Episode 14 of The Witch’s Key: “No Way Out”
I’ve got a good episode for you today, y’all! I’m excited!! This one is action packed and more intense. Plus, answers about Kai!
I am going live daily on YouTube at 4PM Eastern to read this original novel, so I hope you’ll join us there!
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Episode 14: “No Way Out”
Poison ivy wound its way around the trees here behind the house. Not that unusual, but it was an awfully convenient location for Julie Peterson.
I glanced around, looking for any sign of lavender, but no one had planted any specific gardens out here or anything. It was just wild vines, weeds, and debris from the trees. I clipped off some of the poison ivy and put it in my backpack to study later. If only I had access to one of the bundles left at the girls’ houses, maybe I could compare them.
I was thinking through the logistics of breaking into the evidence locker of a small-town police department when Kai suddenly appeared around the corner of the house, shaking his head.
I wiped my hands off, closed up my bag, and threw it over my shoulder as I joined him.
“What happened?” I asked. “What did they talk about?”
“Nothing happened,” Kai said. “No one is in there.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “We literally just watched Bates go inside. How can no one be in there?”
He shook his head, obviously just as confused as I was.
“I searched every inch of that house, thinking maybe there was a secret entrance to a basement or a special room somewhere, but there’s nothing that I can find,” he said. “It’s as if Bates walked in and just disappeared.”
“Without a trace,” I whispered. “Just like the girls. There’s something going on here. Come on.”
“Where are you going?” Kai asked, though it was obvious where I was going.
I wanted to see the inside for myself. Bates hadn’t just evaporated. He was either inside somewhere we couldn’t see, or he’d gone through some kind of portal in the house.
“We need to figure out where he went. Maybe that’s how we find the girls,” I said.
“I think we should let Martin know what we’re doing,” Kai said, running after me. “It’s one thing to tiptoe through a house while invisible. It’s something else entirely to walk in and start looking for a secret portal to a demon’s lair. You’re going to get yourself in trouble again. What if Martin doesn’t get here fast enough next time?”
“Do you understand how close we are to the truth?” I asked, turning on him. “If there’s a portal in this house, it most likely leads to wherever he’s keeping Peyton and the others.”
“Yes, but if we go in there now and get ourselves killed, how does that help anyone but the demon?” Kai asked.
I wanted to punch a hole in the side of the house. We didn’t have time to sit here and discuss this. Bates’s trail was getting cold every second we waited.
“We aren’t going to get ourselves killed,” I said, motioning to my backpack. “I brought some provisions this time around. I’m more prepared. The reason Algrath nearly got us last time was because we weren’t prepared. Besides, we aren’t going to try to fight him. We just need to see where he’s hiding. If we can locate the portal, we can come back later with reinforcements. But every second we wait makes it more difficult for me to track Bates’s footsteps. So, come on, already. I’m done discussing it. Stay out here alone, if you want to.”
Kai’s eyes widened. “You can track his footsteps?”
“Yes,” I said, glancing around the neighborhood before sneaking around the front of the house and walking through the front door. I wanted to make sure no one was watching us, but it was a quiet day on this street.
We slipped into the house and shut the door behind us.
The inside was absolutely pristine, but it was still a house of secrets. Secrets I wanted the answers to.
I reached inside my backpack and took out a bag full of dirt. It was nothing fancy or magical in and of itself, but it was part of the toolkit my parents always used to pack as Slayers. Plain dirt was more useful than most people could have imagined.
“What’s that for?” Kai whispered.
“Watch,” I said, crouching down just inside the entrance.
I grabbed a small handful of the dirt and scattered it around me in an arc.
“Vestigia revelare.”
I held my breath, waiting to see if it would actually work for me like I’d seen it work for my parents so many times before.
A few seconds later, a boot print appeared in the dirt directly in front of me, heading straight down the hall toward the kitchen. I followed it to the last print and repeated the process.
The footprints took us through the kitchen, into the breakfast nook, and then straight into a wall on the other side of the house.
