Fury's Fire (24 page)

These were dark, bitter thoughts, and Gretchen forced her mind to move away from them.
I can’t think this way. All I can do is think about the now. This moment. This is what really exists
.

She stopped the car and turned back to the figure on the steps. Even though Gretchen couldn’t see her face, she could tell by the thick brown hair that it was Mafer. Relief flooded her system. They hadn’t had a chance to talk the night before, and Gretchen desperately needed to.
Of course Mafer knew that
.

Gretchen wondered what it would be like to know things about people, to be able to guess things in advance. She’d had that experience once or twice—knowing who was calling the moment the phone rang, predicting the next song on the radio—but had always been able to write it off as coincidence. She wondered if Mafer ever felt burdened by what she knew about
people. Whether she, like Gretchen, might rather have a normal life, free of the “gift.”

Mafer didn’t look up as Gretchen pulled her father’s car into the driveway, or even when Gretchen crunched across the gravel and up the stone footpath that led to the porch. When Gretchen reached her step, Mafer finally lifted her chin and placed it on her crossed arms. Her dark eyes caught a ray of sunlight, which made them seem almost hazel.

“Are you okay?” Gretchen asked.

“Define okay,” Mafer replied.

Gretchen huffed out a sigh. “Do you want to come inside?”

Mafer nodded. “Yeah.”

Gretchen led Mafer through the front door, past the formal living room, and into the kitchen. “Can I get you some water?” Gretchen asked, tossing her jacket over the back of a chair.

“Nothing, thanks.” Mafer leaned against a counter as Gretchen pulled a glass from the cupboard. She filled it from the tap and took a long pull. The Archers got their water from a well, and it had a sour, metallic aftertaste, but Gretchen was used to it. She wrapped her hands around the glass and turned to face her friend.

“Thank God you’re here.”

Mafer closed her eyes. “You don’t seem surprised to see me.”

“I’m relieved,” Gretchen admitted. “I was going to come over to your house today anyway.”

“Were you?” Mafer’s eyes fluttered open, and she
cocked her head, a small smile at the edge of her lips. “Really?”

“I wanted to talk to you about something.” Gretchen ran her fingers through her long hair, impatiently tucking it behind an ear. “We didn’t get a chance last night. I have a question.”

“All right.”

“There’s someone I’m wondering …” Gretchen’s throat felt dry; she took another sip of water. “I’m wondering if I can trust this person.”

There was a window over the sink, and Mafer looked out to where the brown fields led out to the bay beyond. Gretchen could see two figures in the distance. They were walking toward the house. There was a glare on the window, and Gretchen couldn’t see the figures properly, but she assumed it was the Archers, or maybe her father and Mrs. Archer, out for a walk. “Someone who has returned after a long absence,” Mafer said in a dreamy voice.

“Yes.” Relief flooded Gretchen’s body at the fact that she didn’t have to explain all about Asia.
Of course not; Mafer already knows
. “How can I know whether or not I can trust her?”

Mafer turned to face her. “What makes you think you can?”

Gretchen was about to say that she was Asia’s friend, but the words wouldn’t quite force themselves out.
Can you ever be friends with someone who was originally sent to kill you? True, in the end, she changed her mind … but that didn’t change what Asia was sent to do
. “I don’t know.” An image of Asia popped
into Gretchen’s mind—Asia ready to kill Kirk when she thought Circe was inhabiting his body. At the time, Gretchen had taken this to mean that Asia was willing to protect her at all costs. But now a new thought occurred to her.
Life does not mean much to Asia
, Gretchen realized.
She’s ready to kill if she has to
.

“Is there some reason for you
not
to trust her?” Mafer asked, and as the words floated into the air, Gretchen felt herself again looking out the window. “Is there anything she might want?”

Now the glare had shifted, and the two figures came into view in the purple twilight of the fast-fading sun. One was Will, the other Asia. The breeze lifted Asia’s long hair slightly, blowing it away from her face, revealing her brilliant green eyes. She looked impossibly graceful and beautiful, even in the old clothes she wore. With a sinking feeling in her stomach Gretchen whispered, “Maybe there is something she wants.”

That’s why she’s here
, she knew in a flash.
This has nothing to do with Circe. It has to do with me. With Will. She wants to get rid of me
.

Maybe she
is
Circe
.

