Burning in a Memory (22 page)

             
“How romantic,” she quipped, but would have been lying to say her blood pressure didn’t surge a bit. She suddenly realized Adam had chosen a moment where she couldn’t be close to him or lose the conversation in physical contact. Across the long length of the wooden table, they could only hold hands. That was far from the frat boy or slick club-goer guy she typically dealt with. Her chest tightened and it felt harder to breathe. Making eye contact with him was difficult without the flush racing through her cheeks.

             
Another door slamming drew her from the moment, but this time even Adam flinched. Tony slid into the room from the hall and presumably from the basement. His face red, aura glowing, Tony was clearly livid again.

             
“Damn it, Adam, where’s your bloody brother?” he hissed.

             
Adam was up from his seat in seconds and crossed to the end of the table. He held two open palms in the air but tension still laced his voice.

             
“What’s wrong? What has the shade told you?” he asked.             

             
Tony made a violent backward gesture with his hand.

             
“Told me? He’s told me nothing. But he’s asking me about what’s wrong with Leon. He’s telling me that shades everywhere are interested in his condition.”

             
Adam’s face blanked.

             
“It doesn’t matter.”

             
While both men kept their voices down, she shamelessly listened. At their close proximity, whispering wouldn’t mask their conversation. Tony formed fists.

             
“It doesn’t matter so long as it doesn’t leave here and tell anyone our secrets. But its friends will come looking for it. Half of them might already be on the way here. We don’t need that! If he escapes, we’re screwed. We need to get rid of him,” Tony snapped.

             
Unable to sit anymore, Adelaide rose from her seat and made it back to the hall.

             
“Tony, let me deal with it. There may still be more answers,” Adam said.

             
“I’m done. I’m done letting you deal with things! You’ve been trying to thus far and look where it’s gotten us,” Tony said but Adam spoke at the same time. Their voices merged and rose into jumbled shouts. A loud bang came from the stairs and Leon joined them at the bottom floor.

             
“Tony, back off,” Leon said.

             
In that second, Adelaide backed farther into the hall and away from the center of the action. The tension between the two mages rose rapidly, and her skin prickled with foreboding. Months of spats threatened to come to a hilt right now. Adam got her attention.

             
“Go to my room, now,” he whispered.

             
Leon’s aura flailed. The maddening pulse of energy swept through the room in nauseating bursts, overpowering Tony’s easily. She saw her opening, a gap between the two, and took it. She reached the hall, grabbed the doorknob, and paused.

             
“If you won’t kill it, then I will,” Tony snapped and moved for the hall.

Leon lunged from the stairs and immediately blocked Tony’s path. Tony made a sudden movement and Leon reacted. The exchange virtually invisible, it happened quickly. Shouting sounded above it all but it was the wave of magic that knocked Adelaide from her feet. Whoever took the first blow retaliated quickly.
A burst of magic shook the house to its core. The chaos exploded. Leon was screaming for the shade. Adam was hollering for his brother. Adelaide clawed for the wall to stand. She got to her feet, but the aftershock made her stumble back into the basement door. It gave way under her weight.

             
Adelaide screamed as she fell. Her hands flailed but she didn’t catch the banister in time. She plummeted down the short flight of stairs and nailed the bottom step. Her vision flashed black and pain reverberated up her spine. She found her feet after a moment, but by the time she looked up, the basement door was shut. A halo of light outlined the doorframe and provided the only illumination in the dark basement.

             
A cold fear suddenly seized her in the next second. The shade was in here. Disorientation from the fall lingered but she still felt his presence. She heard the wheezing breath and smelled the bitter smoke that clung to his being. She could only see a hint of his figure in the dark, but refused to stay long enough to see more.

“Adelaide,” it cooed. The sound of his catlike voice made her misstep and stumble. She winced but forced herself to stay calm and find the stairs. The monstrous shade was tied and bound, she told herself. He could not get free.

Wood creaked. The wheezing grew louder. The smell of smoke thickened in the air.

She carefully hurried to the top of the staircase and reached the door. She raced her hand along the wood until she found the knob and twisted, but the lock wouldn’t give. Twisting with all of her might, her muscles burned before she let go. The door was still pressurized in its exact position and that barred her only escape route. Leon’s aura filled the hall outside and the pressure wouldn’t let up until he did.

              “Adam! Adam!” she called. Adelaide beat on the door with her fists, ready to splinter the wood if necessary.

             
“Come down here, Adelaide. I’ve been waiting so long to talk to you,” he hissed.

             
She stopped her futile assault, her fists hovering in the air. The sound of his voice unnerved her and he refused to shut up.

             
“Why won’t you look at me? What are you afraid of seeing?” he asked.

             
Adelaide would have scoffed at the question if fear didn’t keep her so quiet. After a second of collecting her nerves, she turned to face it. His figure was barely visible, but she saw him tug against his bindings. The wooden chair he was bound to creaked again.

             
“I am not afraid of you. You can’t hurt me,” she blurted upon finding her voice.

