when Flint looks over his shoulder and shouts, “We made it!”
And then he and Eden turn sharply left…and disappear.
81
One Hundred Percent
That Witch
Jaxon and I rush to the last place we saw the dragons, but all that’s there is a solid wall. We start pressing our hands on the jagged edges of the stone surface, thinking maybe there’s a secret latch or something.
All of a sudden, my hand touches flesh, and I scream and jump back. It’s Flint.
“How—?” I start to ask.
“What are you guys doing?” he asks as he walks straight out of the solid wall. “Come on, stop messing around. What’s the holdup?”
“Well, we don’t seem to be able to walk through solid stone walls.” I raise one eyebrow as Xavier pats his hand against the wall to show Flint.
“Oh, damn. We didn’t think of that.” He calls over his shoulder to Eden. “Apparently only dragons can pass through.”
Eden walks through the wall now, too, and yes, it’s just as creepy when she does it. “Huh. Grand-mère didn’t mention that would be a problem. I wonder if she doesn’t know. Any ideas?”
Jaxon steps forward and says, “Move back a little and let me try.” Then he spreads his legs and places his hands out, like he’s going to physically move a bed or something, but focuses on the wall about five feet in front of him.
“Oh, this I’ve got to see,” Hudson snarks and positions himself beside his brother. “Baby brother is going to start moving rock…in a tunnel.”
His words don’t register until I feel the ground start to rumble, small pebbles and dust falling from the ceiling all around us.
“Stop!” Macy shouts, and thankfully Jaxon does. “I don’t think it’s safe for us to try to break this wall down, Jaxon. It may be an illusion for the dragons, but it is very real to the rest of us. You might end up causing a cave-in.”
“So how are we going to get through it, then?” Xavier asks.
“Now, I’m just spitballing here,” Hudson says as he wanders over to the wall and leans a shoulder against it. “But it seems that maybe the best way to take out a magical wall is with…magic.” He cocks one brow at me. “If only we had a witch handy…”
I stick my tongue out at him because, really, sarcasm is what we’re missing right now? Then I turn to my cousin and ask, “Macy, do you think you can break through the wall’s magic?”
Her eyes narrow as she thinks about it, but then she squares her shoulders and says, “You bet I can.”
She pulls her backpack off her shoulder and starts rummaging through it. “Grace, can you help me with these?” she asks as she pulls out eight candles and places them equidistant in a large circle. “Okay, everyone, stand inside the circle.”
Once we’re all inside the protection of the circle, she casts her spell, and the candles begin to burn. Once she’s satisfied with their flames, she points her wand at the wall and calls the elements. The wind comes slowly, blowing softly and gently down the tunnel. Macy starts to chant, her voice getting louder and louder with each line of the spell. The wind picks up, and at one point, I even feel a fine mist of water spray across my skin.
The wind picks up again, the flames on the candles growing higher and higher, and the very earth beneath our feet starts to tremble.
That’s when Macy raises her wand, her arms open and face raised to the ceiling, and says, “Illusions great. Illusions small. Find a door within this wall.”
The wind picks up even more, howling through the passageway so hard and fast that I’m sure it’s going to knock us down. The flames on the candles shoot straight up to the ceiling.
“Good job, Macy.” There’s a grudging respect in Hudson’s tone that’s usually absent when he talks about my cousin—or about anyone, for that matter. And that’s before she lifts her wand above her head and points it straight up as she chants so low and fast that the only words I can make out are “heat,” “cleanse,” “burn.”
All of a sudden, lightning flashes down, and I scream as it connects with Macy’s wand. But my cousin doesn’t even flinch. Instead, she just stands there, seconds ticking by as her wand absorbs every molecule of energy the lightning bolt can deliver.
Only when the lightning has dissipated and the wind and rain and fire have died down does