Chapter 21

21

CAROLINA

“ S am, what are you doing here?” Camila’s voice is sharp, her surprise morphing quickly into suspicion. I can feel the shift in her energy, the way she stiffens next to me.

The last she knew, Sam was exploring remote areas of the Mortal World, cataloging unclassified flora. His presence in the gloomy depths of the Underworld was utterly out of place.

After Camila graduated high school, Sam came to do research under our grandparents before embarking on a year-long study abroad of sorts. He had been tasked with leading a team of other magical scholars on an expedition. After a whirlwind summer romance, he’d invited Camila to come with him, but she declined, bringing their relationship to a screeching halt.

I’d only met him briefly when I had been forced home for a week that summer—magically redirected from a summer internship I was doing.

Camila and Sam had a lot in common: their optimism, overt curiosity, and stubbornness. The latter would surely cause some trouble if he learned what we were doing here.

“I’m here on…an assignment,” Sam replies, his voice he sitant, as if weighing each word before speaking it. He glances around nervously, the flickering shadows playing across his face, revealing a tension that seemed out of character for the Sam I remembered.

“An assignment? In the Underworld?” I interject, finding it hard to mesh this image of Sam with the stories of his harmless and, in my opinion, boring botanical ventures. “That sounds like a drastic change of scenery.”

He sighs, a sound of resignation escaping him as if he had been carrying a heavy burden. “It is. After the expedition, I stumbled upon…let’s just say, a unique opportunity that brought me here. I know it sounds crazy, but there’s a lot about the magical world that isn’t just flora and natural ecosystems. There are deeper, darker layers, and somehow, I found myself working with beings from those layers.”

The revelation hung in the air, heavy like the oppressive atmosphere of the Underworld itself. Camila’s eyes narrow slightly, her mind undoubtedly racing to connect the dots between the Sam she once knew and the man before us, newly wrapped in mysteries and shadows.

“So, you’re telling us you’re here on some sort of mission ?” I probe, trying to understand the full scope of his involvement in this realm.

The idea that he might be the bounty hunter we were looking for flickers in my mind, but I keep it to myself.

“Something like that,” Sam admits, his gaze finally meeting ours. “I can’t reveal much—there are rules and contracts involved. But I can assure you, my intentions are to maintain a balance, to prevent certain…elements from tipping the scales too far in any one direction.”

The pieces were slowly beginning to fit together, though each revelation only led to more questions. Camila’s expression softens slightly, a mix of worry and perhaps a flicker of her old feelings for him complicating her thoughts.

“Sam, are you in trouble?” Her voice is softer now, the edges of old affection coloring her concern.

He manages a wry smile, the gesture not quite reaching his eyes. “Aren’t we all, in one way or another, when we deal with the Underworld?”

Well, that’s dramatic…but not untrue.

Before we can press him further, a distant sound catches our attention—a low, rumbling echo that seems to come from deeper within the caverns. Sam’s head snaps towards the sound, his body growing tense.

“We should probably move somewhere more private,” he says, his voice dropping low as he presses a palm against one of the cavern walls.

He murmurs something under his breath, and the area to the left of his hand shimmers.

“After you.” Sam motions us forward, and Camila and I share a look.

Do we trust him ? I try to ask her with my expression.

She glances back at Sam, who is beginning to look panicked at our hesitation. Camila assesses him a moment longer before giving me a slight shrug. What other options do we have?

An unnatural magic flickers around us as we step through the shimmering doorway. The magic here is strange, foreign. It doesn’t settle the way ours does. It clings to my skin, crawling like invisible fingers. I try not to shudder.

I could just hear Declan’s I told you so echoing in my ears if we got stuck down here.

We step into a bunker of sorts. The room, if you could call it that, is cramped because of the way the cavern walls slope overhead. I have to duck my head to avoid knocking into them. It’s chillier in here than it was on the other side, and I tighten my arms around my body. If the temperature drops any lower, I’ll be able to see my breath.

There’s something ominous about the space, like the walls themselves are watching us.

There’s a cot with a blanket thrown haphazardly over it tucked against the left wall and items scattered on the floor. Despite the lack of ornamentation, I can tell he’s been living here—though living might not be the right word. Existing, maybe. Surviving. But not living. The space feels too hollow for that.

I look at Sam curiously.

“Home Sweet Home.” He grimaces apologetically. Sam doesn’t wait for us to comment before he asks, “What are you two doing here, anyway? I don’t suppose you two make it a hobby to explore the Underworld.”

Camila sits on the corner of the mattress and looks around. “We’re looking for someone. A bounty hunter,” she clarifies, her gaze settling on Sam.

His brows lift in surprise, and his body tenses. “A bounty hunter? What for?” His voice is casual, but the sudden stiffness in his posture betrays him. He knows something.

“There have been some disappearances in the Mortal World, and we had a little visit from a demon called Nightcrawler,” Camila says, her eyes firmly locked on his face. “Friend of yours?”

His lips form into a thin line. “No. I don’t think so.” The hesitation in his voice is clear. He’s hiding something, and I don’t need magic to know that.

“Oh, wait.” Camila digs into her pocket, pulling out the crystal Silas gave her. “Missing something?” Like a magnet, the iridescent object propels itself toward Sam, slamming against his chest and hovering in front of him .

