But no one came. I got to fifty, waited a few extra seconds, and then found the chest. With the spare knife in hand, I slipped back out of the room, and dropped it in my book bag. I wasn’t sure if we were going to need it, but better safe than sorry.
“It’s getting pretty rough down there,” Ash said, materializing in my doorway. “What happened?”
“Everyone disappeared. Witchers think they’ve all gone rogue. Trying to convince them it’s the warlock is pointless. They’ll just keep letting Bridger do whatever he wants until he collects all of us.”
“Whoa,” Ash said, eyes widening. “Slow down. Reverse. Start over. Bridger? As in Bridger?”
Crap. I looked at her helplessly. Begging her to forget what she heard wouldn’t work. I might have been running on nerves, but my brain was still a little slow. I sighed. “He came after us at our last school.”
“I thought you got attacked by a wraith?”
“A wraith working for Bridger,” I said. “And now he’s here. He left me a note yesterday. And it makes sense. The warlock’s been doing stupid little attacks, trying to get the Congress to bring us here. Why would someone like Cullen Bridger care about burning down a building?
He’d burn the whole town.”
“So how can you be sure it’s him?”
I showed her the postcard of the Golden Gate bridge, and the note on the back.
“Okay … ” Ash took a moment, then nodded. “Okay. Why doesn’t Quinn know about this?
They still think the warlock is a local.”
“Because I can’t tell them how I got it.”
“How did you—no, never mind. I don’t think I want to know.” She looked around the room, her eyes considering. She looked up, and met my gaze. “It’s a lot tamer than I would have thought.
I expected a poster of Carissa the underwear model over your bed or something.”
“Sorry,” I said, zipping up my bag. “Any idea how to get us out of here?”
Ash very carefully closed the door behind her. “Start walking around.”
“What?”
She twisted the little lock on the side of the handle and spun around. “Walk around.”
I paced out of surprise, walked to the side of the bed and then back to the closet.
Meanwhile, she sauntered over towards my bed, whispering words under her breath. And then she fell back, bouncing off my mattress with a laugh.
“Come here,” she murmured, eyes full of mischief.
Was she kidding? “Ash, I can’t. We need to focus.”
“Come. Here.” She even crooked her finger at me, a challenging smile on her face.
I crossed to the bed, set one knee on it, and hesitated. But that wasn’t good enough for Ash.
She leaned forward, grabbed me by the shirt, and pulled me forward. On top of her.
“There,” she said breathlessly once we were nose to nose. Her eyes were dark. Fathomless.
There was a moment where my breath caught hers, where we were staring into each other.
Where I started to lean forward.
Then she pushed me back off. “That should do it,” she said brusquely, leaping to her feet.
I sat back, dazed. “Do what?”
“Araic infious,” she murmured. Suddenly I heard the sounds of movement on the floor, despite the fact that neither of us were moving. Bedsprings groaned, there was laughter. Every sound that had happened over the last thirty seconds. As the sounds and the shuffling repeated over again, I got it. It was an illusion, but a realistic one. As far as anyone else in the house was concerned, we were still just hanging out in my room. And they’d be too busy to worry about the girl in my room.
“It’ll buy us some time,” she said, heading for the window. “But they’re going to find out you’re gone quick.” She pulled the window open and had one leg out onto the roof when she looked back at me still on the bed. “Well?”
I followed her onto the roof, moving carefully while Ash seemed to bounce from step to step.
We crossed the front of the house and over the garage towards the backyard. “Hope you’re not scared of heights, Ace,” she grinned. She whispered “aerousí ” and leapt down into the backyard.
“Come on,” she called up, the sound of her voice muted by the storm. I looked down. At least a ten-foot drop. But Ash seemed to be fine. Ash was also trained by Witchers, I reminded myself. But I jumped anyway.
I knew enough about physics to know that when you jump from the roof it’s supposed to hurt.
But landing on the ground was about as painful as jumping off the last step of a staircase.
Ash saw the look on my face and waggled her fingers. “Magic.” Then she turned around and started cutting through the backyard. I rushed to follow. “I parked on Carnegie Street. I figured there’s no way they’d notice my car over there.”
“You’re good at this,” I said in surprise.
“Of course,” Ash said, her face going serious. “Now tell me what’s going on. Where did you get that postcard?”
“I found one of Sherrod’s spellbooks from when he was in high school,” I said. “But I got rid of it,” I said hurriedly, “after I had some time to think. Bridger dropped it off at the house for me last night. He was in our house.”
“Are you sure it was him?” she asked.
“You don’t have to go with me,” I said. “This isn’t your fight.”
“Yeah, but if we save the day, maybe you’ll forgive me,” she said, offering me a weak grin.
She might have been right. The fact that she’d come when I called and still helped me sneak out went a long way. “Come on,” I said, hurrying towards her car.
“You don’t even know where we’re going yet,” Ash said.
We cut through one of my neighbor’s backyards, slipping around a covered up above-ground pool. As we crossed the house and into the front yard, the so-far silent night was interrupted.
“Do you hear that?” Ash asked, stopping and cocking her head to one side.
I didn’t at first, but a few seconds later, I picked up on it. “Sirens,” I whispered. They grew louder and louder until they were nearly deafening. Half a block away, two fire trucks and I don’t know how many other flashing vehicles started surging past, heading towards downtown.
“What do you think’s going on?” I asked, my voice hushed.
Ash looked severe. “Distractions,” she said. “Now, how are you planning to find the others?”
I patted my bag and explained about one of the spells I’d read that morning. Ash didn’t turn on the radio when we got into the car. We drove away from the direction all the emergency crews were heading. If she was right, and it was a distraction, Bridger wouldn’t be setting up anywhere near there. So we drove to the parking lot of a Walgreens and parked near the back.
Ash put the car in park but left the engine running.
“You’re sure this is going to work?”
I pulled my father’s spellbook into my lap. “I don’t have the slightest.”
I kept flipping, searching for one of the first spells I’d managed to translate. I studied it for almost a full minute, piecing together the words that were so carefully lettered in the book and trying to form the cadence of the spell.
To cast the spell wrong might not do anything. Or it might make my brain explode. At this point, brain-explodey Justin was still looking like he’d have a better future.
“Igneus terrous itie,” I said, the words sounding thick on my tongue.
Just like that, and it felt like my vision was clearing. Like I could see in a way that people rarely did, and if they understood, they would want to be like this all the time. I continued flipping through the book, careful not to spend too long on any one page.