4

In the blackness, Eden shivered. Was she dead? The guy and the girl with the knife stood beside her.

“I know this place,” the girl said, smearing soot across her palm as she wiped her face. Her amethyst eyes widening at the bubble that shimmered before them. “It’s a portal.”

“How can it be a passageway to anything when we can’t see anything around us?” the boy asked.

Eden guessed he was Javan. Micka’l had called out the names earlier, and of the four of them he had been the only guy.

“No, focus.” The girl sheathed her knife. “We must all agree on our destination.”

“Any place but here,” Nausea rolled through Eden and she stepped closer to the others. “What about the other girl?”

“She’s used the last of her life-force and power to open a way for us to escape.” Javan frowned as he looked over his shoulder at the smoldering corpses of the council. “We don’t have much time, but we’ve got to come up with a plan soon.”

“What about the Isle of Shadows?” Eden offered. According to the book, only the Damned lived there.

“Where is that?” Javan’s eyes widened.

“The safest place I can think of.” The book had saved her… so was the Isle real… a sanctuary?

“All right.” The girl stepped forward. “We must link our powers and call ourselves to this Isle of Shadows.”

“How?” Eden asked. All this magic stuff was new to her. They might as well ask her to fly with as little as she knew about magic. “Don’t we need to know where exactly to go? Like to be able to picture the refuge in our minds? How is it you two know about magic at all?”

Before the book, Eden would’ve been clueless.

“Our older sister taught us before she was imprisoned and hung,” Javan cleared his throat. “Now hold hands.” Javan grasped hers and warmth spread through her at his touch.

Then she clasped the girl’s hand, closed her eyes and concentrated. Moments passed, but nothing happened.

“Maybe it’s not real.” Eden broke their silence. Eden felt her face heat and she dropped their hands. “I mean, I read about it in the book that talked about magic but…”

“You can read?” The girl gaped at her.

“Raissa, she must have a book of the Damned.” Javan’s voice sent tingles through Eden.

Both continued to stare at her making nerves dance underneath her skin. “All right, yes. So what?”

“Where is it now?” His amethyst eyes brightening and stealing her breath. “The book.”

“At home.” She backed up a step seeing his eyes darken.

“You left it?” He shook his head.

She lifted her chin. “Couldn’t exactly bring it with me here, could I? Why are you so interested in it?”

“If it’s magical then it can help us. Give us abilities to defend ourselves.” His eyes softened. “With the other councils after us for what happened here, we need it or we may as well surrender our necks to the gallows.”

The girl grasped one of Eden’s and Javan’s hands in hers. “We must focus and let Eden direct the portal to her house so we can get the book.”

Eden swallowed. How was she to do this? She didn’t know spells or enchantments. What happened before was a fluke no matter what Javan said. Her book couldn’t be that powerful, right? Maybe even her parents—her real ones—had left the protection spell on her and it hadn’t needed to activate until she had actually been in danger. Was that why she was able to thwart the council’s attempt to subdue her? Or had reading the book changed her that much in such a short time? She shook her head, all her questions rushing together without any definite answers.

“Close your eyes and focus on your home,” Javan instructed. “Every little detail you can recall.”

With a nod, she closed her eyes. What would her foster parents do when they found out what she’d done? Would the council give her father leniency, saying that she was a horrible person like most Damned were believed to be? Would her mother cry or hate her for disrupting their lives and bringing ruin?

“You can do this,” Javan whispered, peace settling over her troubled mind as he squeezed her fingers in encouragement.

Underneath her feet, the ground trembled. Was it working?

“Hurry!” the girl’s shout sounded as if was in a tunnel. “The portal is shifting on its own.”

Panic seized her breath. They were going to die if she didn’t accomplish this task. She dared not open her eyes. The other’s grasps slipped to her fingertips.

“No.” Javan grasped her fingers and nearly made her cry out. “Imagine us with you at your home.”

Eden took a gasping breath and tried to calm her nerves. With each passing second, the ground beneath her wobbled until it was as if she stood upside down.

If her mother was home, she would scream the moment they popped in beside the hearth. Eden focused on her favorite oak about a mile from her house. Pictured the leaves with the evening sunlight pouring on their faces.

And as she remembered the texture of the bark whenever she climbed the tree when she was little, wind and sun whooshed her up into the sky. She flew higher than the stars.

Then she landed with a thump on her butt.

No longer was she holding Javan or Raissa’s hands. She opened her eyes and a gasp escaped her.

She had imagined the oak outside their home a little too clearly. They were perched along the upper branches of the massive tree. “Sorry.”

“What happened?” Raissa moaned.

“Why aren’t we at your house?” Javan frowned.

“My mother may be home, I cannot fall into the middle of my room with her there.” Eden shifted her weight and began climbing down the tree.

Javan’s touch on her arm froze her.

“Is that your home?” He pointed into the distance.

With dread pooling into her stomach, she turned. Black fire leapt on her family’s thatched roof. In seconds, the cabin fell into a heap of smoldering ash.

Mom! Her insides twisted and she couldn’t breathe.

