Chapter 20

He turned to me, his expression too mixed to read. When his gaze traveled briefly to my lips, a blush reddened his face, and he stared at his hands like they were the coolest things he'd ever seen.

"One, Two, and Three will together have enough power to free Gretchen from inside the earth. This will unleash terrible chaos on its surface."

I decided to ignore the fact he'd not answered my question. For now. "Who's Gretchen?"

"A dark Sorceress," he said and scraped at the dirt with the heel of his shoe. "One of the darkest who ever lived."

"Why is she inside the Earth? Like dead and buried?" I asked.

A drawing of a tree trunk and branches emerged under Tram's heel. His voice sharpened as he continued sketching in the dirt. "More like dead and imprisoned. She's inside the Core, along with every other magical being ever convicted of a crime. If One, Two, and Three free her, every other prisoner will be freed, too."

I swallowed. "That sounds...serious."