And then, like something out of my worst nightmares, she heads for one of the shelves and holds her flaming hands to the books.
They ignite in a whoosh of blue flame, the strange fire devouring everything it touches in a matter of seconds. Shelf by shelf she moves through the ground floor of the library, setting it all ablaze.
The cameras start to flicker, the screens cracking, circuitry melting.
In the very last seconds of footage, we watch in shocked horror as Westlyn falls to her knees and laughs, palms outstretched as if she’s waiting for a blessing. She laughs and laughs andlaughsuntil the sick sound of it is lodged so deeply in my memory, I’m sure it will haunt me for the rest of my life.
But she doesn’t burn. She doesn’t fucking burn.
And as the video finally fizzles out and turns black, as Draegan launches to his feet and smashes his fist through the wall, as Jude lets out a howl that pierces my eardrums and Auggie just shakes his head over and over again, tears staining his cheeks, I hold on to that final image.
Westlyn, her skin silver-blue in the light of her magic fire, that eerie laugh reminding me that she might have actually survived this.
It’s a hope as thin as gossamer, but it’s the only one we’ve got, and I’m not about to let it go.
I get to my feet, taking the laptop with me.
“Stop it,” I command. “All of you. Pull it together, for fuck’s sake.”
Auggie and Jude look up at me with wide, shocked eyes. I can’t recall a time when I ever raised my voice at them. Not like this.
Draegan whirls on me though, new fire blazing in his eyes. “Don’t youdare—”
“We don’t know the outcome here,” I say. “Yet you’ve already written her off as—”
“The fucking barn is a pile of dust!” he shouts. “We watched her ignite that blaze and fall to her knees in the center of it. There’s no way she...” He shoves a shaking hand through his hair.
“We didn’t actually see her burn, Draegan.”
“Because the fucking cameras melted!” He shoves me in the chest, making me stumble backward.
“I don’t care about the fucking cameras!” I shout, refusing to back down. “We didn’t actually see her die, which means there’s still a chance. There’s a fuckingchance. If the situations were reversed, you know damn well she wouldn’t give up on us. Hell, even if she’d seen a full-color HD video of our deaths, she still wouldn’t believe it until she felt our cold, dead corpses for herself. She’d fight for us until the bitter end, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do for her. So if you want to stand here smashing your fists through the walls and tearing apart the whole damn house, be my fucking guest. But me? I’m going to do everything in my power to prove our girl isn’t a pile of ash. And then I’m going to find her and bring her back home. And you know what? I’dreallyappreciate some backup on this, but if all of you can’t figure out how the fuck to pull your horned heads out of your asses, fine. I’m on this mission either way. Excuse me.”
I shoulder my way past the gargoyles and head down to the study, dropping onto the sofa with my laptop. Grabbing my phone, I pull up the tracking app and sync it up with my computer, fingers flying over the keys, everything inside me still clinging desperately to that gossamer thread.
This has to work. This fuckinghasto work…
“Rook, wait.” Draegan sighs as he enters the room a moment later, the others right behind him. He’s clutching West’s amulet in a tight fist, its luminous violet-and-amber magic absent. “I didn’t mean… That is to say, I was only… You’re right. Tearing apart the house isn’t going to…” Clearly flustered, he blows out another big sigh and says, “What are you doing, exactly?”
“Trying to track her. If I can confirm she left the property, I may be able to find out where.”
“What? How?” He crosses the distance to stand behind the sofa, peering down at the screen over my shoulder. Jude and Auggie follow, the gargoyles once again crowding around the laptop—the only apparent lifeline to our witch.
“I gave her a smartwatch and synced it with my phone,” I say. “It was designed for… other purposes. But now it might just lead us straight to her.”
“A smartwatch?” Jude smacks the back of my head. “You could’ve led with that, mate.Fuck.”
“Forgive me, oh wise one,” I retort. “My thoughts aren’t exactly focused at the moment.”
“Guys.” Auggie glares at them. “Shut the fuck up and let the man work his tech-magic mojo.Please.”
Silence descends, the only sounds the clicking of the keys and a series of beeps as I pull up a map of the entire region and try to home in on a signal.
Nothing.
“Damn it,” I growl.
“What is it?” Drae asks.
