Page 34

Chapter 34

A s soon as we stumbled into the doorway, all eyes fell upon us. Asher's jaw clenched as our eyes met, and he turned his venomous gaze to Pearl.

"You monster," he muttered.

Ouch. It was possible I looked almost as bad as I felt.

"Perfect timing, Beatrix." Pearl pointed the wand at me. "Come and join us. It's about time we taught your friends what it means to get in my way."

I grimaced and with Penny's help got to my feet. "You can stop all this now. We both know I'm not going anywhere."

"Your friends don't seem to know. Perhaps you'd like to tell them?" Pearl said.

I took in a shaky breath, planting my feet, and met Asher's eyes. "You guys need to leave."

There was no hope for me leaving just yet, not with the potion Pearl had forced upon me. But I couldn't have her imprisoning them here too. With them on hand, Pearl could get me to do whatever she wanted. To me, that was unacceptable.

"You're mad if you think we're leaving you here," Priya said. "What have they done to you?"

"Doesn't matter." Telling them would only make them want to double down on getting me out of here. "Just walk out the front door and don't look back. Please."

I would find my way out of here if it killed me, so long as they were out of harm's way.

"You see? Beatrix knows she belongs here." Pearl pressed the tip of the wand to Edward's neck.

He bared his teeth, scrunching his face as the skin sizzled under the touch of the wand.

"Stop it!" Penny screeched, her arm tightening around my waist.

"I can stop anytime." Pearl removed the wand from Edward's skin, but it still hovered near, too close for comfort. "Once you get out of my house."

"You can't make us choose like this," Priya snapped, her bracelets jingling as her hands shook.

"Nobody's choosing." I unhooked myself from Penny and took a step by myself further into the room. "Nobody but me, anyway. I'm choosing to stay."

"So is Asher, isn't that right?" Pearl pointed the wand at Asher. "We have unfinished business, after all."

My heart dropped into my empty stomach and I shot Asher a warning glare.

Of course Pearl wanted him to stay. She had kidnapped him years ago when he had stolen from her, and it was only because of him and Hecate that I had escaped back then. Apparently Pearl didn't only blame me for her losing her grip on her status and business. She had Asher in her crosshairs, too.

Asher met my gaze, all hardness melting from his expression.

"Don't you dare," I muttered.

"Yeah," he said, without breaking eye contact. "I'm staying."

My entire body shook, but I clenched all my muscles to stay upright. I was not falling back down.

Even after all the crap he had put me through, I couldn't handle him being in the hands of my grandmother. She would hurt him the same way she had hurt me, and the very thought was torture enough.

I couldn't let her do this.

Instinctively, I reached out with my power to search for something, anything, I could use to get them out of this. Edward's levitation power wouldn't do much good, and Priya's power to change the colour of items didn't pack much punch either. But Laura's...

I snatched the power out of her body so quickly that she gasped, and I picked up a cushion on the nearest chair.

"Beatrix." Pearl's tone warned me, but I ignored her.

My palms heated from clammy to the average temperature of Laura's forge in a matter of seconds, and with a poof, the cushion burst into flames. Before anyone could make a move to stop me, I hurled it at the velvet curtains. The fire leapt up the curtains so quickly that the flames licked the ceiling.

Lucille screamed and thrust Laura out of the way as she scrambled to get away from the fire. In the moment of chaos, Edward seized the wand off Pearl and pressed it to Louisa's hand. Louisa cried out and loosened her grip on his collar. Edward wrenched himself out of her grip and rolled over the sofa and into Penny's waiting arms.

Priya hoisted Laura to her feet and dragged her away from the flames that had begun eating away at the wallpaper. Crap. This place was more of a tinderbox than I realised. What I had meant to be a distraction had turned into a mini inferno.

"Everyone out!" Asher bellowed, racing to my side as I staggered against the doorframe.

Edward swept Penny into his arms and dashed for the door, with Priya and Laura close behind him. Lucille and Louisa pushed their way through, and Asher wrapped his arms around my waist, hauling me out of the way as Pearl hurried after them.

"You stupid girl." She spat the words at me as she passed us. "This is our home ."

"Funny," I said, allowing myself a smug smile. "I always looked at this place as torture chamber."

Her eyes hardened, a rare crazed look dancing there. "You'll burn with this place."

"It's a better fate than being locked up here with you."

"Then you'll get your wish," Pearl said. She swept out of the door.

I would have breathed a sigh of relief, but smoke filled my next breath.

"What did she mean by that?" Asher whirled me into the hallway and slammed the door shut behind him. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

I chewed my lip as I watched Louisa and Pearl's backs disappear out the front door. Whatever Pearl had given me in that potion, I didn't know for sure what it had actually done to me. For all I knew, she could have lied, and with the house burning down, it was worth giving escape a try.

"Did you still need this?" Hecate trotted out of the kitchen with a large knife clasped in her jaws.

So that was where she had gone. A few minutes earlier might have stopped me setting the house on fire. Even if her timing was off, she had the right idea.

"No, you sociopath. We're evacuating." Asher grabbed her in one hand and seized my hand with the other.

My stomach clenched as we hurried toward the front door. As I stepped through it, magic rippled around me and I was jerked away from the door, my hand ripping out of Asher's. I cried out as the magic hurled me to the floor of the hallway.

Asher dropped Hecate, who yowled at him, and he darted back through the door to help me back up.

"What happened?" he asked, raising his voice over the crackling of burning wood beyond the living room door.

I stared at the doorway, my heart sinking into my stomach. "Asher, she gave me a potion. Something to stop me from being able to leave the house."

The blood drained from Asher's face and he coughed into his sleeve as the air thickened with smoke. He couldn't stay here, even if I had no choice.

"You have to go," I said, pushing him toward the door.

"No." He planted his feet and fought back, standing as still as he could against my shoves. "I'm not leaving you."

"You don't have a choice." I shoved him harder, my years of rock climbing giving me just enough body strength to move him from his position. I would go down with this ship if I had to, but no way he was.

Asher grabbed my arms and whirled me around, pressing my back against the wall. The heat intensified, the air filling with smoke, and sweat beaded on my forehead. Asher bowed his head, pressing his clammy forehead to mine.

"I'm not leaving you here," he said.