The weight of my body was too much. She had caught me mid-sprint up the stairs. I tumbled down onto the last remaining steps, crashing into the floor.
“It took four policemen to hold down Emily once they broke into her house to save the Congressman, Harper,” she hollered at me from downstairs. “A human becoming that strong with vixra blood,” she laughed. A laugh that wasn’t hers. “Can you imagine what it does for kruxa?”
‘Yes. I felt it only a matter of hours ago.’
Wait, how did she know that about Emily? She was recalling Brian’s memories. He implanted them in her mind. He was the only one there other than the Congressman who could have seen the police overpowering Emily when they walked in. The Congressman was too wounded to recall anything.
I crawled my way up to the wall opposite the banister where she hopefully couldn’t see me. It wasn’t like she could get up the stairs now anyway. She blew them to smithereens. Pieces of wood were everywhere. I got a few splinters in my thigh just from trying to crawl my way over to the wall.
I never knew the true strength of vixra magic. Gran had told me a few things here and there about what they could do, but I don’t think even she knew certain details. The kruxa had been out of the picture for too long. Out of the loop. Cut away from witchling society.
Well, whatever dose of it Brian gave her was powerful. She levitated off the ground and plunged her magic into the floor, using it to push her body through the air and land directly in front of me on the banister leading to the upstairs bedrooms.
“It was fun, seeing you in action,” she teased, telling me things that I was sure Brian wanted to say to me himself, but couldn’t.
I peered down at the front door over the banister. There was a shadow in front of the window to the side of the door. A tall shadow. A male figure. Was that him? Was he standing directly behind the door, giving Madison instructions?
‘He really thought this through, didn’t he?’
My vision was starting to blur. Blood seeped down from my scalp and onto my face. One of the splinters from the stairs exploding must have scratched my scalp. My head was spinning. The bump on the back from hitting the Congressman’s kitchen table was starting to throb. The edges around Madison’s body started to blur. I could see the red sparks of her magic. She was starting to aim it toward me once more.
“When I was told about witchlings I hardly believed it.” Brian was speaking through her. “Seeing what you were capable of was like seeing into another world. One that I highly doubt most humans get the opportunity to see.”
Brian was completely inside her head, manipulating her and telling her exactly what to say. What to do. I was at his mercy. And he knew it.
“They used to burn your kind, didn’t they?” she laughed down at me. Her eyes changed. The vixra blood was overpowering her. They turned red with blood. She had a bleed in both her eyes. Would the vixra blood kill her if she used too much of it? How much did Brian give her?
“I must admit, it’s been an education,” she said as she took a step closer and prepared to thrash her magic forward.
A loud crash erupted in my ears. I waited for the pain that would follow, but it never came.
I reached up for my eyes to clear away the blood trickling down my face only to see Madison fall to the floor and sprawl out in front of me with a large gash on the back of her head. Her face looked up at me, dazed and confused. She rolled over to see who it was. I looked to the side to see a face I fully expected never to see again.
“Emily?”
She held one of the metal irons from the fireplace downstairs above her head, ready to strike again. She threw it down as hard as she could, hitting Madison directly in the shoulder.
“No!” I shouted. “Don’t kill her.”
Emily’s attention was torn away from Madison. Her eyes were clear. The veins around them were no longer black. She was…normal. Only she wasn’t wearing her glasses. She was just Emily.
She turned around to look down at the front door. I couldn’t see Brian’s shadow outside anymore. The smoke from the fire downstairs was too overpowering.
Emily screamed at the top of her lungs. Her voice seemed to echo from wall to wall, piercing through my ears and threatening to burst my eardrums. Her body projected down the banister toward the door, shattering the glass of the windows downstairs and frightening whatever malevolence was lurking outside. I didn’t understand exactly what she had done, but it worked. Whatever vixra blood was still in her system made her voice so powerful that Brian fled.
“Emily?” I asked.
