Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 49441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49441 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 247(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
“Alright,” I said, already feeling like I was halfway to the goal. “Okay,” I agreed, starting to walk, pulling the invisible Nathaniel along with me.
As disorienting as the mirrors were, Nathaniel was right.
The whole thing was just two parallel walls with occasional dead ends.
When I started to feel a little dizzy from staring at myself appearing in front of me, I focused instead on my feet, navigating around dozens of dead ends.
“We have to keep going,” Nathaniel said, seeming to sense my exhaustion. “I don’t want to think about what might happen if the spell senses sloth overtaking us.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, forcing my aching feet to keep moving.
“Any other phobias you have in that head of yours?” he asked.
“I, ah, geese.”
“Excuse me?”
“Geese?” I repeated. “Birds. Long necks. Evil spirits.”
To that, I got a snorting sound out of Nathaniel.
“As an evil creature, let me set your mind at ease; geese are not evil.”
“They are. I’ve been bitten on my ass no fewer than ten times,” I admitted.
“What are you doing around geese that often?” he asked.
“My grandmother had a whole flock of them. Apparently, they deter predators from attacking chickens because they work as an animal alarm system. But, yeah, they only saw me over the summers. So I was a predator.
“They used to chase me all around the yard while my mom and grandma laughed on the porch, reminding me that it was in my power to stop them.”
“Did you ever learn to stop them?” he asked.
“Not until I was older,” I admitted. “My butt wasn’t so accessible to them anymore, and a nip through your jeans doesn’t really hurt that much. So I could focus to cast a spell. Though, I don’t think my mother and grandmother meant for me to cast one to make them my goose army.”
“Come again?”
“Yeah. I had a goose army,” I admitted. “Just for one summer. My grandmother used to send me to the town to collect things for her because she wasn’t as mobile as she used to be. And some of the kids around there had… an issue with me.”
“Because you’re a witch?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Maybe that was part of it. It was a small town. Religious. We’re, you know, wicked to them. Mostly, I think they were just little jerks who saw a short, chubby kid with a clumsy streak and sub-par social skills and decided to try to make my life hell.”
“So you created a goose army.”
“Yep. They used to chase those kids away for me,” I admitted, the memory still making me smile. “But the geese in the city haven’t been so inclined to see me as their general. So, they still kinda freak me out a little, knowing what they’re capable of. I think I have a scar on my butt still,” I admitted.
“Oh, yeah?” he asked, and something in his voice made a shiver course through my belly.
“Yeah,” I said, my voice sounding breathless to my own ears.
But before I could analyze his tone, and my reaction to it, suddenly, there was the exit.
“Oh, thank goodness,” I said, immediately feeling more stable as the mirrors disappeared behind us.
That is, of course, until the hedges surrounding us once again all just… burst into flames.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Nathaniel
Every instinct inside of me wanted to turn and run, to seek shelter from one of the ways that vampires were even more vulnerable than humans.
Sometimes, it felt like the world overlooked that when it came to my kind. Sure, we were fast and strong, and many mortal things like sickness and age didn’t touch us.
But we were vulnerable in new ways.
Sunlight.
Churches.
Garlic.
Holy water.
Wooden stakes.
Decapitation.
And, of course, fire.
Sure, humans were at risk from fires too. But where a flame licking at their skin would hurt, it wasn’t going to engulf them in flames instantly, making them turn to ash in seconds.
I wasn’t a vampire right now, I reminded myself as the flames licked high enough to make any escape impossible.
Sure, for some reason, I was still invisible. My heart wasn’t beating. But I wasn’t fully vampire anymore. There was no reason to assume I was going to be reduced to ash.
“Okay,” Roxanne said, voice high and tight. “I forgot one phobia,” she said.
When I looked over, she was white as a sheet, her pretty green eyes almost as wide as they’d been in the House of Mirrors.
“I can’t even watch that new spin-off show of the medical drama I love because it’s about the fire department,” Roxanne went on, turning in a circle, seeing how trapped we were.
The heat was intense.
It felt hot enough to turn our clothing into cinders.
Sweat was already trickling down Roxanne’s temples. Her pale skin was going red.
“I don’t think this is one of those situations where you need to overcome your fears,” I said, having to raise my voice to be heard over the flames. Who would have thought that fire could be so loud? It was crackling, snapping, roaring, using the spelled hedges as kindling to grow even hotter, taller, wider.