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“Uncle?”
“Get home, now. We’ve been attacked.”
* * *
I had to promise to help Dr. Lovell with his research in order to leave work early—not even early but before it really even began. I was past the point of claiming there was some family emergency anymore because of how frequently this happened. I didn’t get fired only because I sometimes did my work at night, But still, this happened way too damn often, so often that I was becoming numb to it, which was horrifying. I was more worried about losing my job and more annoyed about my lost moment of peace than I was murder.
And that was what it was.
Murder.
Two witches, killed in their own home.
I stood outside the two-story family house just two streets up from Juniper Avenue, from my house, from the heart of our coven. I stood watching, along with the rest of the neighborhood, in stunned silence from behind yellow police tape, wondering, like them, how it could happen here.
“Mr. and Mrs. Allsbrook?” Adelaide whispered beside me.
“What about their baby? What happened to her?” Fiona asked, stepping on her tiptoes to try to look around the crowd.
“Axel and the elders were able to arrive quickly. They were able to save their daughter, but it was already too late for them,” Rue replied, her back turned away from the house, her eyes watering. No matter how hard or edgy she dressed or how thick the eyeliner was around her eyes, she always broke down first. “Mr. Allsbrook was gifted with visions, yet he didn’t see this.”
I shook my head. “Those who get visions of the future are never able to see their own.”
I was grateful my magic never let me do that, only because it would drive me crazy knowing what would happen to other people but not myself. Mr. Allsbrook didn’t ever seem fazed and actually loved to help. Often, his visions were how we knew where vampires were going to appear or when they were coming. He even told us when there would be snow days or when we should avoid traffic on the highway or take an umbrella. He gave us a warning, and he was almost always right about everything. Definitely more accurate than the weatherman.
That was why we didn’t notice these vampires in our lands last night. If they didn’t set off any traps, and Mr. Allsbrook didn’t see them, the way was clear to run into them.
“Just like that, there are two more orphans,” Rue muttered.
The other orphan, the one now turning into our street, biking with all his might, tears already in his eyes, was none other than sixteen-year-old Breyer Allsbrook. It was like watching someone’s heart die right in front of you. And just when I thought he would fall off his bike, he quickly rushed through the crowd toward the police tape, only for the police to hold him back.
“I live here!” he yelled at them, pushing. “Let me go! I live here! My parents are there! Let me go! Please!”
I bit my tongue to stare down at my feet the moment I saw the doors of the house open, and they began to carry…to carry his parents out.
“No!” His scream made me flinch, made me regret caring about my stupid job and my stupid moment of peace and whatever else. He’d never have it again.
“No! No! No!” He kept crying out, and as he did, I felt it, the tingle of magic in the air that tickled my skin.
“Shit!” I snapped, running across the street, into the crowd before he exposed himself and all of us. But it was like time slowed down, and I watched his left hand spark once, then twice, before a flicker of fire.
“Stop!” I screamed and threw my hands out to reach him when the flame froze, not like ice but like I had pressed pause on it—not just the flame but everything. The birds, the breeze, and when I looked back to where Adelaide, Rue, and Fiona were, they were frozen as well, their expressions and gazes on Breyer, panicked as I was. The world had stopped…except for me.
Oh, my God.
Stepping back, I backed right into Breyer and the flame in his left hand.
Calm down, Druella. Calm down. Focus, I told myself as I reached out to the flame in his white hand and smothered it out. However, the expression of anguish was still on his pale face. He wouldn’t be able to control his magic!
Reaching up, I placed my hands on his
head and whispered the words, “Sleep.”
However, his eyes didn’t shut, even though I’d done this before.
“Sleep,” I said again, but nothing.
What? Why? I can smother his flame. He should be asleep.
