Ashley was toting her picture home with her, when her phone buzzed. It was Blaze. Ashley hadn’t heard very much from him since the bonfire, but no one had, really. He said he was busy in the shop.
“Hey,” Blaze’s voice sparked through the line. “Congratulations on your painting. It’s really amazing.”
“Thanks,” Ashley replied.
She had been busy too, but she was starting to miss Blaze. She was passing by Hathaway’s Soccer Shack at the moment, and knocked on the glass of the window. Blaze, still on his phone, startled, but then seemed to compose himself and waved back. Ashley opened the front door to the shop. Blaze was still talking to her on the phone.
“Ashley, I really don’t think now is a good time to-”
Ashley was confused by Blaze’s darkening expression. She could see Blaze’s dad coming out into the main store from the office in the back. He always wanted to meet her but not at his store. It dawned on her that she actually knew very little about Blaze’s family and that he seemed to be avoiding having her meet his parents. She wasn’t sure she had ever seen his mom, just his dad.
“This must be the Ashley I’ve been hearing so much about,” Blaze’s dad said, warmly. “Please, call me Tom.”
“Um, okay, Mr. Hathaway,” Ashley blushed.
She still had a hard time calling grown ups by their first names. Tom Hathaway still smiled warmly at her. He admired her painting. He even asked how much it would take for her to sell it to him for the shop, but Ashley admitted that she promised it to her Aunt Patricia for Valley of Ashes.
“Your aunt, Patricia Freya, is so lovely,” Mr. Hathaway gushed. “I’ve known her for a long time.”
“Thank you. It’s been nice being closer to my family,” Ashley said, blushing.
Ashley could pick up Blaze’s apprehension. Visions of a thundering cloud, crackling with lightning filled her head. Something was going on with Blaze, but she couldn’t pick up on what it could be. There was tension between Blaze and his dad. Ashley was getting nervous. The air warmed around her and the metallic flakes in the painting began to glow.
“That painting is fantastic,” Tom Hathaway commented. “Your aunt has quite a few amazing paintings in Valley of Ashes. You know, she used to be good friends with Blaze’s mom.”
“Come on Ashley, I’ll walk you home,” Blaze said.
“Come back and see us sometime,” Tom called after them.
Ashley was confused. Blaze didn’t seem to want Ashley around his family at all, but his dad was perfectly nice and welcoming. Ashley could feel the choking tightness in the air. She wished she were strong enough to pick out his words instead of just feelings.
“Are you okay?” Ashley asked.
“Yeah, just really busy,” Blaze answered.
“Where was your mom?” Ashley asked, thinking back to the photo in the shop of a younger Blaze, standing with his parents.
“She died when I was nine,” Blaze answered quickly. “She had cancer.”
Ashley stopped short. It was like all the oxygen had been sucked out of her lungs. She felt awful. Blaze was probably avoiding telling her, because of all the painful memories that went with his mom’s death.
“Blaze, I-” Ashley started, but Blaze cut her off.
“Don’t say you’re sorry,” Blaze insisted. “I don’t- I don’t want anyone to feel sorry for me. I’m the one who’s sorry. She was the best person anyone had ever known, and it’s not fair-”
Blaze sucked in a breath and blew it out, looking upward and blinking back tears. Ashley tried to blink back her own tears but couldn’t, so she pulled Blaze closer for a hug. She could feel his mood shift and his breathing slow.
“I’m sorry,” Blaze said, still holding on to Ashley, not letting go.
“Why?” she asked, honestly not aware that he had anything to be sorry for.
“I don’t know,” he stammered. “I just- I just am.”
Patricia Freya stared into the flame of the candle on her large, walnut bar top at Valley of Ashes. In the fire, she could see Ashley’s embrace with Blaze, Tom and Jamie Hathaway’s son. Patricia sighed as she thought back to the time Jamie was first diagnosed with cancer. Tom had begged her to save Jamie, to heal her, but Patricia couldn’t. She wanted to help her. No one wanted to watch their best friend die. Patricia would have given anything to heal her, but magic just doesn’t work that way.
