“Ahh!” she shouted, and jerked her hand back.
The only thing remotely hot was the metal symbol, but she didn’t have time to think about that. She had to get back to Dom.
Dom was struggling to get up as Ashley dashed back through the flames.
“Come on! Through here!” she screamed.
The fire was roaring now. Dom got up and limped along, wheezing. He was struggling to breathe. He was growing heavy, and Ashley’s strength was draining. They struggled through the room to the window.
Boom!
Just then, an explosion rocked the building. A giant ball of fire came rushing through the room. Ashley put herself between Dom and the fire. The flames tore through her back, but she kept pushing Dom on, out through the window.
Ashley and Dom struggled together, through the grassy field beside the store. Ashley crawled through the grass, pulling Dom as he struggled to breathe.
“Dom?” Ashley asked, sobbing.
He was still struggling to take in a breath. Ashley leaned over and sucked the smoke out of his lungs, breathing in the ashes, and exhaling them into the night sky. Then, she slid her charred skin and hair off, and like a phoenix rising from the ashes, she stood up, with new skin and glossy hair.
Dom collapsed. He was breathing, but exhausted.
“I’m borrowing this,” Ashley whispered.
Her clothes had burned up in the fire, so she took his singed, blood soaked hoodie and put it on. Creeping toward Blaze, she moved her hands over his chest.
“What?” she shrieked, and recoiled, when her left hand burned in agony.
There, in her left hand, was the salt symbol, still scared into her palm. It was a perfect circle, with a slash through the middle.
Ashley continued with her right hand, healing the burns. Blaze woke up, blinking his eyelashes open.
“How did you do that?” he asked, his voice cracking.
“We can’t always save the ones we care about, but we can try,” Ashley said, smiling through her tears.
Blaze nodded. She knew he had to leave.
“Here,” she gave him back his cell phone. “Your dad is on his way. You guys have to leave. He doesn’t know where, but you just have to go.”
Blaze smiled and nodded through his own tears.
“Will you be able to see me? In the fire?” he asked.
“I don’t know, but I’ll always have a part of you with me,” Ashley answered.
She held up her palm, with the Alchemist symbol scarred into it.
“I thought you couldn’t be burned,” Blaze said.
“Not by fire, but that’s not fire,” Ashley answered. “It’s... It’s something else.”
Blaze shook his head.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry for everything. I should have told you,” he cried. “If I never see you again, and these are our last words, just know that.”
Ashley nodded. Blaze leaned over to kiss her. Dom rolled over, just in time to see Ashley touch Blaze’s face, and shake her head, no.
Dom rolled his head back and opened his eyes to the stars, giant swirling masses of fire, millions of miles away. He knew Ashley was walking toward him and away from Blaze, but she still felt like the stars, beautiful, but millions of miles away.
Chapter 26
Speak English
Dom’s lungs cleared as soon as Ashley inhaled the smoke from his chest. Ashley realized that Price would go to the museum to pack up his research and probably some money he had stashed around.
“I’m going with you,” Dom insisted.
“But, I just pulled you out of the fire,” Ashley pleaded.
“I don’t care. I’m going,” Dom said, taking her hand.
They ran through the park, behind buildings and through the square, downtown, until they were finally at the museum. Dim lights floated around the room where Ashley had seen the shadow phantom.
“He’s going to take everything, and then you won’t know what they know,” Dom whispered.
Ashley nodded and waved the lock open, but it wasn’t working. Price had probably thought of that. Dom steeled himself and kicked the door in.
“Well, that works, too,” Ashley said.
They began to enter the museum basement, when someone grabbed Dom’s shoulder. He spun around with his fists raised.
“Whoa!” Baron recoiled, holding his hands up.
“Baron? Get out of here,” Dom spat.
“Come on. I heard sirens, I want to come with you.”
Dom protested, but Ashley agreed.
“We’ll throw him in front of us if we see the shadow phantom,” Ashley suggested.
