Chapter 576

Chapter 576

Brax

‘Dig deep.’ I tell Indy through our connection. You have to find a fucking way.”

‘I’m not a good Witch. I was never good at it.’

I hear howls in the distance. Possibly below us somewhere.

‘We are going to die.’

‘Is that what you want? You want our insides smeared across the walls? Do you really want to give the bitch the satisfaction?”

‘No. I…. The walls close in. It wouldn’t be long now and we would be sandwiched on all sides.

Howls grow louder and the walls appear to stop.

*Thalia,” I call out, knowing she couldn’t resist knowing we were close to death.

She doesn’t answer.

*Thalia!”

*Orion said they are trying to buy us time.” Indy whispers.

*Indy, she thinks you are weak. She believes she can just walk all over you and you are letting it happen.”

“I am weak.”

“I don’t believe that. I see a lot of confused souls and yours isn’t one of them. She has made you believe that you can’t do this. She took away the one thing that gave you strength. I know I’m not your mate, and we are just Blood Tied, but you can use that. You have to. I’ve watched people get stronger by being connected to someone.”

“While we can still breathe, you need to do something. Concentrate, Search your memory for anything different. Something that happened a long time ago that you have buried deep down inside you.”

I squeeze her hand. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“You are like an annoying brother!” She tuts at me in the darkness.

I hear a muffled screech from below. I had no idea what they were up to. But I’m sure Thalia would make it so she returned to us as soon as possible.

Indy’s breathing slows. “There’s something from when I was younger. It’s not clear. I hated school. Like, really hated it. Witches were singled out. They were expected to be great. Powerful. I wasn’t. One day, the teacher was being a dick and all I kept wishing was for the school to crumble.”

“It did, didn’t it?”

*Bits of the ceiling at first. Then the cracks appeared in the wall from floor to roof. Everyone screamed and ran for cover.” There is a tiny hint of amusement in her tone. “I’ve never told anyone that.”

“They didn’t suspect it was you?”

“Orion doesn’t even know. But Brax, I don’t know how I did it. It just happened.”

*It happened because you wanted it to happen.”

Her fingers tighten around mine and she falls quiet. Seconds later, the cracks could be heard, snaking through the cracks.

“Keep going,” I whisper.

The walls are almost rattling around us. Indy is tense as she concentrates. Her nails dig into my skin as dust falls

from above. Glimmers of light flicker through the cracks and the stone shatters, causing a sound like a bomb to go off as the walls tumble around us.

Indy’s eyes and mouth are wide open. “I did it.”

“You did.”

She throws her arms around my neck, pressing herself against me. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,”

“We need to move,” I tell her, climbing over the rubble and pulling Indy with me. No doubt the sound would alert Thalia.

We leg it through the corridor, cracks lingered on every stone wall we passed.

“What the fuck!” Thalia screeches

‘Keep moving.’ I tell Indy.

“Fucking find them!”

‘We are going to die,’ Indy mutters.

‘Not if I can help it!’

We turn a corner and find another set of steps that lead up, taking us further into the castle. You are going to bring this whole place down once we are all out.

‘What?’

You have already started.’ I gesture to the cracks that snake across the ceiling.

I pull Indy to a stop as footsteps come barreling towards us. They were coming from behind us and in front of us.

I catch the scent of Klaus and the others.

Orion appears first. A woman draped over his shoulder but he looks so relieved to see Indy.

“We can hug later,” I mutter to him.

“Where is she?” Klaus asks, “Where is Thalia?”

*I thought she was chasing us.” I look back at the way we came. The pounding footsteps had stopped. This wasn’t over. She was changing tactics.