SWNOVELS Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
As the witching hour nears, we dock Jacob’s boat and in a sort of single file line, make our way out of the boat and up to the rocky platform where we all find ourselves staring at the lighthouse. An ominous feeling sweeps over me, flooding me with foreboding. I try to shake the nagging sensation away, but it wraps around me like glue.
And though we are in darkness, the full moon is shining down around us, bathing all of us in its silver light; I take a deep breath and look at the people who have willingly come to help me. Two people I hardly know, Diana and Jacob whom I’ve come to trust completely in such a short period of time. My best friend, Lori who though doesn’t have a magical bone in her body, came along none-the-less because she has always been there for me.
Then my eyes fall upon Ash, the love of my life, my twin flame. I love him so much! He feels me looking at him and turns to look at me, giving me a smile and a wink. I return the smile and shift my eyes to Charlie. She looks fierce and determined. My emotions are in turmoil as I peer at her. I know there is no sound reason for the crazy emotions swirling inside me but just like the feeling of foreboding, they won’t go away. Somehow, we have all decided to start walking at the same time and slowly begin to make our way towards the entrance.
Something feels different as I stand in front of the door this time. Diana had found a revoking spell that is able to disperse nearly all types of spells cast. Hopefully it works because we were unable to figure out who had cast the forbidden entry spell, so her spell is our only hope at the moment. However, before she begins to cast the counter spell, I find myself wanting to try the doorknob. I can hear everyone around me shouting out words; “no! Stop! Sofia, nooo!” Their words are useless though because I have already placed my hand upon the cold brass... and nothing. We are not thrown backwards like my previous attempt at trying to open the door. The atmosphere feels different from the last time we were here, the air actually feels magicless and I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.
And so, I slowly turn the knob and begin to push the door inward. The hinges on the white painted door squeaks and creaks as it moves. I look back at everyone and shrug my shoulders. Hesitantly at first, I step through the threshold, but as nothing continues to happen to any of us, they all begin to walk, and we proceed into the house. “Be careful,” I hear Ash say from behind me as we are momentarily shrouded in pitch black darkness. Feeling along the wall closest to the front door, my hand makes contact with a light switch, and I flip it on. We then begin to wander cautiously throughout the first floor of the building.
I knew from the very first foot I placed into the house that we would not find my parents on the first floor. It doesn’t take long to locate a wooden spiral stairwell that winds around from the base of the light structure and leads up the tower and onto a platform where massive light bulbs are held inside of a lantern type contraption and spinning around very slowly. Though at this moment, it isn’t lit thankfully, otherwise we would be blind as the extremely large mechanical lantern rotates in a circular motion.
The room we stand in is incased in glass windows, giving the place a feeling of spaciousness and open, I look to everyone; “do you guys see them? I don’t see any movement. Do you think Donovan found out that we were coming to rescue them?” I know I am rambling, but I can’t seem to stop myself, I’m just so anxious to save my parents!
“Damn it! I knew we shouldn’t have trusted Blake,” Ash growls out in anger. I can understand him being upset except I haven’t seen nor spoken with Blake since he sought me out after his ex-girlfriend Ashley felt like seeking revenge for her mother and tried to injury me with a magic blast.
“I don’t think Blake had anything to do with this,” I offer but I don’t think Ash believes me. He has it in his head that Blake was, is and will continue to be the bad guy whereas I think Blake was put in a position where he had to obey his father’s instructions. He had never really wanted to cause me harm.
Off to the right of us I notice a door which I hadn’t seen before because the door is painted the same dark grey as the rest of the room. “Hey,” I hear Lori say at the same moment I spotted the door. “Where does this door go?” Everyone shrugs at her question because none of us know. “Hm,” she debates for just a second and then opens the door. “I think it’s a maintenance closet. EEK! Sofia come here!”
