A chilling dragging sound pierces my ears and makes my teeth tingle as I take in the image of Jase who maneuvered his way off that pole and twisted to get his cuffed wrists in front of him. His ankles are still cuffed and as he yanks the vines off his legs, he hisses with the pain. His hands are instantly blistered and raw looking. There’s still a ring around his neck, but it’s no longer attached to anything.
He's moving slowly, like he’s disoriented, like he’s ill.
And,oh shit! Is this ceiling going to collapse?
The woman has dropped her phone on the floor, and I can see the call is still engaged. The screen readsAnya.
If memory serves, Alta is Anya’s first cousin. They’re either Aphra’s aunts or second cousins, I can’t recall. This witch wasn’t all that bright to have that phone call in the same room as us.
Jase stalks toward Alta with a murderous look in his eyes. He’s staggering, definitely feeling affects from those flowers, but he’s intent on getting to her.
“Hello?” I call out toward the phone. “This is Bailey Blackwood. She kidnapped us from Rome. Please call my brother Greyson in Arcana Falls or call Erica or Vivica Young.”
Two men are now on the stairs and she’s holding one hand up in their direction, silently demanding they stay where they are.
The woman is glaring at Jase, fury brimming in her dark eyes. She throws something at him and then blows some powder in his direction. Something green washes over him and makes him freeze mid-lunge for a solid three horrifying seconds before the liquid seems to seep into him and he falls back, landing hard on the concrete.
And I’m holding my breath, so I don’t breathe whatever that is, freaking out at the sight in front of me.
Alta grabs her phone and runs up the stairs. All three of them leave, slamming the door.
Now I’m gasping, immediately followed by hyperventilating until I find my voice. “Jason!”
He’s flat out, on his back, unconscious.
“Jase!”
I scan his body and am relieved to see his chest moving.
I also see something peeking from the corner of his pocket. Plastic? I think it’s the green corner of the plastic bag I slapped into his palm!
Okay, I need out of these binds. I need that necklace. I need to save us!
I begin wiggling my wrists, twisting my hands. Whatever I’m bound with is cutting into my skin, but it feels thin, so I think it’s a zip tie. I once fell into a wormhole of watching at least a dozen videos about getting out of these things, so I keep twistingand wiggling my hands until I’ve broken a pretty good sweat. It hurts, but I keep at it.
He’s unconscious, maybe seriously hurt, poisoned from highly toxic flowers that are now all over the floor and who knows what that potion was? I need to get out of these binds, and I need to do it now, before she comes back and has an opportunity to make things worse.
Miraculously, after a lot of wiggling and a significant amount of extreme discomfort, I get one of my hands free and yank it forward. My wrists are raw and purple, but I’m out of it. Basic zip ties. Maybe she thought Danica wouldn’t be able to do much because of whatever scents and crystals are in that bough hanging over me. Maybe something to weaken a witch and her powers the way those flowers did with Jase. And I’m not a witch so is it that they didn’t work? I don’t know, but I’m relieved to be free to squat in front of Jase so I can assess his wellbeing.
He’s not bloody anywhere, but he is bruised around his cuffed wrists and under the ring around his neck.
It’s up to me to get that necklace around Alta’s neck. I don’t know how the heck I’ll do that. I also have to consider that she has two men here with her, the driver and another guy. Both of them look potentially dangerous.
I grab the visible bit of plastic into a pinch and tug. It doesn’t move easily; Jase’s jeans are practically plastered to his body either because he’s lying down or because… I can’t help but see his… package… is quite prominently outlined in his jeans. I’m no stranger to male nudity, though I’m not closely acquainted with it either. Nudity equals shifter life, and along with spicy movies and stuff I’ve read in racy novels, I’m taking an educated guess here that he has an erection. But this is no time to linger on thatthought, so I drag my gaze away and assess the one window in this space.
It's not a big window and I’ll have to pull myself up there to get out. But this means I’m leaving Jase here alone while I go get help.
I need to think. But there might not be time for that; she might come back down here any moment and use more of her magic or do something awful to one or the both of us. Jase is the bigger threat to her, so she’d be more apt to try and further disable him.
I tiptoe up the wooden staircase. It creaks halfway up and I freeze, straining to hear if anyone is coming. After a minute of waiting, I tiptoe the rest of the way and carefully twist the doorknob, which doesn’t budge. I catch the scent of coffee, not fresh. And food, also not fresh – a spicy meal that has been sitting out for a while. I also smell disinfectant and the faint scent of body fluids. Vomit. Urine. Not fresh. I put my ear to the door and barely make out a female voice, but it’s muffled by walls and I can’t make the words out. I also smell two human males nearby and one scent is vaguely familiar, so I assume it’s the guy who picked us up at Jase’s hotel.
I’m not going to be able to bust this door down, so that window down there is my best bet. Anya Starling might not have wanted Alta to go after that wand, but Erica says Anya’s holding a grudge about her sister Aviva’s death as well as our lack of cooperation regarding Aphra and Aphra’s daughter Halla.
Erica said Anya was blowing up Vivi’s phone to get answers about Aphra and finally got told we’d handed Halla over to her mother, refusing to give Anya other information beyond the offer to relay a message to Aphra. Aphra is terrified of Anya. And I wish I knew more.
Maybe they’re going to use Jase and me for ransom to get that wand. Or maybe Alta will want to hurt us to get back at Riley for what happened to Aviva. There are too many unknowns, so all I can do is try to get out of here, find help, then rescue Jase.
I tiptoe back down the stairs, skipping the creaky step, and I stand over Jase’s prone, unconscious body for a couple seconds while my thoughts race and I finally make the decision I’ve been waffling on.