by Alicia Rades
Sondra cursed. “The fire’s working against me. That’s not supposed to happen.”
My eyes darted out the window for a second, but I didn’t think anything of the darkening clouds until I did a double take.
“Oh my God,” I whispered, horror filling my chest.
While Ryland and Teagan were preoccupied with finding a way through the fire and Sondra began a second incantation, Venn stepped forward to gaze wide-eyed out the window with me. Debris rushed past the glass. Things that shouldn’t be flying through the air flipped across my vision: loose bits of concrete, entire tree branches, and a garbage can. In the middle of the debris, a funnel cloud had formed. It twisted and grew longer. All around us, the building began to shake.
I backed away from the window slowly and glanced to Sondra. “Is this another obstacle?”
Her eyes darted to the tornado beyond the window. She nodded and spoke breathlessly. “Yes. We need to destroy the Owl. Now.”
“Forget the Owl!” Ryland shouted above the rattling of the building and the on-going fire alarm. “We need to save my sister!”
“She’ll be fine!” Sondra cried. “The only way out of this is to get to the Owl.”
The deafening sound of shattering glass exploding around us filled the air. I ducked. Venn was in front of me in a second, his strong abdomen pressed to the side of my head as he blocked me from the glass that sprayed across the room. The water raining down from the sprinklers had stopped, but strong winds swirled around us, whipping my hair in every direction. The flames seemed unaffected by the wind, but they continued to climb higher. Between the blaring fire alarm and the air pounding at my ears, I couldn’t hear what Ryland shouted. When I lifted my head, all I saw was him run forward, disappearing into the wall of flames. Teagan followed behind him.
My eyes widened, and I sprang up out of Venn’s protective hold. There was no way in hell they were entering that room without me. It was too loud to hear if Venn protested.
I shifted and flew into the air. I kept myself high, out of the reach of the flames, but visibility was nearly non-existent near the ceiling. I held my breath, knowing that if I inhaled, I wouldn’t get any oxygen anyway. Heat seared my skin, making it feel as if my feathers were going to burn off, but I ignored it. There were more important things in life than feathers.
Glancing down, I saw nothing but orange flames through the thick smoke. I swooped lower, but I couldn’t go far before the flames reached me. If I didn’t get out of here soon, I was going to cook and be served on a platter for Christmas dinner. My lungs ached as I ran out of oxygen. On instinct, I inhaled a breath. My nasal passages burned, and my lungs felt heavy. I squinted across the room, but I couldn’t see anyone anywhere.
I’m no use to them dead, I told myself.
One last glance through the flames revealed nothing. Both doors on either side of the room were completely engulfed in flames. I didn’t hesitate, because I knew that if I did, I was done for. I flapped my wings and swooped downward, propelling myself through the door opposite the one I came in through.
My body collapsed to the tile floor, and I inhaled deep breaths, greedy for oxygen. My whole body shook, which was weird because I’d already caught my breath, and—
The sound of cannons exploded around me. Above my head, the ceiling fractured, alerting me to the fact that I wasn’t the one shaking. The entire building was.
I spread my wings and shot into the air not a moment too soon. Plaster fell from the ceiling and smashed to the floor right where I’d been lying a moment ago. More pieces of plaster continued to rain down, and I dodged around them. I landed beneath the lip of one of the display tables for safety.
I finally took in the room. It was at least five times bigger than the other rooms we’d walked through. All types of stone artifacts lined the displays, with the carved owl sitting at the center of it all. I prayed my eyes would land upon Fiona, Ryland, or Teagan, but I saw no one.
Another piece of plaster cracked into the ground just in front of me. I jumped. If possible, my heart pounded even harder. My breathing grew erratic as my eyes darted from the flaming doorway to the crumbling ceiling.
Where are you? I silently begged. Please be alive.
The building moaned as the fracture in the ceiling widened. My eyes darted upward. These obstacles were insane.
The only way out of this is to get the Owl. Sondra’s voice echoed in my head.
