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So, I plucked one blonde hair from my head, and handed it over. Imani grabbed her purse from underneath the stall counter and pulled out a little square cloth bag. She coiled up my hair and slipped it inside before pulling the drawstring tight and looping the thread around the top.
She then offered me the little pouch, and I saw that she’d secured it with a bit of leather cord. “Now, the gris-gris works best when you tuck it into your left shoe, but…”
We both glanced down at my sandals.
“Just maybe wear it like a necklace.” Imani pressed the gris-gris into my hands with a smile. “It will help.”
The bag felt warm, which was neat, since other than hair, all I’d seen in there were some herbs and a stone, nothing that should be giving off any heat at all. It was probably Imani’s magic, it always felt like warm sunshine to me, like she’d brought a little bit of the heat from her home town, New Orleans, with her.
“Thank you,” I said. I’d have taken anything that might have helped.
I slipped the leather cord over my head and tucked the cloth bag under the neckline of my shirt, and I honestly did feel a little better. At least, that feeling like I was going to jump out of my skin at any moment had faded. Though the feeling of being watched lingered, and had me glancing over my shoulder every once in a while, searching the crowd.
A few hours later, I was on my own and the sky was already streaking with red and gold as the sun sank behind the trees. I started breaking down what little stock I had left, placing the potions in bottles and the candles in their own boxes, along with the few dreamcatchers that hadn’t sold. Once it was full dark, there wouldn’t be much more in the way of sales to be had. At that point, the festival really switched to more of a party, with the bonfire and music and food. So, I packed everything away and lugged the boxes back to my Jeep before it got too dark to see clearly.
I was just stashing the last box in the back of my car when Jake, one of Louisa Rutledge’s older sons came jogging up. The Jeep’s interior lights hit his eyes, and they backwashed yellow in the gathering shadow like a predator’s. It wasn’t unusual, he was a werewolf after all, but for some reason just that one little thing had the back of my neck crawling.
I shook myself. That was completely ridiculous, I’d known Jake for years. He was a good kid. A little mischievous, sure, but not any trouble. What was wrong with me?
“Hey, Poppy,” he said, not noticing my little internal argument. Jake shoved his shaggy dark hair back off his face with one hand. “We’re having some trouble getting the bonfire to light. Can you come give us a hand?”
I swallowed, hard. The idea of getting close to the fire made me feel like my skin was going to slither off. My heart broke into a sprint, sweat beading at my temples.
Jake frowned, his nose twitching.
“Sure,” I said, trying to distract him from my reaction. “I’d be happy to.”
The lie coated the inside of my mouth like ashes.
Chapter Fourteen
There was already a bit of a crowd gathered, waiting for the bonfire, and the happy chatter began to drift into muttering the longer the volunteers took to actually ignite the pile of kindling.
My anxiety took another bound forward as I tried to help everyone figure out why the starter wasn’t working. I just wanted the stupid thing lit so I could get away from it. The disquiet of the crowd wasn’t helping, either. Somehow, over the sounds of the crowd, the music, the dinging of the games and the music coming from various stalls, I could hear people starting to complain.
Standing there, trying to coax some sparks to life felt like torture, like knowing a monster was going to jump out at you in a haunted attraction, but not when it would happen. The anticipation drew out and out and out until you were jumping at every creak.
I just wanted it over. My heart was beating so heavily that I could feel it in my mouth. If the blasted fire would catch, I could get away from it and stay away from it until it had burned itself out. My head was full of dreams of twisting gold and scarlet flames, and all the ways everything could go wrong.
The world went still for a second, or at least it felt that way. There was a pause, like something huge taking in a breath, and then with an enormous, echoinghumph, the fire caught.
But it wasn’t the slow, gradual climb up the stacked tower of wood and kindling that we’d carefully planned. Instead, the fireexplodedupwards, swarming over the pile like the entire thing had been soaked in gasoline. Flames ate at the wood like a starved creature, devouring in huge, ragged gulps. Dark wood turned gray and scaly before crumbling away into ashes.
I flinched backwards with a scream, throwing myself away from the sudden burst. The flames shot upward, raining burning embers down onto the grass and lashing out at the closest stalls. A few cloth awnings caught, smoking and sparking in the dark. People screamed, trying to get clear as little points of fire started burning in the grass like a sinister field of stars in the dark.
No!I thought, shaking my head.It’s all coming true!
My hands clasped over my mouth, horrified as the flames stretched, higher and higher still, as though reaching for the skies. Smoke burned my eyes, and hot air slapped me in the face, like a dragon had exhaled its fiery breath on us all.
Then Roy was there with a huge bucket of water. The muscles in his arms bulged as he threw it, not at the fire like I’d expected, but at the grass, soaking it and making sure none of the burning bits floating down from the bonfire would catch. Others joined in, with water and sand, some putting out the smaller flares using blankets they’d brought to sit on. Still other people took off jackets and beat the fires out on the little shop stalls, making sure it didn’t spread.
I couldn’t breathe. There was a ringing in my ears that drowned out everything around me, the shouting, the running, the people yelling back and forth to each other as they tried to keep the fire from reaching the tree line.
Finn. Where was Finn?
It was the only thought racing through my head. Last I’d seen him, he was eating hot dogs with his friends at Roy’s truck. But where was he now? I turned around, searching for him and then round again, when I didn’t catch any hint of his blonde head.
The bonfire had already calmed down to something controllable, burning merrily in the confines we’d set for it, and the other stray fires were in the process of being put out, but none of that could calm the panic clawing at my insides.
