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Once the breathtaking nature of the illusory magic has worn off, my unease returns. But now it’s not just this situation that isn’t sitting right; it’s the fact there’s a hidden door that leads to a hidden staircase that leads to another hidden chamber, and all this is connected to the house I sleep in.

Going to have to ward my room biweekly, just to feel safe.

Kasey steps across the threshold, then turns to face me. Before I cross into the room, I stare carefully at the wall, looking for the spells that hid this room. The magic that covers the walls is complicated and made by many separate hands. It only puts out the faintest shimmer—and I know there must be even more spells that are themselves cloaked from even witchy eyes.

It’s honestly beautiful and fascinating, and I wish I had a notebook to jot down all that I see.

Kasey shares none of my wonder. The moment she sees I’m getting distracted, she heads for the staircase.

“C’mon,” she says, “they’re waiting for us.”

Right. The rest of the spell circle.

“How did the rest of them get here?” I ask, entering the room and shutting the door behind me. “Are they also coven sisters?”

“Don’t worry about it,” she calls over her shoulder. “That’s not really what this circle is about.”

That didn’t give me any sort of reassurance.

I need the money, I tell myself—because it’s the reassurance I need to follow through on this.

I head down the staircase after Kasey, the air getting cooler as we go. We descend to a level practically glowing with amber light. When I step off the staircase, my eyes move to the narrow hallway ahead of me, the walls covered in stone masonry, the floor fitted with marble.

It all looks like something made at least a century ago. There’s a musty smell in the air that no amount of magic can banish.

My power loves it, even if the rest of me feels trapped down here.

Fitted to the walls are sconces with flickering candlelight, the wax weeping down their sides.

“What is this place?”

“A persecution tunnel,” she says. “One of many.”

I forgot all about persecution tunnels, but they’re a big part of supernatural building plans; they are, in essence, a literal way to escape persecution.

“Henbane is full of these things,” Kasey continues. “You know how witches are,” she says, lifting a shoulder.

Cautious. Too much of our history has been full of violence against us not to warrant it.

In the distance, I hear low murmuring. As my pulse spikes, so does my curiosity.

The hall curves, then opens into a wide chamber. At its threshold rests another set of stonelamassu, keeping guard, and beyond them is a room full of supernaturals.

I lovingly move my hand over the head of one of thelamassuas we pass them, and then we enter the massive circular room. Like the hallway before it, the walls are covered in gray stone, and the floors, in polished marble. Several other hallways branch off this one, leading to who knows where.

The space itself is filled with masked and robed supernaturals—all of them witches, I presume, though I can’t be positive since no one’s magic is giving them away.

One of them wears the mark of the triple goddess on her, the triple moon symbol painted onto her mask’s forehead. She must be the priestess, the witch leading the circle.

When she sees Kasey, she picks up what appear to be two folded sets of black robes and pale masks, then approaches us.

“Hey, girlie,” she says from behind the mask, and I’m not at all expecting the soft, youthful notes of her voice, nor her familiarity with Kasey, whom she hugs.

The priestess passes over a robe and a mask. “We’re just about ready.”

Then the priestess nods to me. “Hi there. Glad to have you.” She hands me the other robe and mask. “You’ll need to put these on—the robe can go over your clothes—then join the circle. We’re waiting on the guests of honor, but I think we’ll begin before they arrive. They can join us when they get here.”

It takes me a moment to realize I’mnotone of these guests of honor. And then, of course, I feel sheepish because I wasn’t expecting to be treated as some special star. I’m just a bit destabilized is all.