A Curse of Flames

by Sophia Shade

  “Thanks,” he says.

  After a few moments of silence, he slides his hand over and places it on mine. I’m not sure what to do. I have no idea where we stand, or where I stand with Caleb. But I’m beginning to understand what people have been saying about Erick and me. There is definitely…something between us. I’ve never felt anything like I did when he kissed me. Not even with Caleb.

  I don’t shrug Erick’s hand away, but I don’t hold his back. Checking my mirror, I notice a black sedan behind us. It’s been there for a few miles. But it’s the middle of the day, and Briar Hills looks like a nice place. They must just be going the same way. I slow down so the driver will pass me.

  “So,” I say in a joking manner, mainly to distract me from Erick’s hand on mine. “Caleb didn’t take the opportunity to have you beaten or locked up I had you chained pretty good.”

  The car behind me has only slowed down instead of passing, so I speed up.

  “Yeah,” he says sheepishly, pulling his hand away. “Sorry about the fight. And your arm.” He winces. “How do you feel?”

  “Oh,” I say, shaking my right arm where I hit the edge of the bridge earlier. I’d almost forgotten about that. The whole fight seems so petty and insignificant now. “It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.”

  “You know I didn’t mean to—”

  “Gods, yes, of course, Erick,” I say, stealing a glance at him. “I know you’d never hurt me on purpose.”

  “Do you?” he asks, his eyebrows pulling together. “Because earlier, you thought I was a murderer…”

  I shake my head. “I never really believed that. I just…I didn’t want to be wrong. I had to play it safe…”

  The black car is still following us. What’s his problem? I look at my notes, seeing there are two routes we can take to Briar Hills. I’d written them both down in case there was traffic. I see the turn coming up, but I don’t slow down or signal. I wait until the last possible moment and then suddenly turn, just making the exit. The car swerves, and Erick is tossed to the left.

  “Shit! Imogen,” he yelps. “What the hell? Are you okay?”

  I look in the rearview mirror. The car that was behind us couldn’t follow. They couldn’t take the turn in time.

  I breathe a sigh of relief. “I’m fine,” I say. “I just almost missed our…”

  The car is speeding up behind us. They must have turned around and came back.

  “Shit,” I whisper, my eye glued to the rearview mirror.

  Erick twists to see behind us. “What is it?”

  I swallow around the lump forming in my throat.

  “We’re…being followed.”

  Chapter 20

  Erick looks back at the car behind us. “What do you mean we’re being followed?”

  “I mean someone has been tailing us for a few miles now.”

  I review my notes and try to figure out where to go, but the alternate route we are now on is more rural, fewer houses, no other cars. If I take us down another road, we could get lost since I don’t have a map or my phone with a GPS.

  Damn it.

  “I took that sudden exit to try to shake them,” I say, daring another nervous glance in the rearview mirror. Yep, still there. “But they’ve caught up with us.”

  “They?” Erick asks. “They who?”

  “I don’t know,” I shriek. “I know as much as you at this point.”

  “But you’re certain they’re up to no good?” he asks, arching his eyebrow.

  “Why do you always question me?” I ask, grinding my teeth together. “Don’t you trust me?”

  “I do when you trust yourself,” he says easily, rolling down the window. “I just thought maybe you recognized the car or something.”

  “What are you doing?” I yell over the wind.

  “Just keep driving,” he says as he leans out. He lobs a fireball at the car behind us. It falls short, landing in the road. The other car swerves and barely misses it.

  “Stop that,” I yell, grabbing the back of his shirt and trying to pull him back in. “We don’t want to cause an accident and kill them!”

  “Do you have any better ideas?” he asks when he plops back into his seat.

  “Well, for starters, don’t use magic when we don’t even know who they are!”

  “We know they’re following us,” he says. “That’s enough for me.”

  My eyes dart frantically from the road, to my notes, to the car behind us. I flash back to the day this all began. My mom’s white knuckles gripping her steering wheel. A fire on the highway. Fear of the unknown, of the future. People trying to kidnap me away from Mom.

