Flames in the Midst (The Jade Hale Series) (4 page)

“Don’t worry.  It will be okay.”

I was swimming in the cleanest river I had ever seen.  The water flowed around my naked body, and I dove through the coolness to reach a pebble on the bottom of the riverbed.  I felt it, cool and smooth, between my fingertips.  I examined the swirl of beige and red carved out by time and changing currents.  I swam towards a small lagoon and waterfall.  The world around me froze as if in communion with my exploration of the river.  On a large flat rock at the edge of the lagoon, my clothes lay out absorbing the warmth of the sun and waiting for my return, but I had no inclination to return.  I felt at one with the river.  I stood, my toes just barely reaching the pebble-covered bottom.  Small fish brushed against my calves like feathers, and I breathed in the moist air rich with the scent of freshly blooming gardenias.

I heard birds chirping in the distance, but saw no movement in the brush or in the treetops.  Everything around me brimmed with life and the green growth of spring in a natural world.  There were no people, no witches, no wars.

“Are you awake yet?”  His voice echoed through the rippling water.  With agony, I recognized the voice and knew the dream had come to an end.  I opened my eyes.  Cameron sat on the bench seat of the booth backing up to mine and leaned in towards me.  I had to warn everyone about him, I thought, now that I was coming to my senses again.  I shot up from the booth and took two steps before the entire bar began to spin around me and the floor rose towards me with the force of a speeding train.  I collapsed on the floor, my legs unwilling to do the work I demanded of them.  He didn’t bother to lift me up.  I was sure he reveled in my misfortune, but he sat down on the neatly swept floor beside me as if we were friends.

“Get…away…from…me,” I growled through clenched teeth.

“I’m not what you think I am,” he said, neither moving away nor helping me up.  I scooted so that my back rested against the bench of the booth, the vinyl of the seat smooth and cold not unlike the stone in the river.  I struggled to keep things straight.  The river was not real, just a dream.  The bar was real, but I wished I were only dreaming.

I examined my surroundings
with discreet glances.   The bar appeared exactly the way it had been when I passed out—no scorch marks or billowing smoke, but no people either.  An eerie silence took the place of the purposeful conversation I had caught pieces of on my way into oblivion.  I turned and looked at Cameron.  I could not see even a trace of his aura.  For an instant, I wanted nothing more than to turn him into a pile of ashes.  After this night, so long ago, I vowed never to start another fire that would put a person in danger, but I didn’t care if this person, this witch, this Shadow Ruler died.  The only thing countering my urge to send him to an early grave was the fact I knew a fire killed my mother tonight.  I knew I started it, but I had to try to resist.  The possible salvation of my mother from a certain and unpleasant demise helped me grasp at a strength I didn’t know I had.  This was more than being able to take care of myself; this was being able to take care of the ones I loved.

I gritted my teeth, hissing in a deep breath.  “Where is everyone?” I asked my captor.

“They’re in the back rooms, Jade.  They’re resting.”  Cameron said my name as if he had known it all along.  I had no idea what was going on here.  He shouldn’t have figured out who I was.  I needed to talk to my aunt, not this Shadow Ruler.  My thoughts were like a roller coaster in a cave; even though I remained in the dark about so many things, they raced forward further into the abyss.

“How did you,” I began, but he finished my question.

“Figure out who you were?” he asked.  “Well, I knew you were a firestarter, like the girl, and I knew you would show up here tonight.  I didn’t realize you were a time traveler.  When I saw you look at the girl, and I noticed you and she have the same eyes and similar features, the link seemed obvious.  Especially taking into account what is bound to happen tonight.  Since you are interacting with your own timeline, this has to be your first journey through time, right?”

“You know I’m a firestarter?” I asked
, staring at him.  The roller coaster approached another peak and began careening into the dark. 
How did he know I was a firestarter?  How did he know little Jade was a firestarter?  What did he plan to do knowing there were essentially two firestarters in the bar?

