“I have to tell you something,” I announce and then it all comes pouring out of me.
“Why does he keep giving you things without an explanation of what they are?” Alex asks when I’m done, taking the ring from me and studying it closely.
I’m sitting on the countertop with my legs dangling over the edge. “He said it was because I had to figure things out on my own and pave the world with my memories, whatever the hell that means.” I take the ring back and run my finger along the gemstones. “It’s not like I can pave them with too many, since my times about up.”
Alex chokes on bite of sandwich. “No it’s not,” he says, catching his breath.
“Alex, I don’t think it’s good to deny it,” I say. “I think it’s better if I—”
He strides toward me, positioning himself between my legs and concealing his hand over my mouth. “I’m not going to let you say that.” He lowers his hand from my mouth to my thigh. “I won’t let you give up yet.” He leans in and softly brushes his lips against mine, then pulls away and says, “Laylen and I have to go somewhere right now, but we’ll talk about this more when we get back.”
Laylen glances at his watch. “Is it time to go already?”
Alex nods with his gaze fastened on mine as he backs toward the back door. “Yeah, we should get a move on if we want to make it.”
“Where could you two possibly be going?” I ask, hopping down from the counter. “ And together?”
“Just somewhere,” Laylen says, giving me a smile, but it’s a mask to hide something else—his uneasiness.
“Don’t worry.” Alex reaches for his jacket on the back of the kitchen chair. “We’ll be back soon.”
Before I can say anything else, they walk out the door, leaving me stunned and standing in the kitchen alone. It’s so strange, the two of them walking out of the house together. And content. It makes me worried.
Finally, I decide to find Aislin and ask her if she knows what’s going on. I find her in the living room, sorting through spices and various bags of what looks like pixie dust, a bowl in front of her where’s she’s mixing ingredients.
“Do you know where Alex and Laylen are going?” I ask, stuffing the ring into my pocket and then joining her on the sofa.
She glances up from a plastic bag filled with flakes of orange leaves. “They went somewhere together?”
I nod, hitching my finger over my shoulder toward the back door. “They just left.”
She opens the bag and sniffs it. “Okay, that’s probably one of the strangest things I’ve heard all day.”
“Maybe.” But I’m not sure that it is. I think seeing Nicholas might top it. I sit back down on the couch and tighten the elastic in my hair. “So have you figured out what went wrong with your spell?”
She shakes her head, sealing the bag back up. “It’s strange but from everything I’ve read, it should work. And I can feel the power, but when I try to use it, I get nothing but this fizzling feeling.” Aislin opens the laptop in front of her. “I think maybe we could—”
A loud bang from inside the house silences both of us.
“What the hell was that?” Her eyes are huge as she looks at the window and then at the front door.
“Maybe Alex and Laylen forgot something.” I start for the kitchen and she tensely follows after me.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Aislin whispers as we approach the kitchen, “It’s coming from in there.”
“Do you have a weapon, just in case…” I trail off as smoke rounds the corner of the kitchen, snakes around my ankles, then heads for the living room.
Aislin grabs a knife from the pocket of her hoodie. “Ready when you are.”
I don’t have a weapon, but decide to rely on my strength something I need to get used to. “I’m ready.”
We swing around the corner on high alert and step into the kitchen. The smoke is coming in from a roaring fire burning in the garbage can in the driveway and the back door is agape, swinging in the wind and letting the smoke and wind inside.
Aislin lowers the knife. “Oh, thank God. For a second I thought the house was burning down.”
I inch toward the back door. “Yeah, but who started the fire and opened the door?”
She raises the knife again as if this has just occurred to her. “You think something’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure.”
The sight of the fire blazing toward the night sky is sending red flags popping up all over the place. My mind drifts to a vision I’ve never seen before yet it feels like I have and I wonder if it’s some kind of after effect from changing a vision. Fires in the street. Chaos everywhere as vampires, fey, werewolves, all paranormal creatures run the streets wildly under the control of evil.
You need to prepare yourself.
I remember something Stephan once said to me; how he was told that Alex and I might kill the star and ourselves and ruin his plan but that he was working on an alternative plan. But what does that mean?
“Do you have a fire extinguisher?” Aislin asks, checking the cupboards and drawers.
I point at the cupboard below the kitchen sink. “It’s under there.”
Moments later, Aislin is outside and putting out the fire. I watch from the back steps, holding her sword, assessing the very quiet neighborhood around me. Everything seems normal, but something still feels off.
We head back inside, locking the door behind us and Aislin sets the extinguisher down on the kitchen floor. “There. Fire problem all taken care of.”
She goes back into the living room while I put the extinguisher back in the cupboard. “Something’s not right,” I mutter, feeling the calm before the storm. “I can feel it.”
Chapter 37
It seems like hours tick by as I wait for something else to happen. It gets later, then earlier as morning starts to arrive. I’m not sure what compels me to do it, whether its sheer bravery or stupidity, but I finally dare to but the ring on. I expect something to happen—a big explosion or maybe I disappear—but nothing happens. So I keep it on and lie down on the sofa, skimming through the Foreseer book, while Aislin works on a spell.
At about three or four o’clock in the morning Laylen and Alex finally return. I sense something is immediately off by their bloodshot eyes and their worn out expressions.
“Are you two okay?” I ask as Alex shucks off his jacket and hangs on a coatrack it in the foyer. “Have you been crying? Or are you stoned?”