Southern Secrets: Book 2 in Southern Charms Series

Chapter Thirteen: An Unfamiliar Place

Rose

When I was twelve, I lost my temper with Harmony after a weekend where she was in a particularly cruel mood. It started with... well, starting. Right in the middle of Southern Charms during the busiest portion of the day. An elderly witch nudged my shoulder and drew me to the side to whisper in my ear that it might be wise to go to the bathroom.

I wasn't terribly surprised. Mama had been thorough in her explanation of such matters, and I'd felt off the entire day. If I was any other girl with any other sister, the entire moment might have been uneventful. But I was Rose Wych, impoten witch, and related to the Regina George of witches. With Mama and Caly both out running errands, I was forced to pull my sister aside and ask for help.

Not only did she laugh out loud when I asked her to magic away the evidence but she told me I could walk home to get my own supplies. If it ended there, my temper might have stayed safely bottled up, but Harmony never missed an opportunity to go one step farther. For her, that meant announcing my incident to the entire store in a stage whisper that drew pity from the women and laughter from Eric Greggory, a young witch I'd considered my friend. And maybe I had a tiny crush on him too.

Humiliated, I tried to hide, but there was no way for me to get outside without crossing the sales floor. That's when I overheard Eric tell the boy with him I was just the loser girl who hung out with the girl he really liked.

"Jokes on you," I shouted, spinning around and pointing my finger at him. "Willow doesn't even like boys." Then I threw a jar of the closest thing I could find- which happened to be a Laxative potion- at Harmony while she cackled behind the register.

For five seconds, I felt triumphant and powerful and free. I showed them they couldn't mess with me and get away with it. But as Harmony glared at me with hate in her eyes as she tried to spit out any liquid in her mouth and Eric bolted from the shop, his tongue armed with nasty slurs and rumors about Willow, I regretted my outburst. Two seconds of selfish euphoria wasn't worth the consequences that followed.

When my eyes popped open after breaking my necklace, it felt like I was twelve all over again.

"Rosie, what have you done?" I moaned, sitting up with my hand pressed against my forehead while running my dry tongue over dryer lips.

Blinking away the grit in my eyes, I looked around, not all together shocked to find I wasn't sitting in the middle of the woods. There had a been a sense of pressure similar to teleportation when the colors consumed me, but as I stood on trembling legs, I couldn't find anything familiar about this place.

The space was enclosed- the walls, ceiling, and floor all made of the same slick, gray rock with striations of iridescent shimmer. The only light came from a large pool. The teal water was calm, but every so often it rippled and bits of frothy, glitter-crusted bubbles would form and pop as the surface settled. I crouched over the basin, squinting into the depths in order to determine the source of the glow, but even though the water was clear, there was no single point of light within the pool. It was as if every molecule of liquid was luminescent.

My awe quickly wore away as I searched the room for a way out that didn't involve diving into the middle of a magical lagoon, but the area was small and after three rounds about the room, pressing every portion of the wall for some hidden door, I was forced to conclude that the only way in or out was through the water.

"It doesn't sense," I muttered. I touched my clothes and hair. Bone dry. Every inch of me. Which meant I'd been in this room for a very long time or they had brought me in another way.

"There has to be a door," I said, slapping my palm on the rock with such force it stung, but sparks fizzled around my fingertips. Something groaned within the wall and a crack formed, growing wider as a door appeared, revealing a staircase spiraling upward.