Page 21 of Ignited Spirits (Haunted Magic #3)

IZZY

“ A re we there yet?” I ask for the millionth time. I pretend my voice sounds like the badass I aspire to be instead of a petulant child.

“Nope,” Rhys says, his voice lined with exasperation. “We’re on floor fifteen, one floor below the floor you last asked at.”

Sighing, I shut my mouth because asking a bunch of times doesn’t make this go faster for anyone.

Instead, I focus on Archer’s tall, muscular form in front of me. I keep my gaze on his light blue tee instead of all the spiders and other creepy crawlies I can hear scurrying around us. Although, in the dark I can’t see much of anything, which is probably a good thing.

We considered using magic to light the way, but that would make it easy for anyone else in the stairway to spot us. We’d be sitting ducks in this narrow stairwell, so we’re dealing with it being dark.

Luckily, my wolves and Levi can see much better than Bishop, my brothers, or me. They’re leading the way and making sure the rest of us don’t fall to our deaths.

For being such a large prison, with supposedly state-of-the-art security, they sure don’t maintain their stairs well. It’s almost like they don’t want anyone moving between floors or something. Although, I think they have bigger problems if prisoners are in the stairwell.

Here’s hoping we can use a rift to get out instead of climbing back up these billion and one stairs.

Walking in silence for a couple of minutes, we eventually reach the bottom of the stairs. I can see light shining through the bottom of the door, so I prepare to be momentarily blinded when we open it.

Levi throws up another defensive shield before he hesitantly pushes on the door. I brace to be confronted with a bunch of council goons, but there’s no one there.

We cautiously step out into the barren hallway.

Unease slithers up my spine and raises the hairs on the back of my neck as we shut the stairwell door behind us. Everything about this place feels wrong, but I can’t quite put my finger on what it is.

Unlike the last one, this corridor isn’t bright, white, and clean to the point of being sterile.

Instead, it’s lit by a few bare bulbs spaced few and far between.

The crumbling concrete on the walls, ceiling, and floor is stained and dirty.

By the amount of dust and cobwebs, it looks like no one has been down here in years, let alone a few days ago to bring my dad here.

I look down the hallway and count seven doors, and none of them have signs to indicate who’s in there. They don’t even have viewing windows, just solid concrete slabs at the entrance.

“Do we know which cell Dad’s being held in?” I whisper, not wanting to talk too loudly and draw attention to us.

Rhys shakes his head. “No. We just have to go through each cell and hope we find him that way.”

Aiden rubs the back of his neck as he stares in apprehension at the cells in front of us. “Won’t we be letting out all sorts of bad people?”

I raise my eyebrows at him. “Do you really think the council imprisons bad people? I can think of many, many terrible people in Hawthorne Grove who do truly awful things. None of them are in danger of being imprisoned. People like me, though? We’re who end up in maximum security cells before being executed.

So, no, I don’t think we’ll be letting out anyone evil. ”

In fact, I think there’s a high likelihood we’ll be letting out good people who did nothing wrong other than be different.

When Aiden doesn’t say anything else, I walk up to the first cell door. I put my hands on the cool, smooth surface and press my ear against it, hoping I can maybe hear who’s behind the door. As expected, I can’t hear anything other than my own heartbeat.

Sighing, I step back and consider the door, trying to figure out the best way to get through it. Opening a rift directly inside would be a great idea, but none of us know what it looks like in there.

We could try to blast the door apart, but that will be noisy and draw too much attention.

I’m still staring at the slab of concrete, trying to find the best spell to sling at it, when Cain steps up next to me and places his hand on the small of my back. “I can handle this, angel. I’ll melt it like I did to the door earlier.”

“I don’t want you to run out of power. You’ve never used it before, and I don’t want you to drain yourself.”

“If I start to feel low on energy, I’ll stop. But I think this is the fastest way to get it done, and we can’t afford to wait around until the council notices their guards missing.”

He raises a good point. “Okay. You can tackle at least the first one. I’ll try to mimic your magic on the second one. That way, it’s not all up to you. Deal?”

Giving me a small smile, Cain says, “Deal.”

I step back to let Cain work. He lets flames trail down his arms onto the floor before they make their way to the concrete slab.

