Chapter 4
“Dad!” Zoey cried over the fire alarm as she ran toward her father. “What’s going on?”
Hunter had just emerged from the massage room. He’d managed to hastily get dressed in his cargo shorts and T-shirt, despite the fact that he was covered in massage oil. “I don’t know, honey. Lena said something about an electrical fire. Where are your cousins?”
“We’re right here,” Daisy said, her hand clasped in Olive’s.
The three of them were pale and shaken.
“Come on, girls,” he said. “Stay behind me.” Hunter could smell smoke, but it wasn’t so thick that they couldn’t breathe. And determining where it was coming from had proved to be impossible. If he had to guess, he’d say it was seeping through the HVAC vents.
The lights flickered again, and this time they went completely out.
The girls screamed behind him.
“Calm down. Panicking isn’t going to help get us out of here any faster,” he said, his heart racing. Where was Faith? He just wanted her and his family out of the building.
They hurried toward the front entrance, but the closer they got, the thicker the smoke was. Zoey started to cough uncontrollably.
Going that way was unsustainable. He quickly changed course. “Come on. This way.”
“But the exit is that way, Dad.” Zoey pointed toward the door that led to the reception area.
“I know, but it’s not safe. There’s an emergency exit this way.” He started to jog toward the other end of the building, glancing back to make sure the girls were keeping up with him. When they reached the side door, he pushed the latch, but nothing happened. He pushed harder.
The door didn’t budge.
“Son of a—argh!” he cried, watching as the smoke billowed down the hall. “Come on. We need to get outside.”
“Why won’t the door open?” Zoey asked, hurrying to catch up with him as he led them toward the back.
“I don’t know, honey. Emergency doors are never supposed to be locked from the inside. But there’s no time to worry about it right now.” He grabbed her hand, comforted by the small touch as he guided her and the other two girls through the women’s changing area and out into the enclosed pool area.
The harsh afternoon sun beat down on them as smoke rose from the front of the building. They were outside, but they were still too close to the building. Hunter needed to get them out of there and onto the street.
He heard sirens in the distance and realized that the fire department wasn’t even there yet.
Damn.
He hurried over to the fence that was covered in jasmine vines, cursing the fact that they hadn’t put in a gate.
Faith had wanted the back of the spa to be an oasis retreat, full of vegetation and magical possibilities.
They’d achieved that by making it as private as possible.
He’d never imagined that they’d need a gate to the parking lot.
Hunter glanced around and spotted a cement garden table. With his teeth gritted, he tried to pull it over to the fence, his shoulder complaining the entire time. He ignored it.
The table barely moved.
“Dad, let me help,” Zoey said, reaching for the table.
“I’ve got it,” he grunted.
“That’s not what it looks like,” Olive said. “Come on, Daisy. We can help, too.”
The three young teenagers got on the other side of the table and started to push while Hunter pulled.
That did it. The table started to slide.
The four of them got the table to the fence. Hunter turned to the girls and said, “I’m going over first so that I can help you down from the other side. Got it?”
They each nodded nervously.
“Don’t worry. We’ve got this,” he said, praying that he oozed calm. Because his insides were a jumble of nerves and worry.
“Okay. We can do it,” Zoey said with a brave smile.
He kissed her on the top of her head and then reached for the fence. Immediately the vines started to wrap around his wrists, trying to entrap him in the foliage.
“Dad!” Zoey cried as she reached for him.
The vines came after her, and she’d have been trapped too if it hadn’t been for Olive’s quick thinking. She yanked Zoey back away from the vines, and the three of them backed up, staring at Hunter in horror.
The vines wound around his arms, tightening their grip. Hunter struggled, trying to free his arms as he jumped from the table, but the vines just kept coming, wrapping around his ankles and holding him in place. The more he struggled, the more the vines came for him.
Finally, he held completely still as his daughter and two nieces screamed in panic.
Faith held the empty fire extinguisher and stared at the flames that were coming out of the wall in complete horror. Fear swarmed through her veins, desperate to do something, but she was a water witch. Water and electrical fires did not mix.
