I pressed into the dark room with my hand stretched in front of me and my heart firmly wedged in my throat when lights suddenly began to spring into life, white fluorescents blinking erratically, waking up from a long, deep sleep. And when the lights settled into a droning, but steady state, what had a moment ago been only pinpricks of light, revealed themselves fully.
The words fell out of my mouth.
“Oh… my God…”
***
Jared had run outside to tell the witches to hold on starting the next duel while I collected what items I could from inside the secret room and packed them into a duffle bag. Slinging it over my shoulder was heavy, but I didn’t want to carry it out using magick, so I hauled it as best I could out of Remy’s office, through the corridor, and into the ballroom where almost twenty witches stood waiting for me.
They watched me come into the room with puzzled expressions. Some of them were red in the face from running laps around the house. Others were holding books in their hands, having just come out of the library. Others still were holding little knives, amulets, and other items through which they had learned to channel their magick.
I stopped in the center of the room and stared at them without saying anything.
“What’s in the bag, Maddie?” Nina asked.
I let the bag drop the last few inches to the floor with a thud, then knelt down to unzip it. When I spread the seam wide, revealing a number of edged weapons like swords and knives, as well as sharpened wooden and silver stakes, the witches couldn’t help but crowd around for a better look.
“Holy shit,” Nina said, immediately rummaging through the bag and pulling out swords in sheaths, stakes, and knives. “Where did you find these?” she asked.
“That doesn’t matter,” I said, “What matters is, we aren’t going to wait for those vampires to come for us—we’re going to go for them.”