  I feel like I’m back at the beginning, only now Mom is the one who has been kidnapped. I think I finally understand what she felt all those years—the fear that sat in her gut and forced her to move us, over and over again, in a futile attempt to keep me safe. I understand now. I would do anything to find my mom and keep her safe.

  The other car zooms up behind us, right on our tail. Then it smacks into my bumper.

  Erick and I both gasp as we jerk forward. If I had thought I was just being paranoid, that sense is completely gone now.

  “Come on, Imogen,” Erick says. “We have to do something.”

  “I don’t know,” I say, pressing harder on the gas. I try to see the driver in the mirror, but I can’t make anything out. It looks like a guy in a hat and sunglasses, but nothing specific. “Wait! I have an idea.”

  “What is it?” Erick asks.

  “Hang on.”

  “Imogen, can we talk about this first?”

  I glare at him when I shift in my seat to a more comfortable position and move my hands on the wheel to gain better control of the car. “Why, because it’s my idea? We never have to talk about it when it’s yours.”

  Erick raises his hands as if in surrender. “Okay, you’re right.”

  “You always—” I’m ready to fire back another rebuttal when my mind fully processes the words. “Wait, I am?”

  “Just tell me what you need me to do.”

  My confidence fires, and the words leave my lips a mile a minute. “Lean back out the window. Send a stream of heat to the front tires of the car. Just melt them. It should slow the car down and force it to stop. Hopefully they don’t lose control. Try to melt both front tires.”

  “Okay, I’ll try,” he says as he leans back out. He holds his hands out, and shimmery waves of heat emanate from them, but no actual fire. It’s perfect to keep from drawing attention from the few homes in the neighborhood. “Move to the left,” he yells. “I can’t hit their left tire.”

  My pulse races, and I gulp. If I get any farther over to the left, I’ll be in the other lane. I look ahead, and it’s clear for now, but there’s a hill up ahead.

  “Only for a moment,” I say. “Be quick.”

  Wind whips through Erick’s short hair. “I’ll work fast. Just do it!”

  I yank the wheel to the left, and we veer into the other lane. Erick sends a burst of controlled heat toward the other car. He’s aiming low, trying to control the direction of the wave, but I have to force my attention to the hill looming ahead.

  “Hurry,” I call.

  “Hold on,” he says. “I don’t know the melting temp of these things! I’ll have to increase the heat.” He groans, and I notice driver start to panic, looking around as if something is wrong.

  As I start to ascend the hill, a truck is cresting over it. He blares his horn. I scream as I jerk the wheel to get back into my lane. Erick grunts, gripping the handle inside the door to keep from falling out.

  “Imogen,” he yells.

  “You wouldn’t have liked the alternative,” I shout in return.

  In the rearview mirror, I see the other car rolling to a halt, the wheels completely melted and sticking to the road.

  “It’s okay,” I exclaim. I grab Erick’s shirt and urge him back inside. “It’s okay. You did it!”

  He sighs as he slumps into the
seat and rolls up the window.

  “I am never riding with you in a car again,” he says, placing his hand on his heart.

  Not long after, we’re at the park outside of Briar Hills. The city—what little I saw of it as we passed through—and this park are as beautiful as the pictures suggested. But I haven’t seen any other people. Even the park itself, with its jungle gyms and walking trail, is completely deserted.

  “Where is everyone?” I ask when we get out of the car.

  I let the car door close with a thud behind me, and Erick does the same.

  “No one lives here,” he says. “No humans anyway.”

  I wrinkle my nose. “What do you mean?”

  “The whole city is hidden from humans by a glamour shield,” he says as he heads to the walking trail. “They don’t see it. Like, it exists, but as humans walk or drive past, it doesn’t register to them what they as seeing. It’s just an empty stretch of road.”

  “That is so weird,” I say. “And creepy.”

