Mia jumped out of the car. She called to Christina as she ran. “Get Em in the car, just in case. Then back down the hill. Take the dogs too. Buddy? You need to follow them and protect Christina and Em.”
Buddy took off and hovered over Christina’s car. The dogs followed Christina as she grabbed Em’s car seat handle and took off.
Sarah looked back, and relief filled her face. WhenMia joined the group fighting the fire, she said, “Thanks, Mia. I’ve been distracted between the fire and Em. Knowing she’s out of the danger is helpful.”
Trent looked down at her. “Cerby and Tempest got a little carried away today with their training. Now, I can’t get the fire to stay out.”
“It’s not my fault,” Sonja yelled over the noise of the water as it hit the fire. “We do this training at the camp all the time.”
Trent rolled his eyes. “Any suggestions here would be amazing, Level Five.”
“Shut up.” Mia smiled at him and then focused on the building. “You’re fighting the fire. You should be joining it.”
She walked toward the part of the house that was in flames and started talking to it. “Fire, fire, burning bright. Warm our toes, cook our food, keep us safe, and stay contained. The house is your home as well. Take good care of it and us.” She raised her hands, trying to enclose all the fire together. “We support one another. We are one. We support each other. We are one.”
Slowly the fire went out. Mia waved her hand at the water hose, and the water stopped flowing.
“Hey, we need to get all the embers.” Sonja waved the limp water hose at her. “Turn it back on.”
“We don’t need it, and having the water running tells the fire to keep burning. To keep fighting. We are one. We support one another. We take care of all of us.” Mia took a breath, and she could hear the pop as the house went back to normal. Prefire. She didn’t know what it looked like inside, but Trent could fix whatever was wrong with magic.
With the house safe and the fire cut off, Mia texted Christina to come back. Then she turned to Trent. “What on earth happened?”
Sonja threw down the hose and stomped over to where the others stood. “The hellhounds are out of control, that’s what happened. I should never have agreed to this unconventional training method.” She shook a finger at Mia. “I thought I made it clear that no one was supposed to bother us here. You need to leave, now!”
CHAPTER20
“You are the one who needs to leave,” Trent said to Sonja. “You’ve been trying to pit the hellhounds against each other since you got here. We aren’t teaching them to be mean; we’re trying to get them to control their other side. You caused this, and you should be thankful that Mia was here to fix the fire. The entire forest might have gone up.”
“I told you when I came that outsiders were not allowed during the training process. It was bad enough that you brought the second hellhound here, but then Sarah and the baby? We were at summer camp, not hellhound school.” Sonja glared at him. “I don’t know what I ever saw in you.”
“That’s good, because there was no way you were going to get me to leave Mia and even have a short relationship with you. We are not compatible. At all. If this was your plan, you were way off base. Now go getyour things. I want you out of here before I get back.” Trent turned his back on Sonja and went to join Mia in Christina’s car.
Sarah packed Em and Tempest into her car and followed Trent and the rest back to the academy. Now, they were all sitting around the front room, waiting for Mark to get out of a meeting and come to the academy to talk about the hellhounds and their training.
“If you hadn’t come, I might not have a house.” Trent put his arm around Mia. “And the forest might have burned down. The drought has kept everything powder-keg dry out here this winter. Cerby and Tempest weren’t out of control, Sonja was. I don’t think it helped that I kept Cerby in my room at night. He barked several times in the middle of the night, and I suspect Sonja was trying to get inside. She has a thing for me.”
“Really.” Mia rolled her eyes.
“Yeah, one of those sad, unrequited-love types of things.” Trent held up his hands. “I was good, just ask Sarah.”
“Your man was a perfect gentleman to all the women in the house, which made Sonja even madder. He put Em to bed every night, then he’d go to his room with Cerby without coming back down to the living room. Sonja freaked out the first time. She kept asking what was taking so long. When I got your text that you were safely tucked in, I headed upstairs myself. I bet she sat there for another hour, waiting for you to come down.” Sarah sipped her water. “We worked well together, I think.”
“Brandon Maxwell sent the letter asking for thehouse training,” Mia added to the discussion. “Then he lied to me and told me he didn’t.”
“Why would he want Cerby trained at home?” Trent asked, but then he looked around the room and realization hit him. “So Sarah and I would be taken out of play. Two less people to worry about. Whoever this is was trying to isolate you.”
“I bet he didn’t count on me coming back,” Damien said as he stood and refilled his glass from a crystal decanter of what Mia assumed was whiskey from the smell.
He, Thomas, and Grans were all sipping the liquor. Trent and Levi had beers. Christina was drinking sparkling water. Sarah was on soda and Mia had just switched to a wine cooler. No one was driving tonight. Mark would pick up his family, but not until they talked about the murder. First, they needed to get Trent and Sarah caught up with what had happened since they’d been quarantined.
“You’re lucky you still have a house. That’s why hellhounds are trained far away from structures in the woods or the desert.” Thomas leaned back on the couch with Abigail by his side. “If you remember, I wasn’t a fan of this plan.”
“But it kept Cerby home. I think he’s done. Having Tempest there accelerated the training process. Sonja kept denying it, but even she could see they learned quicker together. Now, without someone egging them on to fight, they should be fine.”
“She was using a cattle prod,” Sarah said. “I was planning on pulling Tempest tomorrow once I saw that.Sonja denied using it, but I saw it in her bag. She tortured them to get them to fight. It’s not right.”
“And it’s against training protocol,” Thomas said. “If you don’t mind telling your story again, I’d like to report this to the National Office. If she’s doing it, maybe the rest of the McManns are too.” He stared at his drink. “No animal should have to deal with mean trainers.”
