Anomaly (Causal Enchantment #4)(66)

One second we were dodging chunks of concrete as Julian searched in vain. The next, a gentle breeze caressed my cheek and raised the hairs on my neck. I knew that it didn’t belong. I feared it was Viggo swooping in for a quick kill. But glancing around, I quickly dismissed this thought—he was nowhere to be seen. The breeze picked up, catching the attention of Julian and the others. With wary expressions, they stepped off the rubble.

But Evangeline … she didn’t move. She simply stood with her arms out, eyes closed, and a secretive, satisfied smile curling her lips. She didn’t move from that position when Caden called her, touched her, squeezed her arm.

She didn’t move when the air grew suddenly thick and then the windstorm blew in, concentrating its force above the building site until it resembled a contained tornado, gray with dirt and ash, roaring with ferocity. We stood by and watched as the wind plucked pieces of rubble from the ground, sucking them into the funnel.

And then, suddenly, the windstorm evaporated. Left behind was this pristine building.

“What just happened?” Lilly asked cautiously, her blue eyes bright as saucers as the three of us hung back.

“A miracle,” Mage whispered. We watched Amelie pry herself from Julian’s arms to throw herself first at her brother, and then at each of her friends, including Max, ending with Evangeline, the bewildered look never leaving Amelie’s face.

“Should we be worried? I mean, you can’t even do that, can you, Sofie?” Lilly asked.

“No, I certainly cannot.” I couldn’t ignore the worry pricking at my conscience. I now knew what kind of magic coursed through Evangeline. I’d seen it once before.

When I had demanded to face the Fates.

The spark of smoldering flames when she healed the girl, the wind outside to reconstruct this building—I’d bet she was also capable of drawing on water and earth, as necessary.

An invincible, limitless elemental power that adhered to no rules, who could decimate the fledglings, obliterate the witches and the Sentinel, stop Viggo, all with only a thought.

The question remained, though.

Why would the Fates give her their powers?

This made absolutely no sense!

“What do you remember?” Julian asked of Amelie, hugging her close. I imagined he’d be clinging on to her for the foreseeable future.

“I don’t know! I …” Amelie’s hands pushed through her hair as she searched the floor, as if for answers. Not until now had I realized how much I’d missed her raspy voice. “I remember the subway train and chasing the fledglings.” Her pretty face pinched. “Viggo and Jonah were there. Jonah threw the merth around my arm and carried me to this building. Viggo came and then left me. And then I saw …” Her brow spiked as she turned to look out the window. “I saw the missile. I saw it heading right for me and there was nothing I could do. And … it hit. Didn’t it. Didn’t it hit? It had to have hit. Look at it out there!” She paused. “But now I’m here? What are you all wearing?”

Amelie turned and faced Julian, their lips locking, earning the small group’s laughter. She pulled away, her hands slapping both his cheeks as she wrapped her legs around his waist. “How are you not back in that mine with your bin of blood like the freaking troll that I left, huh?”

He dipped his head toward Evangeline. “Her. She compelled me.”

Amelie’s mouth dropped as she turned to regard her friend. “What? How?”

Evangeline shrugged, but she was smiling. She hadn’t stopped smiling since opening her eyes in front of the building, an ethereal glow radiating from her.

A pause and then Amelie’s hands waved with their typical dramatic flair. “Okay, seriously. What happened?”

“We don’t have time for this chatter,” Mage mumbled under her breath, loud enough for me to hear.

Truly, we didn’t. But I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt this miraculous reunion just yet. “You rose from the dead,” Caden murmured, gazing down on Evangeline’s face with a look of adoration.

“I rose from the dead?” Amelie parroted. “Dead? Like Fiona dead?” Amelie turned to me. “Sofie? You brought me back to life?”

A sharp pang stabbed at my heart as I shook my head, knowing what everyone was thinking. No, Sofie was the one who killed you. “Evangeline brought you back.”

Spinning back to point her index finger in Evangeline’s face, Amelie said, “I knew there was something weird about you. Someone’s gonna have to explain it all to me. But if you don’t mind, I’d rather get out of this building.”

“No problemo,” Bishop said, throwing one arm around Fiona and weaseling another around Amelie. He pulled her to him with a wink in Julian’s direction.

“You have ten seconds with her,” Julian warned, his eyes never leaving his girlfriend’s back.

The six of them, plus Max, strolled casually toward us, masks of peace sitting firmly on their faces.

As if we weren’t sitting amidst complete ruin.

As if we didn’t have huge challenges ahead of us.

Perhaps we no longer did, with Evangeline’s ability.

Her eyes settled on mine and I smiled. She smiled back, a warm, joyful smile that I hadn’t seen since the few moments after she’d woken up.

It disappeared just as quickly.