Borrowing Power
*Hezzlie*
The moonstones are definitely glowing more intensely. In fact, they’re not just getting brighter, they’re getting louder, humming from their position beneath the ground. It feels like the floor beneath our feet is actually trembling. I look at Rowan, and his eyes are wide. I suppose this is as close as he’ll ever be to actually showing me an inch of fear.
“Do you think you can get the door open?” he asks me. “Are you strong enough–yet?”
I stare at him for a long moment. That door didn’t even have any magic attributed to it when we first came through, unlike the one at the top. In fact, I’d hardly even noticed there was a door there.
But now, it’s like a steel barrier, like part of the walls surrounding us. Except it’s all so coursing with magic, like the stones in the hole.
“I don’t know if I’m strong enough to open it right now,” I tell him. “But I can try. If not, maybe we can get my mom to come down the tunnel to the other side and give it a shot.”
His eyebrows nearly touch. “What? Your mom?”
“Yes. She’s a witch, too. She just didn’t want you to know until I told her about my powers.” I say it nonchalantly, but I can see by his wide-eyed expression that he’s surprised that my mom was able to hide that information from him. And knowing Rowan, he’s probably also a little pissed.
I can’t deal with that right now, though, as the buzzing from the stones is getting louder. In fact, I can hardly hear myself think at the moment. It just seems to be getting louder.
Turning back to the door, I lift a hand and try to concentrate my power on getting the door open. Like last time, my light bumps up against the glow of the barrier, the yellow and purple facing off against one another. But unlike last time, my golden light is quickly absorbed. It’s unclear as to whether or not this door has more magic keeping my light out or if I’m just too tired.
“I’ll check the other doors,” Rowan says, and he begins to walk around to the other potential ways out to see if any of them are unwarded.
“Be careful,” I remind him. “You don’t need to hurt yourself.”
He nods and walks off, and the humming continues to intensify. I wonder if this is why this place was closed off to begin with. Maybe whoever was in charge of mining the stones realized they were unstable and thought they might explode. I can only imagine what a horrible mess that would be, what with the mansion sitting right on top of them.
I have to return my focus to the door, though. I hear Rowan cussing as he makes his laps, and it’s evident he’s not able to find any other way out as he jogs back to me. “I used the mind-link to call Dean. Maybe he can get your mom on the other side of the door, and we can get out that way. I swear to the Goddess there wasn’t even a door here when we came down.”
“There wasn’t,” I tell him. “There was just the one at the time. It looks like this one slid in from the wall or something.” The buzzing is so intense now, my teeth are vibrating. I feel like my bones are shaking. My magic doesn’t seem to be making a difference at all, though.
Rowan has his hands over his ears, but I’m sure it’s not helping any. The vibrations are so loud, it’s like they’re coming up through the floor and into my body.
“What should we do?” I shout to him, and he shakes his head, clearly as frustrated as I am.
We hear banging on the other side of the door and bang back. “Mom? Dean?” I shout, but we can’t hear them.
I hear Dean’s voice in my head, though. ‘Ann is trying to use her magic to get the door open, but it’s not working. What the fuck is happening in there?’
‘Tell her to try harder,’ Rowan says, clearly frustrated. ‘I think the moonstones are going to explode.’
I don’t say anything back because I can’t even think straight enough to complete a sentence. I don’t understand what it is about us being here that has triggered this response from the moonstones, though. Was it boobytrapped? Was it my magic? It’s not even strong enough to open a door. How can it be such a threat to the immense power in that hole?
“The immense power in the hole…” I murmur. I don’t think Rowan even hears me. He’s too busy banging on the door, like that’s going to work. It’s not. If my mom was strong enough to open it, she would. I wonder if we could’ve worked together to get it if I hadn’t drained myself, but it’s too late for that now.
I keep going back to the idea that there’s a huge amount of power in the hole in the center of the room. The glow is also purple, like the ward on the door, but I’d managed to turn that purple light yellow before. I wonder if I can do it again.
With Rowan distracted, I walk over to the center of the room, fully knowing I could either blow the whole place up or maybe harness some of it to use it to my advantage.
At the edge of the hole, I have to be super careful not to topple into the hole because everything is shaking. I reach a hand out, cautiously, and touch the purple light. It doesn’t hurt me. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Rather than shocking me, the purple light wraps around my hand, and when I pull it back, there’s a ball of purple light in my palm.
“Rowan!” I shout as I rush back to him, still holding the purple light. “Rowan!”
He turns to look at me, desperation in his eyes. “What the fu–”
“Tell them to back up,” I tell him.
“Hezzlie, I don’t think–” he begins, but the turmoil behind us is still building.
“Move!” I tell him, and through the mind-link, I say to Dean, ‘Get the hell out of the way, and tell Mom to, too.’
‘What?’ Dean asks me.
‘Get the fuck out of my way!’ I shout. ‘Are you up the tunnel?’
‘Yes, yes,’ Dean tells me.
“Hezzlie, don’t,” Rowan tells me, but I give him a look that should be enough to let him know I’m doing it no matter what he says. He takes a deep breath and steps back.
I focus on the door, raise my hand, and send a beam of purple and golden light at the barrier. A loud whooshing sound overshadows the roar of the moonstones, and Rowan and I both collapse to the ground, covering our ears.
Everything turns pure white and then black.
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