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finger to her lips.
    As soon as she was dressed, the odor intensified. My throat ached when I inhaled and it felt like I’d swallowed razors. I held that breath as two seekers walked into the lair through an orange mist that appeared out of nowhere, replacing the pit and the cauldron. It looked like they walked out of the fireplace. Xela stood motionless, her head high, eyes focused ahead as they pressed their hot paws, a seeker’s best weapon, onto her shoulders and walked with her back into the mist. They all disappeared.
    The stench left with the seekers, sucked back into the void as if it were a cloak they couldn’t part with. A rosy aroma filled the lair, and was sure it was Xela’s doing; I knew the blooming flowers were for me.
    I paced from one end of the room to the other, wishing she’d come back. Without Xela, I again felt lost in oblivion. She was my destiny. What did Aseret want with her? Didn’t he have other witches hovering around him, seeking power? Xela wasn’t like that. She already had power, more than the other witches I’d seen, but she kept her black magic to herself. My sorceress did not seem to want to be part of the world she belonged to.
    I should have gone with her...,
    But her magic tied me to the lair and kept me invisible. Danger lurked on the other side of the door. As a creature not tied by the sphere to the underworld, I’d get lost in the ever-shifting maze of corridors. Besides, Xela had asked me to stay, which meant she was coming back.
    My witch was gone for three hours before she walked out of the blooming rosebushes toward me. As soon as she stepped through, one of the red roses darkened from crimson to black.
    “Are you all right?” I sprang to her side.
    “You have to leave.” Though she wasn’t one to cry—no black witch would—I could tell she held back tears. Why else did her hazel eyes reflect the flames from the fire with such clarity? “I can no longer see you or you’ll get hurt.”
    “No!” I uttered. “Is that what Aseret said?”
    “I don’t have a choice, Xander. If you stay, I’ll have to bring you to him. I can’t keep you hidden for much longer. He sensed your presence in the underworld. He wants you to join him.”
    “Then let’s go.” I rushed toward the wooden door.
    “He’ll mark you.”
    “Like I said, let’s go.” I repeated, urgently. If being tied to the underworld was the only way to spend my life with Xela, then so be it.
    “Xander, I care for you too much to let you do this for me. You may not know it, but I’m certain you shouldn’t be bound to the underworld.” She paused, gently taking my hand off the oval door handle. “This is my choice, the only one I’ll probably be able to make for a long time, before everything changes.” Her eyes rolled back in their sockets, then came back to me. “And I choose to save you.”
    “I want to do this—for us,” I begged.
    “It’s not where you’re meant to be.”
    But her lips disagreed as she pressed her mouth hard against mine, her body glued to my front. The fierce exchange made my blood rush in my veins, concentrating it in parts of my body only Xela could satisfy. She pulled away, and I knew I’d lost her. My gut told me this was the end of “us.”
    I reached for her. “Xela.”
    “Go. Don’t come back. Promise me.” She took another step back, her eyes pleading.
    “I can’t.”
    “If you don’t, he’ll kill me.”
    “I promise,” I blurted, knowing it was the most difficult promise I’d made in my life.
    She closed her eyes, and I felt the time hole on the tip of my nose. I froze. “No.”
    As the room spun, my jaw tightened, my knuckles whitened, and I was sure my face was tinged green, reflecting the rage bubbling in my veins.
     
    * * *
    Two days.
    I didn’t speak to anyone at the hill. Mira stayed away from Eric, pacing in front of my bedroom door. Ma left food on the threshold, hoping I’d eat. The chirping of the crickets began to irritate me.