Chapter 14: 14. Lion’s Den

"So I think we should take the long way around," Marissa said as she held my phone in her left hand and the stolen map in her right hand.

I had the map app on my phone in satellite view, and the blonde witch was comparing the overhead image of houses on that street to the hole my scrying spell burned into the paper map.

After a brief pause she nodded, "Yeah. So we don't want to just come walking up the street to their front door? I'm pretty sure your spell is pointing to the second house in from the corner, so what we'll do is come up from the south then go in on the next street down? Then we'll just cut through the backyards and come at them from behind."

She handed my phone back as she added, "That might involve jumping a fence or something, but that oughta be ok right?"

I sighed as I took my phone back. I stuffed it into my pocket and asked, "Why'd you need to steal the map when we both have maps on our phones?"

"Dunno?" she shrugged. A moment later she added, "Cos the map's got the mark on it? Whatever. Let's teach you some ass-kicking spells!"

"Safe ones though right?" I said with a frown. "I don't want to accidentally fireball anything, or burn down any houses."

Marissa nodded, "Ok we'll stick to super-safe spells. Or... Well relatively safe anyways. How about a sleep spell? Like in the movies where the good-guy knocks the baddies out instead of killing them? Except that's actually not all that safe, like knocking someone unconscious is a definite concussion and they're gonna need medical help and stuff. Sleep spell's way better, it just makes folks nap for a while. The only real danger with the sleep spell is getting the aim off, then oops it's lights out for the wrong person."

I sighed again but listened as she spent the next five minutes describing how it worked. She did a better job of explaining it than her first try teaching me the scrying spell, and I got the feeling that was because this was the kind of thing she was actually good at.

Unfortunately I wasn't so confident. And we didn't have any opportunity for me to try it, like to test it and get used to casting it.

"Maybe it'd be safer if we leave the ass-kicking spells to you?" I suggested. "Could you try and teach me some way to defend us instead?"

"Also a good idea," she stated. "Protective magic is Brooke and Paige's forte, but I'm kind of weak in that area."

It took her another ten minutes to describe a simple 'shield' type spell to me, but at least that was something I could try without any danger.

We were only about five or six minutes from our destination when the two of us stopped on the sidewalk and she watched as I attempted my second spell ever.

In a way it was easier than the scrying spell, like there wasn't so much to focus on. The Word was a phrase in that ancient language that basically translated like something out of a fantasy movie, like 'naught shall pass' or something like that.

The Will involved focusing intently on an impenetrable barrier in front of me, and the Way had me gathering the magic around us and forcing it out my left hand to give form to my imaginary barrier. I had to keep the magic swirling and moving, so it was constantly coming in through the rest of my body then going out my hand and forming a shield of magic.

It took me a couple minutes but I could actually see the faint purple glow as it collected into a little ball just beyond my outstretched left hand. It gradually flattened out into a disk shape, but it was smaller than a dinner plate. It wasn't even big enough to defend my left arm, let alone both me and Marissa.

She couldn't see the magic but when I gave up on the spell and let it dissipate I told her what I'd accomplished.

"Damn good work for your first attempt Cass," she stated. And it sounded like she meant it.

As we started walking again I sighed, "It's not good enough though."

"Nope," she shrugged. "But it's better than nothing. So when we get there, just stick close to me and we'll be fine. Right?"

I wasn't so optimistic or enthusiastic, but I nodded "Right..."

Like Marissa said, we went a block further south than we needed to then went down the next road over from Elm. We walked almost to the end, but stopped one house short of Beech. The houses here were older, but not as old as a lot of the farm houses, or the buildings right in the centre of town.

Most of the trees around here were mature, but most of them had already lost all their leaves. And almost all of the houses had nice lawns and gardens and everything. The one we stopped at didn't have any cars in the driveway, so hopefully nobody would be home to yell at us.

My friend took the lead, she didn't run but she walked in a quick bold determined way across the lawn and around the side of the house. There was no fence or anything, and just like that we were in their backyard.

There was nobody back there either, and the two of us quickly walked past their back patio and through a little garden past a couple trees. We came to a stop there at a chain-link fence, it was kind of hidden with cedar shrubs and stuff on both sides. It was about four feet high, and came up almost to shoulder-level on the two of us.

Marissa didn't hesitate, she got the toe of her ankle-boot into the fence partway up, put her hands on top, and hauled herself up and over. Her landing wasn't all that graceful and she had to get her skirt all sorted out after it got hung up some of the shrubs and things. Then she motioned for me to follow.

Unfortunately having spent most of my gym classes over the past three years sitting in the library reading books meant I wasn't very coordinated or athletic. It took me two tries to get over the fence, and both my hoodie and my leggings got caught on the links and were torn. And I ended up landing on my behind when I finally did get over. I wasn't hurt, but I wasn't very happy either.

At least the evergreen shrubs and stuff meant nobody other than Marissa saw me.

I got up off the ground and brushed myself off, then the two of us cautiously peered out from the bushes at the back of the house.

It didn't look any different than the other houses we'd seen around here. It was a typical two-story family home. The backyard wasn't as pretty as the one we cut through, there was no garden and there were tons of leaves around, the place obviously hadn't been raked or tidied up since the leaves started falling. There were trees and more cedar shrubs on either side, so the yard was kind of private. Like the neighbouring houses didn't have a clear view of the area.