  “Some of the homes are owned by Fae,” he says. “For those who want…I don’t know, a place to go I guess. A sort of vacation home. But most are empty.”

  I glance around a bit more, taking in the scenery and breathing in the clean mountain air. Mom said glamour doesn’t work on her thanks to whatever voodoo Dad put on her. Maybe she could live here. Then I could come through the portal whenever I wanted to see her. I’ll have to talk to Headmistress Shadowburn about it when I get back. And talk to Mom about it when I find her.

  “Hurry up,” Erick says. “We didn’t lose those people very far back. If they pursue us on foot, they could catch up.”

  As if on cue, we hear footsteps behind us.

  “Shit,” Erick says. “You go that way, I’ll go this way.”

  I turn left and head between a row of houses while Erick goes right. I wait for a moment, but I don’t hear anything. Whoever was following us must have gone after Erick.

  I continue behind the houses and go in the direction Erick went. After I pass a few more houses, voices carry to me.

  “I’m not going to hurt you,” an unfamiliar voice says.

  I peek around a corner. Erick and the man in glasses from my vision stand in the middle of the street.

  “Oh, I’m sure you won’t,” Erick says. He shoots a flame at the man, but the man easily ducks it.

  “There’s no call for that, Erick,” the man says. He holds his hand out in front of him as if to show he isn’t a threat.

  “How do you know my name?” Erick asks, his hands glowing, ready for another attack.

  “That’s not important right now.” The man continues advancing on Erick. “What’s important is that I find Imogen. Now, if you could just—”

  “Like hell,” Erick shouts as he shoots at the man again.

  The man jumps out of the way of the fire blast. It’s almost as if he were moving before the fire even left Erick’s hand. I’ve never seen anything like that before, and we have some talented fighters in Elemental Application.

  Then again, I don’t think this guy is Fae. He’s not using magic to defend himself. He isn’t showing any magical signatures. But there is…something special about him. The way he moves is more than human, at least any human I know.

  But we need to get out of here. Go back to Aos Sí.

  Erick throws more fireballs in rapid succession, and the man approaches like some combination of Terminator and Neo from the Matrix—full speed ahead but dodging every blast as if Erick’s magic and the air around this man are oil and water.

  The man’s attention is solely focused on Erick, though, so maybe he can’t dodge what he doesn’t see coming.

  I run out and use my fire chains on him, the same ones I used on Erick that he hadn’t been able to break out of. The first catches on, but the second on doesn’t, instead hanging like a bracelet from one wrist. The man’s skin bubbles under the fire.

  Definitely human. But then how does he know who we are, and why is he following us?

  “Imogen,” the man yells. He turns toward me and starts running full speed.

  I try to use my fire magic again, but I’m no better off than Erick now that I’m on this guy’s radar.

  I turn on my heel and run, but crash into someone else. It must be the other person who was in the car with the guy. I whirl, but the first guy is approaching, so I run down the middle instead. The second guy reaches out and grabs me by my clothes, stopping me from getting away.

  “Let go,” I shout, a small explosion of fire bursting from my skin.

  It’s enough to burn the guy, and I bolt again toward where I last saw Erick.

  When I dare a glance back, it’s obvious the guy is hurt from my attack.

  I catch up to Erick. Pulling him around the side of a building before the men can see which way we went, I whisper, “I have an idea. Stay still until I tell you.”

  Erick nods.

  When the men reach our area, I nudge Erick in the ribs. “Run out there. To the middle of the field. Now.”

  Erick bolts, drawing their attention toward him…and away from me. He stops in the middle of the field, and the men slow down, but still they continue their approach.

  I wait until they’re closer to Erick, then I send out my fire in a wide cast—a cage around all three men, rather than shackles.

  It works. And it will keep them contained without me burning them. I jog over as Erick casually strolls through the bars of fire.

  He grabs my arms and starts pushing me in the other direction. “Let’s go.”

