They entered the forest. The trees rose tall above the ground, claw-like branches reaching toward a moonless sky. A vague glow emanated from farther ahead, brightening as they drifted toward it.
“We can’t be seen, right?” Diana glanced around, looking for glowing eyes that would suit this Halloween world perfectly.
“Should be fine, since it’s just my sight and not our bodies that are here. Been here before and no one noticed.”
At a clearing in the wood, they passed a solemn looking boy of perhaps twelve leaning against a tree. He looked vaguely familiar, but her attention was drawn by the sight of Vivienne. A fist squeezed her heart at the sight of her friend sitting with her back against a tree that was slightly behind the boy’s tree. Her eyes were closed and her wrists bound in front of her. Instinctively, Diana started to pull away from Esha to approach her friend, but Esha tightened her grip on her hand.
“You can’t help her because we aren’t actually here. Don’t break our bond.” Esha’s voice was strained.
Desperate to figure out what was going on and a way out of this, Diana dragged her gaze from Vivienne. Black roots pushed up through the dark soil and dead leaves. The ring of trees surrounding the clearing was nearly circular. A great platform carved from black stone stood in the center. Her gaze landed on a man standing behind the altar with a book in one hand.
A man that Diana recognized.
Shit. Her skin grew cold and clammy.
“We will avenge your death, Maximus.” His deep voice vibrated with the intensity of a zealot, committed to telling the world it was about to end.
Diana started. He was speaking to the boy leaning against the tree. The boy merely looked up. His gaze was sullen and doubtful, the look that any teenager might shoot a parent they thought was stupid. It was out of place in this solemn world. So normal that it made her ache for the boy despite her fear.
“Who’s there?” The man’s head snapped up and his black eyes bored into Diana. Her heart. “Someone’s there, I can sense you.”
“Gotta go.” Esha’s voice shook.
Diana nodded emphatically despite her desire to stay with Vivienne, who’d now opened her eyes and was blindly searching the clearing. Diana’s stomach soured at the sight of her friend, trapped and bound, but she couldn’t help her if they were caught unawares.
“Come on, Esha,” she whispered. Why weren’t they leaving?
“I—I can’t.” Her voice trembled with strain.
“What can I do?”
“Imagine the chamber. Picture as many details as you can. It could help, since our minds are linked in this.”
Diana struggled to bring the image to mind, but the man was getting closer. Her breath began to saw in and out of her lungs. He couldn’t hurt them. Couldn’t.
She squeezed her eyes shut and visualized the chamber. Their bodies still stood there; they just had to return their minds.
“That’s it—it’s working,” Esha said.
When Diana opened her eyes, the scene in front of her began to fizzle out like a dying fog. A moment later, they were standing in the underground chamber.
“Hang onto me, I’m getting us out of here.” Esha’s grip tightened, Diana felt a brief tug, and they were back in Esha’s flat. She reached out to steady herself against the couch, swallowing hard against her roiling stomach.
“What was that? Why were we trapped? Could he see us?”
“I—I don’t know. That’s never happened before.” Esha sat on the couch and buried her hands in her hair. “None of this has ever happened before.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“They had better be back here, damn it,” Cadan said as he pounded on the door to Esha’s flat.
He stood next to Warren, rage and confusion brewing a bubbling poison in his veins, waiting, hoping, for their knock to be answered. At Warren’s suggestion, they’d tracked Diana and Esha to the underground. They hadn’t seen them there, nor had the guards. Either they hadn’t been there, or Esha had cast a spell to hide them.
It had taken them nearly twenty minutes to get from the chamber back to Esha’s tower flat in hopes that they might have returned. They had no other leads. He hated this feeling.
Diana had run off alone. A sense of helplessness he hadn’t felt in millennia fueled the anger vibrating through him. Ever since losing Boudica the first time, he’d become obsessed with controlling his environment and having a handle on things. Like her.
He’d tried to let go of Diana after she’d left him tied up in his own house. He hadn’t wanted to come after her. But then Warren had arrived, sent by Esha to free him from the Maoin straps. He’d been bloody lucky the goddess Aerten had been in a meeting with Warren when Esha had told him about Cadan. She’d helped Warren get to him so quickly. When faced with a chance