I leaned down and put my arms around her. “I love you, Amma. You know that?” It was true.
“Oh, I know plenty. I know you’re about as far from the truth as Wesley’s mamma is from a bottle a whiskey, Ethan Wate.” She pushed me off, but I’d gotten to her. Amma, standing in this sweltering kitchen, scolding me whether I deserved it or not and whether she meant it or not.
“You don’t have to worry about me. You know I’ll always come home.”
She softened for a moment, putting her hand on my face, shaking her head. “That peach you’re peddlin’ sure smells sweet, but I’m still not buyin’ it.”
“Be back by eleven.” I grabbed the car keys off the counter and gave her a peck on the cheek.
“Not a hair past ten or you’ll be givin’ Harlon James a bath tomorrow—and I mean all a them!” I backed out of the kitchen before she could stop me. And before she noticed I had taken the One-Eyed Menace with me.
“Check it out.” Link was hanging out the window of the Volvo, and the car started tilting in his direction. “Whoa.”
“Sit down.”
He flopped back down into his seat. “See those black ditches? It looks like someone set off napalm or shot a flamethrower all the way up the road, heading straight for Ravenwood. And then it stopped.”
Link was right. Even in the moonlight, I could see the deep grooves, at least four feet wide, on both sides of the dirt road. A few feet from the gates of Ravenwood, they disappeared.
Ravenwood was untouched, but the full scale of the attack on Lena’s house the night Abraham unleashed the Vexes must have been massive. She never said it was this bad, and I hadn’t asked. I was too worried about my own family, and my house, and my library. My town.
Now I was staring at the damage, and I hoped this was the worst of it. I pulled over to the side of the road, and we both got out. It was a given that pyrotechnics on this scale were worth a closer look.
Link squatted next to the black trail in front of the gate. “It’s thickest when you get up close to the house. Right before it disappears.”
I picked up a black branch, and it crumbled in my hand. “This isn’t what Aunt Prue’s house looked like. That was more like a tornado. This was some kind of fire, more like the library.”
“I don’t know, man. Maybe Vexes do different things to different—people, or whatever.”
“Casters are people.”
Link picked up another branch, inspecting it. “Yeah, yeah. We’re all people, right? All I know is, this thing is fried.”
“Do you think it was Sarafine? Fire is sort of her thing.” I hated to consider it, but it was possible. Sarafine wasn’t dead. She was out there somewhere.
“Yeah, she’s hot, all right.” He noticed me staring at him like he was nuts. “What? I can’t call it like I see it?”
“Sarafine’s the Queen of Darkness, dumbass.”
“Seen a movie lately? The Queen a Darkness is always totally hot. Third Degree Burns.” He wiped the ash from the crumbling branch off his hands. “Let’s get outta here. Somethin’ around here is givin’ me a headache. You hear that buzzin’ sound, like a whole bunch a chainsaws or somethin’?”
The Binding Casts. He could feel them now.
I nodded, and we started the car. The rusty, crooked gates opened into the shadows, as if they were expecting us.
You here, L?
I shoved my hands into my pockets and looked up at the great house. I could see the windows, the splintering wood shutters overgrown with ivy, as if Lena’s room hadn’t changed at all. I knew it was an ill
usion, and from where Lena stood in her bedroom she could see me through the glass walls.
I’m trying to get Reece to stay upstairs with Ryan, but she’s being as cooperative as usual.
Link was looking up at the portico to the window opposite Lena’s.
What happened with Ridley?
I asked her if she wanted to come. I figured she’s going to notice everyone showing up. She said she would, but who knows? She’s been acting so weird lately.