Emily cleared her throat, unsure of what Alice meant or how to respond. “Thanks? I guess.”
Alice smiled again, nodding curtly. “I sent him here to offer you our terms, but it seems he has spilled all our plans to you.” The girl’s speech was formal and awkward for someone so young. And was that a hint of an accent?
Chandler began to complain, “It’s not like they can do anything—”
“Shut it!” Alice cut in, sparks erupting in her eyes.
Chandler flinched into silence.
When she turned her attention back to Emily, Alice’s face had cleared of the hatred and rage. Emily tried not to flinch at those intense eyes and failed. What was it about Alice that made her older brother so afraid? Apparently, she was more powerful. But could Emily really tell? She hadn’t seen Chandler use his magic before. For Marion, it had been only that time in the underground hallway—with his blue flame.
Still, something about the way Chandler—and even Marion, who stood silently in the back, his eyes to the ground—behaved that made it obvious who the leader was.
“Now, where were we?” Alice turned her attention back to Emily.
For fear of being reproached, Emily said, “Apologizing for Chandler.”
“Oh, yes, yes, yes,” Alice muttered. “I’m really sorry you had to hear all the stuff we plan to do with your dad and aunt and the sleazy bum that calls himself a warlock.”
She smiled sweetly. “Chandler should have made the proposition in such a way that you’d think you had a fighting chance and somehow have hope that you can defeat us, so we can clip your wings and drag you to the altar. Or, he should have offered fake terms, and we’d just renege on the deal and take you all to the castle anyhow.”
Alice let loose a long, wistful sigh. “Oh well, I suppose you’ll want us to do it the hard way.” She looked around her. “But that’ll keep us here for a few hours.”
Emily stared aghast at the pretty little girl. She was trying to understand just how terrible Alice’s upbringing must have been to turn her into this monster. “You would support killing us all? Unleashing a beast so terrible it could wipe out the majority of all living things on this planet?”
Alice shrugged, maintaining her cute little smile. “That’s how it has to be.”
Emily was annoyed by the fact that Alice seemed to be unaffected by such awful accusations. Was it that she was blocking her mind from imagining the outcome of her father’s plans? Or perhaps she just didn’t have the imaginative capacity to envision the realities that would abound should the Alfreds’ plans fall through.
Emily attempted to open up the girl’s mind. “We’re talking billions of people gone in a moment. We’re talking families, children, and babies even! Disaster unlike we’ve ever seen. Hurricane Katrina, the Indian tsunami—Hiroshima doesn’t even begin to measure up to the level of desolation we’re facing here!”
Emily waved her arms around her as she spoke, looking very owl-like herself. “Governments will collapse. Peace will become a pipedream. There will be wars. Bloodshed. Massive valleys filled up to the brim with the bodies of the lost. Now, I ask you one more time, Alice Alfred, is that what you really want?”
The smile melted off Alice’s face. Her palms fisted. “I don’t want it.”
Emily began to allow a sigh of relief when Alice spoke again.
“I yearn for it,” Alice said with a sharp shrill. Her eyes began to glow a fierce red. “I long for it. I dream of it all the time.” She let loose a horrendous laugh, one born of evil as its father and malevolence as its mother.
“You don’t have to be like this!” Emily screamed. What the hell was wrong with this deranged family!?
“You think you know me?” Alice retorted in a loud voice. Marion and Chandler began taking steps backward. They moved surreptitiously to avoid attracting Alice’s attention, which was riveted on Emily.
Emily knew something was about to go down. She didn’t know what it was. She did, however, hope the barrier would withstand whatever the small girl was about to hurl her way.
“You think you understand how I feel?” Her voice quiet, Alice stepped forward. Right into the barrier. Immediately, there was a severe spark as the entire external defense became visible. Darkness fled as the shimmering pale blue dome revealed itself.
Great surges of electric power coursed through Alice’s body. She jerked violently, but her eyes were fixed on Emily.
Emily stared in horror as Alice screamed and pushed through the barrier. The barrier reacted equally, bending and churning out sparks. The smell of burning flesh filled the air.
Emily screamed for Alice to stop hurting herself, but Alice kept pushing. Every few seconds she pressed through another inch.
“You can’t get through!” Emily boomed.
“Watch me!” Alice screamed, her voice scaly and inhuman.
Emily looked up at the brothers, who were looking at their little sister, stunned. When Emily looked back, Alice had managed to get the tip of the middle finger of her right hand through the barrier—or rather what was left of it. By now, Emily gagged at the putrid smell of melted flesh.
13
“Watch out!”
Emily heard the scream before she saw the crackle of electricity on the tip of Alice’s finger that had made it through. She had just enough time to dive out of the direct path of the lightning bolt that tore across the space between them. But she didn’t make it completely out of the way fast enough. A part of the lightning bolt struck the side of her abdomen. The impact felt like a baseball had plowed into her side at the speed of a rocket. She was thrown several yards back, the wind knocked out of her.
She smashed into the banister, broke through it, shattering it en route, and was stopped by the outer wall of the cottage.
But that was not the painful part. The painful part was the surge of electricity blasting through her veins.