She turned around and grabbed me from under my shoulder, helping to hoist me up. “We have to get outside.”
“I can’t. There’s a spell on the house.”
She searched everywhere as the fire alarm started to make an ear piercing noise. Then she saw my grandfather’s wand peeking out from under my trousers. Somehow it wasn’t at all harmed by the vixra magic Madison had used to send what felt like a raging hot dagger through my leg.
“That!” she shouted over the fire that was building downstairs. The smoke making me cough. But Emily was unphased by it. “Use that! Just like you did at my house!”
I reached down my jeans and pulled out the wand, doing my best to ignore the pain required just to move. My leg was getting worse. Almost like the vixra magic had poisoned my blood. For all I knew, maybe it had.
“I can’t,” I said holding it. The words sputtered out of my mouth as I coughed, realizing that even though Brian tried to kill me using Madison as a vessel, the fire might still get me in the end. “I’m not powerful enough. I don’t have vixra blood in my body.”
“Channel your sister!” she shouted.
“What?”
“Channel Madison. She has vixra blood inside her. Grab her hand and channel the magic through her body.”
‘What in the world? I don’t even know if I can do that. And how do you know something like that, Emily?’
I didn’t give myself time to think twice about it. I reached down for Madison on the wood floor. She was unconscious and bleeding out of her head. I wanted to stop and feel for a pulse. I wanted to make sure she was alright. But if one thing was certain, neither of us would be if the fire and smoke spread all the way upstairs.
I latched onto her hand as Emily let go of me. I closed my eyes while pointing the wand at the fire building on the staircase headed in our direction.
“Focus!” Emily shouted. “You can do this. Just focus. Like you did at my house. Make the water come out.”
I did exactly that. There was no calming my breathing because there was so much smoke that I couldn’t really breathe to start with. I envisioned water. A tidal wave of water wafting inside and stopping the fire.
A droplet fell on my face. I opened my eyes. There so much smoke. Too much. My eyes started to burn. I could barely lift them open.
No. That wasn’t smoke. There were clouds forming above us. Dark clouds. It started raining. A heavy rain that saturated me and Emily so fast and I could hardly see her as my hair stuck to my face. I couldn’t move it with my grandfather’s wand in one hand and Madison’s in the other.
Channeling. I had never done it before. I didn’t even know it could be done. How did Emily know? Or better question, how was Emily even here?
I heard the blessed sound of the fire starting to dwindle down as it hissed into nothing but steam and leftover smoke mingled with the magical cloud of rain my grandfather’s wand formed. That didn’t make it any easier to breathe.
Emily grabbed me from under my arms and pulled me toward Madison’s bedroom. My hand was still attached to Madison, unwilling to let go. I couldn’t help but groan in pain as my leg dragged on the floor. Emily pulled us both along, still strong from the vixra blood inside her.
‘The dark veins around her eyes are gone. Did her body overcome it?’
Emily didn’t argue, but she also wasn’t going to take any chances. As soon as we were inside the master bed
room, she closed the door. It hadn’t rained in there, fortunately. Emily went over to the closet and grabbed some of Ted’s ties for work. She then took Madison’s arms and tied them up.
“She’s alive,” she said.
“How do you know?” I asked. She didn’t even check her pulse.
“I just do.”
“Go to the bathroom and get the first aid kit,” I said weakly.
She shook her head. “No, it’s vixra magic. A first aid kit won’t fix this. You’re going to have to wait until help arrives.”
Just as she said that I saw red lights blinking through the window. The fire department was here.
“He’ll be back soon,” she said.
“Who?”
“The man that was here before. He’ll help you.”
“Eli?” I asked.
“You need a special kind of vixra magic to heal this. They won’t be able to help you,” she said, looking toward the door where I expected the firemen to come barreling in the house at any moment. It would take them a ladder to get to me with the stairs burned to a crisp.
“Holler for them,” said Emily. “They need to know you’re up here.”