If this was all due to the magic in the Owl, then destroying it should stop all of this. I surveyed the crack in the ceiling, trying to decide if it was safe to dart across the room, grab it, and then get back under the safety of my table without injury.
Before I could make a move, four figures burst from the flaming doorway and fell into the room. Ryland cradled Fiona in her fox form, though she showed no signs of breathing. Beside him, Teagan screamed in pain. Most of her flesh was blackened with burns. Venn sat up and knelt over her. He said something I couldn’t hear. I expected it was meant to comfort her.
I darted from the safety of my table the moment I saw them. But I never made it across the room. A loud rumble echoed across the space between us. My eyes just barely caught Venn’s before a heavy wall of debris knocked his face out of view.
Sheer hopelessness slammed into my gut like a freight train. The pile of rubble had consumed them all.
They were gone.
9
“NO!”
My scream echoed off the walls of the museum. I hadn’t even realized the violent winds had died down and the building was no longer shaking. The fire alarm had stopped blaring, but the pulse of blood in my ears seemed just as loud. It felt as if someone had reached into my abdomen and ripped my guts out.
In human form, I jumped onto the pile of rubble and began clawing at any pieces of broken building I could move.
“Rae!?” Sondra’s voice cut through the air.
I glanced up to see the room between us was still on fire, but I couldn’t see her through it.
“They’re hurt!” I called back. “All of them!”
“They’ll be okay,” Sondra promised.
She has no idea.
“I need you to stay calm,” she yelled across the space between us. “Can you do that?”
“I…” I wasn’t sure I could, to be honest. Calm wasn’t exactly my middle name, but I trusted Sondra. If we were going to make it out of here alive, she was my only hope. “I can try.”
“Okay,” she said in that soothing voice she always used. “This fire is enchanted. I can’t get through. Is there another entrance to the room you’re in?”
“Yeah!” I shouted back, while continuing to move debris out of the way. “There’s another door that looks like the one I came through.”
“Stay right there,” Sondra instructed. “I’m going to come around.”
A sliver of hope filled my heart, but it quickly disappeared as I dug further and further into the rubble without any signs of survivors.
“Hurry up!” I cried.
I quickly reminded myself to stay calm. I might need to use magic, and I couldn’t do that if I was a blubbering mess. I took a deep breath and pushed a piece of concrete the size of a couch cushion out of the way. I inhaled a sharp breath when I saw Venn’s face beneath me. Blood coated his forehead.
“Venn!”
His eyes fluttered open, and my heart soared in my chest. He’s alive! Between the small opening of rubble, I bent and placed a kiss on his lips. It barely lasted a second, and I was too overwhelmed to truly enjoy it. It was too soon for this. Venn and I hadn’t even had a chance to indulge in that make-out session he promised me.
“I’m going to get you out of here.” My voice was strong. I couldn’t let Venn see me weak right now.
“Wait,” he croaked, stopping me from grabbing the next bit of rubble at the top of the pile.
I leaned over him. “What?”
He grimaced, like speaking caused him pain. “You can’t save me, Rae.”
/>
“Of course I can,” I argued. “I’m strong enough to move all this debris, and then I can heal you.”
“No,” he replied hoarsely. “You won’t get to me in time.”
“Stop talking,” I demanded. “You’re wasting time.”
Venn spoke while I pushed pieces of concrete and plaster out of the way. “I’ve been impaled.”
My face grew hot, but I forced down the lump in my throat. I had to stay calm as Sondra instructed.
“I need to tell you something,” Venn said. “Rae, please stop and just listen to me. It’s about your sister.”
My entire body tensed, and I froze as he’d asked. “What about my sister?”
Venn took a deep breath. “She’s dead.”
I immediately backed off the pile to look him in the eye. He was wrong. “My sister’s not dead. I would know.”
“No,” Venn argued. “You just want to believe it so badly that you won’t face the truth. Clarita told me our search for Gregor Island was pointless because your sister was already gone. Jenna died that night the Soulless took her.”