Dom nodded, reluctantly, and all three of them headed upstairs.
When they entered the grand hall, the temperature rose. The floor seemed to radiate heat. Footsteps echoed in the hall.
“Are you guys smoking? Because that’s against the rules. You could-”
“Shut up, Baron!” Ashley screeched, but she did smell smoke.
A scent, like a campfire, floated toward them. The air crackled with static electricity. It was getting harder to breathe. Ashley knew they were getting close.
Then, out of the shadows, a crouching, menacing figure appeared in the darkness. The shadow seemed to crawl toward them, taking on human form, and then disintegrating into crawling smoke.
“It’s messing with us,” Ashley warned. “Stay close to me.”
The shadow reanimated, appearing as a man in a leather hat, standing behind them. When they turned, the phantom disappeared into the smoke. It seemed to be charged by Ashley’s energy. They turned as it formed again, but then broke apart into wisps of black vapor.
As they moved forward, a square, covered by a large cloth, caught Ashley’s eye. Price saved the painting of Eva for last, she remembered. He didn’t sell it, he was going to burn it.
Ashley ran to the frame and yanked off the drop cloth. An intense, blinding light erupted from the canvas, as Eva came into view.
Across the hall, the shadow phantom materialized fully, into an apparition of Prospero Phillips.
Ashley tried to steady her breathing. Dom took a deep breath. Baron yelped.
“I just peed a little,” Baron squeaked.
“Shut up,” Ashley hissed, staring down the ghost of Prospero Phillips.
Ashley felt heat radiate across her back. They turned, as a terrible ripping sound escaped the canvas. Eva had torn a sharp line through the canvas, as her own beautiful apparition erupted into the hall, in a flash of white light.
“Don’t be scared,” she said, turning to Dom.
“There’s only one thing that scares me, and this isn’t it,” Dom nodded.
Eva raised her hand and pulsed white light at Prospero’s apparition. The ghost collapsed, but reformed. More footsteps entered the hall.
“Well, if it isn’t a family reunion!” Price Phillips boasted as he stepped into the hall. “You girls sure are hard to burn.”
Price had a large bag over his shoulder, ready to leave town. Prospero’s ghost stood growling next to him.
“You girls are nice to look at, but you’re not too smart are you?” Price laughed. “You created this thing with your own magic.”
“And we’ll defeat it with our own magic, too,” Ashley answered.
Baron had given her the idea. The old words were in their bones, the words from the old country, from the time of the Druids.
“You know the spell,” Eva whispered, her voice floating only to Ashley.
Ashley knew the spell. It was a mystical word, full of fire magic, older than the country, itself. When she first met Baron, he told her, in this country, we speak English.
“Fyregebrac...”
The Old English
word escaped Ashley’s lips and Prospero’s apparition dissolved back into a shadow. The phantom darted wildly around the room, as if it were looking for a place to hide.
Ashley raised her left hand, the one with the salt symbol burned into her palm.
“Take the salt and put it around us,” Ashley told Dom, sensing the salt packets from En Fuego in his pocket.
Dom tore open the packets and wildly formed a circle of salt around them.
“Fyregebrac!”
Ashley screamed the spell into the dark hall. The hall erupted into white light. Ashley felt light headed. She swayed slightly on her feet. Spots clouded her vision. She reached for Dom, fainting into his arms, and then everything went dark.
Chapter 27
Banished
“What happened?” Ashley asked.
She woke up in Patricia’s shop, blinking into the sunrise. She was surrounded by her parents, Aunt Patricia, Dom, Ignacia and Miguel Chavez, and Dom’s Uncle Ernesto.
“You fainted, sweetheart,” Megan Nirran said, stroking her daughter’s hair.
Dom said that after she expelled Prospero’s shadow figure, Eva disappeared, leaving only a puff of white smoke behind, and Price Phillips had been repelled back, and locked into the office where they had found the journal and Ashley’s family tree. The surveillance on Eva’s descendants had been removed, but Price was locked in the office with all the money he had stolen.
