Behind the Eight Spell Read online

  Finally, about three quarters of the way around the building, I reached a closed door with an Authorized Paranormals Only sign on a rope across the entrance. This had to be it. I pulled out my wand and cast the spell Ellie had taught me all those months ago to check for wards. Sure enough, the door glowed red: it was protected against anyone trying to get in.

  I muttered a spell to break the ward, the strongest spell I knew, and sure enough, a moment later the door glowed green instead. I smiled to myself. I would have been in a pretty hefty spot of trouble if the ward had been too powerful for my magic to stop, but being the biological daughter of one of the most powerful wizards in the world had its advantages, I supposed.

  I was in.

  Chapter 8

  Glancing casually around to make sure no one spotted me, I slipped through the door and closed it carefully behind me. It took a minute for my eyes to adjust to the reduced light. I was now in an old, dark corridor that definitely felt six hundred years old. Water dripped from somewhere, and there had to have been stairs nearby, since the only source of light came from a tiny speck about thirty feet above. That had to be where the clock tower was.

  “Jupiter, god of thunder, give me some light so I don’t make a blunder.” There were other spells in the coven of Jupiter used to cast light, but I had learned this one a few weeks earlier and I liked the way it rolled off my tongue. Sure enough, the tip of my wand burst to life, shining a beam of light, about the same amount as a powerful flashlight, onto the floor.

  The room I was in was lined in old, weathered dark wood and in front of me stood a winding staircase with a thin metal railing that looked like it had seen better days. I definitely did not grab the rail as I started making my way up the stairs. It wasn’t just the risk of tetanus—it also looked like just a light breeze might send the whole thing tumbling to the ground.

  The stair quality didn’t inspire great confidence in me, either. The wooden boards creaked beneath my feet as I stepped, and some sagged just enough to make me wonder if I was about to plummet to my death with every step. Still, the thought of Amy being trapped kept me going, and I forced myself upward, taking care with each footfall to make my steps as light as possible.

  Eventually the small speck of light got larger, and I reached the top of the clock tower. I was standing on a huge black platform overlooking the buildings of Gnargagin and the Indian Ocean on one side and a huge desert plain on the other. I was reminded of Lord of the Rings, when Gandalf was imprisoned on the top of the tower of Isengard. I wasn’t a huge fan of heights, and my head swam as I looked down from the ledge before stepping away from it, making my way toward the center where I was far more comfortable. I sure hoped Titan – my own personal Saruman – wasn’t about to make an appearance. I couldn’t see the clock at all, but I wasn’t too worried. After all, it was magical. I wouldn’t have been surprised if in reality the whole thing was an illusion and the physical clock didn’t exist.

  Unfortunately, I also didn’t see Amy, or anywhere Amy could have been. And yet, this had to be where the clue was supposed to lead me. Surely. There was nothing else it could be, I was sure of it.

  I turned slowly in a circle, trying to inspect every inch of this platform while at the same time staying as far as possible from the ledge, when all of a sudden a thick, gray smoke appeared out of nowhere. It began enveloping the platform, and I steeled myself, my wand at the ready. I didn’t know what this smoke was or where it came from, but as soon as it reached me I instinctively held my breath, not wanting to inhale any of it.

  As soon as it touched my eyes they began to sting, and my mind raced. I had come up through a hole in the floor in the middle of this platform, but I didn’t know where it was anymore. I didn’t want to move while the smoke was still around, either, since I didn’t trust myself not to careen off the ledge and plummet to my death. But I also probably only had a few seconds before I was going to be forced to breathe again, and given how my eyes reacted to contact with this smoke, I had a sneaking suspicion inhaling it was not a good idea either.

  Even my skin began to tingle, and I knew I had to act fast. I closed my eyes and focused on my magic. I didn’t know any spells that could help me. I knew some wind spells, but I didn’t want to risk the one spell I might be able to cast before I’d be forced to breathe in on something that might not work. This fog was definitely magical; there was no guarantee that it would adhere to the regular laws of physics.

