The Lost Heir (Book I)- The Violet City

Slip n' Slide

"Beatrice! She looks like Beatrice!" a tiny voice whispered, followed by another giggle.

"No. I see her mother in her too. Beautiful."

"Who's there?"

"She can hear us. I love her already." They giggled again then everything went quiet.

"Hello?" Isabella said into the room. There was no other person in it that she could see.

No more than another minute passed before Seth arrived, knocking her to the ground. Too happy to care about any bruising, she scrambled back on her feet.

"Thank, God!"

"Seth!" She looked at Seth with wide eyes. "You followed me?"

"You're crazy, you know that? Of course, I did. Where the heck are we?"

Isabella listened for the giggling voices again. She didn't hear anything. It hadn't been her imagination. Seth looked worriedly back the way he'd come then all around the room.

"There's someone in here, Seth."

"Are you seeing things again? There's no one here."

She didn't want to seem crazy at the moment, so she didn't elaborate on what she'd just heard quite yet. Instead, she focused on Seth's apparent worry. "I don't see any other exit besides that thing." Isabella pointed. Seth went to examine the opening to what Isabella suspected was some sort of waterslide. "There has to be another way out." He went from wall to wall, banging on each of them. He looked up the tube they'd come from. Nothing.

"I didn't tell you this before, but I was told to come here," she said.

"What do you mean, you were told? By Theophilus or something?"

"Not exactly."

"Then what?"

For the first time, Isabella noticed that Seth looked a little less like Seth and more like an Adonis version of himself. Skin bronze. Hair windswept with the same odd violet tint. Eyes a gentle blue-green. Isabella looked at herself again in the mirror. If anything, she looked better than the last time she looked. Her dull, olive-drab eyes twinkled like emeralds.

Seth looked over her shoulder. "Is that me? Better question: is that you?"

She elbowed him someplace that made him cringe, and she grinned in response.

"I think I look like me," said Isabella," but my skin looks weird and my hair..."

"I think you look like you but a whole lot..." She glared at him. "You look exactly like you. Yep. Exactly the same."

"I was going to say, I think I look like the fake Hollywood version of myself, ya know?"

"Yeah. That's exactly it!"

"I don't know if I like it at all. Except maybe the hair part." She ran her fingers through the soft locks.

"So, what exactly is going on here?" he asked, still studying his reflection.

She turned her eyes back to the closet and stared at it for an uncomfortably long moment.

"What's wrong?" she heard Seth finally say.

"There was just one of these before. Now there are two."

He came to her side. "What do you mean there was only one?"

"Before you came, there was one wet suit in here. Now, there are two. Like, because you showed up, another one appeared." She looked around the room. "Seth, where are the others? Did they stay behind?"

"No, I don't think they did. I heard Micah trying to follow me, saying he didn't want to be stuck in that room forever. I shouted for him to stay back, but I heard him climbing and Cleo cursing. Xander said something like 'don't forget about me.' So, yeah. They should be here by now."

"What if they hit one of those Port signs?" suggested Isabella.

"They wouldn't do that," said Seth.

"They might have."

"Well, I guess I got lucky then."

Isabella looked around. "Or unlucky."

They waited for a while. Pacing, not speaking, leaning against one wall and then another. She rested against the closet and peeked over at Seth to find him staring at her. She quickly looked away and examined the wet suits. Time ticked on. The others were not coming. "I hate to say it, but I think we should go," Isabella said.

"I think we should wait a little longer," Seth said quietly.

"You're worried about Micah."

Her hand automatically went to her necklace. She closed her eyes and centered herself as she felt the warm buzz envelop her. Hello? Can anyone hear me? she tried thinking to her whomever it was who might listen. She waited, but no one replied. She dropped the necklace. "I'm sorry. I'm scared too," she said to Seth before she heard the giggling again. Where was it coming from? "Did you hear that?"

To her surprise, Seth nodded once then swallowed. "Come on." Seth pulled both wet suits from the closet. The first was small and black, with pink trim. The second was larger, navy with black trim. "I think this one is yours." He held out the smaller suit to her.

Isabella laughed. "Oh yeah? I thought you'd go for the pink."

"You wanted to do this, remember? So quit stalling," he said, fighting a smile. "And get dressed."

"Yes, master," she said. "But, uh, you're gonna have to turn around."

"Uh, no, I'm not."

"Uh, yes, you are!"

"Uh, no I am not. Look." Seth pointed at the wall that held the mirror. A door had appeared on either side of it; one read His, the other Hers.

Isabella's mouth fell open. She didn't know why she should be surprised after everything that had happened in the last few days, but there was something different about what was happening here and what'd happened in her great-grandparent's speakeasy. This seemed as if it was being done by magic rather than machine or illusion. But it couldn't be. Could it? "This is crazy."

They quickly changed then Isabella climbed into the tube. "Ready?" Seth asked. When she nodded, he punched the button.

"Nothing's happening," she said as Seth climbed in behind her, knees perched on either side of her hips. She didn't have time to complain about his closeness because as soon as Seth settled back, they shot off through the tube, water spouting every which way.

"Oh my God!" Isabella screeched as water flooded the lower half of the slide. "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea!"

"Woo! Yeah!" Seth shouted. "I feel like I'm at Wild Waters!"

How could he be excited when they were about to die? Isabella pinched her eyes shut and held on for what she hoped were not the last moments of her short life. In an instant, they were both sucked into the abyss as the water plastered her hair to her cheeks. Her stomach twisted and turned at every drop. Water rushed at her sides faster than any slide she'd ever been on. The wet suit clung warmth to her body as the smell of chlorine sailed through her nostrils. Beads of water continued to pelt her face and the slide came to an abrupt end.

Blast. They torpedoed from the tube into deep, clear waters, so clear, in fact, that Isabella could see acutely. Her panicked eyes met an underwater street lamp plugged into a mossy boulder just below her. To her right, signs that read Hollywood and Vine, as if at the real intersection aboveground about ten miles from the hotel, were poled into two other enormous rocks. She whipped around looking for Seth, but he was nowhere to be found. She swam to the surface and sucked in a cleansing breath. "Seth!" No answer. "Seth!" No!