Baron called his dad, Bart Watson, and told him everything, leaving out the ghosts, and the part where he wet his pants. Bart Watson was furious at Price. He had trusted Price to help start the school and build up the community. Kylie left town with her stepmother and Price was currently sitting in jail. He had been arrested when the police showed up at the museum. An independent electrician examined all the wiring, and found the storefronts to be perfectly safe.
Thanks to Ashley’s video, Price’s confession was all over social media, including video footage of him starting the fire with Blaze and Domino in the abandoned storefront. Both Dom and Ashley’s parents, along with Patricia and Ernesto had been trapped in their apartments. Kylie had boarded up their doors, using special lithium coated, titanium nails. Patricia took it as further proof that the Alchemists were alive and well.
In an emergency session, the city council voted that Price Phillips’ new building code enforcements were determined to be unlawful, even though all the storefronts had already been brought up to the ridiculous code.
Thankfully, the fire hadn’t spread to any other apartments, and no one was seriously injured. When Patrick and Megan Nirran and Miguel and Ignacia Chavez left to give the police their statements, Ashley asked Patricia about what happened in the museum.
“The spell just came to me,” Ashley confessed. “I don’t know how I did it.”
Patricia examined Ashley’s hand with the burned symbol on her palm. A worried look crossed her face as she shook her head.
“I touch hot metal all the time. This shouldn’t happen,” she said, a frown forming on her lips.
“Do you think it helped her destroy the shadow phantom?” Dom asked.
“Possibly,” Patricia admitted. “When I used the decennium spell to go back in time to save Eva, I accidentally helped created Prospero’s shadow phantom, setting everything in motion. The burn may have charged her powers. The spell she used is very old. I’ve never used it. It’s used to banish spirits back to their realm.”
“Oh no,” Ashley uttered, tears forming in her eyes.
“What? You were starting to get attached to a crazy shadow phantom?” Dom asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Eva,” Ashley murmured. “I banished her, too. You said she disappeared, right?”
Ashley’s eyes darted to the empty canvas, next to the wild peacock feathers and dreamcatchers.
“Yes, but-”
“Then, she’s gone,” Ashley sobbed.
“I don’t know,” Patricia shook her head.
They all turned to look at the blank canvas, centered on the wall in Valley of Ashes. The flat frame showed no signs of Eva.
“I hope she’s not gone,” Ashley whispered, her lip trembling.
“I don’t know if she’s gone or not,” Patricia admitted, “but if she is, she kept her promise. She protected the ones she loved.”
Chapter 28
No One Is Ever Really Gone
That night, Ashley fell into a fitful sleep. She dreamed of Blaze, his hair curling around his ears. She saw him riding in an old pickup truck. The window was rolled down on the passenger’s side. He leaned over, looking out the window. The Alchemist symbol dangled around his neck.
No one is ever really gone.
The words floated by, written in fire, in her dream.
Ashley shot up, awake in the dark.
Next to her, on her nightstand, a candle was lit. The flame cut the darkness. Ashley didn’t light it, but she blew it out anyhow. Her palm ached where her scar cut into her skin.
If I can send her away, Ashley thought, then surely I can bring her back.
She got up, padding to the frame. The wooden frame buzzed with warmth. Ashley placed her palm on the canvas.
Come back, she begged Eva. She pressed her palm into the canvas. It glowed with white flames. The whole canvas caught fire. Ashley stepped back and gasped.
The flames died down, and the frame and canvas turned to ash. Down the street at Valley of Ashes, Patricia Freya gasped as Eva’s frame turned to ash. Across the square, at the Phillips Museum, the last frame erupted into flames.
“No!” Ashley cried.
Out of the corner of her eye, a white wisp of smoke moved across the room. Ashley’s eyes darted to follow it. It moved across the room. Finally, the smoke materialized into a human form.
“Eva?” Ashley asked. “I thought I banished you.”
