Flames in the Midst (The Jade Hale Series)

by Reckenwald, Sarah

“That’s strange,” I whispered my apprehension aloud as I got up to listen more closely.

  “You’re telling me,” Amy stood where she was, “That wasn’t even here yesterday.”

  “Are you sure?” I stopped halfway between the vent and the island to turn and look at Amy. I could tell this concerned her. She knew magic existed. She had known she was a witch for sometime now. Yet, a vent appearing in the kitchen where one wasn’t the day before had unnerved her. I didn’t know if she suspected me of somehow tampering with the room before I even arrived or if she was now beginning to doubt Professor Michaels’ intentions. It didn’t take long for her mind to be made up.

  “I’m sure,” she formed her words slowly, watching the vent as if it would slide across the room and into oblivion if she took her eyes from it. She got up and moved as if she were drawn to it. I walked with her, and we gathered just beneath it. If we were all quiet, we could hear the words of the conversation. I wondered who put it there. Was my mother doubting Evan and trying to gather the proof she needed? Had Cameron done this? Was it for me or was it for the other witches in this room? I would have to ask Cameron what he knew about this before I killed him, although with each hour that ticked by I became less secure in my intent to end his life. Something didn’t feel right.

  The voices drifted to us through this new vent which apparently, regardless of who put it here, was designed for just this purpose.

  “What are you talking about?” came my mother’s voice, laced thick with both concern and confusion. It became clear to me almost immediately she had no idea Professor Michaels was not a true Guardian.

  “The time has come for you to make a decision.” Evan Michaels' voice remained eerily calm. “I can spend no more time here on this endeavor.”

  “What decision? What do you mean you can’t spend any more time here?” My mother demanded more information.

  “I am not what I appear to be, and I am not here to help you any longer,” Evan replied coldly. He must have done something else to reveal himself to her because I heard her gasp. Had he shown himself as a Shadow Ruler?

  “You’re, you’re a…” my mother stammered, but she did not say the words.

  “Yes, yes, I know,” Evan continued, sounding bored with the situation. “But you can save yourself.” He stopped for a moment and chuckled. I was certain my mother’s lips moved silently trying out a number of spells to attack him or stun him enough for her to gather the others and escape. I should have moved at that moment, but like Amy and Justin, I could not will my feet to move.

  “Spells won’t work,” he interrupted the silence. “I told you I am done here, but I need something before I leave.” The vent worked so well we could hear the rustling of paper moving between them.

  “What’s this?” my mother asked.

  “It is a contract.”

  “You want my abilities in exchange for my life?” she asked. “You know my gift cannot be contracted.”

  “I know. Nor can your daughter’s gift.”

  “Jade?” My mother truly sounded worried now. She sighed in resignation. I noticed I sighed the same way, something I never knew about my mother and myself. “I’ll sign over my abilities. Just don’t hurt Jade.”

  “My dear,” Evan continued with mock surprise in his voice, “I don’t think you understand. I can’t contract Jade’s gift, but I must have it. As a firestarter, she is a very valuable asset. If you want to live and want for your daughter to live, you will need to sign this contract for your abilities and your daughter. I promise to take very good care of her, if it’s any consolation.”

  “No!” I practically screamed, and Justin moved quickly, placing his hand over my mouth to quiet me. I stepped back and stared at the vent, but the conversation in the next room continued without interruption. It was obvious this worked only one way. We could hear them, but they could not hear us.

  “Jade? A firestarter?” my mother laughed nervously.

  “Don’t pretend with me,” Evan sneered. “Your ex-husband was kind enough to fill me in on the details of your divorce. I knew she was special, but I didn’t realize what she was until I talked with him.”

  “Bryan? Why would he?” my mother asked, more to herself than to the man who threatened her, but he answered anyway.

  “I can be very convincing. Now, the question is, have I convinced you? Will you sign the contract?”

  “You know I cannot do that,” my mother was emphatic. She would not turn me over to this Shadow Ruler.

  “You would rather you both die than hand her over to me?”

