Enflame (Insight #6)(71)

“You can make a hurricane appear with a mood swing, but fire is hard for you?”

“I don’t have time for your games. Fire is your deal.”

“It is, but in order to hinder Xavier tonight, we need your essence. You have to start a fire with a glance.”

“Well, I can’t, so what is Plan B?”

“You will. Now.”

I glared at him.

“There you go. Now focus on my hand, see the fire—little baby lightning, if you will.”

“Focus on my dislike of you,” I teased.

“If that is what makes you tick,” he said with a wink.

I was so frustrated that I could have manifested a hurricane to whisk him away at that instant, but I held it in and focused on his hand. I saw the lightning in my mind, the strike of it hitting the ground. With little effort, fire appeared in his hand.

“Fantastic. Now blow it out.”

I leaned forward, but he held out his hand to stop me. “The right way,” he said in an annoyed tone.

Holding his stare, I thought of a wind and blew the fire out.

“That’s my girl.”

“Not yours.”

“Your loss,” he threw back at me in a playful tone. “Call Guardian over.”

“Landen,” I said through gritted teeth.

I glanced over my shoulder and sent a gentle wind toward where I knew he was standing in the far distance.

“You’re getting a bit dark, I like the shade, but you two need to find a moment to chill out before tomorrow,” Phoenix ordered.

“Busy day, fake ball, wicked spells and all.”

He pursed his lips as his fiery eyes cascaded over me. “You have to find the moments, even seconds. You were doing that in the other dimension. Maybe you need to think about changing your address.”

“Are you the one putting those ideas in Landen’s head? Not liking it here?”

“Oh, trust me, he likes it here, too much, I’m afraid. We were focused before you came back. These two dimensions are distracting you.”

“In some way, I agree. But this home, these people need us.”

“They need you to be strong and focused. Learn to do that here, or move.”

“Are you trying to make me lose my control?”

“Not at all. You’re dim. He’s distracted. Fix that.”

“Fix what?” I heard Landen say. A second later, he appeared over the hilltop.

“Phoenix has disdain for Chara,” I said, leaning into Landen as he hooked his arm around my waist.

“I’m sure it’s a bit bright,” Landen said to defend him. “Did you get everything in order?”

“Yep. She’ll be there. So will your sis.”

“You need Clarissa?” I asked.

“The blood of a Witness.”

“She is not changed all the way. Did you think to ask Silas?”

“He knows what’s going down. He’ll show up if he wants to,” Landen said, glancing over his shoulder toward where I knew Charlie and the others were.

“Are they okay? Was there a fight or something?” I asked.

“They are just trying to figure out their own way.”

He was holding something back. There was more to what happened over there, no doubt, but his intent was to keep us out of it. Every part of me wanted to argue with him. The only thing holding me back was the fierce protection I felt coming from him, too. He wasn’t going to let them fall into any of our past mistakes, but he didn’t plan to step in until he had to. He knew I would not be so cautious.

“Did the message left for them make any sense?” Phoenix asked.

Landen hesitated, then said, “I think the dead are going to fall – multa ceciderunt ut altius surgerent.”

“‘Many things have fallen, only to rise higher,’” Phoenix murmured to explain the non-English words.

“It’s just the way the message was worded—coded,” Landen mused. “We didn’t really win anything with those last planets. The meditation of the kids says that. I think if we undo this spell, the dead may fall. Lives were lost along this path.”

“Dane? Clarissa?” I said as a shiver ran down my spine.

“Not sure yet. I get the impression that it would be souls not at rest. August thinks that as we move forward, there are some spells we will not be able to do because the souls needed to recreate them have perished. He thinks Charlie and the others are the key to reaching those spirits. He also stressed that the energy they would create would be so bold that every soul could see it—use it. That the darkest of souls would rise, too.”

“You think it’s Donalt, don’t you?” Phoenix said as his eyes appraised Landen.

Landen glanced at me, questioning my response to that idea. “It crossed my mind. If that is true, it may have nothing to do with us. Then again, it may have everything to do with us. Xavier and Donalt were enemies, but they shared a common hatred for us, our cause. They could unite.”

“I’m not quite sure that they were our enemies,” Phoenix stated flatly.

Landen pulled me a little closer. “If we thought about this from Xavier’s point of view, bringing Donalt back would be a win for him. We need to figure out how to counteract that – anyone who falls should be able to be sent back if they are blocked before they fully manifest, which means the second that spell is complete, we have one hour to find who’s fallen and send them back.”