“What?” Jodi asked, coming up to my side.
“We’re on someone’s property, look!” I nodded towards the other decorative touches mixed in with the obviously manicured hedges and topiaries that were ablaze with angry flames.
“So the fire’s reached houses by now,” Jodi whispered behind her hand.
“Maybe Steven and Anthony made it to another road,” I offered, trying to get my bearings.
“Let’s go,” Jodi said, grabbing my hand and rushing forward. I felt her magic rushing out of her, unchecked, making the air around us swirl in a torrent. The smoke whipped away from us and the air was easier to breathe. I watched in horror as her panic fed the already out of control flames, making them lick higher and higher up the trees that arched above. In the distance, we could hear those trees snapping and breaking, tumbling to the ground and sending tremors up my body as they crashed.
A wall reared up in front of us, stopping us in our tracks. Jodi’s power was still whirling around us, keeping the worst of the smoke away from our faces, so we were able to figure out that it was the wall of a house. I set my hand on the rough stucco wall; it was already warm. I looked around us, unable to shake the feeling of someone watching us, but I hoped it was just Steven trying to reach out with our mental connection.
“Let’s try to follow it. We may be able to find the front so we can get to the road,” I said, taking the lead with Jodi falling into step beside me. Now that we could see, we started to run again. I tried not to think about Steven even though we were looking for him; instead I told myself we were looking for a road.
“Terra?” Jodi slowed next to me. “Do you see that?” I glanced at her to see which direction she was looking, and just as we passed the corner of the house, we saw a lawn stretched out in front of us for what seemed like miles. A long sloping drive cut through like a black river. The smoke hung thick over the property, but because the closest trees were yards and yards away, the smoke was lifting high enough for us to see for a long distance. And in that distance we saw a figure collapsed on the grass, face down and not moving.
“Oh no.” My heart thudded against my ribs as my throat closed and I forgot how to breathe. We broke out into a run, desperately trying to get to the figure on the ground. I felt the Earth gripping my shoes, pulling at me, trying to stop me. The air around us was too thick to breathe and we were both screaming Steven’s name until our throats were raw.
“Please, no, please, no,” I begged as we finally reached the prone man and fell upon him, grabbing at him and rolling him over. It wasn’t Steven, but we both cried out at the sight of an unconscious Anthony. Jodi was clawing at him, looking for a pulse, and I bent my head close to his face, trying to tell if he was breathing. I knew Jodi couldn’t find a strong pulse just like she knew I couldn’t feel him breathing. I leaned over him and started CPR. Somewhere in the back of my head I was thanking anyone who would listen for our gym teacher insisting we all learned CPR.
At some point, Jodi started screaming at Anthony, telling him if he didn’t wake up, she’d cast a spell to bring him back just so she could kill him again. For one insane moment, I choked on a laugh before I forced air into his mouth. When he coughed against me, his back arching, and he gasped painfully, I kept laughing. Jodi collapsed on his chest and cried into his sweater.
“Anthony,” I said, “where is Steven?”
“What?” He blinked stupidly at me and it took all of my self-control not to slap him just then.
“Steven!” I yelled. “Where is he?” Anthony started coughing again, but he managed to lift his hand and pointed behind me. I turned to look over my shoulder and saw that he was pointing at the house we had walked around, the house that was now on fire, and the world dropped out from under me.
Chapter 18
“No!” Jodi screamed when I sprang to my feet and started racing towards the burning house. The air around me became too dense to breathe for a moment, making me stumble. Then the smoke, ash, and embers flew around me in a frantic vortex and I felt Jodi behind me, lifted on a current of her power as she threw herself into me. We crashed to the ground, the Earth opening up to me to cushion our fall. We slid along the grass and dirt, feeling it piled around us until we came to a tumbling stop in a tangle of limbs.
I fought against Jodi’s gripping and clawing fingers, trying to extricate myself from the mess of limbs and dirt. My vision narrowed so all that I could see was the burning house still so far away. I could hear crashing and crumbling noises and my heart jumped into my throat as visions of Steven being crushed under a falling staircase or beam ripped through my mind.
