Morana

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Was I not scared? I thought about it and realized that no, I wasn't. We were in a difficult situation and the place was gruesome and disgusting. But we were there together and both of us physically alright. That was enough for me to not be afraid.

Then what started it all came to mind. "Your wounds! They cut you. Are you bleeding?"

"It's all fine," he answered calmly, in contrast to the panic my voice had held. "The wounds are healed. Not sure exactly when they did, but they are healed now. Probably actually healed as soon as you started causing a ruckus. Mom told me the first time that they heal as soon as they don't need my blood anymore. A better question is, why were you at the ceremony? I thought Marianela would get you later?"

I had sat down on the floor, which I knew I would regret if I could see what the floor looked like. My eyes had gotten used to the darkness enough so I could see Alejo standing up by the bars of his cell, though I couldn't make out any of his features.

His questions got me looking down at the floor as I fell into deep thoughts. A theory slowly took its form in my head.

"Marianela brought me there," I said and started voicing the theory. "It had already started when we arrived."

"Why would..."

I answered his question before he had time to finish it. "When she visited to tell me your mom wanted to talk to me, she said she enjoyed the chaos I was creating in the coven. She must have wanted more of that."

"To gain a better shot at taking over the priestesshood," Alejo added on. "What did she do while we were in the basement? I saw her come up to you while you were fighting and then you seemed to give in."

"She told me we could always escape later."

I started looking around the place. Escape. There had to be a way. If not, she wouldn't have said that, because just like I had in the moment when she had said it, I felt some weird sense of trust in her. I didn't think she wanted us dead or even necessarily harmed. She probably wouldn't have cared much if we were, but it felt more like she wanted to use us as pawns in her desire to gain control and power.

"It's impossible to use magic in here," Alejo told me.

"But our cells are locked? With what?" I looked over at the place I assumed was the lock of my cell.

"Padlocks."

It was my turn to burst out laughing at something that really wasn't particularly funny. I stood up and moved my hands to my hair.

"They're making it far too easy," I giggled. When I had gotten ready, I had only put up my hair to occupy myself with something to try to forget the anxiety I had felt more than anything else. But now I was glad I had done so. I removed the hairpins that kept my hair up one by one.

"What are you doing?" Alejo asked.

"Getting us out of here," I replied.

I put all but one of the pins into a pocket in my skirt and then felt my way forward to the padlock. I brought the one pin to it, found the keyhole and starting to move the pin around in it.

"You see, I guess a good thing about not having known I was a witch is that I learned skills which I assume witches find redundant, since magic is much more efficient," I explained. "I also was a bit of a rebel at a time, so some of those skills aren't even what most would know, but that used to come very much in handy back then."

There was a click, and I felt the padlock opening up. I pulled it away and opened my cell. As I got closer to Alejo, I could see that his mouth hung slightly open.

As soon as I had gotten his cell open as well and he had stepped out, his arms were around me and our lips connected.

"You're fucking brilliant, do you know that?" he told me.

"I know, but please keep on telling me so," I giggled.

"I'll tell you that every day from now on."

We moved to the exit. The door there also had a normal lock. An easy feat for me to open.

"There might be people guarding," Alejo warned as I worked on the lock.

"We'll just have to be quick then," I answered.

There was a click and the door unlocked. Before I pushed it open, I reached for Alejo's hand. We both held onto each other as I opened the door.

The light from outside was blinding after the darkness of the prison, and it took my eyes a moment to readjust. When they had, I saw that there wasn't anyone guarding the outside of the prison. But Marianela stood, leaning against the opposite wall. She looked at us with a glint in her eyes and a smirk on her face.

"Took you longer than I expected," she said and then turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Alejo asked after her.

"To the celebrations. I can't exactly be found missing when they realize you've escaped." She didn't turn around as she spoke, but kept heading towards the stairs.

"So you're not going to tell them?" Alejo asked next. That made her pause and turn back to us.

"I don't care much what happens to you. You should know that by now, brother. But I guess it is worth reminding you. I bear no ill-will towards either of you and I won't lift a finger to try to stop you from escaping. I do hope that will be remembered."

Then she disappeared down the stairs.

We both stood still and watched where she had been. My opinion of her had settled. She wasn't a good person, indeed, she was actually rather selfish. But she seemed to at least be aware of it, and she wasn't hateful without rhyme or reason. I didn't like her, but neither did I dislike her, and the vengeance I wanted against the others for how they had treated Alejo did not include her.

"Come on," Alejo said in a whisper. "We should get moving."

"Can't you just teleport us to the apartment?" I whispered back.

He shook his head. "You can't teleport in or out. It's a safety measure to keep the unwanted out. We have to make it outside first."

My stomach tightened, and I swallowed hard. If the celebration was still going on, then it meant that every single witch from the coven was in the house.

We held hands as we walked down. On the way up, I had had no time to look around, now that I did, I saw how on both the third and second floors there were corridors leading off in both directions from the landing and a few doors scattered about. No doubt there were bedrooms and similar on the other side of those doors.

When we got to the first floor, when we only had one flight of stairs left until the hallway, a door to the right of us flung open.