Flames in the Midst (The Jade Hale Series)

by Reckenwald, Sarah

  My mother stood up and placed her hand on the woman’s arm. Her tense muscles relaxed a fraction, but not entirely. She must not be sure of my mother’s intentions yet. She must not be convinced she was safe. This was the night her world changed. We had something in common.

  “What danger are you seeking solace from tonight?” came my mother’s reply.

  I obviously couldn’t tell her the truth. I wasn’t seeking solace from danger; I was walking into it.

  “I, I can’t remember,” I stated tentatively. “I woke up in the parking lot outside. I’m not sure how I got here,” I finished with a partial truth. It was enough to gain entrance into the bar, but not enough to put my abilities in danger. A witch cannot break any of the rules of her abilities without losing them. If I broke the rules of time travel, which I couldn’t completely remember, I would lose the ability to time travel. In essence, I would be stuck here, so I had to be cautious.

  “You are safe with us,” my mother spoke to me, but her words were meant for the woman as well. “I am Diana, and this is Madilyn. We just rescued her from peril tonight.” Madilyn brought her drink up to her lips, but the ice clanked in the shaking glass. She was not ready for the world she had been thrust into, but she didn’t seem to have a choice. She was probably trying to figure out how to wake up.

  “Jeffery was rescued a week ago,” she indicated the skinny man sitting next to Madilyn. He smiled cautiously, almost sinisterly at me and then turned back to the bar. My aunt stood up and walked towards us. “My sister, Lynn, and I have been working to rescue as many as possible from the changing tide. Someone is targeting the Unknowns and either killing them or recruiting them.” I couldn’t take my eyes off her, and I couldn’t find the words to speak. I heard her words, but I could only think it had been fourteen years since I had last seen her. She was so beautiful and sure of her purpose. As much as I hated the life we were both a part of, I envied her self-assured nature. I envied her confidence this was a gift, not a curse, her confidence she had a greater purpose in the larger battle of good and evil that made all of this worthwhile.

  “Excuse my sister,” Aunt Lynn interrupted, “She’s a little excited. This has been a good night for us.” She glanced at Madilyn who didn’t appear to think tonight had been a good night. “It’s been a successful night,” she corrected herself, “I’m sorry. I didn’t catch your name.” She was staring at me inquisitively again.

  I had to find the strength to speak. “Ja,” I began, nearly making a monumental mistake. I didn’t remember all of the rules of time travel, but I was remembering there were specific rules about this first incident. I couldn’t tell them outright who I was or what I knew. I could help, but not the way I wanted to help.

  “Jasmine.” I corrected myself with the first name I could think of that would fit in with the first two letters I had already stuttered. A stupid cartoon character. My aunt stopped for a moment and eyed me suspiciously. I hoped she would figure it out, but then she continued with the introductions.

  “Amy and Justin,” she pointed to the couple at the far end of the bar, “have been with us for a few months now. And Cameron is like a part of the family. He and his father, Evan, let us use this place as a refuge on nights like tonight.” The bartender smiled at me, but there was something behind his smile. It didn’t seem sincere; it was just off somehow. Now that I was closer to everyone, I could make out faint auras around them, more like a slight tint of what I could normally see. They faded in and out. Maybe it was the pina colada fruit smoothies interfering with my one constant ability. It could be the combination of the alcohol and the time travel.

  I looked back at Cameron. What I could see of his aura frightened me. It was dark and murky like a heavy cloud before a hurricane, but it wasn’t the midnight black I thought I saw at the party. The party at Zach’s felt like eons ago.

  “Cameron?” Aunt Lynn asked casually, but with a hint of urgency in her voice. “Can you lock up the door Jasmine came through?” Then she turned to me, “I’m glad it was left unlocked so you were able to get in, but I hope you will understand we need to keep this place secure. There is always the chance we were followed, and the locks on those doors will keep the bar hidden from those who wish to do us harm. You are welcome to stay or go, but once you leave, you will not be able to reenter.”

