Anomaly (Causal Enchantment #4)(65)

Ripping his mask off, Julian cast it aside. “Maybe you’re wrong.” He set his jaw in a way that I knew guaranteed only heartbreak.

I took a step forward, shifting hunks of concrete this way and that. A piece of metal pinged against a steel beam. Glancing down, dismay turned my stomach. Holding the metal plaque with the number of the building up in front of me, all I could offer my friend was the truth. “I’m sorry, Julian. I’m not wrong.”

His eyes drifted from the plaque to my face to the plaque, and then to the pile of rubble beneath him. “She’s somewhere in here, isn’t she?” I don’t think it was meant as a question. Reaching down, he began tossing chunks of concrete, each one sailing like children’s building blocks. Several times we had to dive away to avoid their path.

Sofie casually turned to scope out the area around us. Though I couldn’t see her face, I knew her eyes were narrowed. “Do you sense him?”

I could. Like a piece of food stuck in my tooth, I was ever aware of his presence. I also knew he hadn’t kept up once we’d begun running. “He’s about four miles back.” I knew it as well as I knew my own name.

Perhaps because I wanted to know it.

“He could close that distance in under two minutes,” Sofie said as she pulled off her mask, tossing it to the ground next to Mage’s. “But I suppose it’s far enough for now.” Turning to face me, her eyes weighed me down like bricks on my shoulders, a mixture of apprehension and curiosity and awe swirling around her. Could she read me as readily as I could read her? Or was this another bonus ability?

“You are full of surprises lately, Evangeline.”

You’re telling me, Max grumbled in my head, the rumble of his voice igniting a spark of thrill. His silent treatment had been killing me!

“I didn’t know that I could do that,” I said.

Fiona and Bishop, their masks also cast away, climbed on the pile and helped Julian toss the wreckage away.

“I have to help them,” Caden whispered. When I turned to look at him, a sheen coated his eyes. That bit of hope he’d been holding onto, that Amelie had somehow gotten away, that she was still alive …

Gone.

“They will not find what he’s looking for in this rubble,” Mage murmured softly.

No, they wouldn’t.

But what if the rubble were no longer there?

If this magic was delivered by a genie and this was my third wish, I knew in an instant what that wish would be.

Stooping to pick up a small hunk of concrete, I wondered if this was possible. I wondered if it was even sane to try. No matter what, I knew it was worth it.

Closing my eyes, I let my fingers rub against the hard matter. How would one reconstruct this building? Like building a Lego house. One block at a time. I’d seen building constructions before. The concrete blocks and support beams and the cranes. They were built in layers.

That burn deep within my core began to heat and rise as I pictured the mirage of this site from only minutes ago—standing tall and distinguished along the peaceful street, its walls stretching into the sky, the glass forming a delicate finishing touch.

The heat rose and filtered through my limbs, warming my entire body with an energy I couldn’t describe. It was an intoxicating feeling that I was willing to let consume me as I stood there in the darkness of human despair.

Giving Julian and Caden back hope.

Gasps pulled my eyes open. I think I let one of my own out as I took in the looming structure before me. Everything, right down to the metal address plaque, was perfectly intact. To the left, nothing but destruction. To the right, nothing but destruction.

But in front of us, a gleaming building stood.

I’d never seen Mage slack-jawed. Not once. Until that moment.

Julian tested the glass door to find it unlocked and swinging open. With one last look back my way—his chocolate-brown eyes wide with shock—he bolted for the elevator.

“Holy shit, there’s even electricity!” Bishop bellowed.

“We’re going in.” Caden grabbed my hand and tugged me forward.

Everyone was quick behind us, including Max, to pack into the elevator, wanting to see if this worked. If what I’d intended had happened. I wanted to see it with my own eyes.

The sign in the lobby said that the Greenpark Brokerage Firm was on the nineteenth floor. Bishop wrapped his arm against a fidgeting Fiona as the elevator ascended.

Even Lilly’s eyes were filled with anticipation, though she’d never really gotten along with Amelie.

I think we all wanted to see what I could do, if not for different reasons.

The elevator dinged.

The doors opened.

And I knew.

I could bring back the dead.

Chapter Twenty-Seven – Sofie

No one could bring back the dead.

No one but the Fates.

“By the gods,” Mage hissed beside me as Amelie’s springy blond curls came in to view. Not far behind her was the lone chair, still sitting in front of the window.

The exact stage that Viggo had set for filming.

The silvery cord lay on the ground like a torn party streamer, a broken chair leg beside it. At least Julian was smart enough not to grab the merth with his bare hands.

Evangeline had turned back time, reconstructing the entire building as we stood by and watched. At first I didn’t believe it. I thought it was some illusionary trick.