“Terra! Stop!” Jodi’s voice rang with power in a way I had never heard it do before. Her voice struck me, effectively stopping me for a moment, long enough to let her pin me into the ground.
“No!” I screamed back at her, thrashing under her grip.
“Terra, what about your mother’s dream?” The power in her voice was losing strength and I was able to slip one hand free and pushed at her, trying to wriggle out from under her.
“Drake!” I screamed both at Jodi and towards the house, begging both of them to understand.
“Anthony, help me!” Jodi yelled over her shoulder. Anthony came stumbling towards us and fell to his knees next to us. He placed his hands on my shoulders to help Jodi keep me down.
“Anthony,” I spoke his name, invoking my power, making my voice ring like a bell in his mind, “if you don’t let me go, I will kill you.” The words left my mouth before I knew what I was saying, but I knew they were true. If Steven died because Anthony kept me from reaching him, my mind would break and I would seek Anthony’s blood. I felt his hands tremble against my shoulders and saw the uncertainty in his eyes as he stared down at me. I don’t know what he saw when he looked at me, but he let me go.
“Fae,” I said, feeling the power in my voice strike at Jodi just as her voice had done to me. “Let me go, now.” The command shook the ground around and below us and Jodi’s hands fell away from my arms. I shoved her body off of me and scrambled to my feet.
“Please don’t,” she whispered, affecting me more than her commands had.
“Fae,” I said, turning to look at her. “I can’t let him die. It will kill me.”
“And what will happen to me if you both die?” She looked up at me with her wide blue eyes, and in that moment, I saw the child I had met so many years ago with faeries tangled in her blonde hair and grass stains on her knees. I choked on a sob and fell back to my knees and took her hands in mine.
“Fae, I can’t let this happen. He saved my life.” I let the image of Steven set ablaze by his own power fill our minds, followed quickly by the image of him burnt and charred on the ground, unconscious as we cried over his body.
“But your mother said you’ll die,” she said with a trembling voice. Fat tears rolled down her pale cheeks and splashed on our entwined fingers.
“Then help me,” I begged, pulling on her hands. “Help me save our brother.”
“Okay,” she whispered, nodding and sniffling. She scrubbed her face with the back of her hands and then turned to Anthony. “What happened?” It took a lot of self-control to wait for his answer; I had to admit it was a good question.
“We were running from the fire,” Anthony said, his own voice choked with tears. “There was, like, ten of us. No one knew where to go, but we were trying to keep the fire behind us, but it just kept coming, leaping from tree to tree like we were pulling it with us.” Jodi and I shared a look. The thought that maybe Steven did just that in his panic passed between us.
“And?” Jodi prompted.
“Then we fell down that hill.” Anthony nodded in the direction of the house. “Everyone came down in a huge mess. When we got to our feet again, the house was on fire. Steven,” Anthony paused when his voice cracked on Steven’s name, “Steven saw someone in a window on the top floor.”
“And he went after them?” I asked, and Anthony nodded.
> “So how did you end up unconscious out here?” Jodi asked.
“I went with him when I couldn’t stop him. The smoke was too much, I started to pass out, so he carried me out here. I guess he went back in.”
“Okay, that’s enough,” I said and pushed to my feet, dragging Jodi with me.
“No, you can’t!” Anthony called out, trying to get to his feet and chase after us. Jodi and I were already running towards the house, our lungs searing with dread and smoke. I felt Jodi jerk against my grip. I turned and saw Anthony had caught up with us and had a hold of Jodi’s free arm. She was pulling against him, but he was much bigger and stronger than us.
“Anthony, I wasn’t kidding,” I said, holding Jodi against me, pulling against him.
“But what can you do?”
“We can save him.” Another blood chilling crash sounded from the house behind us and I felt my patience and sanity slipping from me.
“But, how?”
“Enough!” I screamed, and the Earth beneath our feet rumbled with my panic and fear. Anthony lost his grip on Jodi’s wrist and his ankle twisted under him as he fell to the ground with a yell of surprise and pain. As one, Jodi and I spun around and ran full out for the house without fear that Anthony could catch up with us this time.