Gretchen frowned. She looked down at her right hand and snapped her fingers. A flame shot up between them, and burned there—steady. She played with it, letting it roll over the backs of her fingers, then out to the tips.

Opening her palm, she let the flame settle inside, then quickly closed her hand. The flame snuffed out.

“You’ve learned something,” Mafer noted.

Gretchen turned to face her. She had forgotten that her friend was in the room.

But Mafer didn’t look surprised. “That’s good.”

“I’m not sure how I did it.”

“You’ll figure it out.”

Gretchen turned away, and Mafer placed a gentle hand on her back. “Gretchen, this thing … it’s never going to leave you alone. It’s seeking you. I could feel its hatred.” Gretchen looked into her friend’s face and read the terror in her eyes. “It’s not going to stop.”

“Then I’ll have to stop it,” Gretchen said simply.

“Do you think you can?”

“No,” Gretchen admitted. “But I have to try.”

The sun had gone down by the time Will and Asia neared the farmhouse. Gretchen was waiting for them on the steps. She had left Mafer inside. She wanted to face Asia alone.

Will dropped Asia’s hand as Gretchen approached them. The sun had dipped below the horizon, and the sky was darkening fast.

Gretchen said nothing as she walked up to Asia. She looked into those green eyes, luminous as sea glass. Asia looked back at her, unflinching, and Gretchen felt the familiar drop in temperature that came whenever she was close to the Siren.

“Leave us, Will,” Asia said.

“What? No.”

Gretchen turned to him. “Please, Will.” But he just shook his head. She sighed.
I should have expected
that
, she thought. She knew it was hopeless—there was no way she would get him to leave them alone. But she guessed it didn’t really matter. What she had to say to Asia could be said in front of Will. “Why are you here, Asia?” Gretchen demanded.

“To help you.”

“Really?” Gretchen looked at Will, who was frowning at her. He shook his head slightly, almost in warning. But Gretchen ignored him. “Why should I trust you?”

Asia smiled a little then. “You don’t?”

“No.”

“That’s wise.”

Gretchen felt her heart clench. The darkness around them deepened and grew. “Are you saying that I shouldn’t trust you?”

“I’m saying that you shouldn’t trust anyone, Gretchen.”

“Gretchen—” Will began, but an unreadable look came over Asia’s face. Gretchen steeled herself just in time—with movements like lightning, Asia leaped toward Gretchen, unleashing a primeval shriek.

Gretchen clawed at Asia, and a flame shot from her fingers. But Asia’s reach missed Gretchen. Instead, the Siren crashed against a human form that had just come through the door, knocking her from the steps to the ground.

Gretchen’s ears rang with Asia’s scream of agony, and a moment later, pain coursed through her own arm. A gleam of silver flashed in the near-darkness. It took several seconds for her mind to process what was
happening. Mafer and Asia struggled on the ground. Mafer was holding a knife; her eyes glowed gold.

Gretchen had started toward them when the truth turned her cold. Asia hadn’t been possessed by Circe—Mafer had.

Will shouted as Asia wrestled the knife from Mafer’s hand. It clattered away, and Will ran to pick it up. Asia slammed her arm across Mafer’s throat, choking the life out of her.

“Stop!” Gretchen screamed. “Asia, stop!”

But Asia didn’t hear, or maybe she wasn’t listening. She landed a knee on Mafer’s chest, then another, and Gretchen watched as Mafer’s face began to turn blue. Her friend would be dead in moments if she didn’t do something.

Lightning tore across the sky in a jagged streak as Gretchen leaped onto Asia. The Siren shook her off, but Gretchen leaped again. Lightning exploded nearby, illuminating the cloudless sky for a fraction of a second. Gretchen tore at Asia until the Siren’s arm came away from Mafer’s throat.

Mafer took a heaving gasp, then opened her mouth wide. A steady stream of dark mist, thick and oily as rank smoke, poured from between her lips. It hung there for a moment. Something slammed into Gretchen. She twisted and writhed, trying to get a hold on the thing, but it slipped through her fingers like shadow.

It has its own form now
, Gretchen realized. In the moonlight, she saw something like fierce teeth, and the creature lunged at her, piercing her shoulder.

Gretchen screamed in pain.

“I can’t see it!” Will shouted as the cloud shadow dragged Gretchen across the yard. Asia raced forward, but the creature flung her backward.

