I was determined when I broke into the house. I knew what had to be done. Still, it wasn’t easy. When I made it to the basement where the vampires were sleeping the afternoon away, I ran into what could only be described as a vault and came face to face with ... something else.
Emma.
Her name was a whisper on the wind. She hadn’t really introduced herself. I had no idea who she truly was. All I knew was that the vampires had enslaved her to work on their behalf during the day and she was stuck there until someone freed her. I turned out to be that someone, although she didn’t hang around to thank me. Instead, she dropped some cryptic hints and disappeared into the night. I hadn’t seen her since.
She was still around. I felt that to my very bones. She hadn’t left, she was simply laying low. She was another one with answers about my past, although anything she volunteered to give would come at a price, and likely a steep one at that.
“I’m dealing,” I reassured Bonnie, quickly dropping another Spriggan. There had to be at least twenty of them left. At a certain point they would stop messing around in small groups and attack in a large one. That was the moment I was waiting for. “I don’t know what to expect from the meeting tonight.”
“I just can’t believe it’s about you,” Marissa groused. She was never going to be my biggest fan. In her mind I’d swooped into Hawthorne Hollow and stolen something from her. What that something was remained a mystery, although I was convinced it had something to do with attention. Marissa was an attention whore, and she didn’t care if it was positive or negative. She wanted to be the primary focus of everyone in the room. Tonight, a meeting about my past and potential future, would be pure torture for her.
“Well, believe it.” The Spriggans were moving and I hurried to jump in front of Marissa. I was determined to keep her out of the mess for once. “This one is completely on me.”
“How lovely.” Marissa hadn’t yet noticed the Spriggans. “Do you know what bothers me about this?” The question was directed at Bonnie, not me. “Ever since she’s joined us absolutely everything that has happened is all her fault. It’s all about her.”
“You can’t blame her for everything,” Bonnie argued as I narrowed my eyes. The Spriggans had broken into three groups but they were going to attempt a mass rush from all three directions. This was their last chance to take me down, and I was ready.
“I can blame her,” Marissa growled. “She’s made everything about her since she walked through the door of the Cauldron.”
“Actually, I think you’ve made everything about me,” I countered, blasting a bolt of magic to the east. The Spriggans expected it, basically sacrificed one of their own at the front of the charge, and then kept coming when the magic missed them. “You’re the one who is obsessed with me.”
I planted my right foot and pivoted, sending out another stream of magic. This time I managed to hit the Spriggans I missed with the first shot. There were only four total. I finished my turn and took on the next group. They were coming too fast to freeze so I sent out a bolt of purple fire. It burned so fast that the Spriggans were essentially incinerated, all but a small clump of wood that was a little too close for comfort when passing Marissa’s face.
“What was that?” She waved her hand in front of her nose, as if proving to herself that nothing was crawling on her face. “Seriously, what was that?”
“Just a second.” I finished the final pivot and found four Spriggans on top of me. It was too late to take them out with magic, so I instinctively threw my hands over my face when they attacked. They were strong enough to take me down, something I allowed until we were actually on the ground. Then I grabbed the nearest Spriggans and slammed their heads together while dosing them with the freezing magic. I did the same with the next two, and when I shifted to regain my footing, I lashed out with my boot and caused all four of them to poof at once.
“Is that all of them?” I asked, glancing around. I was wary, coiled and ready, but it felt to me as if the crisis had passed.
“I believe that’s all of them,” Bonnie confirmed, her expression hard to read. “Do you realize how many Spriggans you just took out?”
I held out my hands and shrugged. “I haven’t really given it much thought. Does it matter?”
“It was a freaking lot of them, and you’re not even sweating.”
I smiled because it seemed the thing to do. My mind was already back on our meeting with Drake. The Spriggans honestly weren’t a concern to me. “I just happen to have a knack with them. It’s not a big deal.”
“Would you listen to her?” Marissa snapped. “She just happens to have a knack with them. You’re just perfect, aren’t you? You can do no wrong.”
I was at my limit. When I turned to start yelling at her my eyes automatically went to her eyebrows. I’d noticed the smell when the flaming Spriggan flew past her face but I didn’t register the damage left in its wake. Obviously she hadn’t noticed either because I had no doubt she would be screaming if she realized one of her eyebrows was now missing, having been burned off her face.
“Um ... ” Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Bonnie giving me a definitive head
