“Yes.”
I inhaled deeply. Shit. “So, why not just kill me and get it over with?”
Beside me, Ellie flinched.
A lazy smile spread over Phillip’s dark lips. Lips I had kissed. Lips I had desired. Now, they disgusted me. “Because we had to confirm you weren’t the one.” He glanced at Annie, that grin still on his mouth. My stomach revolved. “Right, sweetheart?”
“Ms. Reyes isn’t the one,” she said, firm. “I don’t sense any special power in her.”
A knot formed in my mind. It was too much, too many questions forming. But I could ask them. I could ask them all, after all, I had to stall to give Theron time to find me.
“So …” I started, pretending innocence over the disgust I felt. “I don’t understand. You … but you pretended to like me. You kissed me.”
“Hardships that come with the work.” He shrugged. “Annie’s powers told us we were close, but every time we seemed to get closer, the threads disappeared. Meanwhile, it was fun to play with you.” I growled. “Did you like my necklace?”
My hand shot to my neck. I had taken the necklace off last week after Stefano had been killed. Killed by these alchemists. Because he had a scarf of mine.
“What …?”
He tilted his head. “You haven’t figured it out yet?” He scoffed. “Mirella, that necklace had an elixir inside. It made you feel … more when you were with me. It made you like me, desire me, and more compliant. It made you sense things that weren’t there. Like my deep desire and want for you. My pure soul and noble intentions. All fake. Just like the contact lenses that made my eyes blue and the illusion over my lips. All so you would buy into my game.”
Each of his words made my chest hurt more and more.
“W-why?”
“Annie and I needed to get close to you to investigate.”
“Investigate what?”
Phillip glanced at Jonathan. “She’s new to the tzigane traditions and legends. She has no idea what we’re talking about.”
Jonathan shrugged. “It doesn’t matter now. She doesn’t need to know what we have planned for her. Just take her and start it already.”
“Let’s go,” Phillip ordered.
One big alchemist stepped toward us and Annie tightened her hold on me. “Please, don’t let them take me. I don’t want to go with them anymore.” Tears swelled in her arms. “Please, don’t leave.”
My heart stopped.
Please, don’t leave.
I pressed her tighter against me and retreated two steps. “Stay back!”
From somewhere behind the brute, Phillip and Jonathan laughed.
Annie pressed her face to my shoulder. “Please, don’t leave me. Not like my mom did.”
I gasped as the pieces of the puzzle suddenly fit together.
Annie had powers. She was a tzigane too. She was taken when young by these alchemists. And I knew a mother, a tzigane woman, who was missing her daughter.
“Annie is Maire’s kid,” I said out loud.
“And you’re clever too,” Jonathan said. “I truly resent what we have to do with you. Phillip, use the necklace.”
Phillip, stepped closer, taking a necklace from his pocket, a similar necklace with a green stone pendant, just like the stone Ellie had handed me in her car. He held it at arm’s length, pointing it to me as he approached us.
On instinct, I retreated, but halted when I realized three more alchemists had come out from the door behind us, fully surrounding us.
“You have nowhere to go,” Phillip said, only three feet from us.
A jolt ran through my arm. Then another. And another. Ticklish at first, painful later. The jolts sent spasms through my shoulders, into my chest. I crouched, letting Annie slide from my arms, my mind spinning as my insides melted into boiling goo. My breathing became shallow and my vision blurred.
“That’s enough.” I heard Jonathan’s voice. “Take her down again. With at least eight of you. Tie her to the bed this time.”
The jolts and the pain paused for a few seconds, and I saw Annie with eyes closed and Phillip on his knees, the necklace on the floor.
Jonathan reached for the necklace, but Ellie got it first.
“Keep it away from me,” I mumbled. Fighting the remaining pain, I stood.
Two alchemists charged us.
Pain? What pain? There was no time to feel pain. I closed my eyes and invaded one of the alchemists’ minds. I encountered a hard brick wall, but I was determined. I conjured a sledgehammer and brought his walls down. I focused on his pain, on excruciating pain, on not being able to breathe kind of pain. When I let go, the guy was jerking on the floor, his hands on his temples.