I run up to her quickly and look over her shoulder into the darkness of the small room. The only reason I can see them is because whatever is keeping their hands and feet bound is casting a pale green glow around them. “MOM! DAD!” I shout excitedly. I rush to them, falling to my knees at their side. “Oh my gosh! Are you guys, okay? Did they hurt you. Grr, I can’t get your bindings undone.” I look them over in the dimness of the glowing light and they blink rapidly until their eyes focus on me and they realize they are not dreaming.
Jacob taps on my shoulder and gently moves me off to the side so that his mom, Diana can kneel before them and assess my parents’ restraints. “This binding is actually quite simple to break,” Diana says as she waves her hands over first my mom’s and then my dad’s hands, murmuring a few words at the same time. SNAP! The breakage echoes around us and then my parents are moving their arms and legs. They are free and leaping up from their seated positions, and rushing to me, flinging their arms around me in the biggest hug ever!
“Oh my. Sofia!” My mom gushes as she hugs me, pushes me away from her, pulls me back to her hugging me again. Dad takes me from her and scoops me up, twirling me around in a bear hug of his own. At the same time, they both ask, “are you okay? Where are we?”
“We will explain soon, I promise but right now, can we just get out of here?” Ash says as he tries to usher us all down the stairs and out of the lighthouse. Stepping outside, I notice right away that the temperature has dropped severely. The wind cuts through our clothing pulling it in all different directions. Shivers course throughout my body and I feel that something bad is about to happen. I just wish I knew what.
So-f-i-a, we need to merge! Brace yourself, danger is upon us! Phoenix is shrieking inside my head causing me to wince, but I trust her completely and allow the merge to happen. I hear gasps, ohs and ahs, as the phoenix and I connect with each other. Suddenly ice begins to fall from the sky, pelting us. If I thought the wind was strong before it is even more so now. It howls past my ears, and I swear I hear the screeching call of a bird.
Seconds later a thud resounds around us and the earth beneath our feet shake. The tremor is so unexpected that it nearly knocks us off on our butts! The wind screams past us all, ice hits our exposed flesh hard enough to cause welts to rise on our skin and the waves of the lake are slamming against the rocky embankment we stand upon.
TURN! I hear Phoenix shout. On instinct I turn but throw my hands outwards and to my amazement the ice from the sky and water from the lake swirl above me and magical fire springs forth from my hands. Merging together the fire and the water form a shield that goes out and over everyone I care about just as magical blasts begin to bombard us. Gazing through the liquid fire that cocoons us, I see Ashley on the other side seething. Next to her is Donovan and standing further away behind them sadly is Blake. My heart breaks when I see him standing with them. I see shame in his eyes, but he doesn’t move, doesn’t try to stop Ashley from attacking us. Shaking my head, I avert my eyes from his and allow disappointment to leave me in a sigh.
Ash growls behind me, mom and dad have taken fighting stances. Jacob and Diana have magic swirling in their hands ready to assist as needed and then Charlie... her head is cocked to the left and she is watching me intently, a fire of her own burning in her eyes. Slowly she comes to stand next to me and then places a hand upon my wrist, the only bit of flesh exposed to the elements besides my face that is. I begin to sway. Staggering on my feet, I fall to me knees, my power evaporating instantly. “Ch-ch-ar-lie... what are you...doing?” I feel like I’m gasping for air. Phoenix is flickering, I can feel her becoming weaker by the second. My shield flickers twice and then vanishes as I collapse to the earth beneath my feet.
Ash drops to my side, “SOFIA!” He scoops me up from off the ground cradling me tight to his chest. “What did you do to her Charlie?”
The evilest, menacing, haunting laughter comes from within her. It echoes around us and then I hear her say; “did you really think I would let anyone else take her power? She is mine!” A magic unlike anything I have ever felt before slams into Ash, and he loses his hold upon me. I should fall to the ground, but I don’t. I am suspended in the air for a moment and then I feel something take hold of me. I can hear voices shouting all around me and then I am drowning in darkness...