Ashley had made plans to go with Dom to the museum. Isaac said that there was no way he would ever set foot on the property again, much less inside the museum, but Brooklynn was dying to go. Dylan was getting ready for baseball tryouts, so things had been pretty boring around her place. She was ready for some adventure.
Strangely enough, Baron Watson kept asking Domino if he could tag along, too. Ever since he saw real evidence of the Fire Ghost, he was constantly begging Dom to take him along. Baron would have gone himself, but he couldn’t get into the museum.
“I tried to ask Kylie, but she told me no. I mean, your dad owns the place. What good is that, if you can’t just go to the museum anytime you want?” Baron ranted. “I said, “Come on Kylie.”
He was sincerely dumbfounded that he couldn’t get what he wanted. Dom said he just shook his head. Still, Baron wouldn’t give up, so Dom made him a deal. Come alone, leave Greasy Greg at home, and don’t tell anyone.
Brooklynn and Ashley made a deal with Baron, too. They told Baron to stop being a jerk and to quit saying stupid stuff to Dom.
“I’m just joking,” Baron said, rolling his eyes and brushing it off.
“Well, we’re not joking, you butt-faced clown,” Ashley said, narrowing her eyes at Baron.
“Yeah, we’re soccer players, and we’re really good at kicking. I could kick your teeth to the back of your skull,” Brooklynn said, raising her eyebrows. “So you’d better watch your mouth.”
“Okay, ladies!” Baron raised his hands. “I’m defenseless against such angelic sirens. Can we go now?”
The four of them waited until it was dark, and crept along the back of the museum to the side entrance. Ashley let them in, unlocking the door by waving a hand over the knob. They crept up to the second floor and waited in the great hall for the footsteps they had heard before.
The hall was dark, except for a small slice of moonlight filtering in the windows, through the trees. Ashley relaxed and focused her energy. She could sense the dark energy coming from the closed door at the far end of the great hall. It was where they saw the shadow figure two weeks ago.
Slowly, one by one, loud, unmistakable footsteps crossed the floor of the upstairs hall. The footsteps sounded as though they were clad in heavy boots, crossing the hall, pacing, like they were looking for something. If the shadow figure was the dark energy of Prospero Phillips, Ashley wondered if he could sense her, the way she could feel him, growing closer.
Suddenly, the door to the far room flew open. The shadow figure emerged, dark and menacing. The shadow seemed to be made of dark smoke, swirling into two yellow eyes that glowed, empty and bottomless.
Baron was frozen, motionless with terror, but Brooklynn and Dom both stepped forward to get a closer look. Dom grabbed Ashley’s hand. The shadow phantom sneered, and let out a low, snarling growl.
They’re my friends. The words flashed through Ashley’s mind, written in fire. They’re mine and I will protect them.
Ashley gripped Dom’s arm. He wouldn’t let her step in front of him, but she raised her right hand and squeezed her eyes shut, as if to force the light out of her body. She propelled the fire magic, hot, streaming white light, out of her hand and through the heart of the shadow phantom.
The swirling body dissipated into vapor, upward and out, clearing the dark room. The door swung back, slamming shut. Ashley didn’t realize that she was gripping Dom’s arm like a vice. Her knees were w
eak and she was grateful he was there to hold her up.
“That was amazing,” Dom whispered.
“Let’s go. We don’t have much time, “ Ashley said, rushing to the door.
She waved a hand over the lock and shoved the door back open. What she saw made her gasp, and fall back, relying on Dom to hold her up. Pictures of her family, taken from afar, covered the walls. There were notes, maps, and pins all over the pictures, linking them into some sort of family tree.
“We’re being hunted,” Eva’s voice whispered through her mind, like smoke from a candle being snuffed out.
“What’s this?” Dom asked.
He was holding a thick, worn journal with a symbol branded into the tan leather on the front. It looked like a circle with a line slashed through it.
“I don’t know. Open it,” Ashley said.
