Flames in the Midst (The Jade Hale Series) (37 page)

“Jade, remember what I told you about the fire in St. Augustine?  A fire set by a firestarter is hotter and more powerful than any accelerant known to man.  Amy was protecting herself, but she was also protecting the coven when she killed him.  That includes protecting you.  She won’t ask you, but it needs to be done.  So I’m asking you, and you owe me.”

This was a different Chase than the one I had been getting to know.  It was some combination of the Chase I cared about and the one who was angry at me from the minute I set foot in this house.  I found myself wishing I could really step back in time.  Not the way a time traveler does, but in a mystical, erase all of my knowledge about the past way.  I wish I could forget about being a time traveler and a firestarter and a witch.  As much as I still longed for a normal life and as much as I knew I would still try to live it, I also knew now I did have a responsibility here.

“Fine,” I told him.  “When?”

“Now.  I’ll be right back,” he told me.  I waited on the porch, and he came back in less than five minutes with two shovels and a flashlight.  We trekked back into the woods, me following Chase.

“You know,” he told me, “What you did was not fair.”

“Are we really going to talk about this now?” I asked him. 

“The semester starts in a few days.  I assume it is now or never.”

“Okay.  Why wasn’t it fair, Chase?  I had a choice to make, and I made it.”

“Exactly,” Chase chastised me, “You made a choice.  You made a choice for both of us.  You didn’t give me a say in the matter.  You just figured you knew the way things were, and you ran with it.  You didn’t let me know.  You never even tried to talk to me about it once you made your decision to leave.”

We walked in heavy silence for a few minutes.  Of course, he was right, but what else could I assume?  He had been appalled by the fact I didn’t want to live my life as a Guardian.  We were just too different.

“I’m sorry, Chase,” I told him.  “What was I supposed to do?  You made it very clear you did not want a life outside of becoming a Guardian and working with this coven.  I’m just not ready for that yet.”

“Yet?”

I hadn’t even thought about the word when I tacked it on.  I guess I had changed.  I felt the responsibility of my gifts when I used them to save Sarah and the people in Salem.  I knew I had a duty to do good for others with my gifts, but I still wanted some level of normalcy in my life.  I couldn’t commit to this life one hundred percent like Chase was doing. 

“I need some kind of balance between the two worlds,” I told Chase.  “I can’t live with the coven and dedicate every ounce of myself to being a Guardian right now.  I want to go to school and create a different life for myself.  But I’m also willing to help where I’m needed.”

We came to a stop
, and I felt softer dirt under my feet.  I took a step back so as not to be standing directly over the grave.  Then we dug.  We didn’t talk while we did the work.  I thought about all I had been through in the past eight months.  I never would have guessed after my first year in college I would end up digging up a shallow grave with a Guardian in the middle of the night wearing clothing literally from the 1600s.  The first thing I wanted to do when we got back to the house was change.  Then I would pack.  I was ready to move forward.

When we got close to the body, I let Chase finish the digging.  He moved as much of the dirt out of the way as possible.  It wasn’t as bad as I had feared.  They had wrapped Garrett’s body in a sheet.  The
crimson sheet was drenched with his blood, but I didn’t have to look at the man himself.  I could start the fire from a safe distance and burn the sheet as well.  Chase threw the poker from the fire into the hole as well.  We’d buy Amy a new fireplace toolset.

I stepped back and concentrated.  Although I was tired and I had never burned a dead body before, I could dredge up enough emotion about Garrett to start the fire.  He had tried to use me, tried to capture me, tried to hurt Chase, and tried to kill Amy.  The funeral pit burned quickly and with such intensity I forgot it was January for a moment.  When everything burned, we began
filling in the hole again.  As I shoveled dirt in over the ashes, I noticed the poker from the fireplace.  It looked melted and misshapen.  I had no idea the fires I created were that hot. 

We finished quickly, patting down the dirt with our shovels and covering the spot with pine needles.  We walked slowly back to the house.  It occurred to me Chase had not officially confirmed nor denied the end of our relationship.  I didn’t really know where we stood, but I figured on assuming a break up unless something else worked itself out.  I needed to be on my own for a while anyway.

Before we entered the house, Chase stopped and turned me to face him.