  As I felt the buildup of energy inside of me, I decided the best way to act was to buy myself more time. But I’d only been a witch for a year. I had no idea how to cast the spell I needed. So I did what any good witch would do: I made one up. I focused all my energy on the words that I thought in my head. Jupiter, god of lightning, give me scuba gear to keep on breathing. Ok, it was far from the most elegant spell I had ever come up with, but I wasn’t the quickest thinker on my feet. I knew that. Besides, I also knew the will of the person casting the spell was just as important as the actual words when it came to casting a spell without actually saying words, and boy, did I ever have all the will in the world right now. I didn’t dare open my mouth to speak the words, but my silent spell worked.

  A second later, I felt a weight on my back, and I opened my eyes to find I was looking through a scuba mask. I looked down and found the breathing apparatus, shoved it into my mouth, and took a deep breath. Perfect. At least now I had a little bit of time to figure out what I was going to do, and how I was going to do it. Of course, the scuba tank was pretty heavy, and I must have looked ridiculous standing on the platform and looking like I was about to go on an undersea adventure, but now I could breathe, and think, and that was the most important thing. At least I wasn’t wearing any flippers. I turned around on the spot, having a look around to see if I could make out any forms coming from anywhere. No, there was nothing. I seemed to still be alone on the platform.

  Taking a deep breath, I pulled the breathing apparatus from my mouth and cast a spell to try and remove the smoke.

  “Jupiter, god of thunder, bring forth a powerful wind asunder.”

  I steeled myself as a hurricane-force wind suddenly came from nowhere and whipped at my hair, my clothes, my whole body. The smoke moved slightly, but it wasn’t enough to make it disperse. Sure enough, it had been created by magic, and it wasn’t going to go away easily.

  Unfortunately, I had absolutely no idea how to get rid of it. I was going to have to cast a spell directly at the smoke, rather than at the atmosphere around it, but again, this was the sort of thing I didn’t know how to do. Still, I had no choice but to try.

  I took a deep breath, sounding like Darth Vader as I did so with the scuba gear in my mouth, and focused on my magic once more. I pulled out my wand and turned in a circle as I cast a second spell, pulling out the breathing apparatus once more. I really, really needed this to work.

  “Jupiter, god of lightning, this fake smoke is not inviting. Make it stop and go away so I can breathe another day.”

  Ok, so maybe I borrowed the second half of that rhyme from The Itsy-bitsy Spider, but no one said I wasn’t allowed to borrow from nursery rhymes to make magic happen.

  As the smoke began to fade away, I grinned. Take that, mysterious attacker who was probably my biological father. I was going to find Amy, and there wasn’t a thing in the world he was going to be able to do to stop me.

  I continued to cast the spell until the last of the smoke disappeared. It took three or four attempts, and by the time I was finished, I was fairly tired, my magical energy reserves depleted. Still, the smoke was gone and while I was still alone, another piece of paper had appeared near the edge somehow. I rushed toward it, grabbing it before a gust of wind could send it tumbling down toward the ground, and opened it.

  You have passed the first test. If you want to see your friend again, you need to come home first, ohana.

  Bile rose in my throat. Ohana was Hawaiian for ‘family’; I had learned that after years of watching Haw
aii Five-0. That all but confirmed that it was Titan who was behind this. I knew it, but seeing the word on the page just confirmed the worst of my suspicions.

  And for him, home meant going back to Kilokilo. It had to be that. Kilokilo was the Hawaiian paranormal island where everyone from the coven of Titan was from. I was from Kilokilo as well, although I wasn’t sure if I was born there or not. Still, that had to be where he meant by ‘home’.

  Unfortunately, Kilokilo was a very restricted paranormal town. There weren’t a lot of ways to get in and out of it, and they certainly weren’t subtle. And right now, I needed subtle.

