Page 6 of The Centaur
Unfortunately, my captor may have been weaker, but he'd been more devious than either of us expected, and he'd made sure we failed.
Shaking my head, I pushed away the old memories and regrets, focusing on the door in front of me. Using the chalk I carried, I wrote down the anchoring spell I'd memorized long ago, leaving two open nodes instead of one for channeling magic.
Once the design was complete, I pointed out the correct spot to Nolan as I placed my palm on the opposite side, and together we pushed our magic into the spell.
Nolan's magic was hot, blazing like a wildfire as it clashed against mine, while mine was sharper, like a blade of lightning. I softened my approach, trying to tangle my magic with his so they could work together.
"You're very powerful," Nolan said, his eyes focused on the spell, his brows furrowed in concentration.
I didn't reply, because he wasn't wrong. I was strong, maybe the strongest sorcerer alive. I'd worked hard to be strong so no one would ever be able to take advantage of me again.
The spell was completed after a few more minutes, and our magicks finally settled down and started to work together. I dropped my palm, flexing my fingers as I studied the design one last time before pressing the tip of my index finger into the center. The design glowed blue, then red, and sank into the door as it faded away.
We stood there in silence for a minute before Nolan shuffled, drawing my gaze to him.
"I have a suggestion," he said, voice hesitant, and I stopped the instinctive annoyance that rose up in me.
Hear him out, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Keoni's said in my mind, and I sighed, then gestured for him to continue.
"Have you thought about adding a back door? An emergency exit, so to speak?"
An emergency exit? I'd never thought of that, mostly because until a year ago, the Sanctuary had functioned perfectly.
Once, the main exit to the Sanctuary could lead to a few places with the twist of a dial, but I'd disabled that function when things started going wrong because maintaining multiple exits used up power I could've focused elsewhere.
There had never been a second door that led outside though, but I could see the benefit of that, especially after the night this exit had locked up on its own.
"A second exit could be helpful, but I'll have to find a good place to anchor it."
Nolan brightened, appearing much younger than his 2,000-plus years, and I had to bite back a smile. Maybe letting him in wouldn't be as impossible as I'd thought.
"You could anchor it to The Lair, if you're okay with that. There's a spare room at the back that is never used. It's practically a broom closet, so you could anchor to the door there."
My spell would make sure that only the residents of the Sanctuary would be able to reach here via the door, so there was no risk of a random bar patron walking in, but...
"What about the main doors? Don't you keep the bar locked up when it's not open?"
Nolan pursed his lips, as if the thought hadn't occurred to him.
"Yeah, but if this is an emergency exit, we'd all leave so I can unlock it. Plus, in The Lair, they'd be safe even if they didn't haveenough time to grab their wheelchairs or whatever they needed to hide their supe side."
I thought about it for a moment and realized he was right. Escaping into The Lair would keep them from getting exposed, and I was sure Nolan already had some magic covering the place to make it safe.
"Okay, then. The broom closet it is. Though remember, as a resident, if you try to go into the closet, you'll end up here."
"I don't use that closet anyway, so it should be fine," Nolan said with a smile.
We spent the next hour setting up a second exit at the other end of the hall. I opened it beside the Dining Room since that was usually where people gathered when something went wrong.
With Nolan's help, the whole process was not only faster, but less draining as well. I'd always done everything on my own, sure it was the only way I could do it well. But this was proof that I was wrong.
Sometimes, it was okay to accept help, no matter what my early experience had taught me.
After all, most of the people in the Sanctuary were here because they'd accepted my help. They'd said yes when I'd offered them a home, and they'd become my family.
Maybe asking for help wasn't as hard as I'd made it out to be.
Keoni
