The Rose Witch - Chandelle LaVaun Page 0,69

but it was just the archway above me. We were standing inside of one of the archways, way, way above the ground on a stretch of stone that was far too thin for my comfort. He started to set me down but I hissed and crawled back up his body like a cat climbing drapes.

He arched his eyebrows.

“I don’t like heights,” I whispered.

“I wouldn’t let you fall—”

“I know that.”

“But you don’t want me to put you down.”

“I mean you’re the one with wings, so I think I’ll just stay right here.”

He smirked and nodded. “Don’t you at least want to look around at the view?”

“I see my view, right behind your head. It’s a red rose and it’s glowing.”

“Our fourth rose.” He turned and my stomach dropped, but his grip was tight on me. He reached out and ran his fingers over the rose. Then he shuddered and golden lines stretched over his body. “Interesting. Go ahead, Chloe. Touch it.”

I licked my lips. It took me a second to make myself release one hand from him, but I reminded myself he wouldn’t drop me. With an embarrassingly shaky hand, I reached out and pressed my fingers to the rose.

Bright white light poured out around us. Flashes of red and then every other color in the rainbow. Weird glowing runes danced in the air. I didn’t recognize them at all, but the more I looked at them the stranger I felt. The colored mist faded until it was almost gone but then red lines shot up all around us. It was like watching someone sketching from inside the sketch.

The drawing wrapped around us. Tall boulders stood tall, forming a circle with no visible way in or out. At our feet, the floor of the drawing was covered in bones, stones, and strange weapons. It looked vaguely familiar. I leaned back to look behind Malachi and my jaw dropped. There was a waterfall falling right out of thin air and disappearing into the ground without a pool of water at the base. It defied all laws of nature and physics.

“Malachi. I’ve been here,” I heard myself whisper.

“You’ve been here? You’re sure?”

“Positive. This is where Mum and I hid from the giant, angry, massive bird chicken thing. But I don’t know those runes or where this place—”

“Those are angelic runes,” he grumbled. “This is the Old Lands, Chloe. We have to go to this exact spot in the Old Lands.”

Chapter Nineteen

Chloe

“Chloe? Chloe, are you all right?”

I blinked and shook my head. Then nodded.

“That did not clarify anything for me.”

“I just…I remember this. I’ve been here. I’ve seen this.”

The memory was old and it looked a tad different, but I’d definitely been there before.

We were on a narrow road, sandwiched between a small mountain and a lake. The lake wasn’t super wide but it stretched left and right as far as I could see. On the other side the land was raised up with small mountains.

“Well, this is Loch Ness, so I’m sure you’ve seen many pictures—”

“This is Loch Ness? As in the home of the Loch Ness Monster?”

“They don’t like to be called that,” he said with a deep frown and a shrug. “But yes.”

“So it’s real?”

He arched one eyebrow at me. His black smoke wings swayed behind him, like he was trying to make a point.

“Oh. Right.” Now my brain was trying to wrap itself around the fact that this creature was real along with the memory of having been there. “But that’s not what I meant. I mean, I was here. With Mum, in our carriage—"

“I know,” he said softly. He walked ahead of me toward a small piece of grassy land that stretched into the lake. Then he turned and held his hand out for me. When I put mine in his, he pulled me close. “This is where you and your mother entered the Old Lands.”

I gasped. “How did we get all the way up here?”

“The safe house was north of here—”

I leapt forward, passing through a wooden gate, then slid to a stop. Light sparkled like glitter near the edge of the grass. A black iron gate stood by itself, with no fence or anything to hold it up. A narrow stretch of gray cobblestones lead up to it. A thick gray fog clung to the ground near the gate. I spun around and crouched down, then glanced over my shoulder – and I saw it. The memory became clearer. On the way in we were still in