The Huntress' Name (sequel to The Huntress)

Chapter 25

"Please remove your shoes and socks."

"Remove our shoes and socks?" I asked. My eyebrow rose. She was crazy. 

"Yes," the High Priestess of Wilde said. "This is a sacred room, and what we do requires grounding. Because we won't be performing this outside with the elements, it's even more crucial to be as in touch with all elements as much as possible."

"Just take them off," Isaac whispered to me. "We need their help. Just do as they say."

"Pretty sure that phrase has gotten people killed before."

Isaac gave me a stern look before taking off his own shoes and socks. I followed suit, though I wasn't happy about it. 

The marble floor was icy against the bottoms of my feet, and a hum flowed through the ground and into my body. It was an energy similar to what I'd felt flow through me when the coven leader had attacked me in the other room. It was magic. It flowed through the very walls and floors of the home. 

The thought unnerved me, but we had gone to them for their help, magical help. I couldn't shy away from the very thing we were there for. 

"You," the woman pointed toward me. "Kneel in the center."

I looked at the center she was talking about. It was a giant pentagram outlined in black on the otherwise white floor. 

A wave of panic flowed through me. Pentagrams and magic were always things I'd learned were evil. While I hadn't come into contact with many witches during my time, only one in fact, not counting this coven, I'd learned that all things associated with them should be avoided. Even though 

"You'll need to take that bracelet off. It's properties will interfere with our magic."

I fingered the metal and stone secured around my wrist. I didn't want to make myself vulnerable to her again.

Isaac touched my shoulder and I jumped. He nodded and I reluctantly freed my wrist of the weight, my only protection against the women in the room. 

"Why do I have to be in the center?" 

"Because you're not as attached to the end goal as he is, and you're mind is more susceptible." There was a smirk with her last words. She thought I'd be easier to manipulate than Isaac. 

I wanted to protest, to let her know just how wrong she was, but I was in no position to do that. We were at their mercy, and she had just been in my head not too long ago.  

"You go to the alter. Step into the water and concentrate on the information you desire." She shooed Isaac over to the pond at the front of the room with the alter.

"You must enter the circle of your own free will."  

I rubbed my hands on my pants to get rid of the clamminess, and taking a deep breath, I took my first step inside the circle. The hairs on my arms stood on end and a pulse went straight through me. It was the magic that connected the circle. 

At the center, I lowered myself onto my knees as the Coven leader made her way directly in front of me. She glanced around the circle, receiving a nod from each witch in turn signaling their ready. 

Her words were but a whisper, certain to fall short before reaching Isaac's ears. "You think I fell pray to your act out there, but it was you who fell into my trap."

Before I had the chance to register or act to what she'd said, her fingers grasped at each side of my head. Her nails imprinted at my temple, just below my ear, the corner of my jaw, and at my neck, leaving her thumbs to rest over my closed eyes.