  “Yes.” There was no hesitation in my mother’s voice, and at that moment, I got my feet to work. I had to do something or she would die as she had so long ago.

  Justin tried to stop me, but Amy made him let me go. She must have seen the fever in my eyes driving me to do the impossible.

  “Do what you can and find Jade if nothing else,” she instructed me. “We’ll wake Madilyn, and then we need to get out of here. He could be coming for us next.”

  I didn’t have time to warn them about Cameron waiting in the bar. They would be on alert anyway. I figured they might not trust Cameron knowing his father’s secret. They would have to be okay on their own. I had to get to my mother.

  I raced back down the hall and around the curve. I slowed down as I approached the first door on my left, the two doors I had ignored as I followed the sound of Amy’s laughter down the hall. I couldn’t just bound in there and expect to accomplish anything without a plan. Every ounce of me wanted nothing more than to rescue my mother, but deep down, I knew better. I had to be certain there was a way to save her before I barged in to my own death. When it came down to it, my priority had to be saving my child self and my aunt. As much as I hated it, in reality, my mother was dead already. I wasn’t sure I could change that. I had to make sure the tragedy that happened tonight was not made worse by my actions.

  I tried to calm my breathing and slow my heart, which was beating like I had just put it through a marathon. I pushed deliberately on the door so it only opened a crack. Nothing. It was dark. I pushed a little more and revealed a small bathroom. Not the door I wanted.

  I moved as stealthily as possible to the next door, but this one was already cracked open. I looked directly into my mother’s eyes and saw a light of recognition flash in them. It was almost like looking into my own eyes, but not quite as unusual. She knew, I was sure, but she said nothing, and she didn’t move. I took in a deep breath and realized I had only moments to act, but I couldn’t think of what to do. I hoped my gift was my own again and within my power to control, but I had no idea how long the elixir Cameron had given me would keep me from accessing it. My mother still had not moved at all; she was petrified by the same spell that had left my aunt in Cameron’s hands and put me on this impossible mission to burn books and contracts. A spell Evan had no doubt taught his son.

  I watched in horror as Evan approached my mother with a knife. Her eyes told me not to make a sound. I would have screamed out and tried to stop him anyway, even though I knew it would have just delayed her pain, but I was concentrating. I put all of my effort into concentrating on his back as he approached her. If I could kill anyone at anytime, it would be now. I could kill this man. Maybe my fire killed my mother, but Professor Michaels went down in flames tonight, too.

  I thought of Cameron and my newfound hatred for him as he held my aunt prisoner. I thought of the despicable man in front of me who would take my mother’s life in an attempt to gain control of her daughter, the firestarter. I thought of my own hatred for what I was, and realized for the first time my gifts were just that, gifts, not curses. It was not my fault and not my gift that killed my mother tonight; it was this man. I could feel a burning beginning behind my eyes, and I focused more intently on Evan’s back, but the smoke and the flames did not come.

  “Once you are dead, your sister will become your daughter’s guardian. I wonder if she will refuse my generous offer like yo
u have.” I was transfixed in a nightmare, in Hell, as Evan plunged a knife deep into my mother’s gut. Still, she did not move, and her eyes did not leave mine. I could see her pain reflected in them, but it was more than the physical pain. She was looking at her grown daughter the only time she would ever see me, knowing she would not be there as I grew to the woman standing in front of her. I kept concentrating on Evan’s back. If I could kill him, maybe I could get her to a hospital in time to save her. I could feel the heat rising in me.

  Evan stepped back from my mother and let go of the knife. It stayed lodged in her stomach, red blood dripping from the base of the blade, my mother’s blouse turning crimson. She stood perfectly still. I could not see Evan’s face, but I realized in bleak dismay he was completely unaffected by my attempt to murder him. His lips were certainly moving as he recited an incantation that sent the blade he had delivered into my mother’s flesh further into the depths of her body. I watched as the handle, angled downward so the blade pushed up toward her ribs, disappeared, leaving behind only a dripping wound. I looked to my mother’s eyes where a single tear dripped down her cheek, mimicking the blood dripping to the floor.