Ellie grabbed his shadowy dagger while I did the same pain trick with the other alchemist, and Annie attacked three others. At the same time.
I was drained, my energy and power slipping from me with each passing second.
Phillip opened his hand and his shadow dagger appeared. I rushed for his mind. That stopped him for a minute. His walls were up and my stamina waned considerably as I pushed against him. I couldn’t break in.
I fell again, my breathing unsteady. Phillip recommenced his attack as Theron, Artan, Sloan, Ramon, Shay, Jaime, Oscar, Neil, Dolan, Cora, Rye, and Nico broke down the door and invaded the foyer.
As if sensing trouble, more alchemists came from the back, instantly pulling Jonathan and Phillip behind them.
A messy battle started and the foyer became a war zone.
Tziganes versus alchemists, and Ellie crouched beside me, still yielding the dagger, but clueless of what to do with it.
Among the fighters, Theron and Artan caught my blurred attention. They moved like wild cats, dancing with their enemies, swift and fatal. Even though they were killing, and I despised killing, it was beautiful to watch. If for whatever reason they had to fight each other, I would never be able to guess who would win.
I lost my vision of them when my hair was pulled back, forcing me to stand on my knees and tilt my head back. Ellie grabbed my shoulders, but a hand flew to her face, and she fell on the floor.
Phillip whispered in my ear, “It seems our plans will be delayed.” Then I gasped when agonizing pain shot up from my lower back. Shaking, I reached down and fingered a dagger up to the hilt in my left side.
My sight went black and I fell against Phillip’s arms. He pulled the dagger out—I howled—and placed something against my back. With my yell, Artan, who seemed closer in my poor line of sight, dropped a half-dead Jonathan and ran to me.
Busy with whatever he was doing to my back, Phillip didn’t see when Artan pulled him up by his throat and pierced his sword in the alchemist’s chest.
A couple of alchemists, seeing their leader and Phillip had been killed, jumped Artan, but Neil and Dolan had come to his aid and fought our foes. Artan knelt by my side and pulled me to him.
“I’ve got you,” he said. I was really dying because I had imagined his voice was almost soft. “Hang in there.” He touched my back, his fingers light against the wound, and I felt his power drifting into me.
Soon, there was another hand over Artan’s, and another, and another, and all their powers flooded me. Like I had received a shot of adrenaline, I felt alive. Not whole, but alive and much less weak.
The hands left me, and I pulled away from Artan’s chest.
“What did you do?” I asked, fingering my back. The wound was there, but it seemed to have been mended somehow.
“We were able to stop the bleeding for now,” Theron answered from behind me. One of the hands had been his. “It won’t hold for long.”
Standing beside his son, Dolan watched me with clouded eyes. “We need a healer.”
“We should take you to my puri daj,” Artan said. “She’s the best healer in the region.”
I wasn’t a fan of the old hag, but I nodded.
I glanced over his shoulder. Tziganes up, alchemists down. A few of ours were injured, but nothing grave.
I was about to turn and check on the progress behind me, when I caught sight of Phillip’s body at Artan’s feet. I pointed at him. “What was he doing?”
Artan picked up a glass pitcher behind him. “This.” It was filled with blood. My blood.
I felt sick.
Before I could gag, burnt smell made my nose wrinkle and I looked for the source. To my right, Annie, with her arms raised over her head and her blue eyes turned white, had four alchemists held in a circle of fire. Besides controlling the closing fire, she had the men’s mind too. They writhed on the floor, as if she was consuming their organs. Just as watching Theron and Artan fighting seemed like a beautiful dance, watching Annie, my little sweet bun, inflicting such pain and creating such power, was disturbing.
With a wave of her hand, she opened the circle of fire, extended it, and enclosed another alchemist inside it.
All the while, the tzigane warriors gawked at her.
I scrambled to her. “Annie, stop it.” She seemed out of it. “Stop it, sweet bun. It’s over. We won.”