             
“That boy is not going to protect you…”

             
“You don’t know anything. Leave me alone,” she spat. He was just taunting her now, and it affected her more than she’d like to admit. She turned and pressed her ear against the door. If Adam was on the other side, he stayed silent. Her skin crawled when she couldn’t hear anything at all from the hallway.

             
“You cannot even protect yourself,” the shade said.

             
“Then you’ve never met me.”

             
The door suddenly groaned. It shifted in its frame and she grabbed the knob again. She yanked the door open and the sweet, fresh air of freedom beckoned her out of the dank basement. But then the shade called out to her again and this time he stopped her dead in her tracks.

             
“Regardless, you will come see me soon if you want to survive,” he said. “Because I know your secret. I know what you’re doing here.”

             
She skipped the last step, got out, and slammed the door behind her. She slid into the living room, slowing only when splinters bit at her toes. The pain snapped her attention to the ground. One of the banisters from the stairs didn’t make it. She wasn’t sure where the feathers came from. Before Adelaide could completely lose it, a hand on her shoulder rooted her back to Earth.

             
“Are you good?” Adam came from the living room.

             
She sized him up immediately. His clothes remained intact, skin clear, and hair out of place like usual. Meanwhile Tony sat on the kitchen counter with a blackened eye, bloody lip, and an ice pack. Leon was nowhere to be seen.

             
“I’m fine,” she babbled. Angie worked furiously with a broom nearby. The windows had been opened near her, letting in fresh air. The auras had completely dissipated. Despite the wreckage all over the ground, calm was restoring to the floor.  “What’s going on?”

             
Surprisingly it was Tony who answered her first. He looked over the crimson-splotched rag up against his face and gave her a toothy, bloody smile.

             
“We’re all totally fine now,” he said. If it was a joke, she didn’t get it. Next to her, she could feel Adam hunch over.

             
“It’s just tension from being crammed in a small house together.”

             
She nodded at his explanation but didn’t believe it. Angie approached, sweeping the wreckage with a few quick brushes. She moaned something about the repair costs every time another pile built up. Adam’s hand caught Adelaide’s and he gestured toward her bare feet and one of the couches. She stepped carefully around anything that could damage her feet for a second time.

             
“I heard what you guys had to say,” she revealed. No one seemed surprised, so she prodded for information. “What’s happening with the shade? Did you guys actually agree on something?” she asked when she sprung into the red cushions.

             
“We’re going to kill it right after we get the last few answers it has to offer. It won’t be here by the end of this week.”

             
She had to glance at her watch to remember the day. Friday. She had two days until the end of the week. The recognition struck her like a heavy, sinking anchor in her chest. She felt numb again. She’d be speaking with it shortly, after all.

Nineteen

             
The sun touched her skin until the warmth seeped all the way to her bones. Leaning back until the top of her head was covered in the cabana, she peered into the bright distance as she waited for her cell to connect.

             
“Hello,” she greeted when she heard the distinctive click of the line answering. There was quiet on the other side.

             
She let out a breath, shifting forward until she could see the screen of her phone in the sunlight. The digital clock ticked away, counting the minutes the call was connected. She brought the phone back to her ear. This time Bradley’s voice answered.

             
“I can’t believe you’d call now, after ignoring me forever!” he shouted. She cringed at the static blow through the speaker and brought it an inch away from her head. Her gaze did another familiar sweep of the grounds. She sat on the patio out back, a place she’d known existed but barely spent much time in. Built into the side of the patio was a cabana that helped shield her from the heat of direct sunlight, and she utilized it greedily.

             
“It has hardly been forever,” she chided back.

             
“It has been forever, for my sister. I was worried you’d go after that Colton guy. I was worried you’d be hurt.”

             
She sighed.

             
“I’m sorry, Bradley, I really am. But I need you to get mom or dad on the phone now.”

             
“Why? What’s wrong now? Are you okay?”

             
She grimaced.

             
“I’m okay. I need to talk to our parents though. Now.”

             
He whined but complied. She braced herself for the voice that came on the line.

             
“What the hell?”

             
Short, sweet, and painfully bitter, it did sound like her mother.

             
“I’m doing great, thank you for asking.”             

             
She snorted. “Your brother has been crying to me all week. I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Every day we think you’re out there, dying on the streets, all because you couldn’t let go of the concept of magic. I hope what you found was worth it.”

             
Her heart sunk back into her stomach. She wanted the sweet woman back, not the angry mother. She hated herself enough anyway.

             
“I can’t talk long, but I have to ask you something huge. Please, I know dad will refuse to do it but you guys have to leave the house. Go on vacation. Don’t lie to me about the money, I know you have a vacation fund stacked on top of the fridge.”

             
Her mother sputtered and gasped on the other line. Adelaide bit into her lip until it turned white.

             
“Why? What’s going to happen? We can’t leave this house, Adelaide, we just bought it,” her mother said, her voice breaking.

             
“Make it temporary until I figure out what’s going on. I’m not certain, but if you’re in danger too then I won’t have a chance to warn you again,” Adelaide said firmly. She posed to hang up. The only thing that could come after would be more tears, more guilt trips, and more panic. Her mother said something though she didn’t expect. It was something sweet but was equally painful to hear.