Frowning, I studied the wall. I pushed on it, kicked it, searched for any kind of keyhole or seam in the wallpaper, but there was nothing to indicate a door or portal here at all.
“Ostendo.”
Nothing revealed itself, though, and I shook my head.
“Solvo,” I said, trying again.
Nothing happened.
“I don’t know how they have it all sealed off, but at least now we know where it is,” I said. “Let’s take a quick look around the house and see if we can find any lavender bundles before we head out. Then, we’ll go tell Martin what we found and see if we can bring him back here to help us open this portal.”
Kai sighed. “I don’t like this, Lenny. Something doesn’t feel right,” he said. “I’m getting a weird energy vibe. I think we should get out of here.”
“The house is empty,” I said. “This is our chance to look for proof Olive’s mom is directly involved in this kidnapping and not just some Moondust dealer. If we can find that lavender, we’ll know it was her.”
“I think it’s pretty obvious already that she’s involved. Don’t you?” Kai asked, his voice raised. “Normal people don’t just have mystical portals in their home. Moondust is one thing, but this is a step too far. We need to get Martin right now. Call him. Tell him to meet us here, and we’ll wait for him outside.”
Wow. Kai was really serious about this. He was scared.
“Okay,” I said. I pulled my phone from the front pocket of my bag and dialed Martin’s number. “We’ll let Martin know what’s going on and see if he’ll come to help. It’s going to be okay.”
Why wasn’t it ringing?
I pulled my phone away from my ear to make sure I’d dialed correctly. Basically, since his number was programmed in, pressing the auto dial button should have called him right away, but the phone didn’t ring.
I hit cancel and tried again, but the same thing happened.
“What?” Kai asked. He’d found a broom and had been sweeping up the dirt and footprints.
I shook my head.
“No service inside the house, maybe? I don’t know. I’m not used to phones, so maybe I did something wrong,” I said.
Kai set the broom against the wall and grabbed my hand.
“We’re leaving,” he said. “Something is very wrong here. Can’t you feel it?”
I couldn’t feel anything but the tight grip of his hand around my wrist. He was overreacting.
I pulled my arm away and was about to try to call Martin one more time when a low-level hum grew in intensity, making the house shake slightly.
“What’s that?” I asked.
It was almost like a mild earthquake at first, but then it suddenly stopped, leaving us in total silence for a long moment.
“Run,” Kai said, taking my hand again. This time, he pulled me toward the door, and I followed willingly.
But when he went to open the front door, it slammed shut and darkness descended on the entire house, blotting out all of the sun from the windows.
“Oh, no,” I said, dropping to my knees and immediately getting into action, pulling items from my bag. I’d seen this before. “The Devil’s Snare. This is not good.”
“What is The Devil’s Snare?” he asked.
“A trap,” I said. “We’re locked inside this house until we can kill the trap demon controlling the spell. Can you hold them off?”
“Hold who off?” Kai asked just as a window in the living room smashed, scattering glass all over the floor.
Two demons crawled in through the opening, their pointed teeth bared as they ran toward us.
Kai cursed and held his hands out straight in front of him. I had no idea what he was doing, but I didn’t have time to worry about it. I had to get my things set up.
“I need two minutes,” I shouted.
“I’m on it,” he said.
A second window smashed, and I dropped the small bag of herbs I’d brought.
You can do this. Just focus.
With trembling hands, I picked the bag up and located the large bottle of blessed salt my mom had probably packed more than a year ago.
I opened the top and turned around, creating a ring of salt around me to keep the demons out. I would have enclosed us both inside, but it wouldn’t be strong enough against so many for very long.
I just needed a couple minutes to get everything ready. I hoped he was up for it.
I glanced up just as Kai clapped his hands together.
A bright light burst forth from him, and I had to shield my eyes against it.
Apparently, so did the lesser demons pouring in through the broken windows. Several of them screeched and backed away, shading their eyes against the light of the newly conjured weapon in Kai’s hands.
