Chapter 11
In the right hands, fire burns brighter.
So why aren’t you with them yet?
My eyes kept returning to the words painted across the white wall while my heart struggled to remember how to beat.
The backyard had been completely destroyed.
Tables lay overturned.
Lounge chairs had been smashed to pieces.
Shards of broken bottles glittered across the ground.
Just like the message.
And the pool water—
it was red too.
My body moved toward it instinctively.
The thought that it might be blood made my ears ring.
I prayed I wouldn’t find bodies at the bottom.
Prayed there wouldn’t be bodies anywhere else.
The pool was empty.
“Damn it,” Airis muttered behind me.
He moved quickly and efficiently—checking the yard, searching through the house.
Like this was routine for him.
Like this was what he did every day.
“The house is empty,” he said, stopping beside me.
“What the hell is this?” The words scraped their way out of my throat, row and unfamiliar.
“Looks like Harold’s work.”
My heart, which had only just started beating again, dropped straight into my stomach.
What if he’d gotten to Gwendolyn, Dwayne, and Mike too?
What if he was collecting the people I loved just to force me to join him?
“We need to—” Airis started, but I cut him off, my fists clenching at my sides.
“I need to go home.”
With sheer force of will, I tore my gaze away and headed toward the exit.
“Isn’t this your home?” Airis asked, catching up with me.
“This is my parents’ house,” I snapped.
“My real home is somewhere else.”
I headed straight for the car, barely noticing Airis opening the passenger door for me.
Every thought in my head revolved around the people I cared about.
Maybe things with my parents had never worked out.
But I hadn’t wanted this for them.
And not for Adeline either.
My little sister was only fifteen.
I didn’t want her becoming a victim.
Or even a witness.
By instinct, my hands searched the pockets of my jeans for my phone—
then froze when I remembered it wasn’t there.
Fuck.
I couldn’t contact anyone.
It felt like I was trapped behind an invisible wall.
My eyes immediately landed on Airis’s phone—the one Lars and Bax had left in the car for him.
But I didn’t know a single number by heart.
Not my parents’.
Not Adeline’s.
Not Gwendolyn’s, Dwayne’s, or Mike’s.
I grabbed the phone from its holder and quickly typed in the address of the apartment where I’d lived for the past seven years—
the apartment I’d shared with Gwendolyn, Dwayne, and Mike ever since our first year at university.
We’d always wanted a real-life version of Friends.
And splitting the rent on a huge two-story apartment had made it affordable.
Right now, I just prayed they were there.
Alive.
Safe.
******
I burst into the apartment so suddenly that Dwayne and the guy sitting beside him on the couch practically launched themselves away from each other.
Suspiciously fast.
My eyes immediately swept over Dwayne from head to toe, desperate to make sure he was unharmed.
Only after confirming he was okay did I finally breathe again.
As if snapping back to reality, he shot to his feet and headed straight toward me.
His gaze moved over my face, my clothes, my body.
Checking me for injuries too.
That was exactly who Dwayne was.
The moment he realized I was unharmed, his blue eyes locked onto mine and his thick ginger brows furrowed.
“Ria, where the hell have you been? We were losing our minds.”
“Where are Gwendolyn and Mike?” I asked immediately, realizing my body was still wound painfully tight.
Normally, by now, all the pressure inside me would’ve exploded outward.
But strangely—
I couldn’t feel the energy clearly.
Like something was suppressing it.
Or suppressing me.
“They’re still out looking for you. They left me here in case you came back.”
Dwayne paused, concern darkening his expression.
“Gwends said your parents’ house was destroyed. And there was some kind of message—”
His words died the second I glanced toward the unfamiliar guy still watching us.
Dwayne understood immediately.
So did the stranger.
“I’ll leave you two alone,” the guy muttered, standing and wiping his palms on his jeans.
“I’ll text you,” Dwayne nodded, finally sparing him a glance.
A second later, the front door slammed shut.
“What the hell did you get yourself into?” Dwayne asked immediately.
Then he nodded toward Airis, who had apparently moved up beside me without me even noticing.
“And who’s this?”
“This is Airis, and I—”
I stopped abruptly, suddenly remembering that Dwayne should have Adeline’s number.
“I’ll explain everything, but I need to call Adeline first. You still have her number, right? I don’t know where she is, or where my parents are, or what happened to them—”
“They’re alive,” Dwayne said immediately.
I froze.
“Your parents are in the hospital, and Adeline’s staying with Aunt Eliza.”
He ran a hand through his hair.
“Mike found them after he and Gwends searched the house.”
Relief crashed into me so suddenly that the crushing weight in my chest vanished all at once.
My knees nearly gave out beneath me.