  I watched Cameron as he walked over to the door. He didn’t take his gaze off me as he walked towards me, making me feel as though I was his final destination. As he passed me, he made no move to look away, our arms almost touching. When he reached the door, he looked back, but then he concentrated on the door and began reciting an incantation. I knew that a lock, just like the other three, was forming on the other side of the door. I couldn’t figure out why there had not been a lock on the fourth door in the first place.

  I turned back to my aunt who was waiting for me to reveal my decision for this evening. She was studying me, wondering if I would be joining them, or perhaps wondering from where she knew me. Before I could determine my next words, I heard my name, my real name.

  “Jade!” My mother must have realized who I was. If she realized that, then she might realize I was here because they were in danger. Maybe we could change this past, this reality. Maybe I could get her back. I wouldn’t even care if I had to grow up entrenched in a battle of good and evil. I wouldn’t care if I had to become a Guardian. I could save her from the fire before it was too late. My heart raced as all these thoughts collided in my head at once. I inhaled, trying to calm myself.

  “Did you have fun with Professor Michaels tonight?” my mother was asking. Professor Michaels? She wasn’t talking to me after all. My hope crashed to the floor, and I felt like the room would begin spinning, but the dizziness never came. She was addressing the thigh-high redhead who peered out from behind the bar with my green eyes. Such a distinct combination. My aunt told me they knew from the minute I was born I was going to be blessed with many gifts. I had soft tufts of red hair on my head and mysterious green eyes. The nurses had been astounded, telling my mother most infants were born with either dark eyes or blue eyes that changed as they grew. They were sure the bright green in my eyes was either a trick of the fluorescent lighting or the effects of some street drug my mother had taken. However, my mother knew the truth. I was a witch with a legacy.

  “Let’s call her Jade,” she had told my unsuspecting father. My name was supposed to be Gretchen, after my mother’s grandmother, so my father was utterly confused by my mother’s sudden alteration to their carefully planned moniker. “Her eyes are such a beautiful shade of green,” she explained to him in a dreamy voice sure to persuade him to her way of thinking, “I think she should have a name to match them.” Whether he agreed to please her or for another reason, I would never know. He had no idea my mother was a witch or his new baby girl was also, most definitely, a witch.

  Now those same green eyes were peering out at me, a look of relief on my child face. The little girl I was still had the red hair, but the college student I had grown into did not. I routinely dyed it a dark brown or black color. The green eyes I occasionally turned blue with colored contacts, but those often created a feeling of vertigo due to the constant presence of my gift of aura reading. I was not wearing the contacts tonight, so I looked into my child eyes with the same green eyes staring back at me. It was all very surreal.

  My mother took the look of relief on little Jade’s face to be meant for her return and the intense study of me to be curiosity.

  “Jade, honey,” she cooed at the girl as she lifted her onto a bar stool next to Madilyn, “I promised you I would be back safe and sound tonight. I hope you were a good girl for Professor Michaels.”

  “She always is,” sounded a deep male voice as the door to the back of the bar opened up and Professor Michaels entered the room. I shivered and stepped backward a moment. I could not remember much about this man who died tonight with my mother, but I had a bad feeling about him. I could not see his aura, just as I
could no longer see the auras of those around me. I thought I caught a glimpse of that same deep, dark black as he entered the room, but I couldn’t be sure.

  Cameron took up residence back behind the bar, having finished the spell to secure the front of the Professor’s Pub. He looked down at the glasses he was cleaning, neat curls of dark hair bobbing around the chiseled structure of his face. He put the glass he was cleaning back behind the bar, glanced at the professor, and started making another drink.

  “Evan and Jade,” my mother had more introductions to make, “this is Jasmine,” she gestured towards me, “and this is Madilyn.” Then she turned to Madilyn and me. “This is Professor Evan Michaels; he owns this bar, and this is my lovely daughter, Jade.” I smiled at myself. I was starting to enjoy these few moments around my mother and my aunt despite the fact I knew they would not last long. Longing and dread filled my head, but my heart just wanted to hold on to this moment.

