didn’t give us away, the smell of our cats would. Magic tingled over my skin, and I could feel the tincture working.
“I can feel the magic in all of us,” Nadine said. “We should be safe now. Let’s get moving.”
We started toward Dolinska, which was at least a two-mile hike from where we started. We only made it a quarter of a mile when I spotted dark shadows through the trees. Three figures appeared to be walking in our direction, until I realized that they weren’t moving forward at all. Instead, they appeared to be swaying in the wind.
That’s when I noticed the ropes hanging from the trees, and I shuddered.
Talia’s features paled. “Are those… people?”
“Dear Goddess,” Nadine breathed, and her eyes widened in horror.
Grant stopped in his tracks, as if he didn’t dare take another step.
I swallowed down the lump in my throat as I crept closer. I could feel death permeating the air. The bodies were in our direct path to Dolinska, so we couldn’t go around them. “They must be traitors, left hanging as a warning.”
“Uh… I don’t think those are traitors,” Chloe said in a chilling voice.