“You’re not the only one with a gift,” he stated flatly.  “Have you really never met another witch with a rare gift?”  I stared at him blankly.  He may have known I was a firestarter, but he obviously did not know much more than that.  After this night, my aunt and I would go into hiding.  Although I never completely understood why, I enjoyed growing up
as close to normal as possible.  I knew I was a witch with special gifts, and my aunt made me practice spells every weekend and summer for many of my formative years, but we never met any other witches.  Essentially, we lived as Unknowns.

“I have the lovely gift of premonition, although I don’t have much control over it.  It is one of those gifts you can’t turn on or shut off.  It turned on last night, and I saw you here tonight.  I sensed you were a firestarter during the premonition, but that’s all I saw,” he admitted.
  I wasn’t expecting him to be so straightforward.

“Well, let me clue you in.  You are going to kill my mother tonight, and you have made me utterly useless to stop you,” I
raged, as if he would care about my indignation.

“So, she doesn’t sign the contract,” he whispered almost to himself.

“What?  What contract?  What are you talking about?” I demanded.  I may not have been able to walk around the room, but I felt I could force him to talk within just a few minutes.  He knew I was a firestarter, so he also knew I could destroy him very easily taking into account the short distance between us.

“I’ll explain that later,” he brushed my demand off.  I glared at him, my eyes willing his flesh to burn.  I focused all of my anger and pain from this night on him, but nothing happened. 

“I’ve taken care of your gifts and your abilities.  What did you think the lemonade was for, anyway?” his icy voice cut through me.  He knew I wanted to kill him.  I really couldn’t prevent my mother’s death, but if I couldn’t start a fire, then maybe there was hope after all.  As much as I hated to continue an intimate conversation with my enemy, only he could answer my questions.

“What about the others?  What about their gifts and abilities?”  I asked, again through gritted teeth.  Talking to him
felt like swallowing shards of glass.  This Shadow Ruler was responsible for my mother’s death, and there we were, just talking.

“Everyone’s drink had an elixir in it to remove their gifts and abilities, although I don’t think any of the others possess any rare gifts.”
  He rested his head on his knee and began to draw invisible circles on the floor with his finger.

“So they all passed out like me and you carried them off to the back?” I conjectured.  I imagined Madilyn being last and the fear being almost too much for her as she realized that, one by one, her Guardians were becoming incapacitated.

“Well, that would be a bit obvious, don’t you think?” he shot back.  “You’re the only one who passed out.  As of right now, none of them has any idea anything is amiss.  They have no need to use their powers in the safety of this place,” he laughed, and I caught a bit of contempt in his voice.  None of this was making any sense. 
Why would lemonade make me pass out?  Or why would the elixir make me pass out but no one else?  It had to be on purpose.
  There had to be something else he added to my drink, but I couldn’t figure out why.  My mind raced on to the little version of myself, unable to protect herself.  No wonder she called me here, and now, I could do nothing to protect her.

“What about little Jade?” I pressed on urgently.  “You took her gifts, too?” 
Why was he staring at me like that?  It was not a stupid question.
I went over the words in my head to make sure they had come out right.

“You really don’t know much about being a witch, do you?”

I folded my arms and glared at him with the same intensity I would if I could set him on fire.  He just laughed.

“I am presuming from your reaction earlier this evening to Madilyn’s questions about your father
that his leaving had something to do with him discovering you and your mother are both witches.  A man or woman usually finds out through their child doing strange things.  Now, that normally doesn’t happen until grade school, when the child is being taught spells, but you would have been different. 
You
are a firestarter, so I am presuming you set a few things on fire even as an infant.  You got upset your bottle wasn’t there on time, or you had to go to sleep when you wanted to be with your mommy and the emotion started a chain reaction.  Maybe you set your blankie on fire or a doll, but eventually, your father figured out something wasn’t normal.  Am I hitting a nerve?”