  “Diana?” Professor Michaels asked with a hint of suspicion and curiosity in his voice. “I thought you said you were only bringing back one Unknown tonight. Did something go wrong?” He looked toward Cameron for half a second as he asked the last question. Cameron looked back down at the drink he was preparing.

  “We rescued Madilyn tonight, and Jasmine came to us as a stranger seeking solace.”

  “Really? How is that possible with the spell on the storefront?” Again, he seemed to glare at Cameron.

  Now Cameron sprung into action, handing Evan the drink he had been mixing.

  “I must have forgotten the fourth door,” he explained, “I was so busy tonight. I guess it’s a good thing I did since we have one more here tonight.” At this, the professor smiled in agreement, but I suddenly realized Cameron did not mean it was a good thing I was here tonight for the sake of the Guardians or for my own sake. He knew what was going to happen tonight as sure as I did, and I could only guess he hoped I would be one more to perish. His aura of gray storm clouds could only be one of evil. I know I started a fire tonight, but maybe this is what Aunt Lynn meant when she said my mother’s death was not my fault. Professor Michaels and my mother may have been victims of Cameron, a fighter on the side of evil and an infiltrator of my mother’s group. But wasn’t the professor Cameron’s father? Did he mean for him to die tonight, too, or was that an accident? One thing was for sure. Cameron was an enemy, but I couldn’t be sure who else was also an enemy tonight. My mother, my aunt, and Jade—I had to think of her as a separate entity for the time being—were the only ones I could be sure were on my side.

  “Well?” Aunt Lynn asked, “Are we ready for the meeting? We have a long night ahead of us. We don’t travel after a rescue for at least twelve hours and we keep a constant watch,” she explained to me. “Are you staying or moving on?”

  “I’ll stay,” I answered, eyeing Cameron behind the bar. It was my turn to stare him down, but he just smiled and continued to work. He began mixing drinks again and placed one on the bar in front of me. I eyed the drink with trepidation.

  “Don’t worry,” Cameron chuckled, “It’s just lemonade. You don’t look old enough for anything stronger quite yet.” However, I wasn’t thinking about whether or not I should drink anything with alcohol in it. I was worried Cameron might have done something to my drink. I hesitated long enough he must have realized what I was thinking.

  “I swear, it’s fine,” he said, lifting my glass to his lips and chugging every drop of lemonade. He picked up the pitcher from behind the bar and refilled the glass. I picked it up, not sure if I would drink from it, and moved to the nearby table where everyone gathered. Madilyn seemed more relaxed since Professor Michaels had joined the group.

  “Professor Michaels,” Madilyn began now as the group settled into the chairs around the table. She had not spoken since I had arrived. Professor Michaels, or Evan as my mother referred to him, smiled at Madilyn to indicate she should go on. “Were you a professor at Wake Forest? You look so familiar. I think I took one of your courses about a year and a half ago. It was a class about Shakespeare.”

  Evan sat down in the chair next to Madilyn, “My dear, yes, I was a professor at Wake Forest for a short period.” Madilyn looked relieved. “You see, back then, I was just like you. I was an Unknown. I had no idea I had the abilities of a witch. If you had told me such a thing was real, I would have laughed and sworn you were putting me on after reading MacBeth in my course. Then, one night I met Diana and something inside me knew I needed to take this woman out for a cup of coffee. Little did I know she had tracked me down and our meeting was no coincidence—nor was my desire for the coffee.” A warm and welcoming smile played at the edge of his lips.

  “Diana began explaining to me all of the intricacies of witches, the Unknowns, the Guardians and the Shadow Rulers. I don’t know why, but I believed her. As she spoke, I could envision this invisible world surrounding me, one to which I was both an outsider and a long lost brother. The picture she painted of this world made my existence seem inconsequential, so I knew I had to do something.” He looked at my mother as if exchanging a secret between their glances. I cringed. I had never really known my father, but this man had never stepped into that empty slot either.