  I only knew one way in, shown to me by Kyran, my boyfriend. It involved going to the human world, flying to Honolulu, and taking a portal from there. But I didn’t have the time to do that right now. I didn’t have five hours to waste on a flight. I needed to get to Amy now.

  The problem was, I didn’t know how to do it.

  I made my way back down the stairs, gripping the piece of paper in my hand. I was going to find a solution to the problem.

  I passed back out of the atrium into the street and headed right back toward the surfboard portal. But when I was just about to reach the beach, I stopped short.

  Standing there, right next to where I needed to be, were Sara, Ellie, and Kyran. My breath caught in my throat. How had they found me? They weren’t supposed to be here. They were supposed to be hiding, staying away from danger.

  Ellie spotted me, called out, and ran over before I had a chance to hide.

  “Tina!” she called out. “Tina, wait!”

  “What are you doing here?” I asked when the three of them reached me. “I told you to stay out of this.”

  “Do you really think we would let you do that?” Sara asked, tears welling up in her eyes. “Amy’s our friend too.”

  “I know, but it’s my fault she’s been taken,” I replied. “It’s all my fault. Titan is my biological father. He’s the reason Amy is gone, and I couldn’t let any of you guys get into danger too because of me. I wanted you to hide in case he decided to come after you, too. I’ve already had one friend who’s been taken just because she knows me; I couldn’t let it happen to you too.”

  “Oh, please,” Ellie replied. “It’s not your fault your genetic donor turned out to be a good-for-nothing horrible wizard. He made the decision to be terrible himself, and you didn’t ask to be his daughter. In fact, I can’t think of anyone more unlike him than you. And Sara’s right. We want to be here. We love Amy just as much as you do. And we’re going to get her back. If that means being in danger, then so be it.”

  “Besides, we can’t let you do this alone. You’ve helped us so many times. I wouldn’t have even entered the broom competition if it wasn’t for you. Now I’m world champion. So yeah, you’re not doing this by yourself. You’ve helped us so much in your life. Now it’s time for you to let us help you.”

  “And I’m not one for big speeches, but you do realize sneaking around and doing things under the radar is sort of my thing, right?” Kyran said with a wry smile. “Danger isn’t new to me. Working as a team is, but I think I can figure it out pretty quickly.”

  As a wave of gratitude washed over me, I almost burst into tears. “You guys are sure? I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to any of you.”

  “That’s exactly how we feel,” Ellie replied. “You can’t go out and do this on your own. If something happened to you, we’d never forgive ourselves either. So we’re here now. You had better accept the fact that, like it or not, we’re coming with you. You can either embrace it and let us join, or we’ll keep following you and do our best to also find Amy.”

  “You guys,” I said, this time my eyes really welling up with tears. “Alright. I want to be all emotional about how much I love each and every one of you, but we have a problem. And I think Kyran is going to be the one with the solution.”

  “See? Let the people around you help,” Kyran said gently. “Things get solved faster that way.”

  “You’re right. I just didn’t want you to be in danger.”

  “I’m in danger every day. What’s the problem?”

  “We need to get into Kilokilo, but we need to do it secretly,” I replied. “And we need to do it fast. We don’t have time to go back to Seattle and fly into Oahu; I don’t know if Amy has five hours left.” Heck, I didn’t even know if Amy was still alive. But I didn’t voice the thought, and I forced it out of my head as quickly as I could. I wasn’t about to even consider the possibility that she wasn’t.

  “Alright,” Kyran said with a nod. “Well, we have two options. We can brute force our way in, but I don’t think you want to do that.”

  “No,” I replied. “I’d rather it be a surprise.”

  “In that case, portals are out. The best way to do it is going to be to break in, but we need to get to Hawaii to do that.”

  “Alright,” Sara said. “What’s the name of the city we have to go to, then?”

  “Honolulu,” I said, smiling slightly. It was inconceivable to me that someone who lived in the United States had never heard of it, but I supposed when you lived your entire life in the paranormal world, there was really no reason to learn human world geography.