Smoke spilled out of windows that were shattered by the heat. The door was wide open and splintered. My stomach flipped, wondering what could damage such a huge, heavy thing like that. When we passed the threshold, my mind reeled and I stumbled backwards as fear, pain, and panic ripped through what little shields I had left, leaving them in tatters. I screamed with them, wordlessly, like an animal caught in a trap. Jodi was in front of me, shaking me and slapping me, but she wasn’t reaching me.
She squared her shoulders and drew in a breath that stole what little clean air was left around us. I felt our channel rip open between us, searing the synapses in my brain and stealing my sight for a terrifying moment. Jodi’s feral Air power struck through me, lightning and energy singeing my nerves, and I heard a crackling in my ears. But with her power breathing through me, I was able to shut out the others in the house.
“Breathe,” Jodi commanded, her voice heavy with power again. I drew in clean, burning lungfuls of air and nodded at her.
“Upstairs,” I rasped, and we moved further into the crumbling house, looking for the stairs. The bottom floor looked unscathed except for the roiling smoke filling the rooms, but things were crashing overhead, making us duck and jump. I felt as though we were trying to race through the house to avoid the ceiling collapsing upon us. A few knickknacks and expensive framed artworks had fallen to the floor, shattering and threatening to trip us up. The lights were dead, so the only thing illuminating the house was the eerie yellow and orange glow of the fire outside.
We dashed through the foyer the size of my living room and into what I guess was supposed to be their living room, but it was so huge my whole house could’ve fit inside of it. We veered right and followed the wall. The curtains on the windows on the far wall were on fire, flames licking up the wall and curving along the ceiling, eating away at the plaster. Finally the wall beside us turned and we found the grand staircase. It was huge, split in two, each side leading to different rooms to meet in the middle at a landing, and then broke again at right angles to either side of the upper floor. I gripped Jodi’s hand tight enough to crush her fingers and pulled her along behind me, ducking my head as we ran.
I felt the stairs shaking under our feet, making us sway left and right as we climbed. Living in Southern California, we were used to earthquakes, but they eventually stop; this didn’t. Jodi cried out as something crashed to the floor again, making the stairs buck under us, and she nearly fell. I grabbed the banister, hissing against the sting of hot wood, and pulled at her arm, keeping her upright. When we hit the landing, I had to stop to decide which way to go.
“Should we split up?” Jodi asked, but I could hear it in her voice that she was hoping I wouldn’t agree to that. I shook my head.
“You don’t watch enough horror movies,” I said, trying to feel where the terror and pain energies were coming from, but they swirled around me in a crazy dance.
“What?”
“Nothing,” I shook my head again. “We’re not splitting up.”
“Which way then?” She squeezed my hand and I realized she was feeling the pain and the panic of the people in the house through me since she had ripped our connection open. Now I had Jodi’s fear to contend with as well. I had no idea which way to go.
“Stop!” I commanded, letting my empathetic powers ring through my body and down our connection, hitting Jodi like a slap in the face. She blinked at me in shock, but her mind went quiet and I could feel the people above us. I spun around and pulled Jodi behind me as we ran up the right side.
“Drake!” Jodi screamed as we ran. Her voice carried on the air and smoke, echoing in the house on the currents. I didn’t expect him to answer, but I felt a spark of recognition ignite in my mind, and beneath the smell of the forest fire, I could taste roasting peppers. Steven was nearby. Jodi felt Steven’s answer and it spurred her on. She ran ahead of me, pulling me behind her. There were so many damn rooms along the way – on both sides of us – I felt like Alice falling down the rabbit hole.
We dashed past the open doors, able to rule them out when we didn’t feel Steven in those rooms, but we had to stop and check the rooms with closed doors. The doorknobs were hot to the touch and the doors swelled against their frames. I had to use my earth magic to force them open. Each time we didn’t find Steven, I screamed, losing a little bit of my mind. Finally we came to a door we couldn’t open.