“I’m sorry you didn’t catch Evan and Cameron,” he told me.

“It’s okay,” I said.  “I’ll catch up with them another time.”  Of course, I would have to figure out what time they were in, but I had a feeling I would find out eventually.

“So, this is it then?” he asked.

“I think so.”

“But you’ll be back, at least every now and then?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll see you around,” he said.  He leaned down and kissed me just as passionately as he had when we had kissed for the first time.  I didn’t feel like we were kissing inside of a star tonight, but I did feel a warmth, a tenderness for him.  It took all of my strength to let him go, but I had made this decision.  I was heading back to the lif
e I wanted to make for myself.  When he walked away, he didn’t look back.

Weeks later, I sat in my own apartment studying for my first American History exam of the semester.  I thought about how I could just travel back to check out how things actually played out.  I might do that in the future sometime.  For the time being, I was content to go to class.  I had to keep on alert now that Shadow Rulers were looking for me, but I did my best to lead a normal life.  Amy and Madilyn came over to put a spell on my new apartment as a housewarming gift.  I couldn’t quite live as an Unknown, not that I would want to anymore, but I could live on my own in relative safety.

Zach and I were running partners again.  He didn’t remember me ever being like a sister to him, but he did remember us being friends and going running together.  I kept him at a safe distance for two reasons.  One, I didn’t want to put him in harm’s way again.  Two, since he no longer looked at me as a sister, he did funny things around me he used to do only around other girls, like cover his mouth to pick food out of his teeth.  It was a small change, but it was a change.  I may not be like a sister to him anymore, but he was still like a brother in my eyes, so I kept our friendship on a low simmer.  We went running about three times a week, and we talked if we saw each other on campus, but it was very low key.

I closed my history book for a break and picked up my family spell book instead.  As I walked to my little kitchen table, a wobbly thing I picked up from K-mart, a slip of paper fell to the floor.  I bent to pick it up, but when I realized what it was, I stopped right where I was.  Sitting on the floor, I read the contract that put all the pieces together for me.  It was dated September 14, 1993. 

“We, Peter and Betty Collins, do hereby relinquish our abilities from now until the end of our lives or the end of the life of this contract to Evan Michaels.  In addition, we relinquish our son, Cameron Collins, from now until the end of his life or the end of the life of this contract, whichever comes first, to Evan Michaels.  In exchange, Melissa Collins, will remain unharmed.” 

Cameron was not Evan’s son.  Just as Evan had tried to get my mother to sign me over to him, he got Cameron’s parents to sign him over.  Since Cameron had a sister, at least that is who I assumed Melissa Collins was, Evan had more leverage over his parents.  I wondered whether he made Cameron’s parents choose which child to save or if he went after Cameron from the start.  He probably targeted Cameron for his time traveling gift.

I thought back to the night I had first met Cameron.  I thought about how the lock on the one door had been missing.  How Evan seemed to give Cameron orders.  How Cameron had to stay in the bar while everyone else was in the back.  How much of what Cameron did was because of this contract?  Did he have a choice in anything?  He wanted me to burn the contracts because he wanted to be free.  Then he saw the damage that burning William’s contract had caused, and he began to doubt his hatred of the man who had held him captive for the past eighteen years.

I had not seen Cameron since Salem—not in the real world and not in my dreams.  My emotions for him remained conflicted.  Whatever part he had played in my mother’s murder, chances were he didn’t have a choice in the matter.  I could do something for him now, wherever he was.

I got up and took the contract into my bathroom.  I set it in a metal trashcan in the tub.  I felt the anger welling up in me for the situation Cameron was in. 
How young was he when his parents were forced to give him away?
He couldn’t have been more than four or five.  I focused on the parchment and watched with satisfaction as it exploded into a ball of blue flame.  It fizzled out in my now charred and distorted garbage can.  I would have to get a new one, but it was worth it.  I felt satisfied.  Wherever Cameron was, he would soon realize he no longer had to take orders from Evan Michaels.  It would be up to him to choose a path to follow.  I wondered if that path would cross with mine one day. 

Hello, Reader!

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Again, thank you for spending your time with Jade and me.  Being able to share my work and musings with you is an amazing experience.

Smiles,

Sarah