  “Let’s do it,” Sara said, making her way back toward the beach.

  “How did you guys find me, anyway?” I asked Kyran, slipping my hand into his. He smiled at me.

  “We figured you would have left through the portal Drake was guarding, so Ellie cast a truth spell on him and he told us where you went.”

  “Well, that was a lot easier than I’d hoped,” I replied.

  “You’re lucky it was easy. We’re going to find Amy together. Four heads are better than one.”

  I nodded as we reached the surfboard.

  “Did you enjoy your time here in Australia?” the shifter replied.

  “I did, thanks. I’ll need to come by another time and have a better look around, but I’m afraid I’m in a bit of a rush,” I replied.

  “No worries, have a good arvo,” the shifter replied. I assumed that was Australian slang for “afternoon.”

  Here was hoping.

  Chapter 9

  “We’re in luck,” Kyran said, looking at his phone. “I keep a hidden portal on a couple of cargo ships in the human world – a lot of the more remote parts of the human world don’t have any portals, but cargo ships go almost everywhere, so there’s often one in the general area I’m looking for. And right now, one of them is headed to Japan, and it’s only about fifty miles off the coast of Honolulu. We are going to have to fly from the boat to the shore though, so let’s grab some brooms first before we go.”

  I wasn’t thrilled about having to fly for a while, but if that was what it was going to take to rescue Amy, well so be it. I’d have spent the rest of my life on a broom if that was what it took.

  The three of us landed in Honolulu, in the human world, less than an hour later, reversed the invisibility spells we had cast to hide our presence from any eagle-eyed humans, and immediately set about coming up with ideas on how to get into Kilokilo unnoticed.

  “We could try the method used by Megan and her sisters when they had to get back to Pacific Cove,” Ellie suggested. “Remember how they turned themselves into fish and swam underneath the dome that protected it from the human world?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, that’s true.”

  Kyran shook his head. “That won’t work here. They’re far too secretive for that. They replace the dome protection on a monthly basis here, so there’s never enough time for erosion to do its thing.”

  “How on earth do you know all this stuff?” Sara asked, looking incredulously at Kyran, who grinned.

  “I keep telling you guys, while you go around and do this sort of thing as a side hustle, it’s been my full-time job for hundreds of years at this point.”

  “So how do we get in?” I asked, my brow furrowing. “There has to be another way.”

  “We go in from u
nderneath,” Kyran replied.

  “But you just said we can’t go through underwater,” Ellie complained.

  “No, not underneath through the water. Underneath through the ground.”

  I gasped as realization dawned on me. “No way. You can’t be thinking a volcano.”

  Kilokilo was a Hawaiian island, after all. The whole chain of islands had been formed by volcanic activity.

  Kyran grinned. “I never said it would be easy. But it’s not what you’re thinking. We’re not going to have to actually travel through lava. There’s a large series of old lava tubes that run underneath Kilokilo, and I happen to know that one of them comes out on the other side of Oahu. It’s going to take a little while to walk through it, but it’s the most subtle way to get to Kilokilo if you don’t want to use portals. I’m fairly certain I’m the only paranormal who knows the tubes exist.”

  “Ok,” I said. “We do that. Let’s go.”

  Luckily for all of us, Kyran had a bunch of US dollars on him, and we were able to take a cab to a lookout on southeastern Oahu. The ocean roared against the rocks, hitting them with renewed vigor every few seconds. I looked out over the ocean, hoping to spot a glimpse of Kilokilo, but of course there was nothing. All of the magical world was enchanted to make it undetectable from the human world.

  Kyran walked confidently out onto the rocks and the three of us followed. Eventually he reached a small opening in the ground. It had to be about a foot and a half wide at its largest point, and I couldn’t help but balk at the sight. Not only did the hole look absolutely tiny, but it also looked like it was going to fill with water the next time a large wave crested over.