Spell Fire (19 page)

"Thank you."

He threw me another sideways glance. A faint blush surfaced beneath his tan.

"What?"

"Just thinking about how the spell book likes true love."

"Does Evie realize spell books are inanimate objects? They don't have feelings or opinions."

"I need to teach you about magic."

The back of my head and shoulders tingled. I sensed a huge presence thrashing about the back seat as if trying to find a comfortable position. Thor must have sensed it too, because we glanced over our shoulders at the same time. His fingers tightened on the steering wheel, and the color leached from his knuckles.

It didn't feel like my dragon. It felt older. Bigger. Thor didn't say anything.

Great. We're going to pretend it isn't there.
"What were we talking about?"

"Love."

"Right. Terra and Esmun are in love."
I wish my parents were.
"And Betty and Arthur."

"True." Thor's hair ruffled forward as if blown by a breeze behind him. Hot air tinged with brimstone fouled the air. Thor pushed his hair out of his eyes and cleared his throat. "But the grimoire led Portia to
us
."

"Oh." My cheeks warmed and my neck felt splotchy.

Thor's fingers drummed against the steering wheel. "Maybe it meant you and Jett."

"Jett?" My voice raised an octave.

"No?" The car's tires crunched over a sand drift on the road.

"No way."

"I hear he does fire fortunes."

"Not when I want him to." Anger and frustration bubbled up. Time had run out. I had created a public relations disaster and had no way to fix it.

"Hmm." More finger drumming. "Portia said the spell book contains ancient magic." His eyebrows ticked up. "Hope it's not lost forever."

Like Sophia.
My skin chilled.

"Evie thinks the grimoire likes you—"

"If she thinks I can restore the writing, she's wrong. Sometimes when things vanish, they stay vanished."
Like friends with meth-head parents. Or the love between my parents.

"Hey." Thor cast me a sideways glance. "We're in this together." He pointed to his chest, then me.

"People I care about—"

"I won't disappear on you."

"You can't control the future."

We had reached the park entrance. Thor slowed the car to a stop, rolled down the driver's window, and flashed a pass at the ranger monitoring the station. His words floated in my mind. I wanted to believe him — wanted to believe he wouldn't disappear like Sophia.
But bad things happen. Things we can't control.

"Haven't seen you in a while," the ranger, a thirty-something Latina, said. She handed Thor a color brochure. It flapped in the wind, folding back on her hand before he could snag it. Cold air whipped into the car.

"It's good to be back." Thor gave me the brochure. "This is Ainslie," he told the ranger. "I'm going to show her Hidden Valley." He shrugged his right shoulder as if trying to shake off something bothersome.

"Welcome," the woman said. "Enjoy your day at the park."

"Thanks!" I said.

As Thor drove forward and rolled up the window, I opened the brochure. The first words I noticed were Mohave Desert.
Yes! This will so help me prepare for the Athenian Academy wilderness survival challenge!
If nothing else, it would help me decide between the desert challenge and the Sierra foothills challenge. I located Hidden Valley on the map.

"It's a one-mile loop," Thor explained.

"Afraid I couldn't go a long distance?"

"More like I wasn't sure you had brought the right shoes."

Fair enough.
So far he had seen me in stilettos, ballet flats, and flip-flops. "I brought my hiking boots!"
Thank you, Mom.

I wriggled my toes, conjuring up memories of the last time I had worn them. It had been on our trip to Yellowstone the summer between eighth grade and ninth. Mom and Dad had hoped hiking among free-roaming bison and bears would somehow lower my anxiety and help me forget Sophia's disappearance. Driving back to our luxury condo one night, a lightning storm had lit up the Grand Tetons and frightened a herd of wild horses. Stirred by the storm and backlit by lightning, the horses had galloped across the mesa, their manes and hooves flying. The mountains had loomed behind them, purple with a mantle of white snow. The wild beauty had stolen my breath. In those moments, everything bad had slipped away.

Glancing at Thor, I had a feeling today would be the same.

