I grinned and turned toward the door, waiting for Malachi Wolfe himself to answer. Slightly unstable and very unorthodox, Wolfe had nonetheless been a good friend to Adrian and me—and more than a friend to Ms. Terwilliger. That last part still made me squirm a bit, but after everything Adrian and I had endured, I was more convinced than ever that everyone needed someone to love—even scattered sorceresses and eyepatch-wearing self-defense instructors.
When no answer immediately came, I knocked again. This drove the dogs into a louder frenzy, but Wolfe still didn’t materialize. “Weird,” I said.
“Didn’t you text him before we left?” asked Eddie.
“Ms. Terwilliger did,” I replied. I glanced over at the other buildings, looking for movement. “He said he had some weapons in mind for me. Maybe he’s getting them out.” I stepped back to the ground and headed toward where I knew Wolfe kept a stockpile of weapons. “I hope he’s not going to try to pass off that blowgun again.”
Eddie’s face lit up as he followed me across the sandy ground. “Blowgun? Are you seriously—”
His words were lost as a mailbox suddenly exploded beside us. Without missing a beat, Eddie pushed me down and rolled us away from the worst of the heat and flames. Gravel and hard ground scraped at my skin, but it was certainly better than the alternative. Eddie kept himself positioned protectively over me as we both carefully lifted our heads and peered around, taking in the fiery wreckage.
“What the hell?” he asked.
Another explosion erupted from the ground beside us. No flames this time, but the rocks that flew up from it were as good as shrapnel, and I cried out as a particularly sharp one bit into my arm. I pointed at the closest building.
“There!”
Before he could stop me, I ran toward it, casting a spell of unseen force that shattered a window. An ear-piercing alarm blared out. No surprise Wolfe would have this place wired. The question was whether his paranoia would extend to having that alarm system monitored by the police or not.
Eddie followed me through the window, and I found we were in the building that had served as a training area for my self-defense class. It was wide and open, lined with mirrors and cases of weapons. I sized up the room, looking for the safest position. Eddie, meanwhile, ran straight for one of the cases. After waffling between a bola and some brass knuckles, he went with the bola, swinging it around with practiced ease as he warily backed up and kept an eye on the window we’d broken. I called up my favorite spell, summoning a fireball to my palm.
“Is it Alicia?” Eddie yelled, making his voice heard over the alarm.
“I’d guess so,” I called back. I’d sensed a human magic in those explosions, and unless there was yet another witch after me, Alicia seemed like the logical choice. With my non-fireball hand, I managed to text the most recent contact in my phone: Ms. Terwilliger. I could only manage a short message and hoped it would convey the severity of the situation: help.
I should’ve known Alicia wouldn’t settle for the opening we’d made into the building. The main door suddenly exploded in a shower of sparks and wood. A silhouette appeared in the doorway, and without verifying its identity, I hurled my fireball. The figure held up a hand, and the fireball smashed harmlessly against an invisible barrier. When it cleared, the figured moved forward, and I finally came face-to-face with Alicia. She gave me a cold smile.
“Hello, Sydney, nice to see you again. Surprised to see me alive?”
I called another fireball to my hand. “It was never my intent to kill you.” Even I realized how lame that sounded, considering all I’d done to her, and she gave a harsh laugh.
“Really? What exactly was the point of stabbing me and leaving me in a burning house?”
Before I could respond, Eddie charged her, swinging his bola in the air. With a flick of the wrist, she made a wall of mirrors beside him shatter. I saw it coming but wasn’t quite fast enough in dismissing my fireball in a favor of a shield for him. I deflected part of the damage, but some of the glass embedded itself in him, particularly his bare arm. I saw a brief flash of pain pass over his features, but he didn’t stop moving. Alicia shattered another mirror, and this time, I had an invisible shield squarely in place to protect him. He released the bola, but despite its perfect aim and fast speed, she anticipated it and blew it away with a wave of invisible force.
“Where’s Jill?” I yelled at her.
A cruel smile twisted over Alicia’s features. “You’d love to know that, wouldn’t you?”
Eddie picked up a piece of broken glass and came running toward her, wielding it like a knife. “I swear, if you’ve hurt her—”
“Oh, honestly. As if I’d waste my time hurting her.” Alicia took out a pinch of powder from her pocket, throwing it at Eddie and shouting an incantation I didn’t know. I wasn’t able to intercept this one in time, and the magic seized Eddie. Like that, he froze in place, midstride and holding the glass shard menacingly in his hand.
“What have you done to him?” I cried.
“Relax, Sydney,” Alicia said. “He’s still alive. Just like your little Moroi friend—for now.”
“Take me to her!” I demanded.
Alicia laughed. “Sorry, Sydney. You’ll never see her again. She’s going to have to suffer through a few more psalms . . . and you? You’re just going to suffer . . .”
The floor under my feet rippled. I staggered and fell to my knees but was able to throw a fireball at Alicia before I completely lost my balance. My aim was spot-on, but she lifted her hands to cast what I suspected was another shielding spell. The incantation she spoke was Greek, one I hadn’t heard before either. The fireball hit another unseen wall, but rather than shatter, the flames rebounded and came back toward me in exactly the same path. I yelped and managed to get out of its way just in time. I was spared, but the fireball hit a cabinet instead, engulfing it in flames. The fire spread quickly, making me wonder what kind of varnish Wolfe used. At the same time, the alarm finally stopped blaring.
“Mirroring spell,” Alicia said gleefully. “Very useful. Be careful what you cast.”
She meant it as a taunt, but there was truth in it that made me hesitate before I planned my next course of action. It was too long a delay, as she soon cast what I recognized as the same spell that had frozen Eddie. That one was too complex for me to fully follow, but it gave me the opportunity to dodge and block it. I then opted for a different kind of freezing—a literal one, as I sent a wave of ice her way. It wasn’t nearly as lethal as a fireball, but it also wouldn’t add to the already-spreading fire. Alicia responded with the mirror spell, sending the ice back my way. I ducked, and the ice landed in part of the burning room beside me. Rather than diminish the fire, however, it simply made the smoke grow thicker.
“You must be getting tired,” she teased.
She was right. I still had plenty of magic in me, but this active combat was exhausting. Ms. Terwilliger’s words came back to me: She wants an easy fight. That’s what Alicia was doing, trying to wear me down with magic so she could cast the spell that finished me. With the stolen life and magic she had, this battle wouldn’t exhaust her as quickly.
“Alicia, we don’t have to fight,” I said. “Please. Let’s stop this and get out of here before this place burns down. Tell me where Jill is, release Eddie, and we can be on our way.”
“Stop this? After you tried to kill me?”
“I only—”
Not caring about making the flames worse, Alicia hurled another fireball at me. I was tempted to try the mirroring spell and send it back to her, but she was too close to Eddie for my comfort.
“You’re too much of a threat, Sydney,” she said as I neutralized the fireball with a water spell. “I can’t allow you to leave. I’m going to let this building burn down around you, just like you left me to burn in that house.”