“You can’t know that,” I said with certainty. Except… how could I be sure? My heart tells me she’s alive isn’t much of an excuse. Clarita clearly had some serious powers. It was possible she could see into the past. “When did Clarita tell you?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Venn whispered through pained breaths.
“Don’t you dare give up on me,” I warned him. “I’m going to get you out of here and heal you.”
Tears pricked at my eyes. If what Venn said was true, then I’d already lost my sister. I couldn’t lose him, too.
“Forget about me,” Venn insisted in a gravelly tone. “Matias is on his way. You have to keep going. You have to destroy the Owl before he gets to it.”
Venn’s eyelids fluttered.
“No, Venn,” I ordered. “You aren’t going to die.”
I leaned down and pressed my lips to his again. They were so soft and warm, but he didn’t respond to my touch. A hole opened in my chest.
“No, no, no,” I repeated again and again.
No matter how much I didn’t want to convince myself of the truth, I knew that Venn was gone. There was no hope of unearthing Fiona, Teagan, or Ryland alive, either. In the blink of an eye, I’d just lost everyone. I was alone now.
“Rae.” Sondra’s voice cut through the eerie silence.
My head snapped in her direction. I was suddenly reminded of the fact that I wasn’t alone. Not entirely.
I shot to my feet. “Sondra, they…”
I didn’t know how to break the news to her, but I didn’t have to. She stepped forward and gazed into the rubble, straight at Venn’s lifeless face. A hand shot over Sondra’s mouth, and her eyes grew red.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
She dropped her hand, but her eyes remained on him. “It’s one thing to picture your worst fear in your head. It’s another to actually experience it.”
I bit my lower lip and nodded in agreement. I didn’t think I could speak without turning into a sobbing mess.
You have to destroy the Owl. I could still hear Venn’s voice in my head. There wasn’t time for grief, not yet. Sondra and I still had work to do. In the meantime, I had to pick myself up and push forward.
This is going to suck balls.
“How do we destroy it?” I asked, my voice sounding stronger than I felt.
“I’m not sure,” Sondra said, “but we have to try something.”
“Okay,” I agreed quickly.
I raced to the center of the room and snatched the Owl off its display. It was heavier than I thought it would be, but I held it above my head and hurled it at the tile floor with as much force as I could. It bounced off the floor and went spinning across the room. The tile had cracked and indented at the point of impact, but the Owl remained unharmed.
Sondra took a calm step forward. I took note of this and forced myself to relax, mirroring her stance, despite the agony ripping away at my insides.
“It’s going to take a lot more than that to destroy this thing,” Sondra stated, like it was fact.
“Any ideas?”
Sondra nodded. “A couple.”
She faced the Owl, but remained frozen as it rose into the air under her silent command. It hovered three feet above my head. In the blink of an eye, it darted through the air and pummeled into the nearest wall. When that didn’t work, Sondra sent it flying across the room at lightning speed and crashed into the opposite wall. The stone owl didn’t even chip, though it left a sizable dent in the wall.
“I don’t think this is going to work,” I said. “It’s too powerful.”
Sondra guided the Owl to the ground on the other side of the room. “Let me try this…”
She muttered a syllable under her breath, and bolts of lightning erupted from her palms like I’d seen earlier during the ambush. Electricity sizzled through the air, sending strands of my hair to rise around me due to static. I wanted to join in, but I didn’t know the incantation for lightning and didn’t know if I’d be able to conjure it even if I did. Sondra’s lightning bolts struck the stone over and over again, but it wasn’t enough to crack it.
Smoke from the other room filled the air and burned my lungs. The fire roared, consuming the museum at an alarming rate.
“The fire!” I blurted. “You said it was enchanted. Maybe it’s strong enough to destroy this thing.”
One last bolt of lightning cracked through the air. Sondra paused for only a moment before lifting the Owl into the air with her magic. She sent it floating across the room and into the heart of the fire.
