Page 26 of The Night Burning
A hiss sounded as the trap door opened.
I kind of expected some theatrics as he picked up one of the crystals in his hand—by the moon, it really was the crystal!—reached inside the hole, and put it inside. But this wasn’t a show, or something entertaining.
It was urgent.
From where we stood, we couldn’t see the crystal inside the hole, but Shane was satisfied with it enough to close the hatch, pick up the box, and move to the next corner.
He repeated the process, but this time, when he closed the hatch, a loud hum came from the holes. It spread through the ground, shaking it.
“What’s that?” Lucille asked.
“The magic.” Lavinia frowned. “But it feels strange.”
I held on to Minsi as we all watched the ground.
“This is the crystals activating again, right?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Shane said. “This was never done before. We don’t know what is supposed to happen and what isn’t.”
The tremors increased. We crouched down and watched in horror as the buildings around us shook too. The open windows rattled and a couple broke, the unlocked doors opened and closed again with loud booms.
The sound of lightning reached my ears.
But it wasn’t lightning.
“Watch out!” Shane yelled. He grabbed my arm and pulled me, Minsi, and Tyren back as the main square’s cement pavement cracked open. Gasping or screaming, everyone ran from the square. Serge and his friends fled back to their houses.
Then it stopped.
“Are you all right?” Shane glanced at me, his eyes full of worry. I nodded. He looked at Minsi and Tyren. “You too?” Arms around my waist, Minsi nodded.
“I am fine,” Tyren answered.
We all looked around, at each other, at the buildings. Besides some broken windows and unhinged doors, everything seemed all right.
Everything except the wide fault line in the middle of the square.
“That was an earthquake?” Roman asked.
“I don’t know,” Lucille muttered.
Curious, Shane and some others approached the crack in the pavement. I wanted to go, but didn’t want to take Minsi with me.
As if sensing my thoughts, Rue took Minsi and the brown bag from me. “Go,” she said.
I offered her a grateful smile and approached the group. Tyren didn’t stay behind. We squeezed between Lavinia and Taos, across the gap from Shane and Lucille, who was already way too close to him.
I spied inside.
A thick concrete layer, then just earth. The width became narrower as the gap went on, but we couldn’t see the bottom, if there was one.
“What the hell was that?” Killian asked from beside Shane.
“Shh,” Lavinia said. She closed her eyes and lifted her hands, fingers splayed in the air, palms toward the gap. “I feel something.”
I stared at her. “What do you mean?”
A waft blew up, a faint cloud of red smoke. We all scooted a few steps back. Tyren grabbed my arm, if to pull me back or to feel more secure, I wasn’t sure.