Gretchen fought, but the vapor was powerful, and she felt its desire—the desire to drown Gretchen, to snuff her out like a candle flame and rule in her body.

Desperate, Gretchen tore at the ground, clinging to the rocky surface. But with a powerful heave, the vapor slammed her against a tree. Beside her was the water trough the goats drank from.

Pain shot through Gretchen as she struggled to her feet. The cloud-shadow landed noiselessly beside her. Gretchen ran to the left, but the creature pounced, pinning her to the earth.

Gretchen felt the fire burning through her, like acid in her veins, and a brilliant light poured from her hands. But the cloud expanded and filled, quenching the light, gobbling it up. It reared back, lifting its hideous jaws.

It plunged forward, and Gretchen felt piercing cold as the thing tore through her.

And at the same time, Gretchen felt a thickening fog enter her mind.

She saw Asia leaping toward her, Will behind her, running, too. But Gretchen saw them as if she were looking through the wrong end of a telescope—they seemed small and far away. Gretchen’s ears were full of wax. She couldn’t hear properly—only muffled noises. Her body was leaden, as if it had been dipped in bronze. She knew she was moving, but she had no control over her limbs.

It was Circe who controlled her now.

Asia pinned Gretchen’s arms to her sides, but she felt nothing as Asia dragged her toward the water trough.
She’ll drown me
, Gretchen realized.
She’ll kill the both of us—Circe and me
.

But then Will was there. He tore at Asia, trying to pull Gretchen from her grasp, but the Siren wouldn’t be stopped. Asia landed a fierce blow against his chest, sending him sprawling, but Gretchen felt no emotion as Asia pulled at her hair, yanking it back, and made ready to plunge her face-first into the trough.

But Circe wasn’t about to let that happen. Gretchen’s body struggled away from Asia’s grip, then flung the Siren away, sending her across the grass like a skipping stone.

Gretchen could feel Circe’s elation, the thrill she felt at conquest. Gretchen was powerless. Powerless, and growing weaker. With every second, she felt her sense of self disappearing.

Will staggered to his feet as Gretchen’s field of vision narrowed, turning to a tiny pinpoint.

The moment was passing.

Summoning all of her strength, Gretchen flexed her mind, and in an instant, she felt herself burning with a light bright enough to cut through the darkness of the universe, like a star. Lightning lit up the Archer fields as Gretchen burned with enough heat to melt cities, enough light to turn night into day. She felt her flesh falling from her. Gretchen felt the pain, but did not feel it. She knew it, but did not mind it. She would die now, this she knew.

She would die, and so would Circe.

She remembered all of this as her body flared into flame. She was burning, she knew it, and the shadow inside her reveled in the new power. But Gretchen burned on, burned brighter. And the silver stars above grew larger and seemed to come nearer, and Gretchen felt herself turn white-hot, lighting the field until the ground beneath her was the color of bone.

Circe shrieked then, and seemed to shrink, and the stars seemed to reach for Gretchen’s fire, streaking toward her like silver rain, like the night of the meteor shower.

Gretchen burned on, and she screamed in pain, but she was not consumed. She turned her face to the sky, releasing her voice upward, and suddenly a silver cloud appeared out of the rain of stars. Circe howled at the cloud, but it grew, and Gretchen thought she could see faces in it—Tim’s face, and the faces of others. Dimly, she realized that these were the dead. Tim was leading them, pulling them forward, through the rift between worlds and toward Circe. Circe screamed as they reached down and tore at Gretchen.

They tore at her body, but she did not feel it. They tore at her and through her, reaching inside, to the shade that inhabited her. Circe resisted—the cloud-shadow clung and sucked at Gretchen, but the arms held strong, and soon they pulled Circe up, up into their cloud. Their silver brilliance erased the shadow, or swallowed it, and then the wind pulled and howled with so much force that Gretchen felt as if
her soul were being yanked from her body. The air only served to fan the flames.

From a distance, she heard Will’s voice shouting something; a word she knew but could not place. Gretchen burned on and on, and only slowly felt the light around her fade, and the stars return to their normal size and recede back into the heavens. She felt herself disappearing. The sky above was dark again, and the field was lit with faraway fires. Gretchen closed her eyes, one arm on the cool grass.