I just stared back at him
, jutting my chin out in defiance.  I was not going to let him get to me.

“Okay, so don’t you think your mother would have removed your gift after the first time you set fire to something?  She could have removed your gift, convinced your father it was a
dangerous toy that caused the fire or an electrical short or something, and you could have continued living with two happy parents.”  What he was saying was making sense. 
If a witch could simply drink an elixir and no longer have any unusual abilities, then why had my mother not taken my gift away?

“Only, she couldn’t do that for two reasons,” Cameron continued.  “One, taking away someone’s gifts and abilities is only a temporary thing, unless a contract is signed, which you certainly couldn’t do as an infant.  Two, you cannot give a child an elixir of that strength.  It would have killed you if she had given it to you.”

He must have read the panic on my face because he laughed and leaned towards me.

“If I had given the elixir to little Jade,” he whispered, “we couldn’t be having this conversation right now.” 
He drew a finger across my cheek for emphasis.  It was like a snake slithering across my skin.  I shuddered before I thought about his words.

Duh.
  I actually felt stupid for a moment. 
He doesn’t kill me tonight, at least not my child self.  I get away, which is the only reason I can be here now.
  Then, it occurs to me what he has said. Not having my abilities and gifts would only be a temporary state.  I would get my gifts back, hopefully in time to destroy him, even if I couldn’t change the past and save my mother.

Then his voice changed again.  He took on a sense of urgency as he lifted another drink off the table behind him.  This one was in a shot glass.  He pushed it towards me.

“You’re going to have to take this if you want to recover enough to head back there,” he gestured towards the door to the rooms behind the bar.  I eyed him with trepidation.  He had to be out of his mind.  I was not going to take another drink he had prepared, this one an obvious elixir that would do who knows what to me.

“I can’t go back th
ere,” he continued, “because
I’m
supposed to guard the front entrance, and there is something I need for you to do.”  He held the shot glass out towards my hands.  I was going to knock it out of his hands and on to the wooden dance floor a few feet away, but I stopped myself.  I couldn’t get up on my own right now.  Although the barroom had stopped spinning when I landed on the floor, I was certain it would pick right up again if I tried to stand up. I reached towards the shot glass, my fingers trembling and slow, but he pulled it away.

“I can only give this to you if you promise to go
back there and find little Jade.” He stared directly into my eyes with a stark seriousness.

“I don’t get why you would help me, but of course I will find Jade.”  Then I added, “After I find my mother.”

“No, you need to find Jade first, and you need to get her to start a fire.  She needs to burn down the whole place.”

“No!” I screamed and pushed myself up to a standing position.  I was right.  The spinning returned, and I crashed back down to the floor. 
I bit my lip and tasted a metallic warmth on my tongue.  I looked up at Cameron who did not look amused.  “I will not get her to start a fire.  I refuse.”

“Jade,” he set the shot glass down and crouched in front of me, gripping my shoulders and bringing his face within inches of mine.  A su
rge of hatred ran down my spine and electrified my nerves.

He continued,
“This is not a game, and I am not a witch you want to mess with.  I know you think I am a Shadow Ruler.  Maybe I am; maybe I’m not.  Either way, there is some very powerful magic hidden in the
good
Professor’s books.  It has to be destroyed, and you have to do it.  Only a firestarter can do it.”  He released his grip on me and sat down.

“The ‘
good
Professor’?  You and daddy not getting along?  That’s not my problem.  How am I supposed to agree to have her start the fire my mother dies in?  I can’t do it.  I won’t.”

“Let’s just say my father and I have our differences.  I don’t have time for this, Jade.  This is something you need to do for the sake of everyone here.  If your mother dies tonight, she dies tonight, but I seriously doubt you
cause her death.  You starting a fire here tonight would be a good thing, not bad.  Without it, everyone here, including you, will die.” He sounded desperate, but I was sure it was just a trick.