The impact is almost comical, but the way Sam’s face pales as he plucks the crystal from mid-air is anything but. Whatever connection he has to this place, to this world, it’s deeper than he’s let on.

A pained expression crosses Sam’s face. “Camila, you have to understand?—”

“Actually, I don’t. It doesn’t matter. I don’t care what you’ve been doing or why you didn’t contact me when you got back from the expedition. You don’t owe me anything.” Her voice cracks on the last part, and I can feel the pain radiating off her in waves.

She was hurt, and my heart throbbed uncomfortably in my chest for her. It’s one thing to lose someone you love. It’s another to find out they’ve been keeping secrets from you all along.

When I’d been around them that summer, they’d been nearly inseparable. I remember thinking how good he was for her, how happy she seemed. Now, all I can think is how wrong I was.

Camila had fallen in lust a number of times in high school, but I had never seen her like she was with Sam. I thought it was nice that Camila had found someone who understood her and our family. But then, as fast as it had started, it ended.

Camila continues, her voice growing stronger as she changes the subject, “Silas sent us here to find out if you’ve heard anything about two individuals working together to fulfill a prophecy from the First Witch’s grimoire.”

Sam’s mouth drops open and then abruptly closes. He looks more like a fish than a demonic bounty hunter.

He finally says, “There have been rumors…I’m not sure if they’re related. The Underworld has been on lockdown. It’s almost impossible to get around down here right now. ”

“Why? What’s happening down here?” I ask, sitting beside Camila on the cot.

Sam shies away from me as I pass him, and I wonder if it’s because he doesn’t want me to touch him and trigger a vision. His avoidance is almost too obvious, and I wonder what he’s afraid of me seeing. He leans against a flat part of the wall, further away from me, crossing one ankle over the other like it’s a normal position for him.

“It’s like the demons are preparing for something. Waiting for something to happen. If it’s related to the disappearances and the prophecy, then it’s big,” he says.

Camila frowns. “Like… Fates banishing the first demons to the Underworld big?”

He runs a hand through his hair, and it’s then that I realize he’s not wearing his glasses. The black-rimmed, 50s-inspired browline glasses made him look more golden-retriever than German-shepherd were no longer there.

Gone was the boyish Sam who’d helped Camila identify varieties of fungi, and left in his place was a man who seemed like he’d go to the ends of the Underworld to keep whatever he was hiding from us.

“Maybe. What’s the prophecy say?” Camila recites the prophecy from memory, and he furrows his brow. “You’re sure that’s what it says? I don’t recognize it. You read it in the grimoire?”

My heart sank. If the prophecy was wrong, then we’d been looking in all the wrong places. We’d have to start all over and rethink everything.

I shake my head. “No, Esme told us about it.”

A trickle of doubt enters my head. What if the City Coven purposefully told Esme the wrong prophecy because she was an inactive? Why hadn’t we considered that before ?

“Esme Briarwood?” Sam’s face scrunched up in confusion. “How’d she hear about it?”

“The City Coven. She moved to the city after our grandparents died,” Camila tells him.

He flinches at the implied dig. He hadn’t come to their funeral, and it might have been because he was doing Fates knew what in the Underworld.

“I’m sorry, Camila.” His tone does sound apologetic, but it does little to quell the anger coming off of my sister.

She looks at me, ignoring him. “What should we do?”

I sigh, but Sam interjects, “I’ll see what I can find out down here and try to get the information to Silas.” He passes Camila back the crystal, and she pockets it. “In the meantime, maybe you two should go talk to the City Coven and make sure the prophecy is right.”

Nodding, I stand. I want to get out of here. I want to breathe air that doesn’t feel like it’s choking me. “Is it safe for you to be poking around like that and sending information to the Mortal World? We can try and come back.”

Sam shakes his head. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll do what I can.” His face takes on a grim and serious expression. “Do not come back here, Carolina. It’s not safe for you. I’ll contact Silas when I can.”

Camila stands, looking relieved to be leaving this place, but I know she’s more relieved to be leaving Sam.

“Emergency button?” I ask Camila, pulling out the vile.

“ Cauldron , yes. Let’s get out of this place,” she says, looking around the room with uneasiness in her expression, like the longer she was down here, the more it sucked the energy from her.

“Wait,” Sam says, his hand shooting out to grab hers.

She gasps, and I feel Camila’s magic flare. Sam drops his hand like he’d been burned.

“What just happened?”

Camila and Sam look at each other. A charged, silent exchange passing between them. Sam gives her a slight shake of his head, and Camila’s shock turns into a sadness I have to look away from.

“Camila?” I try again.

She visibly shakes off the situation in front of her. “It’s nothing. Let’s just go home. We’ll tell Silas to be on the lookout for a message from you.”

Sam nods as Camila takes my hand.

“Ready?”

Camila dips her head in confirmation, and I throw the potion at our feet.

Everything rushes past us instantly as our magic electrifies our bodies, and we’re transported back to the magic room. Silas’s head perks up from the couch.

“You’re dead to me,” Camila says, pointing a finger at her familiar.

I grimace as she storms out of the magic room, and Silas watches her go.

“I take it you found Sam.”

My jaw clenches, and I cross my arms over my chest, quirking an eyebrow at him. He knows exactly what he did. “You think?”