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He tensed.
“Wait, I forgot the book,” a woman said from the hall.
The doorknob turned back and footsteps receded down the hall.
Once the sound disappeared, Inara nodded and they crept out of the room, making their way more quickly down the hall.
At the end of the passage, a great foyer spread before them. The ceiling soared two stories above, a wrap-around balcony marking the second floor. A sweeping staircase with a blood red carpet was framed by mahogany bannisters.
Inara led them around the stairs to the back wall and pushed open a gleaming wooden door. A narrow staircase led down into the darkness. Inara raised her wand. It glowed atthe tip. Light spilled down the passage, revealing stone stairs that looked centuries older than the house.
They followed Inara down, Sofia also using her wand for light. The stairwell opened into a dark, narrow hall. They followed it to the end, ignoring the closed doors on either side.
Inara paused at the end of the hall, then laid her hand against the door and recited an incantation in a language Malcolm didn’t recognize. The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he watched her hand begin to glow. Once it was fully immersed in orange light, she pushed.
The door disappeared.
She walked through. Malcolm grabbed Sofia’s arm before she could follow. The door opened onto blackness. No floor or walls were visible. Just Inara, standing several feet away, her wand illuminating her form but nothing else. The light seemed to be sucked into the darkness, leaving nothing but black.
“It’s fine. Just the nature of the room. The portal to our afterworld makes this room look strange.”
Malcolm studied her. His skin tingled in warning, but she looked sincere.
“Wait here,” he said to Sofia. “If something goes wrong, just leave.”
“We’ll see,” Sofia said.
Muscles tense, he stepped into the room. Once inside, he could see that there actually was a bit of light. It emanated from a great stone archway that led through the wall to his right. It illuminated the large stone blocks that made up the floor and the ceiling. In the middle of the room sat a basin on a pedestal.
“See? It’s fine,” Inara said.
Malcolm turned to Sofia. She was already stepping inside the room, ignoring his orders as usual.
“Now what?” Malcolm asked.
“We pay the toll to have access to the portal,” Inara said. She approached the basin in the middle of the room. Her wand transformed into an athame. She dragged the ceremonial blade across one palm and let the red drops spill into the bowl, then glanced at him.
He stepped forward and held out his hand. She sliced his palm. Pain flared briefly as the blood dripped into the basin. After a moment, she pushed his palm away, then pushed on his arm so he turned to face the archway. White light pulsed within.
Inara went to stand before the arch. He approached and she handed him her athame. “I will separate my soul from my body and retrieve the book. If I begin to collapse from lack of power, you must stab me with my athame. Only someone of equal power to me can wield my athame. It will call my soul back to my body.”
“How likely is that?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never crossed here before. But you must do it or I will die.”
He nodded. Sofia had joined him. Inara turned back to the arch and closed her eyes. Malcolm could feel the energy change in the air as she grew deadly still.
Suddenly, a white light separated from her body and drifted toward the arch. It took the form of Inara. A small, ghostly cat walked at the soul’s side. Her familiar.
The pair disappeared into the archway. Malcolm waited, his breath held. The house around them creaked, the archwaybuzzed with power. His skin tingled with awareness and anticipation.
After what felt like hours, Inara returned, her ghostly form drifting through the archway. A large leather book was clasped in her hands. She held it out to him and he took it.
As her soul rejoined her body, he transformed the book into a small coin and slipped it into his pocket. Easier to carry and quick to change back.
A noise sounded from the stairwell. Inara jumped and whirled toward the door. Her gaze was no longer dreamy and confused as it had been.
His enchantment had worn off? That made no sense. He hadn’t removed it.