This door takes him a bit longer than the first one.

Within a few minutes, the concrete falls inward.

Levi cushions its fall with his magic, so the whole process is pretty soundless.

Cain has sweat starting to bead up on his forehead from the exertion of melting through this door. When I cautiously approach the opening, I see why. This door is at least three feet thick, so multiple times what the other one was.

I can’t help the swell of disappointment when I see that not only is my dad not there, but the cell is completely empty.

Worry that we’re not even in the right place and we’ll never find Dad tries to creep up, but I smother it. We will find him because I absolutely refuse to let him rot here.

Marching over to the next cell, I close my eyes and envision my magic forming super-hot flames like Cain’s and cutting through the door with ease. Letting my magic flow out of me, I keep picturing what I want to happen until I feel my magic taper off.

Opening my eyes, I’m mildly surprised to see the door to this cell is cut similarly to the one Cain did.

I smile to myself as I pick my way through the chunks of concrete that are scattered everywhere and over the now uneven surface of the door.

My mates and brothers follow behind me, but I’m the first one to make it inside and see the occupant. A guy around my age is standing in the back corner of the cell, probably to avoid being hit by the debris from me opening the door.

The man has wavy light brown hair, pale blue eyes, and freckles dotted across his nose and cheeks, making him look boyish.

Instead of cowering, he’s standing tall with his shoulders back and his gaze focused on me.

He makes no move to fight me or try to escape, instead watching the eight of us warily.

When he meets my gaze, he asks, “Who are you?”

“Isabel.” I hear Bishop swear under his breath behind me, like he’s worried about me giving the man my name. I ignore him and ask, “Who are you?”

He looks back and forth between all of us for a long moment, seeming to debate what to say. “Joseph,” he rasps, his voice rough like he hasn’t used it much lately.

I hop off the pile of concrete to stand in front of him, much to Bishop’s and Luca’s dismay, I assume. But it’s weird talking to someone while standing over them.

“Nice to meet you, Joseph.” I hold out my hand for him to shake before spotting his magic-dampening cuffs. I let my hand drop before he tries to reach up for it. “Are you planning to try to kill us?”

His eyes widen at my question, and he vigorously shakes his head. “No. I’ve never killed anyone. At least, not on purpose.”

Oh, that’s adorable. The sweet summer child has never murdered anyone intentionally before. How precious.

He’s definitely not a threat to us since he probably doesn’t even know how to kill us, much less has the stomach to do so. I idly wonder why he’s in here in the first place, but I don’t really care enough to ask.

Shrugging, I tell him, “Cool. Well, you’re free to go.”

I’m turning around to walk out and start heading to the next cell when his quiet words stop me. “Aren’t you going to ask me what I did?”

I pause and blow out a breath before spinning back around. “I wasn’t planning on it, but it seems like you need to get it off your chest. What’d you do?” I’m not really qualified to be his therapist, but I can listen with minimal judgment if that’s what he wants.

He closes his eyes and tips his face to the ceiling before reluctantly admitting, “I’m the reason my girlfriend died.”

I close my eyes, my heart hurting from the pain in his voice. I know what it’s like to be responsible for the death of someone you care so much about. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t wish Daniel were still here.

I don’t ask questions like “Why?” or “What happened?” or “Are you sure?” Instead, I just whisper, “I’m sorry.”

“Why are you telling me you’re sorry? It’s my fucking fault she’s gone. If I hadn’t messed with the magic in my chest that I knew was different, she’d still be here,” he grits out before his face crumples. “I just wanted to make her smile. And now she’s gone. Forever.”

It feels like someone punched me in the chest as I ache for a man I just met. I know exactly what it’s like to have a weird, strange magic that you can’t control and that hurts others around you.

I know it won’t help him to hear that it’s not his fault or he didn’t mean to or she wouldn’t want him to beat himself up.

The only thing I can do for him is to get him out of this prison and away from this hellhole of a town.

If he’s in here, I can only assume he doesn’t really have anyone on his side.

“Think you can get out of here on your own?” My voice comes out way more choked up than I meant it to, but I can’t help it.

“Yeah. I have enough magic to fight anyone I come across, as long as you can show me the way to get out.”