My jaw dropped, and I couldn’t force myself to look away, even though I still had to squint to see it.
Kai had somehow managed to conjure a very big, two-handed hammer out of thin air. It looked like something I’d seen in a video game once called a great maul, but I had never seen anything like it in real life. I couldn’t tell from here if it was surrounded by golden light, or if the entire hammer itself was made of pure light.
“What are you looking at?” Kai asked as he swung the hammer toward the first demon, knocking it back against the wall and shattering a painting of Olive and her mom. “Get to work doing whatever you’ve got to do. I can’t hold this forever.”
His words seemed to snap me out of my shock, and I sat down on the floor in the center of the circle of salt. I would have to trust that whatever he was doing back there would be enough to get us through this.
It would have to be, because this time, Martin wasn’t going to come to rescue us. When a Slayer was caught in The Devil’s Snare, their energy was completely blocked off from the outside world. From the street, the house would have looked totally normal, but inside, we were stuck until these demons were dead.
What have I done?
I suddenly felt sick to my stomach, but I would have to be angry with myself for getting us into this situation later. Now, I had to figure out how to get us out of it.
I rummaged through my bag and pulled out my sheathed silver dagger, a small vial of holy water, the rose Martin had given me this morning with my breakfast, and the strip of poison ivy I’d just grabbed from outside. Might as well make use of it, since an opportunity had suddenly presented itself.
I needed to get centered before I could enchant my dagger, but my heart was racing, and I was truthfully just barely holding myself together.
My eyes darted toward Kai. He kicked one demon across the room and swept his hammer in a circle, knocking four others backward. They all seemed to get right back up again. The light in his hammer flickered slightly, and I wondered just how long he could hold it together.
I still wasn’t sure what his powers were, but like me, he seemed to be new to a lot of this.
I turned my back to him and took a long, deep breath to steady my nerves. I could do this. I knew what to do. I’d seen mom do this a hundred times.
Granted, I usually watched her do this in practice or long before any demon showed up, but I didn’t have that kind of time. Next time, I vowed to be less impulsive and more prepared. At least I’d remembered the bag this time. That was better, at least.
I breathed in again, shutting out the noise of the fight happening behind me and the endless chattering in my own brain. Instead, I focused on the feel of my breath entering my lungs and the flow of magic that seemed to tingle at the edge of my fingertips.
Remembering the other night, I also closed my fingers around the silver locket that had belonged to my mother. I still wasn’t sure exactly what had happened the other night, but somehow, this locket had amplified my power.
“I need you to do it again,” I whispered.
“Hurry, Lenora,” Kai shouted. “I’m fading.”
I poured all of my intentions into the locket.
Protection of self. Destruction of evil.
The locket cooled beneath my fingers, and I let the power flow into my body. I reached for the dagger and poured the vial of holy water across the blade.
“Viribus,” I said, repeating the mantra I’d heard my mother say so many times to strengthen the power of her own weapons.
The blade soaked up the water, as if drinking it in.
I wrapped the poison ivy vine around the blade next and repeated the word.
“Viribus.”
The vine grew thicker and then seemed to sink into the blade itself, which now took on a glowing, green tint.
Next, I snapped a single thorn off the fresh rose and pressed it against the blade.
“Viribus,” I said one final time.
The silver blade grew thorns that dripped with green poison.
If I wasn’t so completely terrified, I would have been really excited and impressed with myself. I just hope it worked. Sometimes, when a young, inexperienced witch dressed their blade with spells, the spell only lasted for one or two attacks.
I prayed whatever amplification and protection this locket had inside it would be enough to make this last.
“Lenny.”
Kai swung at a demon that had been lunging toward me, and between the blow of his hammer and the acidic qualities of the salt against its skin as it touched my barrier, the demon fell to the floor in agony. I stepped out of my circle and sunk my dagger in its chest.
The demon’s eyes widened for a brief moment before its body exploded in a cloud of ash that fluttered to the floor.