“Emily, how did you know? How are you even here right now?” I insisted.
She gave a heavy sigh. I looked at her closer and saw that I was right. The dark veins around her eyes were gone. The pain was gone. Her anxiety was gone. She was just Emily. My friend. A young woman looking for a quiet place to sit on the bus as we were growing up.
“I got out,” she said.
“How?”
She didn’t answer. “I found a way to be free of them.”
“From who? The Catach-Brayin?”
We both heard the sound of the door being busted open and men trampling inside.
“Call for them,” she said. “And put the wand away.”
She took it from my hand and placed it under Madison’s mattress as I screamed for the firemen. They hollered back and went to the fire truck to get a ladder to place on the banister. I heard others spraying what remained of the fire downstairs. I only hoped the clouds my grandfather’s wand produced had dissipated.
The pain in my leg shot all the way up my back. I could barely move. I sprawled out on the floor to see the ceiling above me. No clouds. No smoke. No impending fire of doom. Just Madison’s bedroom ceiling. Emily held my hand until the firemen got there. I felt her let go as soon as they opened the door.
‘Emily was right. Maybe we’re all dead after all. They won’t be able to get me out of the house with Eli’s blood magic keeping me here.’
I passed out sometime between one of the firemen placing an oxygen mask on me as they picked me up and the pain from my leg vibrating all the way up to my shoulders, searing my body in more physical pain than I had ever known in my life.
“Harper,” a voice called out to me in the distance. I didn’t recognize it at first. I only knew that it was the voice of a man. And that I was getting really tired of waking up in places I didn’t entirely recognize.
Had I failed in the end? Had I died? Or was this yet another vision?
A sharp pain erupted in my calf, awakening me so fast that I got the confirmation that I was alive sooner than I wished it.
I cried out in pain as a pair of strong hands held me down. Cold hands. Those I recognized right away.
My eyes jutted open. Nathaniel was above me, holding me down as someone at my feet held a wand over my calf. Red light was radiating from his arm. Nope. That wasn’t his arm. That was a wand. Eli was standing over me, healing my leg with his magic.
I screamed bloody murder and tried kicking him away. I knew it wasn’t particularly polite, but this was the kind of pain that sent one flying straight through the ceiling. But Eli’s grip was solid. As was Nathaniel’s.
Eventually, Eli let go of my leg and Nathaniel did the same. I was too exhausted to fight them anymore. I could only heave in deep breaths, then cough a few seconds later from all the smoke I inhaled.
Eli brought his fingers up to my wrist to feel my pulse. “She’ll need a couple weeks to fully recover. The magic poisoned her bloodstream. Her body will fight it off naturally, but she’ll be quite sick in the process.”
“I can care for her,” said Nathaniel.
It’s interesting being talked about while you’re in the room as though you’re not able to make decisions for yourself. But then again, I hadn’t been allowed that privilege hardly at all in the last couple of weeks. And I had a feeling that I would be granted that right less and less as time went on. Especially if Eli didn’t manage to convince his father that I didn’t need to be locked up somewhere I would never be found because of some dumb vixra prophecy.
“No,” said Eli. “She needs to stay hidden. At least until after the Congressman’s trial.”
‘What? Has the Congressman been charged with Samantha’s murder? Did Brian set him up?’
“I’ll lure the judge to give her permission to reside out of state while she recovers. Or at least until she’s forced to testify.”
“Not your place,” said Eli, as though it was obvious. “She exposed its location to the vixra when she used the tunnel. Amateurs don’t learn how to close them properly after they’re opened and leave a scar behind that can be traced.”
Nathaniel scoffed in frustration. I was definitely going to get a lecture or two for that one.
“There’s only one other option,” said Eli.
‘What option? Where am I going now?’
“What’s that?” Nathaniel asked.
“Tobias Vallas has a property where she can stay until she’s healed. We’ve watched him enough to know he’s collected a vast amount of real estate. She’ll be safe in one of his homes while she recovers.”
