The Hanes Enigma

Chapter Six - Inverted Gebo

Park Jimin

Kai lets out a frustrated sigh as we reach yet another dead end.

"It can't be this easy for them! They can't just get away with knowingly keeping an innocent person in prison!" Etney glares at the table we sit around.

Namjoon paces next to the table and I just focus on keeping the tears back. "It's my dad, isn't it?"

The room quietens astronomically and everyone avoids eye contact with me.

"Well, it's obvious what I need to do." I sigh and curl my knees into my chest, undeniably nervous.

"Jimin..." Kai frowns disapprovingly. I know he's thinking the same, even if he doesn't want to admit it.

"It would save Yoongi, though. I know him and he was lying when he said he was okay. We know the prison is corrupt, I'm pretty damn sure it's not just for sending letters. The longer we wait, the more likely that Yoongi will never get out." I glare determinedly.

"But still, Yoongi wouldn't want-"

"Yoongi isn't here." I look away guiltily. They all tell me not to blame myself but I can't help it.

"I'm confused... What does Jimin think he has to do?" Etney frowns.

"Go back to my house, pretend to give in to my father's will and find some proof him working for the Clanless." I meet her eyes as they widen drastically.

"No. Hell, no!" She glares at me. "You only just got out a few months ago! Yoongi would kill us if we let you go back to him and you know it."

"But how else are we ever going to save him? My father doesn't slip up. Maybe once every decade..? We don't have that long." I grit my teeth and Etney purses her lips, trying to find something to support her argument. But even she knows I'm right. "It's the only way, isn't it?"

Grim silence creeps over the tension-filled air and Namjoon finally stills from his pacing. "I need to go..."

***

Kim Seokjin

I call out to Namjoon as he races down the stairs of Glanis House, but he doesn't hear me. I frown and bound after him worriedly. The heavy wooden door slams in my face and I huff as I turn around and lean against it. He's been avoiding me for weeks. He's been avoiding everyone. And he keeps sneaking off...

My eyes linger on a tattered, leather-bound book. That wasn't there before. I crouch next to it and furrow my brow, confused at the negative energy I feel pulsating from it. I know this magick. This is dark magick. It's the same feeling I got any time I walked past my father's office. He put a curse on the door so as to keep me and my brother out. If we attempted to open it, bugs would crawl from underneath the door and scuttle up our legs and arms, trying to get into our mouths and ears as they bite and sting every inch of skin they can get at on the way. I can safely say, we never attempted it again.

Gulping nervously, I reach down for the book and pick it up. It shouldn't do anything to me until I try opening it. Knowing that whomever this belongs to wanted nothing less than someone else taking this book, I slip it into my bag for further inspection later. I thought I was the only witch at Pharaway who had ever practised dark magick...

***

"Remind me why we're here..." Jimin huffs at Laila who is clinging to his arm, perched next to him on the foot of my bed.

"I'm here to support my boyfriend, and you're here so I can make sure you don't run off trying to be a hero and do something utterly stupid." She raises her eyebrows pointedly and he grunts in response. "Brynn is here because Jin might need help and she's the most powerful witch we know, even if she has yet to learn how to hone in that power a-"