Kai continued fighting, but I could tell the magic he’d used to summon that hammer was fading. With each blow, it flickered and dimmed.
He didn’t give up, though. He just kept fighting.
I joined him and fought at his side, using every technique I could remember from the years of training at my parents’ side. The other night when we’d fought Algrath himself, I had seemed to forget all of that training, wondering if I’d ever even known how to fight.
But today, my confidence was restored.
I could do this. Yes, I still had a lot to learn, but as the lesser demons fell to my enchanted blade, one-by-one, I felt a sense of power I hadn’t felt since my parents died.
“How do we get out of here?” Kai asked as his hammer faded almost to nothing.
“We have to kill the demon holding the trap,” I said, plunging my dagger into a demon’s back.
Kai lifted his foot and kicked a demon back with a quick blast of light that seemed to sear the demon’s skin.
I had never seen magic like that. Not even from a fae of the summer court.
“How do we know which demon that is?” he asked.
Five more lesser demons came through the living room windows, and my confidence faded slightly. How many more of them were there? Would they just keep coming forever?
“It won’t be coming for us like these are,” I said. “It will be casting. Focusing on the spell that holds the snare.”
“There are too many,” he said, our eyes meeting briefly. “I can’t hold them. Lenny, we have to get out of here.”
“There’s no way out,” I said quietly, my surge of confidence and power gone as three more demons ran down the hallway from the kitchen.
This was all my fault. Once again, I’d rushed into a situation thinking I was strong and could handle it. When was I going to learn that I was in way over my head? That I needed more official training before I could handle a situation like this on my own?
The enchantments on my blade had lasted way longer than they would have without the power of the locket, but now, with almost a dozen demons slain, the magic was fading. I didn’t have the time or the reagents to recast the enchantments, either.
We had to find the demon holding the trap open.
I grabbed the bottle of salt from where I’d left it in the circle.
“Follow me,” I said, motioning to Kai.
I ran through the downstairs of the house, fighting off demons and sprinkling salt to hold them back as I searched for the trap demon, but there was no sign of it down here.
“Upstairs,” I said, leading the way as Kai watched my back.
The moment we stepped onto the second-floor landing, I saw it.
“There,” I said, running toward what had to be Ms. Julie’s master bedroom at the end of the hall.
Sitting on the end of her bed, a demon held the dark spell between its fingers. From here, it looked like a ball of dark thorns.
I spread the last of the blessed rock salt across the top step and ran toward the bedroom. The demon looked up suddenly, its eyes open and trained directly on me. I couldn’t risk having it move or cast a new, more dangerous spell.
On impulse, I grabbed the tip of my dagger, reared back, and aimed at the center of the demon’s chest. The fingers of my left hand wrapped around the locket as I threw the dagger, but I realized my mistake the moment the dagger left my hand.
This demon was a trickster. It liked traps and tricks of all kinds, and it had set up a mirror image of itself up here. I’d just thrown my dagger at an illusion. The blade passed through the image and it faded.
Something behind me growled, and both Kai and I turned as the real trap demon pounced at us from behind.
“Lenora,” Kai shouted, diving toward me, his arms outstretched.
A bright light flashed all around as Kai wrapped his arms around me. Enclosed in a shield of pure, golden light, we tumbled to the floor.
The demon slammed against the shield and screamed in agony. Its death-cries shook the house, and I clung to Kai, burying my head against his chest.
Instantly, I could feel the oppressiveness of the dark trap around us release itself. It was like a weight lifting off my shoulders, and I took a deep breath to still the racing of my heart.
Kai hovered over me, pulling back slightly to look me over.
“Are you okay?” he asked, placing a hand on my cheek.
But I couldn’t answer him. All I could do was stare at the beauty of him.
Kai’s tanned skin was bathed in golden light, and his eyes shone from the inside. But that wasn’t the best of it.
The light he’d wrapped around me to use as a shield against the demon wasn’t light at all.
It was angel’s wings.