Page 68 of Fighting for Her Heart

“Good point,” she says. “I can hide you just as easily up by the altar.”

We follow her back up to the front of the church. She waves her hand and a blue light glows around the spot where Axe and I are standing. His jaw visibly tenses and mine likely does too.

Nodding in our direction, Nora smiles softly and then turns toward the trap door.

The large, thick door looks heavy, but she lifts it easily, tipping it up to reveal a staircase going down. Soft light glows from below.

She glances toward us with a reassuring look in her eyes, and then starts to descend.

Axe’s expression is full of worry, like he’s questioning the trust he’s put in Nora, but short of following her down those stairs, there’s not a lot we can do. If I went back to the farm without her, Ember would never forgive me.

I focus on Nora’s heartbeat, but it vanishes almost immediately. Is her magic blocking my ability to track her?

Soon, raised voices drift up the staircase—nothing’s blocking those—and then Nora races back up the stairs, followed by a group of three women, all young and beautiful.

“Why have you come here, Evanora?” asks the first one who comes out after Nora, a slender, African American woman, wearing a brightly-colored print dress. “Have you found her?”

Nora turns toward us.

The woman tugs on Nora’s shoulder turning her back. “Where is she?”

Nora shakes her head. “I came here hoping you could tell me. I’m so worried about her.”

One of the other witches, a tall, voluptuous woman with flowing blond hair flicks her hand, and Nora is thrown back against the railing at the edge of the altar.

“Evanora Cross, you have proven yourself to be a traitor to our sisterhood. Releasing you to search for her was a mistake.”

Nora drops her head forward.

“You hid us from her for years, breaking our sacred laws.”

Nora lifts her head. “She was achild. She had not yet ripened.”

“Because of you,” the blond one continues, “we lost track of the Illuminant for a decade, and she is now likely dead. If she escaped from that cave… If you know where she is and have not yet disclosed it, you will face death by a thousand pains.”

“Please,” Nora says. “I don’t know where she is.”

Even I’m impressed by Nora’s ability to lie. And I have to admit that her strategy has confirmed that, while they’re looking for her, these witches don’t know where Ember is, or if she’s even alive. That’s at least something.

We should get out of here.

“You must face the coven council,” says the first witch who came up the stairs. “Take her.”

The other two women grab Nora’s arms and drag her toward the stairs. Nora turns back toward Axe and I, fear in her eyes.

The trap door starts to close behind them, and Axe races toward the altar.

“Where are you going?” I follow. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

He catches the door, just before it slams shut, jamming in his foot to keep it from fully closing.

“What are you doing?” I whisper.

“If it closes.” Axe shrugs. “It might disappear.”

That was quick thinking on his part. But wrong headed.

“Who cares? They don’t know where she is. Let’s get out of here.”