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12

JAMES

"We have to go and help the witches in the town." I can't take this anymore. "We can’t wait any longer for Callie."

It’s been tearing me up ever since she left, worrying about how she's getting on and if she was safe. We should have thought of a way for her to get a message to us if she needed us, but we didn't think about that in time. Now, though, we had to act, with or without her.

Will nods. "I'm in." Grief over his mom's death only strengthens the determination of his words.

Hank is already standing. "You didn't have to convince me. I want to get my mom back."

"You need to be safe about it," I caution. "You're not impervious to fire." Which is why I wanted to suggest only Will and I go originally, but I know Hank better than that. There's no chance he'll sit and wait here while we're putting ourselves in danger. Especially when Callie is, too.

He shakes his head. "No, but I'll stick close to you two. I've been practicing summoning instant shields, too. It'll make me slower to attack, but the alternative isn't really an option." He shrugs as if thinking about his own death is nothing crazy.

I suppose he's not wrong. We've all thought about what it'll be like meeting our maker recently.

I know Callie is dealing with this the way she wants to and that we have to let her do it, but that doesn't mean we're useless. We're powerful, each of us in our own right.

“We should take the others,” Will says.

My gaze pulls from my friends to the massive cave. Some people are sleeping in the bunks. Others work quietly on various projects around the room. Part of me wants to just sneak away, but another part of me knows that we’ll need all the help we can get.

“Want to gather them?” I ask.

Hank grins. “This seems like a you thing.”

I frown at him. Is he serious? “I’m not a leader.”

“If we’re going to stand at Callie’s side, I think we’ll all have to man up and become leaders,” Hank says.

Will’s gaze connects with mine. “I can’t do it for you. It’s up to you.”

It’d be so easy to fall in line and just be one piece in this battle. But Hank was right. If I had any chance of deserving Callie, I had to find a way to stop seeing myself as a soldier. I needed to see myself as the man I’d become as a firefighter, with my best friends at my side.

Taking a deep breath, I act before I can rethink what I’m about to do. I stand on a table and speak loudly, trying to sound like I’m confident in my ability to lead. "Everyone wake up. It’s time.”

There’s movement in the room. Gazes turn to me.

“We're going to try to stop the king from burning his prisoners alive in the middle of town. Anyone that wants to help is welcome." My voice shakes a little as I shout the words through the cavern, but I doubt anyone but my best friends have even noticed. This feels right. I have to do something. I've stood back too many times while men like the king have caused havoc, grief, and death.

Not this time. I won't do it anymore. No. Not won't. Can't .

People sit up from their beds and stare at me, wide-eyed as I continue. "You're here for protection. Not to be an army. But you have the choice of fighting if you want to."

I see a lot of young men and women stand. They place children in the arms of older relatives and friends. A small part of me wonders whether doing this is the right thing. Everyone who comes with us will be in danger.

But then, Blackwater is a small enough town that everyone will know someone who is about to get burned, too. And that's lit a fire beneath them all.

I jump off the table and stride towards the cave exit before I lose my nerve. I've never been this person before. I'm not a leader. To be fair, I'm not a very good follower either.

Hank and Will are behind me, both walking with purpose until Hank's dad approaches him. Hank steps to the side to talk to him, no doubt to try and persuade him to stay behind. I don't know because I don't stop and listen to the conversation; it isn't my place to. When Hank rejoins us, his dad is walking by his side, a grim expression on his face. With all the focus being on Hank's mom being in danger, it's easy to forget she's also a wife.

We don't meet any resistance on our trek to town. I consulted Hank's dad, and we cut through the woods, coming out a ways from the beach. I have no idea which way Callie went, but maybe we can help her and buy some time so she can find what she needs.

We're on the far end of town, in the suburbs. It takes a few minutes, even walking fast, to get through the neighborhoods. I find myself wishing we'd arranged to have vehicles nearby or had taken the time to make a portal. They take up so much energy that we avoid using them. Plus, not all witches can make them anyway. Only places as important as the castle have more permanent ones, and they take constant feeding. Still, it may have been prudent in this case.

We turn a corner, and I see the column of smoke. Unfortunately, its existence suggests Theresa wasn't lying. A small part of me hoped she was, but something was burning in town.

My fast walk turns into a sprint, and I soon leave everyone but Hank and Will behind. We're fast, thanks to all the training we do as members of the department. We can't exactly fight fires out of shape.

After a few more minutes, we arrive in the center of town to discover a ring of people tied to wooden stakes. The edges of the pyre have already been lit. The only thing helping us is the sheer size of it. They clearly want a spectacle instead of a quick, fast burn. They're going to regret that when we turn their plan against them.

Without hesitation, I plunge through the flames and climb the wood with fire licking at my clothes. They begin to burn off, but it doesn't bother me in the least. My blood warms, responding to the fire the way all salamanders do. Instead of stopping me, the flames only give me more energy. It's a unique power to that side of me and one I haven't experimented with very much. There are human members of the fire department, and they might start asking questions if I run into flames. As it is, they just think I'm a bit reckless staying behind longer than anyone else when it can mean the difference between saving a life and not.

I pull out my knife, strapped to my side, and cut the ropes of the first person I get to. I don't look at their face. There's no point. When it comes down to it, all of the people here deserve to be saved, no matter who they are. Stopping and checking people will only slow me down.