“It’s locked,” Dom said, shaking his head.
“No, it’s not, Ashley laughed.
She melted the lock off the journal and flipped through the pages. It was more research on her family tree. The Phillips family had been tracking Eva Glass’s descendants for hundreds of years. There were many of them, scattered all across the country, and there were many people sending information about her family’s whereabouts.
“It’s like a society, almost,” Dom said, in disbelief.
Price Phillips also had plans to demolish the storefronts, once the inspectors found all the code violations. He was planning to build new apartments where the historic buildings stood. Ashley’s head swam. She had to tell her parents and her aunt that not only was Price Phillips watching them and tracing their family’s ancestry, he had plans to tear down their homes and stores, and run them out of the city.
Price had even tracked the donation that matched the funds raised by the campout. The donation was made by Camille Jasper, her other aunt, who had the power to create gold whenever she wanted. She probably conjured up the gold for the donation and Price now knew that he would have to find another way to have the storefronts demolished to drive them out. Still, Ashley wondered, how did he know that Aunt Camille was the one who made the donation?
“A society,” Ashley whispered.
Then, she remembered where she had last seen the symbol on Price Phillip’s journal. Someone she knew had that same symbol, forged in steel, hanging around his neck.
Chapter 22
Are You Sure?
Ashley traced the symbol she saw on the journal and on Blaze’s necklace in a tray of black sand with her index finger.
“Are you sure?” Patricia asked.
Ashley nodded.
“I knew it,” Patricia hissed.
She stood up and grabbed a canister of salt and poured a thick layer around the perimeter of the store. She gave the canister to Ashley and instructed her to do the same at Witch Hazel Naturals and En Fuego.
“Why?” Ashley asked.
“Salt protects us,” Patricia answered. “Why do you think you’ve loved pickles since you were little?”
Ashley smiled. They were her favorite food. She loved them so much, she named her new puppy after them. Pickle was yipping and bouncing around Ashley’s feet. The sweet moment passed, and Ashley furrowed her brow.
“So, what does the symbol mean?” Ashley asked.
“It’s the alchemist’s symbol for salt,” Patricia answered. “One of the first secrets they ever gathered. We need a good amount of salt to survive. Salt also binds us to our spells.”
“What’s an alchemist? Like the people who try to turn rocks into gold?”
“We actually do turn rocks into gold,” Patricia said. “Well, the ones who have stone magic can turn rocks into anything, but gold, yes. The Alchemists were a secret society who hunted and enslaved our kind. They tried to make us conjure gold, heal soldiers for their armies, burn the crops of their enemies, or flood entire cities. Somehow, our ancestors were able to escape and the Alchemists died out, or so we thought.”
Ashley shivered despite the warmth of the roaring fireplace in Valley of Ashes. Her hands grew cold. She hadn’t realized there was a society dedicated to hunting witches. She doubted that her mom knew either.
“No, Megan has no idea,” Patricia answered.
“How can you hear words all the time? I usually only get feelings or pictures,” Ashley asked.
She thought back to Blaze. Was he an Alchemist? He said the necklace was from his grandfather. How far did the line of witch hunters go back? Was he aligned with Price Phillips, or worse, Kylie?
“You’ll be able to, in time, but the boy clouds you,” Patricia answered. “For now, stay away from Blaze.”
“Are you sure?” Ashley asked, pained.
She was so confused. Was he just getting close to her because of her powers? Did he even know? Of course he knows, he’s not an idiot. The thoughts flashed through Ashley’s head, hot and angry.
“I’m sure. I’m also sure that there’s another guy across the street, who would walk through fire for you, and that you’re being pretty stupid.”
Pretty stupid.
The words echoed. Ashley could pick up more words.
“I’m going home,” she scoffed. “Good thing it’s up to code now.”
The next morning, Ashley shuffled downstairs in her slippers. She was so exhausted when she got home that she had crashed immediately into a dark and thankfully, dreamless sleep. She woke up to a few small pebbles on her window pane.