Chapter Twenty-One

The brochure warned of people dying in the park from preventable accidents. Anxiety pooled at my feet. It eased as I read about flash flood dangers (not a cloud in the sky), snake activity (only in spring and summer), the danger of abandoned mines (didn't plan to explore any), and how you shouldn't go climbing unless you'd been properly trained and equipped (did climbing a faux rock wall on a cruise ship count?).

I totally had this.

"You're missing the scenery."

"Sorry." I folded up the pamphlet and examined the view. Cactus-like trees and gigantic jumbles of boulders the color of sun-bleached bones punctuated the desert.
I am so not in Yellowstone.
"Are those the Joshua trees?"

"Yep."

"They look like a cross between a pine tree and a cactus."

Thor's gaze left the road long enough to sweep the desert vista. "They're members of the lily family."

"You're kidding." Wind whistled against the car. The stiff, bristly-looking Joshua trees didn't move.

"Truth." He drew an
x
in the air in front of his chest. "Scout's honor."

I angled my head at him. "Were you ever a Scout?"

"Sure. Before we moved here from Seattle." His hair flew over his face again, and he raked it back with his fingers. He drove one-handed and fished a black ponytail elastic out of the console. We were on a straight stretch of road — no other cars around — but my anxiety still spiked when he released the steering wheel with both hands and tethered his hair.

When he gripped the wheel again, I released a relieved breath. "Why is the dragon trying to get your attention?"

"What dragon?" Thor's hands tensed. A sign ahead marked the entrance to Hidden Valley. Thor drove into the paved parking lot. He parked and cut the engine.

Invisible energy rustled the backseat. The ponytail holder broke and snapped against Thor's neck. "Ouch!" He clapped his hand over the angry welt.

I shook my head. "I don't know as much about magic as you do, but it seems like a bad idea to ignore a dragon. Maybe you should re-read the code."

"You're right." He glanced in the direction of the back seat. "My apologies."

We opened the car doors in unison. A cold wind shoved mine back.
What is up with the weather today?

"Wait. Let me help," Thor said.

No way was I going to extend my leg until I was sure the car door wouldn't try to amputate it. Thor hustled around, his jeans and hoodie rippling in the wind, and held the door open.

"Maybe we should try a less windy trail," I suggested.

"It will die down." When I didn't move, Thor bent and said into my ear, "It's the dragon. She gets agitated in the park." He held out his hand. His eyes arrowed into mine, begging me to trust him.

My core fluttered, overriding the warning image of the tower tarot card flashing inside my head. I clasped his hand. Instead of his usual calming warmth, Thor's palm was sweaty. He didn't haul me out. He just held my hand and blocked the door from slamming on me as I climbed out.

Thor closed the door, then popped the trunk. While he hunkered into a down jacket, I wound a cashmere scarf around my neck and pulled a knit cap over my ears. I debated exchanging my leather jacket for the heavy barn coat Terra had loaned me. Vanity won. Besides, Thor could warm me.

Nearby, a guy wearing expensive-looking climbing gear chased a protein bar wrapper across the asphalt. The only other people in the half-filled parking lot were a clutch of rock climbers.

I stared at the massive boulders mounded precariously on top of each other. "Why do I feel like I'm in the badlands?"

"Because cattle rustlers once hid stolen herds here."

"Perfect. I'll add channeling to my college application."

"Don't forget dragon shaman."

"Right. Columbia will offer me early admission with that one."

"Stranger things have happened." He held a bottle aloft. "Water?"

"No thanks." I knew you were supposed to carry water on hikes, but it wasn't warm out and I didn't want to carry it for a mile. Thor slipped the bottle into his jacket pocket, then closed the trunk and locked the car. "Ready?"

I gestured toward the trailhead. "Lead on, Scout."

The circular trail threaded through narrow rock passages, where massive boulders protected us from the wind and we were forced to walk in single file. I concentrated on stepping where Thor stepped and making sure I didn't slip on loose sand. If his dragon still dogged us, I didn't sense it.

Thor slowed his pace as if he thought I had never hiked before. On the flat, open sections, a few people could walk abreast. The hiking was easier, and rocks marked the compacted earth path. I relaxed. Not needing to watch my footing, my gaze swung upward to the precarious rock formations.
One strong earthquake…
I squashed my anxiety by reminding myself the boulders had been there for eons.