‘Oh great. Do I have to deal with that guy on top of magical blood poisoning? You’ve got to be kidding! Don’t I get a say in this?’
I finally managed to see both their faces with complete clarity. It wasn’t without serious effort. It was then that I realized I was back in my house. Not Madison’s or Nathaniel’s house. But mine. I was in my bedroom, lying in my bed. Nathaniel got me away from the firemen somehow. He must have lured them to let me go so Eli could treat my wound.
My eyes burned from the smoke of the fire but I forced them to stay open.
The fire. Madison. Emily.
“Maddie?” I managed to mutter.
“I’ve already treated her,” said Eli. “My father has offered to help remove the luring memories placed in her mind, but it will take time and effort. She’s at his house near Budapest.”
‘Budapest?’
“So she’s alright?” I asked weakly.
Eli grimaced. “No. But she will be. Over time. You put a rather large gash in her head.”
“N-no…” I grumbled, clearing my throat. It was a complete wreck and burned like hell. “That wasn’t me. That was Emily.”
Both Nathaniel and Eli looked at each other with knowing glances. Glances that didn’t give me comfort in any way, shape, or form. They knew something. Something that they didn’t want to say out loud. Something that made them uncomfortable.
Nathaniel touched my forehead like mothers do when they think their child has a temperature. “No, Harper. It wasn’t Emily. It was you.”
“No,” I insisted. “It was Emily. She said she got free of the asylum. She was there. She stopped Brian.”
“Brian?” Eli repeated.
“Samantha Larsen’s fiancé?” Nathaniel asked.
Eli looked confused. “I’m sorry, but what does he have to do with this?” Eli’s slightly superior attitude was showing. As if he were asking why he was hearing about this insignificant person.
“I had a vision,” I said weakly. “He was the one who gave vixra blood to Emily. Someone made him a vampire. Slowly and over time. He’s been softly luring Emily for weeks. He’s the one who lured Madison and told her to kill me.”
That piqued Eli’s interest. “Are you sure ab
out this?”
“Yes. I saw it in the vision.”
“Kruxa visions aren’t always accurate.”
‘Seriously? You’re going to choose now to hold my low-tier witchling status against me?’
“Look,” I said in a stern voice. Well, stern to my ears. To them, I probably still sounded hoarse. “Madison came after me with vixra blood in her system. A man was outside the door watching because he couldn’t get in and I couldn’t get out thanks to that spell you cast over the door. She attacked me with vixra magic then Emily showed up and hit her over the head with an iron rod from the fireplace. Then she told me to channel the magic in Madison’s body using the wand and put out the fire. It was all Emily. She saved me.”
Nathaniel’s eyes lowered as he searched for the right words, not wanting to speak them but knowing he had to. It was a worrisome look that I didn’t like. Not one bit. Eli’s expression wasn’t much different.
“Harper, it couldn’t have been her,” Nathaniel insisted.
“Yes, it was! Why would I lie?”
“Harper,” he said my name again, forcing me to hold my breath. “Emily died at the asylum early this afternoon. Her heart exploded from the vixra blood in her system.”
My head fell back to the pillow under my head, reminding me of the large bump I still had back there. I could hardly register what he had just said. Emily couldn’t be dead. I saw her. She saved me from Brian.
Eli saw the confusion in my eyes but didn’t offer an explanation. “Give her a few minutes to recover, then take her to Tobias Vallas. She will need constant supervision until the poison leaves her system.”
“What about your father?” Nathaniel asked. He didn’t let his eyes leave mine as he spoke, wanting to gauge my reaction to hearing about Emily, knowing that I would be devastated. But in all honesty, I didn’t believe him. I couldn’t. I knew Emily had saved me. I protected her so many times. Then I failed her spectacularly only to find her protecting me. She returned the favor when I needed it most.
Witchling Wars Page 33