We stood side-by-side, watching the stone owl. Heat waves washed over us, and sweat broke out across my forehead. I expected to see the Owl crumble or melt or burn, but even though the flames were large and the smoke thick, I could see it remained unaffected.
My stomach bottomed out. If enchanted fire couldn’t harm it, then what would?
“It’s going to take the fires of hell to destroy this thing,” I stated.
“I know,” Sondra agreed. “It’s too powerful.”
She didn’t have to remind me. Beneath the heat waves, I could still feel the Owl’s power moving across my skin. It called to me like a beacon, begging me to take ahold of its powers and claim them as my own.
An idea suddenly struck me. “What if we weaken it?” I suggested. “If we take some power from it, it will be less protected, won’t it?”
Sondra’s gaze remained on the Owl in the fire. She stared at it intensely, as if willing it to explode. “It’s too risky.”
“But it’s the only way,” I countered. Somehow, I knew she’d agree with me. “I’ll take its power, and you can destroy it.”
“No,” she countered, bringing her gaze to mine. “I’ll take it. You don’t know what that kind of power could do to you.”
At this point, I was willing to take the risk if it meant keeping this thing out of Matias’s hands.
“How do I destroy it, then?” I asked. “Sondra, I don’t have that kind of power… not in this life. You’re the only one who can destroy it. The least I can do is help weaken its power and give you a chance.”
Sondra grimaced, contemplating my argument. “Okay, but you have to understand what you’re getting yourself into.”
I didn’t. Not really. But whatever happened, I’d handle it.
“Bring it on,” I said confidently.
Sondra guided the Owl out of the fire. It landed unharmed on the tile in front of us.
She stared at me seriously. “Don’t let the power consume you, Rae. Everyone else is gone. I’m not going to lose you, too.”
She hid the emotions from her tone, but I could see the heartbreak on her face. I swallowed my heartbreak, too.
“You ready?” she asked.
“Ready,” I agreed.
“You know what you’re doing?”
I didn’t know how I knew, but the magic containe
d in the Owl sculpture told me exactly how to claim its energy as my own. I took a deep breath and bent to one knee. And then my hands clamped around the stone.
Red-hot pain seared across my skin. And it wasn’t just because the stone was still blazing hot from the fire. This was a different kind of pain, the stabbing, scalding pain of magic that wasn’t my own pouring into my body through my palms. And I licked it up like a chocolate milkshake through a straw. My scream echoed through the hall.
“Rae!” Sondra cried in concern. She reached out and touched my shoulder, and shock of a million volts burst down my arm.
I could feel her magic. This wasn’t the minute charge I imagined she felt around other witches. It was sizzling hot, electric pain that felt as if I was standing in the eye of a thunderstorm. I could feel them all. All the witches, all the shifters, all the artifacts in existence. And I knew that by my simple command, I could flip off the switch to any one of them at will. The Wise Owl was more than just an artifact to control. It was a direct line to Synchrony. Anyone with malicious intentions could wreak serious havoc with this thing. It had to be the most dangerous weapon in the world.
And I had access to it. The possibilities flipped through my mind at lightning speed, but they went so fast that I could hardly process them. One thought stuck: I could do anything… be anything.
It’d be so easy.
Which is why it felt so wrong. Life wasn’t easy. Life was an endless roller coaster ride with no destination. Sometimes it made you want to laugh and smile. Most times, it made you want to vomit.
This was one of those times when life was forcing my guts back up my throat. Whatever this power was, it wasn’t me. I didn’t want it. But more than that, I didn’t want anyone else to have it.
“Rae,” Sondra repeated, concern laced in her tone.
“Destroy… it…” I managed through gritted teeth.
Sondra’s eyes widened as the ground began to shake beneath our feet. She took several steps backward toward the pile of rubble.
The pile of rubble where Venn lay dead.
I squeezed my eyes shut, doing my best to push my grief down. I’d handle it later. Right now, I needed to focus on destroying this artifact before the magic in it destroyed me.