The fire grew and advanced.
“Annie.” Theron knelt beside her. “You can stop now.”
The fire engulfed the men at the center, whose howls made my skin crawl.
Dizziness danced in my head. “Please, sweet bun, stop,” I pleaded, my voice thick with tears.
The fire reached the window and the curtains and the rug on the stairs.
My legs gave out and I leaned against Theron.
Ellie came to her. “Annie, look at me.” She placed her hands over Annie’s arms and lowered them, then turned the girl toward her. “Stop it. Okay. For me. For Mirella.”
The white in Annie’s eyes gave out and they fixed on me. She gasped, as if just now realizing what she had done. Tears rolled down her face.
She embraced my legs. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” I embraced her back. I tried pulling her into my arms, but I was too weak.
Noticing my state, Theron examined my wound. “It’s holding up.” He passed one of my arms around his waist and supported me. “We need to go.”
Ellie picked Annie up, and with the other tziganes, we left the burning mansion.
26
Thank goodness Theron was the one to carry me out of the alchemists’ house. Even under Artan and Oscar’s protests, he didn’t let go of me, until we were in my house, with my mother freaking out over me. This way, Darcy had to come to me. If they had taken me to Lovell, I was sure I would never be allowed out.
During Darcy’s healing session, Maire came to pick up her daughter. I cried with them when Annie ran to her mother’s arms and they hugged. Darcy, though, remained still and cold like an old hag.
“This will do,” Darcy said, rubbing off the smelly paste she used on the wound on my back. “Just take it easy for a few days.” She stood and put her things away, back inside her oversized bag. “I did my best, but I can’t heal off the scar that will mark your skin.”
A scar? Shit.
I let go of the ice pack I had pressed against my face, where the alchemist had punched me, and I brought my fingers down my back, but a bandage prevented me from feeling it.
As Darcy turned to leave, Ellie entered the living room, carrying two teacups.
“Here,” she said, giving one to me and sitting beside me on the couch. “Does it hurt?” She glanced at my bandage.
I lowered my blouse. “Only when I move abruptly.”
Since leaving the mansion, about six hours earlier, we hadn’t exchanged more than a few words. First, because there were always people around me, asking what happened and how I was. And to tell me how stupid I had been to sneak out with Ellie. Artan and Theron had been the most vocal of all, expressing their discontent loudly.
Second, because I was scared Ellie would freak out and ignore me again.
So, I sipped from my tea, itching against the silent tension in the room.
“I’m so, so sorry,” she whispered, after a long while. “I had no control over my actions.” Her eyes gleamed with tears. “I was leaving the library yesterday afternoon when that guy, William, approached me asking directions to the bookstore. I didn’t think much of it, until he put me under a spell. I tried fighting it, but it was impossible. It was like I was locked inside my own mind.”
I took her hand. “It’s okay. And I’m sorry, too. You wouldn’t be in this mess if it weren’t for me. If I had been able to stay away from you.” She shook her head as tears spilled from her eyes. I passed my arms over her shoulders and pulled her close. “You still think I’m a freak?”
A hollow chuckle slipped between sobs. “A little. But I guess I can get used to this freak.” She bumped her elbow into my ribs and I winced in pain. “Sorry, sorry.” She pulled back and examined the bandage on my back. “Did I hurt you?”
“I’m fine. I’ll be fine.” At least, I hoped I would.
When we finished our tea, Ellie went to the kitchen to refill our cups.
That was when Theron entered the room with Maire and Annie, closely secured in her mother’s arms. My heart warmed each time I saw them together.
“Theron is going to take us home,” Maire said. “I just wanted to thank you.”
“Please, there’s nothing to thank me for. I didn’t do anything.” I tried getting up, but a prickling of pain sent me back to the couch.
Theron tsked. “Just stay quiet, woman. You need to rest.”
“Anyway,” Maire continued, “thank you. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow night at the ritual.”
I glanced to Theron. What ritual? “Yeah, sure.”
