Blood and Magic

Chapter 29 - It's Just A Secret Cave What Could Go Wrong? (Peyton)

Up From The Ground - Fort Atlantic

We ended up back at Jade's. We all changed back into normal clothes and Jade had started a pot of coffee.

We were all settled around the living room floor, the piece of paper Caspian had given us was sitting in the middle of us. It was an old map that didn't match with google.

"We don't even know where the coven lived before, for all we know this could lead us halfway across the world," Hale huffed and sipped her coffee.

I glanced at the map, it was written in some language I'd never seen before. It was all loops and symbols.

"Why don't we just ask Jack and Mayline? They are from the coven they could probably make sense of all this," Ryker asked shifting his weight.
Ivory looked over it and shook her head.
"Even I cant read that,"
Jade admittedly shook her head.

"Uh-uh, no way. If our mothers wiped it from everyone's mind then there's a reason. They didn't trust them with this information then we don't either,"

We all nodded, but my stomach tightened.
Ivory bit her lip.
"They are your car takers. You can trust them," she defended.
We all looked at her. Some how we felt like we could trust her not to tell them.
"We're going to have to trust someone. We can't read this map," It was an effort to keep my body from shaking but I had to offer up the idea. "We know two other witches who might be able to read it, but I've never been in Liam's head I don't know how well we can trust him, but, I've been in Lev's. She might help us, she would never betray Hale,"

Jade snapped her head up and narrowed her eyes.

"Why wouldn't we be able to trust Liam?"  Her voice was sharp and I felt horrible to suggest it but our lives were turning into a chess game and each move we made questioned our success.

Hale let out a long sigh.

"Jack told me of another prophecy about how one of us will fall in love with one of Edwards devotee's and could destroy us and blah blah blah. You know the regular ending to our fate,"

I looked to Jade trying to force my empathy into her.

"I already looked into Lev's  mind and it's not her, I haven't gone into Liam's yet though, so until then I don't think it's safe to trust him with this,"

Jade drew in a long deep breath but have a final nod.

"Yeah okay, that's fair, guilty until proven innocent. From here on out that's how we should live our lives anyway. So Hale, get Lev over here, if we can we do this tonight. Jack and Mayline are expecting answers in the morning,"

Hale nodded and got up pulling her phone from her pocket and went into the hallway.

"Too bad, we can't google the shadow caves. I'd at least like to know what to expect," Ryker mumbled still starring at the old map.
I snorted.
"Yeah a Yelp review would be great. Two stars, hard to find, lots of dirt and creepy, won't be taking the family here again,"
We all laughed at that.
"Because that would make our lives like ten times easier and if our lives were easy the world would probably implode," Jade grumbled back and set her now empty coffee mug on the side table.  Ryker gave a small laugh.

"You're not wrong," Ivory piped up, settling in with the rest of us.
I looked at her.
"So tell us about you. I mean you know all about us because of Jack and Mayline. Meanwhile your a total stranger,"
She nodded with a small smile.
"Alright, yeah fair enough. There's not much to know though. I just turned twenty, I was a toddler when they took me in. They helped me with my magic. What Dimitri was saying was a little true. They've never seen an Arcane witch as powerful as me. When I was old enough they started sending me out to help other refugees from our coven. Teach the new generation and what not. That's how I met Dimirti, he goes with me now on our trips."
"That's actually kinda sweet," Jade commented.
Hale walked back in and sat down, her face was still. Our social conversation now clearly over.