The Rose Witch - Chandelle LaVaun Page 0,30

next. Everything slipped into slow motion.

Two big warm hands gripped my waist, plucking me right out of the free fall. He pulled me flush to his chest and his black smoky wings coiled around us. I meant to scream. I meant to pray. I meant to be afraid of him. Instead I gripped his shirt and held on for dear life.

Cold air washed over and then my feet landed in snow. His warm body vanished right out from under me and a chill seeped into my bones. I looked up and gasped. The whole train was sliding off the bridge and speeding for the ground down below.

The incubus shot across the sky like a rocket, his wings flapping behind him. He threw his hands up and the train froze mid-fall. The metal shrieked and hissed but then it gently landed on the ground. He dove through the doorways into the train and then leapt back out carrying an old woman. He sat her on her feet and rushed back inside, then came out holding two children with blood on their foreheads. He did this over and over and kept emerging with injured people.

My jaw dropped.

He caught me. He caught me. Plucked me right out of my free fall of doom and placed me on my feet in the snow. Why? I didn’t know. Why would he kidnap me, attack me, and then save me from a train accident? It made no sense. There was something I was missing. I looked up and found him helping the other humans off the train, I’d never been more confused in my life. This is your chance, Chloe. Your getaway. Don’t miss it!

Get away? To WHERE? We were in the middle of the Black Forest surrounded by snow and ice. And I was in a silk gown. Something moved in my peripheral vision. I jumped and threw my hands out. Red smoke shot out of me like rockets. But it was just scraps of paper floating down to the snow at my feet. Paper. A crazy idea came to me suddenly. People on trains tended to have magazines to read. One of them had to have a picture of somewhere.

I looked up as seat cushions and debris dropped to the ground. There’s got to be at least one I can use. I sprinted toward the carnage, dodging people left and right. It took me a few minutes but I finally found it. A single magazine half buried in the snow. I dropped to my knees and yanked it out – and my breath left me in a rush. It was a magazine for a travel company. The picture showed a sliding glass door that led to a beach with golden sand, a bright blue sunny sky, and a turquoise ocean.

A door is a passageway. I can go through this. I can do this.

I grabbed the paper and held it up to my face. I summoned my magic and red smoke poured out all around me. Up ahead, the incubus was preoccupied helping the humans get to safety, but I refused to just accept this niceness, this façade. I had no idea what to make of him anymore, and I certainly wasn’t sticking around to find out.

Sunlight sparkled and shimmered from the picture in my hand. Birds flew by. I had to try this. I sat the picture back down and let my magic surge inside of me. The incubus still had his back to me. His hellhound tackled demons as they fell. I took a deep breath and jumped inside a picture. The world vanished under my feet, and once again I fell.

Chapter Nine

Chloe

I landed face-down in the sand. It was cooler and softer than I had ever expected it to be, like as if silk had been crushed into powder. My body was stiff and sore, screaming in protest of the torture I was putting it through. But I finally pushed up on my hands and knees, spitting sand out of my mouth and gasping for air.

But the air was thick, too thick to breathe. It tasted like salt and stung my nose as I inhaled. So I opened my mouth to gasp but it was like sucking in smoke. My lungs burned. I coughed and leaned over, fisting the sand for support but it slipped through my fingers. Water dripped down the bridge of my nose and landed on the back of my hand. I jumped and looked up, but there was