When Maire stepped toward the door, Annie disentangled herself from her mother’s arms and ran to me. I did my best to stifle a yell when her weight crushed me against the seat and pain shot through my back.
“Thank you,” the girl whispered in my ear. “Thank you for not leaving.”
My heart warmed. I kissed her cheek, and she ran out with her mother.
Alone with Theron, I didn’t waste time. “What ritual?”
“It was just decided,” he said, his arms up in truce. “During the fight, Annie demonstrated a great display of power. Much more than she should be able to do at her age. Much more than any of us are able to do.” He shifted his weight, a little uncomfortable. “Both rom baros and the elders’ from Lovell talked, and they all think Annie is the next Heart Maiden.”
“Say what?” I wasn’t following. “What’s the Heart Maiden?”
Theron sat beside me. “Once upon a time, a girl from a Romani enclave found a special flower, the Heart Flower. The Romani made a tea with the petals of this flower and gained powers. They became the first tziganes. And this girl was named the Heart Maiden, because only she could find the flowers. Hundreds of years passed, the tziganes population grew, and for some reason, no one knows why, one enclave decided they would stop searching for the Heart Flower. Slowly, their powers lessened, until they disappeared, and soon after everyone in the enclave was sick. Sick and dying.”
“But … why?”
“It’s said that our blood, our soul, became one with the powers the flower gave us. Without feeding that power, we become sick and die.” I gasped. Theron went on. “Each time a Heart Maiden died, another one would show up, normally at a different enclave. However, for almost two hundred years, there has been no Heart Maiden.”
“Why?”
“We don’t know. Damara, the girl from that tapestry you saw at Bellville, was the last Heart Maiden. She died young, and there has never been another Heart Maiden. It’s nearly impossible to track where the Heart Flower will show up next without the Heart Maiden’s powers.”
“And Annie is this Heart Maiden?”
“We think so. She was able to create fire with her mind. No other tzigane can do that other than the Heart Maiden. It’s not known in our thousands-year-old history.”
“And the ritual tomorrow night? What’s it about?”
“To test Annie and see
if she really is the Heart Maiden. And, if she is, we celebrate.” He was serious for once. “You have no idea how important this is for us.”
“I’m trying to understand how important it is.” I mean, if they didn’t have it, they would die. It seemed important. A question popped in my mind. “For these last two hundred years, how did the enclaves survive without the flower?”
“We go out every once in a while and just … search for it.”
I gaped. “What do you mean?”
“Exactly that. We get some warriors ready and go out in the forest and look for it.”
“And you just find it?”
He shook his head. “Ninety-nine percent of time, we don’t. We have been living with a minimum of power for a long time.”
That was crazy. To me, the tziganes were already powerful, but turned out what I had seen wasn’t their full capacity? With this flower, they would be unstoppable.
Another question surged into my mind. “And how is Lovell about it?” After all, Maire is a Bellville tzigane, meaning Annie was now headed to Bellville.
“Well.” Theron stiffened. “They asked for a truce. The ceremony will be held at their enclave.”
“Won’t they try to hold Annie there?”
“They promised they won’t, but they asked to be included in our activities. In return, they will help us and protect us, when needed.” He stood. “We’re still working out the details.”
“So tomorrow we’ll go to Lovell?”
“Yup.” He walked to the front door, from where he stopped and looked at me. “You know, Damara was a member of Lovell. Her death was what broke us in two enclaves, almost two hundred years ago.” Say what? Now that was interesting. “Not that I think my enclave needs Lovell, but it would be nice to have peace within the Tziganes again. Maybe Annie as the new Heart Maiden can unify us again.” Then he offered me a small smile. “See you tomorrow.”
And he left.
Sinking back on the couch, I tried to wrap my mind around everything. Despite all the things swimming in my head, one topic tugged stronger than the others.
It was done. The alchemists following me, attacking my friends, attacking me—it was done. They had all been eliminated last night.
Heart Seeker (The Fire Heart Chronicles Book 1) Page 21