“Do you have anywhere to go?” I ask, already pretty sure I know the answer.

He shakes his head. “No.”

I blow out a breath as I try to figure out where to send Joseph. As I’m racking my brain for the right place, La Esperanza comes to mind. It’ll be safe for him and far away from other mages, which I think is exactly what he needs.

“Think you can get out of here without being seen?” He nods. “Then portal yourself to Chile. I’ll show you a picture of where you need to go. Do not go into the cave you’ll find until I get there. I need to convince some people to let you in, okay?”

I can’t imagine that the jaguar shifters would welcome him with open arms without my putting in a good word for him. It’s probably best that he avoids interacting with them until I can vouch for him.

His eyes bounce around my face, like he’s trying to find the lie or duplicity in my words. “Why are you helping me?”

“Because I know what it’s like to have unusual magic that hurts the people you care about.

I can’t bring your girlfriend back or erase the fact that any of this happened, but I can get you out of the council’s hands.

So, go. Once we find my dad, I’ll meet you in Chile. Assuming I’m not dead, of course.”

“Do you need help with your dad?” he offers. “I’m pretty powerful if you can get me out of these cuffs.”

My lips quirk up at the corners as I walk over to him. “We’re good, but thank you. I might take you up on that offer later.”

He holds out his hands for me, and I use my cura magic to cut through the cuffs, doing my best not to injure him. When the cuffs fall away, his wrists are red and a bit blistered.

I wince at the damage, but I’m glad that it’s at least relatively minor.

Joseph doesn’t seem to mind as he flashes me a small but genuine smile. “Thanks.”

“No problem. The boy version of me will show you how to get out of here.” I hitch my thumb over my shoulder in the direction that I think Aiden is in.

There’s only one dude with blond hair and gray eyes with us, so hopefully Joseph will be able to figure it out.

“Be careful of the guards and try not to draw any more attention than necessary.”

“I can do that. Good luck with your dad, Isabel.”

“Thanks. We’ll see you in Chile if everything goes well.”

He nods and climbs over the rubble, making his way to Aiden. They chat for a moment before Joseph nods and walks back the way we came. Here’s hoping he makes it out of here safely.

Shaking my head at myself for getting involved in yet another problem, I turn to make my way out of the cell and into the next one.

I bump into Bishop, who must’ve been right behind me, and stumble backward, almost falling on my ass.

It’s only his arms darting out and wrapping around me that saves me from tumbling down.

I look up at him with a smile that stalls at the anger on his face. Instead of thanking him for saving me, I sigh. “What’d I do this time, St. James?”

At the weariness in my voice, he snaps his mouth shut and closes his eyes. When he opens them, he looks just as done with everything as I am. “You ran into the cell first. You had no idea what was waiting for you, and you still charged in without us.”

As much as I want to argue with him that I didn’t do anything wrong, I know I just ran in here without thinking it through. I was so focused on my dad that I didn’t think about how it would make my mates feel.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I didn’t mean to worry you.”

He leans down to press a kiss to my forehead. “I know,” he tells me just as quietly. “Let’s keep moving.”

Bishop lets his arms fall away and turns around without another word. Even though he didn’t yell at me, I still feel the weight of his disappointment. Somehow, it hurts worse to deal with his quiet disappointment than loud anger.

Sighing, because we don’t have time to get into it right now, I push it all out of my mind.

Picking my way over the rubble, I meet everyone else back in the hallway. As a group, we walk to the next cell. Cain uses his hellfire to melt the door to that one. Much like the first one, it’s empty.

Once we’re done inspecting that cell, we move on to the fourth out of seven. My hope that we’ll find my dad dwindles with each empty one we encounter. What if our intel is wrong? What if he’s actually being held somewhere else? What if we’re too late?

The only way I’ll answer those questions is by figuring out what’s inside the remaining cells. Closing my eyes and letting my magic flow out, I picture this door melting like the first one did.

When I feel my magic tapering off, I open my eyes just in time to see the concrete mini door I cut start falling toward us. We scramble out of the way to avoid being smooshed, and Levi gently lowers it to the ground.

Before I can even peek inside the cell, I look up and notice a bolt of magic about to slam into me. I don’t have time to do anything other than close my eyes and brace myself for impact.