"Let's go," my friend stated.

Once again she led the way, as we walked straight for the back door of the house. My heart was pounding as we approached. It only just struck me, we were basically planning on breaking in to someones home in broad daylight.

There were two cement steps up to the back door and Marissa was about to head up them when I grabbed her arm and whispered "Stop!"

"Why what's wrong?" she asked as she froze.

I gestured at the lower step, "I can see magic. There's a purple glow over that first step..."

Marissa's expression shifted to a smile, "Damn, you're handy to have around! Could be a magical trap, or it might just be a warning. Like to alert whoever set it up that somebody's sneaking around."

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"So what do we do?" I asked nervously.

Marissa grinned, "Anti-magic. I'll use a spell that'll dispell their spell."

I watched as she did it, and half a minute later the purple glow was gone.

Once it was safe we both stepped up to the back door. I didn't see any magic on that, but the door was locked.

"I'm gonna unlock this," my friend said. "It'll just take a sec."

I asked, "Like Paige did with that padlock last month?"

Marissa shook her head, "Nah, not quite. That's her speciality, she can unlock things all delicately. I just break 'em."

Before I could respond she touched her finger to the lock and I felt a little prickle in the air like static. There was a bright flash of purple magic inside the lock, followed by a sort of crunch sound. After that the door swung open easily.

The blonde witch made a 'shh' gesture, then she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

I followed quietly, but my heart was racing and my eyes wide as I glanced around nervously. We were in somebody's house, we'd just broken in and stepped into their kitchen. The house was quiet, I couldn't hear anybody else moving around, there was no talking, no other sounds yet.

Then my heart skipped a beat as I noticed the runes marked all around the inside of the doorframe, in what looked like black marker. The runes were glowing purple with magic, and the two of us had just walked through them.

"Uh Marissa?" I whispered as I gave her a tap on the shoulder. "We just stepped through this magic..."

She turned around and looked at the runes on the doorframe, then frowned. "Damn. This is serious stuff."

"Are we in trouble?" I asked softly.

"Yeah probably," she shrugged. "This here isn't dangerous though. It's some advanced anti-scrying magic? Keeps prying eyes out. It proves we're onto something though right, between this and the trap outside? This has to be the right place, so let's keep looking!"

We stayed side-by-side as we moved through the kitchen and deeper into the house. Marissa was ready to kick ass, while I kept my eyes peeled for more magic traps. And both of us were looking for any trace of our friends.

The interior just looked like a normal house though, as far as I could see. On the main floor in addition to the kitchen we found a dining room, a den, and a living room. The dining room and living room were both fairly neat and tidy, but the den looked more lived-in.

There were some empty water bottles, an empty wine bottle and glass, and some dirty dishes on the coffee table in front of the sofa. And there was a remote on the sofa for the big screen TV on the wall across from it. It was pretty obvious whoever lived here spent a lot of their time in this room.

The front door had more of those anti-scrying runes around it, but we left that alone as we started up the stairs to check the second floor.

I stopped Marissa part-way up and gestured as I whispered, "Second stair from the top has magic on it."

She did her dispell trick, then once the glow was gone I nodded that it was safe.

We continued up to the top of the stairs, where there was a small landing and five doors, all of them were closed.

There was still no sign of anyone else around, the house remained quiet. If anybody was here they were doing a good job of not letting us know about it. The idea of opening these doors set my nerves on edge though. Like I was positive someone was waiting to jump out and grab us, or enspell us or something.

It felt like we were deep in the lion's den, and the lion was going to be really upset with us when he found out we were here.

Marissa looked around at the five closed doors, then shrugged. She picked the one on the far right and carefully put her hand on the knob. She slowly turned it, then eased it open a crack. The inside was too dark to get a good look, so she pulled the door open a little further and...

We both let out a sigh. It was just a linen closet. The blonde witch rolled her eyes and quietly closed the door.

From there we tried the next door in on the right. This one opened onto what was probably the master bedroom. There was a big bed which was unmade, a dresser, a window that overlooked the backyard, and another door to one side. Apart from the unmade bed there was no trace of anyone around. We quietly moved to that other door and repeated the whole tense door-opening process once more.

Inside we found an en-suite bathroom. Like the bedroom and den, it showed signs of use. There was a toothbrush and toothpaste, a hair brush, a couple towels lay on the floor near the bathtub and shower.

"Let's keep looking," Marissa whispered.

I nodded, and the two of us went back out to the landing at the top of the stairs.

I stayed with her as we moved to the third door. This was the middle one, after this we had two more to go. Like before I held my breath as she slowly turned the knob then opened the door a crack.

Then Marissa threw the door wide open as she elbowed me in the side and hissed "Bingo!"

Inside was a small bedroom, and laying motionless atop the bed was Kaylee.

She was wearing a pretty nightgown, and she looked like she was in a quiet calm deep sleep. The only thing out of place was she was laying ontop of the bed rather than under the blankets, and there was a faint purple glow of magic around her whole body.

I gasped as soon as I saw her, and I pushed past Marissa as I dashed into the room. I ignored the magic glow on her, I was too excited about finding Kaylee to worry about what the magic meant. I reached out to put my hand on my friend's shoulder to wake her up, just as Marissa called from behind me.

"Cass wait!"