Sealed With a Kiss of Magic

*Rowan*

Eight doors. Some of them have sets of steps that lead down into the ground. Others have tunnels. I have no idea where they lead because, after following the tunnels or reaching the end of the stairwell, we run into a heavy concrete door–that’s sealed closed.
They aren’t just heavy and locked, but they’re also secured with something else, something that smells and feels suspiciously of magic.
I know it feels like magic because, when I touched one, it shocked me.
I stand at the bottom of a set of stairs that leads at least two-stories down into the ground, staring at a door that hums and vibrates in a way that tells me that it’s the most enchanted of all of the barriers I’ve encountered, and I sure the fuck don’t want to be the one to put a hand on it.
“Did you try this one?” Dean asks, coming up behind me.
“No, I–” I don’t get the full sentence out of my mouth before my Beta puts his hand on the door and a streak of blue light shoots out from the concrete and envelopes his entire arm.
Dean yelps and falls backward, hitting the concrete wall of the tunnel. “Fuck!” He grasps his arm, and his eyes roll back in his head for a second.
“That’s why I didn’t touch it,” I tell him. “Are you okay?”
“I’ll be fine in a minute.” He’s still clutching his arm when he drags himself up off the ground. “What the hell?”
“Are you hurt?” James asks, coming down the stairs behind us.
“Never better.” Sarcasm drips from every word out of Dean’s mouth.
“I guess this one has a magical spell keeping it closed as well?” James surmises. “What are we going to do about this?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I guess we’ll need to find a witch. Fuck.” It makes me mad to think that someone from Darksky had to have come through here and sealed all of these doors. I think about what Hezzlie told me through the mind-link a few days ago. This has to be what Darksky wants. He must know these doors are here and doesn’t want us to access whatever is behind them.
“I think we should go down to the basement inside the house and see if we can find the other side of any of the tunnels,” James explains.
I turn to look at him, careful not to actually bump against the door. “Do you really think all of these tunnels lead into the house?”
“No,” he says quickly. “But I think at least one of them does. I bet that’s how Darksky got his people inside for the attack.”
“I thought we had a spy who let him in,” Dean says, flexing his fingers.
“That’s what we all thought, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t use one of these tunnels. Besides, they’re all pointed at the house,” the healer reminds us.
I fold my arms and think about it for a moment. “True. But they could also be going beneath the house. I’ve heard rumors that the house is built on top of a moonstone mine.”
“What?” Dean’s forehead furrows. “You have?”
I nod. “We need to find someone who can break through this magic. Can we get one of the Blackwells over here?”
“I believe the Blackwells hate us.” Dean follows me up the steps. I’m glad to reach the top where the air is fresh. Down in the tunnels, it smells like must and wet concrete, and I don’t like how closed in it is.
“They do, but we have their daughter,” I remind them. I look around, but I don’t see Ann anymore. She was here earlier.
“They disowned her,” Dean says. “Why would they want to help us because of her?”
“I don’t know,” I admit. “But sometimes families make amends.” I wish I could say we had their granddaughter, and maybe then they’d have more of a reason to help us out. I don’t know how they feel about Darksky, but I can’t imagine they’re fond of him. They might be intimidated by him, though. Most people in the surrounding kingdoms are.
“We’ll figure something out,” James assures me, but all I can do is roll my eyes. My record for figuring things out isn’t so high right now.
Even though I think it’s probably a waste of time, I follow James inside. We go down to the basement, a place my father often used as a dungeon, though he didn’t have a lot of enemies. The mix of old blood mingles with the same damp concrete smell. Hallways stretch the length of the house and criss-cross around. Some of the floors slant even deeper into the earth. Jail cells line one wall. We turn a corner, and James pushes through a door in the wall I can hardly see. I don’t think I knew it was there.
I don’t tell him I’m shocked when we head down another flight of stairs.
“Is there a light switch around here?” Dean asks. We can all see pretty well in the dark, but the broad shoulder Beta might be getting a little claustrophobic–like I am, though I won’t admit it.
At the bottom of the stairs, we find another hallway that winds down at a slight incline–to another door.
James pulls up. “Did you know this was here?” he asks. I take it from his tone that he didn’t even know for sure what he was looking for.
“No.” That’s all I can say. James reaches for the door handle, but I stop him. “Wait! Don’t you smell that?”
He stops before touching the door. “Smell what?”
“Blood? Mildew? Shit?” Dean lists off.
I shake my head. “No. I smell all of those things, but this door is under a magic spell. Can’t you smell the whiff of ozone in the air? If you touch it, you’re going to get shocked, like Dean did with the door outside.”
James turns to look at me, his forehead furrowed. “You can… smell magic?”
I shrug. “Yeah. Can’t you?”
They both shake their heads. “No. Now that you mention it, I can sort of see a small wave around the door seal, but I definitely can’t smell it.”
Now it’s my turn to be confused. “Well, I can, so don’t touch it. We’re not going to be able to get down there.”
“Does this magic smell the same as the magic that ripped my arm off?” Dean asks, exaggerating.
I almost laugh, but nothing is funny these days. “No, it smells a little different. But it does smell like the seal at the end of the tunnel we found in the garden.”
The two of them turn and look at one another, and at first, I think maybe they are using the mind-link. Or maybe they just have an understanding of one another. “Maybe some of these magical spells were cast by Darksky, but there’s a good chance some of them were cast by our own people,” James says.
“Why would we do that?” I am confused. I can’t imagine why we’d want to keep the doors sealed. “To keep Darksky out?”
“To keep everyone out,” James says, and I am once again reminded that my friend is much wiser than I am. “We need to find someone who can open these doors,” he says before he turns to walk back up to the basement.
I follow behind him, Dean on my heels. “I already said that,” I remind him. He doesn’t speak, but I start to go over the situation in my mind in more earnest. Who the hell can I get to open these doors?
I have no fucking idea.