The windows shatter. I cover my head with my arms as glass rains down around me. And then: silence. Dust motes float in the sunlight blasting through the bare window frames. A few students stumble around, stunned.
My heart thrashes against my rib cage. What happened?
For a moment no one makes a sound, and then the wailing starts.
Bianca.
I dash to the wide, jagged crack that runs through the cafeteria and lean over the precipice. Bianca and Julia lie in a heap six feet below.
“Bianca!” I yell.
She moans. And then Julia whines, “Get off me, fatass.”
“Fatass?” Bianca shrieks. “Have you looked in a mirror lately?”
I nearly collapse from relief.
“Are you guys okay?” I call down.
“We’re buried in a hole in the freaking cafeteria, what do you think?” Bianca snaps.
And to think, for a second there, I had sympathy for her.
“Out of the way!”
I stumble up as Devon, Jarrod, and a few other football players rush past. Devon jumps into the hole, landing nimbly on his feet.
“Stabilize her neck!” someone yells.
“Devon Mills, get out of that hole this instant!” Mrs. Malone appears through the crowd, looking out of place in her red skirt suit and pumps amid all the destruction. I’m jostled to the back of the onlookers. Sirens wail in the distance, rising over the panicked cries around me.
The heat in my stomach simmers.
First, a rainstorm when I was frustrated. And now an earthquake after Bianca pushed me over the edge. Two freak weather phenomena in two days.
It can’t be my fault. It has to be a coincidence.
But the wind that night in my bedroom—I know I didn’t imagine that.
I slap my hand over my mouth, sick to my stomach at the possibility that I could have caused this. Someone could have died. And as much as I hate Bianca, have mentally wished she’d get hit by a bus or worse, I don’t really want to be responsible for her death. The ground spins beneath me, but this time, it’s not because of an earthquake.
An area of stillness among all the chaos catches my eye. I look across the cafeteria and spot Jessie staring at me. Not crying. Not panicked. Just suspicious.
She knows.
I turn and run.
“You really think you caused it?” Bishop asks.
I scrub my forehead with the palm of my hand, pacing in the shadows outside the school. “I wanted her dead and the ground swallowed her up.”
Bishop exhales through the phone. “Controlling the elements. It’s not supposed to be possible.”
“Well, it is.”
Sirens wail and red lights flash as three ambulances and two fire trucks screech up to the school. It won’t take long for the news crews to arrive. I sink down onto the grass as the chaos unfolds around me.
Bishop is quiet for a moment. “So the ceremony worked,” he says.
“I thought so, but that was over twelve hours ago. The spell should have worn off by now.”
“Well, the spell is obviously not what we thought it was.”
I feel faint as the reality of it all sinks in; if this is true, I should be getting back to Los Demonios as quickly as possible. I’m suddenly desperate to end this call. The spell could be wearing off as we speak.
There’s a beep from the phone. I hold it away from my face and see that I’m getting another call, from the Black Cat. The school didn’t waste any time contacting parents.
“I have to go,” I say. “Aunt Penny’s calling me.”
I switch over to the other line.
“Oh, thank God!” Aunt Penny says as soon as I say hello.
“You heard?”
“Of course I heard. Are you okay?”
“Yeah, but Bianca and another girl were hurt.”
She sucks in a breath. “Bianca Bianca? As in, your old best friend?”
“The same one.”
“Oh, Indie,” she says. In the background I hear someone ask how much for the bath salts. “Three fifty,” she answers. And then, to me: “Indie, is she…?”
“Alive?” I ask, realizing her question. “Oh God, yes. She’s going to be fine.”
At least, I hope she is. I didn’t stick around long enough to find out. My stomach twists. How did I let myself lose control like that again? Do I even know how to control myself anymore?
“You sound shaken up,” Aunt Penny says.
She has no idea. “I’m just weirded out. I mean, Bianca could have died. It’s a miracle no one got hurt worse.”
Someone calls for Aunt Penny’s attention again. “One second.” The mouthpiece of the phone is covered. “Can’t you see I’m on the phone?” She huffs, speaking to me again. “Sorry about that. Where are you?”
“Outside the school.”
“Okay, stay there. I’m going to close the shop and come get you.”
“No!” I shout. “I mean, I’m okay. Don’t close the shop. Halloween season is the busiest time of the year. And I’m fine. I think I’ll just catch a ride home with someone and take a nap. I’m so tired I feel like I could sleep for ages.”
There’s a pause on the other end. “Are you sure?” she asks hesitantly. “I don’t mind. I can be there in twenty minutes.”
“I’m sure,” I say. “But thanks for the offer.”
“Well, okay. You do need to catch up on your sleep.”
I breathe a sigh of relief and end the call.
It doesn’t make sense for me to rush back to Los Demonios if I can’t figure out how to produce similar results. I need to know that I can do this again. Or something like it, anyway.
I stare at the huge sycamore in the grassy quad, its trunk thick and twisted, its leaves unmoving in the still air. My breathing slows as the heat begins to simmer in my stomach. I stare at the tree and think about a gust of wind blowing through its branches. I think about it so hard that the rest of the world fades to gray.
A loud crack splits the air. I blink against the sound, my concentration shattered. When I open my eyes again, it’s to see that the tree is split in half, its jagged edges pointing up at the sky.
Holy. Crap.