When she opened the window, Dom was standing on the sidewalk with a box full of what Ashley hoped to be pan dulce from En Fuego. He waved and motioned to the front door. Ashley text her mom, who was in the front office, to please let Dom in.
“He brings breakfast?” she texted back.
Ashley sat up in bed.
“Are you decent?” Dom shouted up the stairs, always the gentleman.
“Yes,” Ashley shouted back.
She pulled the hood of her hoodie back, leaving half of her hair sticking straight up. She tried to brush it down, but it was useless. Dom appeared in her door in frayed jeans and a cream hoodie. His hair was perfectly gelled, as always.
He’s so good looking and he has a box full of Mexican donuts. I am such a scrub. I can’t handle this, Ashley thought to herself.
“Good morning princesa,” Dom set the box down and kissed the top of Ashley’s head.
“You are the most perfect guy on planet Earth,” Ashley croaked.
It was like she had woken up in more ways than one. Blaze still flashed into her thoughts.
“Nah, but I do my best,” Dom said, lying back on Ashley’s rumpled comforter.
He put his palms over his eyes and wiped his hands back, trying to wipe away the stress that was there. Ashley could sense that there was something wrong. Then, it hit her that she had forgotten to put the ring of salt around their storefronts.
“Some of the repairs on the code violations are broken,” Dom said, sitting up. “The GFI outlets that we put in are gone, and some of the wiring has been stripped. The inspectors are coming Monday and I don’t know if it can be fixed in time.”
“That’s only two days away,” Ashley said.
“I know,” Dom replied. “Should we go downstairs?”
Ashley sat up in bed and rushed downstairs. Dom was right, the new GFI outlets in her kitchen were missing, and some of the wiring had been stripped out. Her heart sank. It was Saturday, and she knew they couldn’t fix them in time.
“Something’s going on,” Dom shook his head, “but I don’t know what. I can’t put my finger on it.”
“I know,” Ashley mused, “but I have an idea. Come over after you get done working tonight. We’ll stay up and figure it out.”
“Okay,” Dom agreed. “We’ll figure it out.”
Ashley sm
iled and opened the box of pastries. She grabbed her favorite one, the sweet roll that looked like a seashell, covered in powdered sugar.
“You can have that one,” Dom rolled his eyes and smiled.
“Are you sure?” Ashley opened her eyes as wide as she could and blinked her lashes at Dom.
“Yes,” Dom said, but nudged Ashley with his shoulder and took a big bite out of her pastry.
Ashley leaned into Dom’s shoulder. They had to figure out what was going on with the broken repairs. They couldn’t lose their homes, but Ashley knew that they would drink a few Cokes to stay up late, and figure it out, together.
Chapter 23
The Ones They Care About
That night, Ashley waited up until midnight. Dom text after the restaurant closed. She lit a candle in her room so she could see him walk over, and waved open the lock when he got close to the front door. He jogged up the stairs, two at a time. Ashley was impressed by the silence of his footsteps.
“I can’t believe you snuck out,” Ashley squealed.
Dom hadn’t wanted to skip one single hour of school, even though their history teacher didn’t record absences in order to keep the school’s attendance up, for reporting purposes. Dom shook his head.
“I told my parents that we were going to investigate the code violations,” he said. “They know where I am. They sent tacos. Uncle Ernesto made carnitas.”
Of course he had told his parents where he was going, Ashley thought with an eye roll. Dom was perfect. Just because it seemed shady, that didn’t mean that sneaking over to Ashley’s house in the middle of the night wasn’t the right thing to do. Ashley’s dad had fixed the code violations. If whoever was causing the violations wanted her wiring to be re-stripped, they would have to break in and damage Witch Hazel Naturals tonight, since the city inspector would be at the storefronts on Monday.
Ashley stared into the flame. She had been working on her sight. From the flame in the candle, she could see all of Brady Street. She caught her breath. There was a tall, broad shouldered man walking quickly toward Valley of Ashes.
The Fire Ghost (Phantom Elements Book 2) Page 9