Both men caught me before I hit the floor.
“What’s wrong with her?” Dwayne immediately shot Airis a sharp look, clearly unhappy about him touching me.
But Airis didn’t even react.
His hands never left me.
“I’m fine,” I muttered.
“I just got overwhelmed.”
Once we reached the couch, I practically collapsed onto it.
“There’s… a lot I need to explain,” I said quietly.
“But I’d rather wait for Gwendolyn and Mike. I don’t think I can survive telling this story twice.”
Dwayne dropped onto the couch beside me.
“Illariana Rose Arden.”
The familiar voice made me turn instantly.
Emerald eyes met mine.
Gwendolyn stood in the doorway, glaring at me with open irritation, while Mike remained beside her with his arms crossed over his chest.
“I didn’t even get the chance to call you,” Dwayne said, leaning around me.
“How’d you know she was already here?”
“The entrance cameras picked her up,” Mike answered.
“Where the hell have you been for four days?” Gwendolyn snapped, looking ready to set me on fire with her stare.
“Do you even realize how worried we were?”
“Well,” Dwayne drawled lazily, shoving his hands into his pockets, “Mom and Dad here are being a little dramatic.”
Instantly, two death glares shifted toward him.
“Oh, come on,” he sighed.
“She’s alive. She’s here. What’s the point of lecturing her now?”
“Besides,” I cut in before Gwendolyn could answer, “I had a serious reason for disappearing without warning anyone.”
As I gestured toward the chairs, inviting them to sit down, I noticed my hand trembling slightly.
Apparently my body still hadn’t recovered from the adrenaline.
But one question kept pressing harder and harder against the back of my mind:
Why wasn’t my magic reacting?
******
I told them everything, holding nothing back.
Ignoring the disapproving looks Airis kept sending my way.
I didn’t care what he thought.
I didn’t want to keep anything from them.
They deserved the truth.
After hearing everything, my friends sat in silence for a moment, processing what I’d told them.
Mike was the first to recover.
Running a hand through his long dirty-blond hair, he finally spoke.
“So in the span of four days, you managed to find a safe place for yourself and your magic... and somehow picked up an enemy too?”
“I didn’t exactly ask for one,” I frowned, slightly annoyed by both his tone and expression.
As if chaos followed me everywhere I went.
Which wasn’t true.
“Harold Moss is collecting powerful mages, and for some reason they think I’m one of them,” I muttered, briefly glancing at Airis, who was studying my friends as though they were experimental subjects.
“And how exactly did your academy decide Ria was some kind of powerful mage?” Gwendolyn joined the conversation, eyeing the air mage with equal parts curiosity and caution.
“For starters,” Airis replied calmly, “she trapped herself inside a cage of fire the first time we met.”
I scoffed.
“And because her powers awakened unusually early.”
“In Istarus, powers awakening at twenty-five is considered normal,” I explained.
“Anything earlier is considered an anomaly.”
“And how did this Harold guy find out about Ria’s powers?” Mike asked, taking another drag from his vape.
I noticed both he and Gwendolyn looked slightly disheveled, as though neither of them had bothered getting ready that morning.
Which, honestly, was completely unlike them.
The two of them were obsessive neat freaks.
And realizing that made guilt twist painfully inside me.
I hated making them worry about me.
“Most likely through surveillance,” Airis answered.
“He’s gathering powerful mages for war, and Vuduarus is the easiest place to detect them.”
“So even now, it’s dangerous for Ria to stay here,” Mike murmured thoughtfully.
“I’m more worried about something happening to you,” I admitted, looking at each of them in turn.
“We’re not exactly fragile, baby,” Dwayne winked at me.
“Still, Ria’s right,” Airis said.
I stubbornly refused to look at him—
but after his next words, I couldn’t ignore him anymore.
“For a while, both you and the apartment will be under protection. I’ll station several people here.”
“What?” Gwen frowned.
“Why would that be necessary?”
“You saw my parents’ house,” I cut in, irritation slipping into my voice at how badly they seemed to underestimate the situation.
“You saw what they left behind, didn’t you?”
Gwendolyn stayed silent, so I continued.
“And I don’t want to come back one day and find this place looking the same.
Or worse.”
“For the record, I’m completely fine with protection,” Dwayne lifted both hands innocently.
“Especially if someone hot is assigned to guard me.”
He raised a brow at Airis.
I immediately rolled my eyes.
Honestly, even if war broke out tomorrow, Dwayne would probably still be thinking about romance.
“I’ll keep your preferences in mind,” Airis replied with complete seriousness.
And somewhere deep inside me, a quiet spark of gratitude stirred to life.
Not just because of the protection.
But because of the way he was trying with my friends.