  It was too late. I could not save her. In moments, the blade would pierce her heart, and no surgeon anywhere could fix that. It did not matter that she was here when the building burned to the ground. She was dead already when it happened. I felt a rush of despair fall over me like a wave, and for a moment I gave up on burning the life out of my mother’s killer. The situation felt hopeless.

  As my mother’s body fell to the ground, I realized I could still feel the heat even though I was not working to start a fire. I did not see any smoke, but I felt the sensation of starting a fire as if I was connected to the one who was starting it. I turned away from the spot where my mother’s lifeless body lay and moved to the source of the heat.

  As I closed the door to the office behind me, I could hear Evan calling for my aunt and heading towards Amy and Justin. I felt remorse at having left them, but what else could I do? Jade was my priority now, and there was no reason to keep her attempts focused in the fireplace.

  I found her kneeling in front of the fireplace where a pile of books lay on the metal grate. She was concentrating all of her effort on those books and did not notice as I entered the room. A thin wisp of smoke rose up from the books, but the pile looked insurmountable when burning just one book with a contract had wiped her out earlier in the evening. I felt the same tide of hopelessness rushing over me again. I moved across the room and placed my hand on Jade’s shoulder.

  Immediately, a wave of heat surged through my body towards Jade. The books and contracts in the fireplace lit in a small explosion with blue flames licking the pages until the fireplace was filled with blue light and then only ashes.

  Jade let out a gleeful scream.

  “That was easy!” she exclaimed. “If you help me, it won’t take us long to finish, and then we can tell Cameron we helped him!” She had no idea her world had just been torn apart tonight, but it wasn’t me who would tell her. I didn’t even remember how I had started such a large fire. As we watched the fire burning the place down, it was Aunt Lynn who told me my mother had not made it. She told me so many times my mother was already gone when I started the fire. She told me I had done a good thing by starting the fire, but I had never believed her until now. Even though I knew what we were about to do was going to cause me pain and anguish throughout my childhood, I also knew it had to be done.

  “Can you help me?” she asked me with eagerness in her eyes. “Let’s get more books for the fireplace.”

  I squeezed her shoulder gently and stopped her from moving towards the shelves. I had just seen my mother—her mother—our mother—murdered. I would now have to help her burn all of these books and contracts as the only act I could think of to hurt my mother’s murderer. Tears and smoke burned my eyes.

  “What’s wrong?” Jade asked, staring at me. I had to snap out of my shock and get to work.

  “Jade, honey,” I started as gently as possible. I would have to tell another half-truth. If she knew what had happened already, she would not be able to start this fire, and I could not do it without her. Now, instead of feeling like protecting her was self-serving, I felt I was choosing a sacrifice for her. I was willing to go the next fifteen years of my life—her life—in pain and self-loathing in order to accomplish this act of destruction against a murderer. Perhaps if all of the contracts were destroyed, Evan would burn in this fire, as I believed he had.

  “Tonight is not going well. Cameron said we don’t have the time to burn the books in the fireplace. We’ll have to burn the books and the shelves,” I explained.

  “Does my mommy know?” She was asking for permission.

  “Yes, your mother knows, but she couldn’t come with me.” Even if my mother didn’t figure out the plan of this journey for me, she knew who I was and that I was here to protect myself. She knew, in a sense. “Are you ready?” I asked myself.

  Little Jade shook her head solemnly. I glanced around the room one last time.

  “Wait here,” I instructed her as I crossed back towards the door. The backpack with our family book still sat on the floor where I had left it. This could not burn. I put the backpack on my shoulders and returned to Jade’s side.

  “Okay,” I told her, placing one hand on each shoulder. At first, nothing happened. I looked down and saw her staring at the bookcase to the left of the fireplace. I felt the heat building between us like an electrical circuit. Suddenly, books began to explode in blue flames. One on the bottom shelf, one in the middle, one on the top. The explosions grew into each other, and soon the entire bookcase glowed a deep blue. Each contract hit by the wave of heat flowing through us emitted a pop as it perished. Not every book held a contract, but many of them did. We would have never found them all had we tried one by one to burn only the contracts.

