Breathe Under Water - Shadows of the Night 1

Chapter 3

"Hi Debbie!"

She acknowledged my presence with a nod.

"You can go right in, Anna. He's already waiting."

I nodded wordlessly, moved on to the first corridor to the left, and walked past the elevators casually. Pretending was an art I had learned exceptionally well. I was all but at ease. Tension extended probing tendrils and slipped under my skin. I shivered. It was as if I had some sort of premonition that this meeting was important. Maybe it was.

When I finally reached the end of the hallway, I opened the dark wooden door and entered what members of staff often jokingly called the mirror chamber. Two guards, a female and a male witch, were posted opposite each other. Their backs straightened up at the same moment, but relaxed again as soon as they saw me. I guess no one in their right mind would be intimidated by me. I didn't look old enough to evoke respect in people.

The male one shot me an appreciative look, cocking an eyebrow in a suggestive manner.

"Hi Anna, you look good."

The female guard rolled with her eyes, muttering something under her breath. I had no idea how many witches Travis had flirted with that day, but knowing him it had to have been at least two dozen. He was a liberal when it came to courting the other sex. Small, big, blonde – Travis didn't discriminate. All that counted was that it was female.

"Hi Travis," I said with an air of nonchalance I didn't feel.

The female witch turned to me with a semi-blank face that failed to conceal her irritation. "I'm Jenna. We haven't met before, have we?"

"No," I said, coming to a halt before her. "Anna Johnson. Pleased to meet you," I said, extending my arm to shake hands with her. "Will you do it?"

She nodded wordlessly and closed her eyes, arms hanging limply at her sides. I knew what was coming. That didn't mean I had to like it. I shivered slightly when she read my aura. It was not like I could actually feel that she was reading me. It was much more the knowledge that someone was looking into my magic's nature that had my skin sprouting goose bumps.

"All right. You're clean. Which office?" Jenna's voice sounded flat and business-like. It made me wonder how often she had to deliver that one.

"Gustav Brown," I said.

That got Travis' attention. If his eyebrows climbed any higher, they would vanish in the depths of his hairline – for good.

"The top executives, huh?"

Was he mocking me? I raised an eyebrow, daring him to say more. Jenna, meanwhile, frowned.

"You can go now," she said.

I walked up to the portal in the middle of the room. Non-magical folk would have trouble determining the exact purpose of the thing I was marching right into. They would probably think that it was a safety screening device, like those used to annoy the populace in American airports. A lousy machine that beeped its disagreement with metal? Hah! The mirror, as we called it, was anything but that.

No matter how often I went through the mirror, it always felt the same, and I hated it. I set one foot in front of the other until I was within reach. Time slowed down like a motor stuttering and just short of dying. My foot connected with the marble floor and I hit that spot directly under the portal. Next thing I knew was I was already in the middle of free fall. My senses were flooded by a mesmerizing light. It blinded me to the point where I was seeing all sorts of spectral colors. They danced and raged in front of my eyes until they finally merged into an explosion of light.