“No!” Eden screamed. She jumped the branches as fast as she could. Had to get to her mother. Maybe there was still time to save her.

Behind her the others hissed to wait, but she didn’t stop. Her mother. The only mother she’d ever known. And was her Dad in the house too? Her heart shuddered.

Not bothering to look behind her, her feet flew over the ground. When she reached the pile of ashes, she skidded to a stop.

Black flames danced among the ruin. How could a fire have burned everything so quickly? Magic. That had to be the reason for her home to be in shambles. She stepped closer. A piece of bone sticking out from the middle of a blackened square.

Mom! Her knees buckled and she fell to the ground. This was her fault. If she hadn’t brought the book home. Had walked away from it like she knew she should’ve, then none of this would’ve happened.

Why did this happen? Her mother hadn’t done anything to deserve this. She was kind, loving, everything a mother should be.

Javan and Raissa rushed up behind her.

Bright flames gnawed at what was left of her home. She sank to the ground, her legs unable to support her.

Eden’s heart wrenched. Who could’ve done this? Had someone had a vendetta against her family? A criminal who escaped his sentence and came here, tore the place down and burned everything?

She blinked through her tears, her throat raw and painful. But how? She’d only left this morning. Unless… unless someone found the book… was it truly magical then? Had bringing into her home caused this? Her insides twisted like she’d been gutted. This was her fault.

“Both of you should leave.”

“We need to find the book,” Javan stepped forward, but Eden shook her head.

“Don’t you understand? I can’t do this,” a sob tore from her. “I got my family killed because of the stupid book. Leave while you can, before the elders from the nearby town get here.”

“You’re in shock,” Raissa answered flipping her knife, but tears glistened in the girl’s eyes.

Eden faced away from them, hoping they’d leave soon. Her sobs shook her body. Let the elders come and do whatever they wanted. Let them take her magic. Take everything. But bring back her family.

Javan touched her shoulder. “It’s not safe here because whoever did this, might be after the book—and after you.”

“What do you mean?” Eden scrubbed a hand over her nose.

“We must be quick and check if the book is still here. If it was magical, it would have safeguards against anyone using it for evil.” His touch on her shoulder, brought her hands away from her face. “The black flames are gathering together and that’s not a good sign.”

“All is lost. My family, our home, the cursed book. I wish I never found it.” She rocked back and forth. “Leave. Both of you. I will avenge my family.”

“No.” Javan knelt before her. “It’s what the Council wants. They want you to break down and give up.”

“I’m not giving up.” Was he implying the council did this? How? She clenched her fists. It didn’t matter who; only that they would pay. “I will destroy whoever did this.”

“But you’d walk toward your death. Even if you did gather enough power, you don’t know how to use it.”

“And you do?” Eden snapped.

“You cannot win this fight alone… at least not now.” His violet eyes filled with kindness. “No doubt, the Council has done this to all of our homes not knowing where exactly we’d go.”

“We must find the book,” Raissa added.

“Fine. But I've got a new plan.” Eden rose, squaring her shoulders. “We find out of the book is here or not. Then I’ll come with you and learn all you can teach me about magic. When I find out who did this, I will avenge my family.”

A strangled sound came from behind her.

“C’mon… we must leave.” Raissa said, her face pale as she stared at the remains’ of Eden’s home.

Her words chilled Eden, but she turned back to the pile of ash.

The black flames coiled around the charred bone. As if alive, the flames and bones moved.

Eden stood and willed her feet to move, but they refused to obey.

“It’s a Grievol.” He spun Eden away from the rising creature. “Find the book.”

“What’s a Grievol?” Eden asked wishing the book had had a section on monsters.

“It’s a magical demon.”

Dread coiled in her gut but she stood her ground. She’d fight Beelzebub himself to avenge her family. “How is it destroyed?”

“Fire, even tainted, an enchanted fire could not destroy anything of the Damned.”

“We don’t have time for this.” Raissa clutched her knife and took a step back.

“Without help, we are lost.” He frowned. “Ignore your fear and find it.”

Eden felt her bones melt, but he held her up. Instead of staring at the creature emerging with black flames as its body, she closed her eyes and thought of the book.

Then a sinking feeling washed over her.

“I know where it is.”

“Good, call it to you.”

She concentrated as hard as she could. Picturing the book like she had done the tree to get them here. Her palms warmed but nothing happened. She squeezed her eyes tighter, trying to imagine the weight of the hard leather book, but her hands didn’t even tingle. What if the book was destroyed in the fire? Or whoever had done this had taken it?

Then an image popped into her mind. Her mother clutching the tome, her eyes widening in shock and hurt. Eden pushed aside the stabbing pain of regret in her chest at the belief that she’d caused this and pictured the book in her hands. Nothing. Then her mother smiled too wide, glaring right at Eden, like she could truly see her, like she wanted to kill her.

“I can’t get the book free.” Eden snapped open her eyes. This was a nightmare and she was trapped without the ability to wake. None of this made sense. How could her mother still be alive? But she knew it better than she did anything in this world.

An eerie greenish glow pulsed from within the ash.

“My mother has it.”