  “So you didn’t even need any proof? You weren’t being chased?” Madilyn leaned in towards the table. Her thin hands gripped her glass, but she was no longer shaking. Dark waves of hair billowed around her face like clouds around the sun and her eyes shone with true interest and awe. She transformed before my eyes from a terrified twenty-something woman into an eager new witch. What was it about Professor Michaels that was setting her at ease? Was it their similarity? They both began the same way, as Unknowns. Was it their shared past? His was the one face in the room she could find familiar.

  “Quite on the contrary,” Evan laughed. “According to Diana, I was being chased that very night. I didn’t need proof. I believed her right away, but she walked with me that evening in an empty park and performed a few spells. If I hadn’t believed her before that walk, I would have been cowering in disbelief as my world was shattered. However, the minute she introduced herself, I already knew my world had been turned into shards of what it used to be; when we spoke over coffee, I realized how drastically my ideals were being destroyed.”

  “I never saw the Shadow Ruler who was chasing me. Diana performed a few spells to help protect me, and I began studying under her and Lynn. Apparently, the Shadow Ruler was working alone and did not want to approach us together because Diana was soon able to sense his departure. At the end of the semester, I resigned from my position. MacBeth no longer had the same meaning for me when I realized the witches could have really been the root of his demise. I bought this place and named it the Professor’s Pub in remembrance of my former life. I sold my house, and Cameron and I moved into the rooms behind the bar.” Evan smiled at his son. Cameron smiled back, but he seemed to be forcing the smile out. It was for show.

  My mother sat next to Evan and patted his arm. “He is really being very modest,” she confided to Madilyn and me, “He gave up his entire life to create this new one that suits the purpose of the Guardians. This place serves as a refuge for us and others. It is very difficult to find if you are a Shadow Ruler. But don’t let him fool you. Being a witch isn’t all about sacrifice. We have enchantments on the back kitchen and office. When you go back there, you will find a whole house full of rooms, many of them brimming with Evan’s books, both from his past life and his present life.”

  I sipped my lemonade and looked from the professor to my mother and my aunt. My aunt was sitting right here at this table to hear these stories, and she must have known them already anyway. Why had I never heard any of this? She never said a word about the professor or Cameron or Madilyn or any of the others. What really happened here tonight? I tried to figure it out with each word and each move Cameron made.

  Amy and Justin were the last to join the table. With nine of us crowded around the old wooden table, my mother took charge.r />
  “We are here tonight to celebrate,” she smiled and raised her glass. Everyone cheered a little and raised their glasses as well, except Madilyn, who had retreated back into herself. “Honey,” she addressed Madilyn, “I know this is a rough night for you. I know we have just changed everything in your world, and you need to know your choices. We’ll talk about that soon, but for now, celebrate with us. This was one of our closest rescues, but here you are, safe amongst new friends.” My mother’s smile was radiant and beautiful. Her lips were naturally a deep pink and were moist from her drink. She could have just stepped away from a make-up artist at this moment, but this wasn’t a movie or a dream. Sooner rather than later, things were about to turn sour.

  Looking around, I realized Jade was missing.

  “Where am, I mean, where did Jade go?” I asked my mother. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my aunt staring at me again. She had better figure this out soon. I wanted to talk to her about what was happening here, but she had to figure it out first.

  “Oh,” my mother smiled, “She loves to hide in the back rooms with all the books. She’s not really a people person.” At least that much had stayed the same.

  “Where is Jade’s father?” Madilyn asked, looking worried and frightened again. “Was he killed?”

  “No, honey,” my mother looked at Madilyn with a maternal care that created a jealous feeling in my gut and a lump in my throat. She knew that Madilyn, though certainly older than I, was like a child tonight. This was her birth into a world her ancestors had abandoned hundreds of years ago.

  “Some things are just normal and ordinary. My husband and I divorced, and he is not a part of our lives.”