  I pull back from him and approach the fire cage, releasing the shackle from the first man’s wrist.

  “This fire will dissolve in ten minutes. Do not follow us. And if you have my mom, you damn well better let her go before you see my face again, or I will make you regret it.”

  Erick pulls me away, and we head toward the woods.

  The man calls for us to wait, but when I turn back, he’s trying to work up the nerve to jump through the fire.

  “We better hurry,” I mumble to Erick. “That guy might be crazy enough to burn himself trying to get to us. And I don’t want to find out what kind of person is willing to do that.”

  Erick doesn’t say anything, just breaks into a run with me until we hit the small trail that leads to what is clearly a faerie door. It’s not hidden like all the others were. It’s wide open, the swirling of the Shadow Veil completely visible to anyone who walks by.

  Which I guess wouldn’t be anyone who isn’t Fae, considering what Erick had just told me.

  “Why are you letting them go?” he asks as I stare at the portal.

  I grind my teeth. “Because I think they have my mom. And they’re going to lead me to her.”

  “Imogen?” Erick asks.

  I glare at him as if in warning. He knows I’m going to come back, but there’s nothing he can do to stop me.

  He takes my hand, and we walk through the door. When we come out on the other side, Damon is there waiting for us, his usual stern expression on his face.

  “Damon,” I exclaim.

  “Move,” he says, brushing us aside and stepping to the portal.

  He moves his hands and mumbles some unintelligible incantation. The portal ripples and shudders, then completely dissipates, turning into a regular faerie door that has to be manually opened instead of a portal that stays open.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I ask. That was my way back to the other side! Back to my mom. What am I supposed to do now?

  “I’m making sure you don’t get yourself killed,” he says as he stomps away.

  I jog after him. “What are you talking about?”

  He waves me off with his hand. “I don’t need you leading a bunch of humans or whoever was chasing you through the Veil,” he snaps.

  “But my mom—”

  “Will be fine,” he says. “You will stay here, where you belong.”

  “I am not a prisoner!” I stomp my foot. “I can come and
go whenever I damn well please.”

  “That’s true,” he says. “But you are my responsibility, and I don’t want to lose my job.”

  I stand there, my mouth open. What the hell? He cares more about his stupid job than me? I start to charge after him, but Erick stops me.

  “What are you doing?” I ask him. “Who does that guy think he is?”

  “He is just trying to protect you and himself,” Erick says calmly. I can sense he is trying to take my anger from me. Now that I know he can do that, I can feel it. I brush his hands off me. I want to be angry.

  “Protect himself?” I ask. “From what?”

  “Imogen,” Erick says, his tone already imparting the gravity of whatever he is about to say. “When a professor is ‘fired,’” he says, using his fingers as air quotes, “they don’t just lose their jobs. They lose their heads.”

  Chapter 21

  “Lose his head?” I ask, dumbfounded.

  “You are his responsibility,” Erick says. “If you go missing or get yourself killed, he’s considered responsible. You know how seriously Fae take death. If you die, the only acceptable punishment for the person who was supposed to keep you safe would be for him to die as well.”

  I take a step back, completely stunned by how stupid this is. “I…what?” I nearly shriek. “I might do dumb things sometimes, but I’m the one who does them. I’m the only person responsible for my actions.”

  “Your actions affect other people, Imogen,” Erick says as he starts walking away, back toward the school. “You need to learn to accept that.”

  I sputter, trying to come up with a retort, but my tongue refuses to cooperate. I simply cannot accept such idiocy. Damon has to give me some answers. I run after him, hoping he’ll open the portal so I can go back and find Mom.

  I catch up with him at his office, bursting into the room as he’s trying to close the door.

  “Hey, Mr. Clawfire,” I say, louder than intended. “So, about you getting fired, or, you know, killed.”

  “What about it?” he asks as he goes to his desk.

  “Yeah, I think it’s really dumb you would be held responsible for something I choose to do,” I start.