"I should have brought a camera," I said.

"We can use my phone." Thor stopped and leaned against a boulder. His color seemed off, and when he pulled the water bottle out of his pocket, his hand shook. "Open this while I dig out my phone."

The bottle was so cold it felt as if it had been in the freezer. "You okay?"

"Sure. Give me a minute."

I twisted off the cap and placed the bottle on the boulder. The wind had died down. Thor dug his smartphone out of his pocket. It slipped from his hand. Somehow, I caught it.

Thor hadn't moved. "Thanks," he said.

I glanced at the touchscreen. "You have a message from Jett."

Thor took a shaky swig. Water splashed his jacket. He brushed it off and balanced the bottle on the boulder. "Read it to me."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Sweat glistened on his forehead.

"Okay." Worry washed through me.
He doesn't look well.
I opened the text.

Urgent Ainslie calls me at the store.

Thor stiffened. "Hope everyone is okay."

"Me, too." My heart crash-landed at my feet, and fear spiked my anxiety. "I've lost the signal!"

"Climb up the rocks."

I clambered up the first mammoth boulder. Thor watched, seemingly unable to move. I held up the phone…
Roaming
. "Crap." I shoved the phone into my jacket pocket and used both hands to climb higher.

"Any luck?" Thor called up to me.

I pulled out the phone and angled it so I could see the screen. "Yes!" I punched in the number for Spiral Journeys. "It's ringing."
Come on. Come on. Come on.

Jett answered on the fourth ring. He sounded breathless. "Ainslie?"

"Yes. Is everyone okay? Did my parents call?"

"No word from them." He lowered his voice and it sounded as though he had cupped his hand over the phone so no one would overhear him. "How's Thor? Are you at the park?"

I glanced down. Thor swayed a little on the boulder. "We're at Hidden Valley. I don't think he's feeling too well. Why?"

"I did a fire fortune and—"

Thor plummeted sideways, hitting the earthen path with a sickening thud.

"Thor!" I scrambled down the rocks.

"What happened?" Jett yelled.

"He—" The connection broke.
Roaming.
I jammed the phone into my pocket.

Thor remained motionless. He had landed on his side, then fallen onto his back.
He's dead. He's dead. He's dead.
I jumped to the ground. Sand crunched beneath my boots. Pebbles bit through the knees of my skinny jeans as I knelt.

"Thor?" I willed his eyes to open. When they didn't, my gazed dropped to his chest, hoping to see it rise and fall. If it did, his down jacket hid the movement. My mind trolled through what little I knew about caring for an accident victim.
Don't move them. Keep them warm. Phone for help.

"Thor?" I touched his cheek. "Please wake up.
Please."

A ragged moan limped from his lips. He brought his hand to the rapidly swelling gash above his right eye.

I almost collapsed from relief. "Are you okay?" I brushed sand and white pebbles away from his eye. "What happened?"

"Got dizzy."

Why?
The question screamed in my head. It couldn't be hypoglycemia. We had just eaten. I pushed back his sleeve and fished out his medical alert bracelet. Two words had been etched into the nickel: Supraventricular Tachycardia.

Cardia. He has a heart condition?
"Don't move. I'll call for help." I started to rise.

"Wait." He gasped for air. "Hold the water bottle to my face." He took a deep breath — as deep as he could manage — pinched his nostrils shut, and closed his eyes and mouth. His cheeks puffed out and his expression became strained as if he were bearing down. I held my breath, mirroring him.

When I thought we might both explode, he released his nose and forced air out his mouth.

I retrieved the icy bottle and screwed the top back on before pressing it against Thor's forehead, avoiding the bloody gash.

After a moment he said, "Thanks. I'm good now."

"Are you sure? Don't move." He appeared far from normal. I rose and balanced the water bottle on the nearest boulder.
Don't panic. Don't panic. Don't panic.
I did a three-sixty. No hikers or rock climbers in sight.

"Ainslie?"

My knees crunched the sand. "I'm right here."

"I'm sorry."

"Why didn't you warn me?"

A tear trickled from the corner of his eye. He swiped it away. "The doc had said it might never come back. But everyone treats me like the dying kid. Except—"