“They’re fine,” she said.
“Then what is it?”
“I… I can’t tell you yet,” she said, “You’re hurt; you need to rest.”
“Nicole, if something else has happened, I need to know about it. Please. You have to tell me.”
“I promised him I wouldn’t.”
“Promised who?”
She turned her eyes away from me. “I promised Jared I would keep you in here, keep you safe while you recovered. Then we would all tell you. But…”
“Nicole… you’re scaring me…”
“Please, I promise I’ll tell you, but you have to relax.”
“Goddammit, what is it?”
A surge of magick came rushing out of me, causing Nicole to shield her face. It was a wave strong enough to shatter the glass and bowl on the end table, make the ceiling fan tremble, and the curtains sway. Then I saw them again, the flashing lights. They were real, they were close, and they looked almost like—
Nicole had stood up, now, and she didn’t seem to be able to decide between keeping me pinned to the sofa and stopping the shades from moving. I fought to stand as well, fighting through the pain in my muscles, in every fiber of my being, until finally I was back on my feet. I made no apologies for what I had just done. Instead, I moved as quickly as I could out of her living room, around into the foyer, and toward the front door.
As I wrapped my hand around the handle and pulled, Nicole hurried past me and pushed the door shut. “I can’t let you go out there,” she said.
“Why?” I asked.
“Maddie… please. I’m begging you. Stay here, rest, and we’ll tell you everything you need to know later on.”
I pulled on the handle and Nicole offered no resistance, allowing the door to open fully and let the night in.
There was a man standing in the doorway with his back toward me. When he turned around to face me, I saw it was Jared, and my heart leapt. He was here, and he was safe. But the expression on his face was far from happy to see me, and by turning around he had given me a clear view of the street and Lumière.
Or at least, what was left of Lumière.
Jared put his hand out to try and get me back into Azure House. “Maddie, get back inside,” he said, but I didn’t listen. I tried to run through him, getting only as far as his waiting arms, and then I screamed as loud as I could. Like living through a waking nightmare, I saw and heard everything, but could do nothing.
The fa?ade was gone, the towers were gone; all that remained of the front of the house was a charred, blackened section of the wall around the front door where the structure was strongest. The rest was black, standing in stark contrast against the glowing orange embers still burning in and around the house. As I continued to scream, making my voice coarse and raw, it was almost as if the pain I was feeling wasn’t only my own.
And through it all, there wasn’t only the smell of burnt wood and smoldering leaves circulating heavily in the air, but also the distinct odor of rotting eggs.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I couldn’t process the passage of time. In fact, it seemed like no time at all had passed between the moment I saw my home—Eliza’s home, which Jean Luc had built— charred and burnt, and now, when Jared and Nicole had managed to rush me back into the house and bring me up to one of the bedrooms in an attempt at calming me down.
Jared was standing by the bedroom door, his arms folded in front of his chest, while Nicole gently dried my eyes. I was looking at her, but wasn’t seeing her. All I could see were the embers, the burned fa?ade, and the way the pulsing orange glow seemed to emanate from what was left of the house and touch everything around it.
“Maddie,” Nicole said. “Maddie.”
The second calling of my name caused my vision to clear, and I saw her now, sitting on the bed in front of me. I blinked repeatedly. “What?” I asked, my voice distant and lazy.
“Are you alright?”
I shrugged. “Should I be?”
“Please tell me how I can help you.”
“I don’t think you can. My house… Lumière… it’s gone.”
She took my hand and pulled me into an embrace that I didn’t resist. I didn’t have the energy to. “I’m so sorry,” Nicole said, “I’m so, so sorry.”
I turned my eyes up at Jared, who also didn’t seem to be doing very well, though he was doing a good job at masking his rage. “You didn’t do this. Tamara did… I could smell her rotten magick.”
“I can’t tell you enough times how sorry I am. I couldn’t see past myself, and my mom. I had hoped that with Remy gone, she’d be different.”
“It’s not important now.”
I wasn’t angry, wasn’t frustrated, I didn’t hate her for not listening to me. I couldn’t feel much of anything, now. It was as if I had gone numb, as if I had withdrawn into a shell. I didn’t want to fight with her, didn’t want to fight Tamara. All I wanted to do was go home, but I couldn’t do that anymore.
“I have to find her,” Jared said, “If we don’t stop her now, she’s just going to keep on fucking with people’s lives.”
“No,” Nicole said, “Not like that. She’ll kill you.”
“I’ll kill her first.”
Nicole turned her head to look at him. “If Tamara did this—”
“She did,” I said. “She did this.”
Nicole nodded. “The vampires probably haven’t had a chance to tell her they haven’t killed Madison yet, so we have the element of surprise.”
“So, she thinks I’m dead?”
“Yes, but surprise alone won’t be enough, though. Tamara is clever. We need to be smarter than her, and quicker than lightning. Our window is already closing.”
She grabbed her phone and sent a text message. To whom, and what the message read, I didn’t know.
“What do you suggest we do?” Jared asked.
“I’m going to call an emergency meeting,” Nicole said, “I’m going to gather as many witches at the Scarlet Cat as I can. I’m going to tell them Madison is dead, and Lumière has been burned down… then when Tamara is in the room, I’m going to tell them Tamara did it.”
“And they’re just going to believe you?”
“They’ll have to.”
He shook his head. “They’ll want proof. Do you have proof?”
“We have to get her to confess,” I said.
Nicole looked at me like I had spoken for the first time in years. “Yeah,” she said, after a time, “Alright, so we’re gonna do this…” her phone buzzed in her hand, and she paused to read the message. “Shit,” she said.
“What is it?” Jared asked.
“Tamara’s already called a meeting of the witches…”
“What? When?”
“It’s taking place in two hours… at Remy’s Garden District house.”
Something inside of me snapped, and my mind returned to me in full force, as if roused from some deep sleep. “That bitch has been using Remy’s house?”
“Yeah… I guess so.”
My hand clenched into a fist, and a freak wind began to swish around the room, causing the curtains to sway. “I’m going to kill her myself,” I said through gritted teeth.