  Jade grabbed my hands and shifted her body to face the next bookcase, to the right of the fireplace. More blue flames and popping noises followed. The heat flowed between us in intense and almost unbearable waves. I hoped I was absorbing the majority of it. Holding my hands on her shoulders, she turned again. We worked this way for only a few minutes before the entire room became engulfed in blue flame. The smoke made our eyes water and stung with each breath we inhaled. I could feel the air in the room growing dense and choking my lungs with its impurities, but we had finished the job.

  When I lifted my hands from Jade’s shoulders, she collapsed onto the floor. I bent down and scooped her up into my arms, taking a deep gulp of the air near the floor, which was relatively smoke free for the time being. I stood back up, the only way I could carry her and the backpack to the door, and plunged into the thickening smoke, finding the door only by memory. As we burst into the hall, I heard Amy’s screams from the back rooms. They had not made it out yet, but I couldn’t go back there. I had to get Jade out of here first, and I had to rescue my aunt.

  Every step was an effort of physical strength and courage. Jade, passed out in my arms, was dead weight, but at least she was countered by the weight on my back from our family book. The smoke poured out of the office and into the hall. I had forgotten to buy us time by closing the door. I looked back down the hall and saw the smoke creeping its way to Professor Michaels, Amy, Justin, and Madilyn, if any of them were still alive.

  I dragged myself and my younger self back to the black door. I reached out for the handle when I saw Professor Michaels come around the corner. He stopped for a moment and stared at us. It looked as if he would lunge forward—intent on reaching us and ripping Jade from my arms. Honestly, I was so weak he could probably do it if he tried, but he diverted his eyes to find the source of the smoke. I knew in that moment I had wounded him.

  “No!” he screamed, and he set a new course for the burning office. Good. He would burn in there with his books and his contracts. “Cameron!” he yelled, “Come here! We’re leaving!”

  Befo
re I could escape through the portal, Cameron came barreling through it. His father had already plunged into the office. Cameron stared at me, his eyes moving from each version of myself to the smoke billowing in the hall. He was within inches from me, and if he was going to kill me, I would do what I could to protect my younger self. I set her down on the floor and stood in front of her.

  He pushed me back to the wall, ignoring the limp little body on the floor. His arm pinned me to the wall at the shoulders. He glanced quickly down the hall—empty.

  “You weren’t quick enough. It wasn’t enough,” he growled, his breath hot against my cheek. I closed my eyes, sure he intended to kill me. Someone else must carry little Jade through the portal and out of this burning inferno. With his other hand, Cameron pressed something into my palm.

  “Come and find us if you really want your revenge,” he hissed at me.

  “Now, Cameron!” came a yell from the burning office. I stood for a moment as Cameron let me go and ran into the burning room. I looked down at the paper in my hand. Salem 1692. I tucked it in my pocket, not that the place or date would be hard to remember, but I didn’t know what else to do with it or what it meant.

  Two more figures emerged from the end of the hall. Madilyn dragged Amy, who was fighting her grasp in between heaving sobs. They reached me as I picked up little Jade and found the handle of the black door in the growing smoke. I looked back one time to see an orange flash from the burning room. Then Madilyn pushed me forward as she dragged Amy behind her.

  Swirling pots and pans and dark, grey smoke filled the space around us. We tripped over each other and fell in a pile into Aunt Lynn and Jeffrey who were waiting for us in the bar, Aunt Lynn no longer petrified, at least not literally.

  “Where is my sister?” Aunt Lynn asked, looking at me. I looked at myself, still unconscious, and answered quietly.

  “Dead. It was Evan.”

  “Justin?” Aunt Lynn asked next. She was expecting for my mother to be dead. She had already heard the conversation between Cameron and I as she sat like a stone in the booth of one of the bar tables.