The Third Key (The Alaesha Legacy Book 1) by Samantha Warren

completely. A fine white powder covered everything.
    "What happened?" Edith coughed as she breathed in some of the powder that had been kicked up by their shuffling feet.
    "The war has officially started at last," the chef said. "They made the first move once they knew you had the key."
    Edith frowned. "Why would they come after me? What about the other keys? The missing ones?"
    Charles kicked a cracked can of stewed tomatoes. It spun across the floor, a trail of red juice marking its progress. "A Keeper is most vulnerable on their first day. It takes three full rotations of the planet for the protections to come fully into effect. Right now, you are the weakest you will ever be. When Dana lost the key, she lost the protection so she is mostly powerless as well. They need to get to you quickly if they want to take the key without too much trouble."
    "How did they even know I have the key?"
    Charles shook his head. "I don't know. I barely had time to tell the Council. Chef only knows because it's his job as Guardian of the Door to know who the Keeper is at all times."
    "Guardian of the Door? Sounds very formal. And an odd job for a chef."
    "Ah, no. It's a genius disguise. Came up with it myself. There's always folk coming and a'going in a diner, eh? So when someone comes in and disappears for awhile, who's really going to take notice?"
    A thought occurred to Edith. "So this door leads to Alaesha?"
    The chef nodded. "Yes, lass."
    "Can you move the door where you want? So it opens anywhere in your world or ours?"
    "No, absolutely not. It's been in this location since the beginning. The area around it has changed, but the door has remained the same. I think it's probably high time we show you the door, with Charles's approval, of course."
    The adviser nodded thoughtfully. "Good idea. She needs to know where it is so she can get to it quickly when necessary. That may be sooner rather than later at the rate things are going." He stared at Edith a moment, his lips moving with unspoken words. Then he smiled and bobbed his head to the chef. “Lead on.”
    The group left the storage room through a small side door that Edith hadn't noticed on their brief run through the area. It led to a tight hallway that circled around the building on the outer wall. She nodded in appreciation. The hallway was so thin, barely big enough for the chef to squeeze through, that it would hardly be noticeable from the outside unless one decided to look very closely, and she was sure there were magic wards in place to discourage that kind of curiosity.
    As they reached what she assumed was the front of the diner, the hallway stopped suddenly at a set of stairs. They led down into the darkness and she couldn't see the bottom. She hesitated at the top. She didn't really like dark, cramped spaces. They had a habit of attracting spiders and mice. She shuddered at the thought of running into a multitude of creepy crawly things.
    "There are no mice, and the spiders won't hurt you. I promise." Charles grinned at her and nodded toward the stairs.
    With a resigned sigh, Edith focused Alex's bobbing head in front of her and started down the steps, trying desperately not to touch the walls that were pressing in on her. The darkness grew ever deeper until they were in near blackness. She could barely make out the shapes of the people in front of her and the stairs felt like they kept going for an eternity. Finally, the oppressing blackness broke into a soft, shimmering glow. The air at the bottom of the stairs was warm and comforting, like when she would sit by her grandmother's fireplace on cold winter days reading a book. It drew her into the small room and a sense of peace washed over her. Her eyes fell on the door on the opposite wall. It was simple with no adornments of any kind. Not even a door knob. The only mark anywhere on it was the keyhole, located in the exact middle of the door.
    "That's an odd place to put the keyhole," she commented as she drifted toward