I hear Hank outside the circle, but I can't tell what he's saying. Some spell that will slow the flames, I think. It won't make a massive difference to the fire as a whole, but it may give individual people more time while Will and I get to them. Hopefully, some of the other people who have come with us from the caves will arrive soon, and if they can survive the flames, then they'll help.

They have to. There are too many people here for the two of us to cut free on our own.

Will runs across the piled-up sticks and kindling, light on his feet as the wood shifts beneath him, then pulls out a knife to cut through ropes on the other side of the pyre.

As I move to the third person tied around the huge logs in the middle, people appear around us. My heart rises to my throat. I don't recognize all of them, but the ones I do all work for the king.

Damn it. It was a trap. We knew it was, and we came anyway. I just thought we'd have more time before they arrived, but the way things are going, we've barely managed to get half a dozen people free, and they're simply going to end up back in the clutches of that tyrant.

The hostile witches circle the fire, edging Hank toward the flames. They mean to let us die with them. Will and I can't burn to death, but Hank will, and I can't let that happen.

I slice through the ropes of the person in front of me, knowing my friend will always feel guilty if he finds out I put him before someone else. But once I'm done, I move toward him, ready to fight for his life. He won't die on my watch.

"Stop!" Callie's voice from behind me makes my blood run cold.

I know what her plan was, but the thought of her being here still fills me with dread. I don't want her in danger, and that's what this place is.

"No," Will calls out. "Stop!"

She's wearing a gown of trees. Maybe that's not the best way to describe it, but it's all I can think of when I look at her. The green of the leaves with bright dots that I assume are flowers. It's a little difficult to make out the details through the haze of the flames.

She's Mother Earth, come for vengeance. Those are the only words I have for it.

She's so damn hot. And I don't mean because of the fire.

Callie steps forward, walking slowly with bare feet onto the wood. The flames lick at her long skirt, but it doesn't ignite. "You've forgotten who you are," her voice booms across the town square. Out of the corner of my eyes, I see the king's agents flinch as her power hits them.

A small part of me wants to react the same way, but I know it isn't Callie doing that to me; it's the power she's wielding. The rest of me is in awe of her. She's like nothing I've ever seen before. Pride wells up within me at the sight. Of what she's become.

"Allow me to remind you from where you came." Her voice drops, and she raises her arms. Every single person surrounding the fire stiffens and then screams. Their screams are snuffed quickly as their arms raise and turn brown. In seconds, their entire persona changes, and standing before us, in a wide circle, are trees. A dozen or more. They're the height of each person, and their limbs distinctly look like arms. Branches at the end even resemble fingers.

Callie raises her hands, and blossoms form on the branches. "A bit of time communing with nature should help them."

She waves her arms, and a small blast of power washes over the square. The flames sizzle and pop and disappear without any assistance from us.

What the hell did she do in the forest?

Callie smiles at us. "Help them. I have work to do."

We cut down the witches. Some of them are able to help us, but others are in worse shape.

The crowd that came from the caves appears and helps the witches who are stumbling down from the pyre. The others don't really have anything to do.

"Half of you follow her," I call, hoping they'll still listen to me now that we're away from the caves. "Help if you can. The rest, get these people back to the hideout. Make sure you're not followed. A portal might be in order."

After searching the faces of the people who were tied to the logs, Hank’s dad closes his eyes and puts his hand on Hank's shoulder. I can see on his face that he already knows his mom isn't here. "Come on, son. We can do a portal together."

When everyone is off the pyre and on their way through the portal to the healing hands back at the cave, I put my arm around Hank's shoulders. "We'll find her," I promise. And there's no doubt in my mind that we will. If the king decided not to tie her to the pyre, then there's a reason for it. Chances are, it's not a good one, but if we can work it out before he does anything, then we stand a chance at getting her back.

"Yeah," Will says. We aren't going through the portal, but we can try to give him a bit of comfort as we wait for everyone who's going back to get through. "They're probably keeping her safe to use against you. For now, she's probably safe."

Hank sighs. "What a horrible comfort. They're keeping her safe for future torment."

Will grimaces. "Maybe not. Maybe to use as leverage. It would be smart of them to keep the most precious prisoners they have for trade or bargaining."

Hank nods, as does his father. "That's what I've been telling myself. They might need her later, so she's safe," his dad says.

"Go, Dad." Hank claps his father on the shoulder. "We're going after Callie."

After a quick hug, his father steps through, and the portal collapses.

"Let's go find her," I mutter. "She's got something up her sleeve. Maybe we can help."

We catch up a block away. She's got some sort of glamour and has made herself tall. I don't catch what she says because she's cut off. A giant cloud floats on the wind above the buildings of the town. Straight for Callie.

I brace myself, no idea how to help, but she holds up her giant hands and smiles. "Not today," her voice booms and a blast of magic erupts from her palms and slams into the cloud.

That was a massive surge of power, that black cloud. Her uncle would've had to either use a bunch of witches together or steal power with a sacrifice to muster that much power over a distance.

And Callie dissipated it. Evaporated it. With a smile.

I look around at the crowd. Witches and warlocks have come out of their homes and businesses. They all stare at Callie in awe.

That’s right, I want to tell them. Callie is the one who should be their leader.

If they had any doubt before, I doubt they do now.