“No,” Eva’s voice floated to her. “You only banished Prospero’s phantom. You set me free.”
“You had to live in the paintings until it was banished?”
Eva nodded, yes.
“I knew you weren’t really gone,” Ashley smiled.
“No one ever really is,” Eva smiled, and then turned to float down the attic stairs, and out into the dark night.
Chapter 29
Winter Ball, Remixed
The next week, the Watson Academy’s student council met in the commons. Baron asked Dom to take Kylie’s place as vice president. He declined, but nominated Brooklynn in his place. She had just broken up with Dylan, and was feeling down. Ashley smiled when he mentioned it. They both knew how much Brooklynn liked to be in charge.
Blaze was missed at school. The place just wasn’t as much fun without him, everyone said. Ashley missed him, too, but smiled every time she ran her finger over the scar on her palm. It was the scar that Blaze left on her, that allowed her to banish the shadow phantom and set Eva free.
Ashley was walking through the commons, when Dom strolled up beside her.
“Brooklynn has news,” he said.
“I know. We’re supposed to go get flu shots together,” Ashley replied.
“I think it’s something else,” Dom said, with a sideways glance.
“Guys,” Brooklynn announced her presence, skipping up to them, with her blonde ponytail swaying.
“Brooklynn,” Ashley returned with a laugh.
“Okay, very cute, but guess what?” she asked, not giving them any time to respond. “Since the Winter Ball was always held at the Phillips Museum, I convinced Baron to change the location and have it in the empty storefront that my grandma is buying. We can have our Winter Ball on Brady Street! We’re going to call Winter Ball, the Remix. It’s going to be so awesome.”
Brooklynn was overjoyed. Since Tom Hathaway left with Blaze after Price Phillips went t
o jail, Brooklynn’s family took over the Soccer Shack. Brooklynn and Isaac actually did patent the Mega Meat Scan months ago. They made enough money to update and expand the deli and buy the Soccer Shack.
“And guess what else?” Brooklynn prodded, rolling her eyes. “Baron asked me to go with him!”
“No way!” Ashley laughed. “What did you say?”
“Are you on drugs?” Brooklynn screeched. “I told him no. I’m going with Isaac.”
“I’d rather go with a cactus, than with Baron,” Ashley giggled.
Brooklynn left to stop by the F.C. Tulsa field, since her dad was getting ready to open the merchandise shop. Ashley and Dom walked outside, passing the Phillips Museum on their way home.
“Yes,” Ashley answered with a smile, reading Dom’s thoughts.
“Dang it, Ashley,” Dom rolled his eyes.
She had read his thoughts. He was going to ask her to go to the Winter Ball with him. Of course she was going to say yes.
The night of the Winter Ball, everyone at Watson Academy walked over to the storefront that Brooklynn’s grandma had bought. In a month, it would become Marcie’s Menagerie, an antique shop, but for now, it was a dance floor, pulsing with music and flashing with lights.
Keegan and Ruby were doing the robot. Keegan had asked Ruby to the dance with an extremely rare, cherry blossom Kit Kat bar. You could hear her excited screams from three classrooms over.
Brooklynn and Isaac were avoiding Baron. He was still unsure of why Brooklynn wouldn’t go with him. Baron just couldn’t grasp the concept of not getting what he wanted. Tessa and Greg were standing along the wall. Greg was nervously fidgeting without Baron, and Tessa was lost without Kylie.
Ashley was running late. She grabbed at her shoe, trying to slip it on her foot, as she ran down the stairs. Her shoe accidentally slipped off. Dom was waiting at the bottom of the stairs, and scooped up her shoe as she dropped it.
“You lost this, princesa,” he smiled.
Blaze may have been the one always giving out nicknames, but Ashley liked this one better.
“Thanks,” Ashley giggled as he slipped it on her foot.
Dom scooped her up and carried her out the door and across Brady Street. Most of the boys tried to be funny, with crazy suits, or they just looked out of place in bad jackets, but Dom’s suit was perfectly tailored.
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