Witch's Wrath (Blood And Magick #3)(43)
“It wasn’t just me. One of the imps had followed me… I had been using my shield for hours, I could feel my energy fading, and just when I thought that I would have to drop it and run, the imp gave me whatever magick it had been storing.”
“Well, you owe that guy two debts of gratitude. Jared and I had been looking for you all night when it appeared from out of nowhere and lead us to you. It still calls you monkey witch, by the way.”
A genuine smile appeared on my face. Once, those things had been a huge thorn in my side. I couldn’t be more grateful for them now.
Nicole grabbed a wet cloth from a bowl and gently dabbed my cheeks with it. I hadn’t realized how dirty, or how sore, my face was until she applied the water to my skin. “All night I’d a feeling something was wrong,” she said, “All night, I couldn’t shake it. That’s why when Jared knocked on my door, I was ready. I almost expected something would happen, only…”
She couldn’t finish the sentence, and again I saw her eyes begin to well with tears again. “Nicole,” I said, keeping my tone as soft and as comforting as possible, “I’m here, I’m alive, and I won’t let myself get into that kind of danger again. What’s the matter?”
“I didn’t… I’m sorry, Maddie.”
Nicole was shaking now, and I took hold of her shoulders to try and stop the shaking from getting worse. She had been hiding something from me ever since I woke up, some other thing that had happened, and the weight of it was crushing her like a pebble at the bottom of the ocean. “Is it Jared?” I asked, as my heart started to race, “Has something happened to Jared?”
She shook her head and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Emmett, then, or Dean? Are they okay?”
“They’re fine,” she said.
“Then what is it?”
“I… I can’t tell you yet,” she said, “You’re hurt; you need to rest.”
“Nicole, if something else has happened, I need to know about it. Please. You have to tell me.”
“I promised him I wouldn’t.”
“Promised who?”
She turned her eyes away from me. “I promised Jared I would keep you in here, keep you safe while you recovered. Then we would all tell you. But…”
“Nicole… you’re scaring me…”
“Please, I promise I’ll tell you, but you have to relax.”
“Goddammit, what is it?”
A surge of magick came rushing out of me, causing Nicole to shield her face. It was a wave strong enough to shatter the glass and bowl on the end table, make the ceiling fan tremble, and the curtains sway. Then I saw them again, the flashing lights. They were real, they were close, and they looked almost like—
Nicole had stood up, now, and she didn’t seem to be able to decide between keeping me pinned to the sofa and stopping the shades from moving. I fought to stand as well, fighting through the pain in my muscles, in every fiber of my being, until finally I was back on my feet. I made no apologies for what I had just done. Instead, I moved as quickly as I could out of her living room, around into the foyer, and toward the front door.
As I wrapped my hand around the handle and pulled, Nicole hurried past me and pushed the door shut. “I can’t let you go out there,” she said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Maddie… please. I’m begging you. Stay here, rest, and we’ll tell you everything you need to know later on.”
I pulled on the handle and Nicole offered no resistance, allowing the door to open fully and let the night in.
There was a man standing in the doorway with his back toward me. When he turned around to face me, I saw it was Jared, and my heart leapt. He was here, and he was safe. But the expression on his face was far from happy to see me, and by turning around he had given me a clear view of the street and Lumière.
Or at least, what was left of Lumière.
Jared put his hand out to try and get me back into Azure House. “Maddie, get back inside,” he said, but I didn’t listen. I tried to run through him, getting only as far as his waiting arms, and then I screamed as loud as I could. Like living through a waking nightmare, I saw and heard everything, but could do nothing.
The fa?ade was gone, the towers were gone; all that remained of the front of the house was a charred, blackened section of the wall around the front door where the structure was strongest. The rest was black, standing in stark contrast against the glowing orange embers still burning in and around the house. As I continued to scream, making my voice coarse and raw, it was almost as if the pain I was feeling wasn’t only my own.
And through it all, there wasn’t only the smell of burnt wood and smoldering leaves circulating heavily in the air, but also the distinct odor of rotting eggs.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I couldn’t process the passage of time. In fact, it seemed like no time at all had passed between the moment I saw my home—Eliza’s home, which Jean Luc had built— charred and burnt, and now, when Jared and Nicole had managed to rush me back into the house and bring me up to one of the bedrooms in an attempt at calming me down.
Jared was standing by the bedroom door, his arms folded in front of his chest, while Nicole gently dried my eyes. I was looking at her, but wasn’t seeing her. All I could see were the embers, the burned fa?ade, and the way the pulsing orange glow seemed to emanate from what was left of the house and touch everything around it.