I laid my hands against the scorching wood, feeling the skin of my palms scream in protest, and I tapped into what small spark of life was left in the door. Open to me, I commanded, feeling the wood tremble under my power, but it wouldn’t, or couldn’t, give.
Terra, hurry, Jodi’s sun-bright thoughts burst into my mind and I pushed her back. I had to concentrate.
Open to me! I commanded, feeling the backlash of power arc through me, and a pinprick of pain blossomed in my head. Still the door refused to answer me, though I felt the wood begin to splinter under my hands. I slid my hands over the door, burning my hands as I went, until I felt the carved doorframe. I gripped the sides and gritted my teeth, bowing my head forward to press my forehead to the stubborn door.
OPEN! I screamed the command, letting my earth magic burst out of me, making the house shake around me, and the wood of the doorframe gave under my hands. The door shuddered and, with an ear-piercing screech of metal tearing, the door fell inwards, making me stumble forward.
“Terra!” Jodi cried, reaching out and grabbing me before I fell forward onto the door. When I gained my feet, I saw that the door hadn’t fallen to the floor, but was propped up against something inside the room. The door had only fallen forward a few inches, but it was enough to rip the hinges from the wall. My head throbbed with the backlash of power, but I blinked away the spots clouding my vision and reached for the door. Jodi grabbed the other side and we slid the door down, pulling it out of the doorframe as far as the width of the hallway would allow.
“That’s as far as it’s gonna go,” I said, wiping the sweat and soot from my forehead. I could feel the sting from the burn left by the door. The door was wedged against the far wall, making a low ramp.
“Look, something fell in front of it,” Jodi said, pointing. A huge bureau had fallen to the side in front of the door, blocking it. Smoke was spilling out of the room into the hallway now that the door was open. I coughed roughly until my stomach cramped in protest. Jodi lifted her hands and began to wave them, making the air and smoke around us swirl and shift until we could see again. I nodded at her and then stepped up onto the door and slowly crept along until I was inside the room, on top of the fallen bureau.
The door shook under me when Jodi stepped up behind me. Something crashed inside the room, making us gra
b for each other and duck down. When we weren’t crushed to death, we picked up our heads and looked around. The room was in a shambles. The far wall, once covered with windows, was on fire; an entire corner of the ceiling was gone, letting a funnel of smoke escape into the night. The room was black with flickering shadows that played tricks with your eyes. Exposed beams fell from the crumbling ceiling.
I stepped up onto the bureau, praying it would hold under my weight. Reaching back, I held my hand out for Jodi. When I felt her take it, we worked our way over and off of the bureau. The carpet under our feet was lush and spongy as we walked around the king-sized bed, ducking under half-fallen beams.
“Drake!” Jodi screamed again, the air vibrating with her power. Under the roar of the flames and the crack and pop of the house, I heard something, like the noise of a wounded animal. We darted forward, only to be hindered by another fallen beam, this one smoldering and throwing up embers as the house shifted. The beams were two feet around so we had to actually climb over them, one leg at a time. Jodi yelped when an ember settled into her jeans. We batted at it frantically until it went out.
“In here!” I yelled over my shoulder when I saw a door a few feet away. Luckily this one was open. It led to a grand bathroom, the size of my bedroom. The flames had crawled along the ceiling of the bedroom, reaching in here, setting the towels on fire and shattering the light fixtures. The exposed beams had been done in here as well and one had broken away from the flaming ceiling and crashed to the tiled floor, pining Steven and the woman he had come to save.
“No!” Jodi screamed, rushing to his side, pushing and pulling at the beam, trying in vain to push it off of him. I came around on his other side, having to climb over the beam, using the edge of the counter to keep my weight off of it. The beam was across Steven’s back, but it didn’t look as though it had crushed him; the counter of the sink had stopped its momentum. But Steven had clearly thrown his body over the woman to save her, crushing her to the floor. I saw the large bump on his forehead where he’d hit it on the floor, knocking himself out. The woman blinked wide, terrified brown eyes at me.
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