“I just talked to Yvette,” Lena shouted and then coughed as the smoke started to overwhelm them. “She’s already on her way.”
“Hunter and the girls are back there,” Faith said, her voice shaking. She’d gotten out into the reception area just before the fire had sparked again, engulfing the door to the back.
“They’ll get out through one of the emergency exits.” Lena grabbed her hand and tugged. “Come on, Faith, we’ve got to get out of here.”
“I can’t just leave,” she said, completely paralyzed by fear. Her spa was going up in flames, and she didn’t know where her loved ones were.
“We have to.” Lena tugged her again. “Your kids are counting on you.”
That did it. Her triplets’ smiling faces flashed in her mind and suddenly she kicked into gear. Together the two of them pushed the door open and stumbled out into the July heat.
Faith started frantically scanning the property, looking for Hunter and the girls. They were nowhere to be seen. Hunter’s truck was parked next to her SUV, completely empty. She ran around the building, checking the emergency exit doors. Both were closed, and she saw no one through the glass.
“Hunter!” she called.
Smoke billowed up into the air as the sound of the fire truck sirens blared louder and louder.
“Zoey!” she tried.
Nothing. There was just the eerie sound of sirens.
She pulled out her phone and hit Hunter’s name.
It rang and rang and rang. When it went to voice mail, she tried Zoey. Voice mail again.
“Son of a… Ugh!” She shoved her phone back into her pocket and started running around the building, calling their names, looking in windows, but she couldn’t see anything due to the smoke.
“Faith! Get away from the building!” Yvette called, running toward her.
She spun, staring wildly at her fire witch sister. “I think Hunter and the girls are still in there. Zoey, Olive, and Daisy.”
“Stand back!” she ordered.
Faith did as she was told and then watched as Yvette sent a bolt of fire straight at the emergency exit door.
“Yvette! What are you doing?” she cried, horrified by her sister’s actions. But as she watched, the fireball that had shattered the glass door completely disappeared, and Yvette ran into the building.
At the last moment, Yvette glanced over her shoulder and said, “Stay out. I can’t protect you and deal with the fire. Got it?”
Faith forced the words out. “Got it.”
Yvette nodded once before disappearing into the building.
With her heart in her throat, Faith started to move back toward the front of the building, but when she heard a cry that sounded suspiciously like a young girl, she froze in her tracks.
“Zoey!”
A chorus of screaming had her running around to the back of the building in an instant.
“Hunter! Zoey!”
“Faith, help! Dad’s trapped in the vines,” Zoey cried.
“What?”
“The jasmine has him tied up. It’s wrapped around him everywhere, and he can’t move,” Zoey shouted, her voice panicked. “It’s going to suffocate him!”
Pure adrenaline took over as Faith ran and jumped up, grabbing onto the fence. Her magic helped propel her even as the vines quickly shot over the structure, wrapping around her wrists.
“Not today!” she cried and focused on the vines, her magic tugging them back with such force that she nearly fell back to the ground when they released her. Hanging on tightly, she used her magic to push herself up until she was on the fence and then jumped own.
Zoey was crying as her cousins clung to her, all of them trembling in fear.
Faith turned to see her husband nearly mummified by the vines. Pure, unadulterated terror ran through her. Immediately she raised her arms toward the sky and cried, “Release him!”
Her power was fortified by the pools of water behind her, and magic burst from her hands, shooting straight toward Hunter. The white light slashed the vines so thoroughly that Hunter immediately fell forward onto his knees, gasping for air.
“Dad!” Zoey ran to him, clutching his arm. She looked up at Faith, tears swimming in her eyes. “He still can’t breathe.”
“I c-can’t—,” Hunter huffed out, but then his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he fell to his side, motionless.
Zoey screamed.
Faith moved to kneel just beside her husband as an eerie calm washed over her.
After checking his pulse and confirming that he was in fact still breathing, she placed both hands on his cheeks, sucked in a deep breath and then pressed a kiss to his lips.
She whispered softly, “Wake up, Hunter. Zoey, the girls, and I need you.” Then she blew her magic into his mouth.
His eyes blinked open. He stared up at Faith, confusion in his troubled expression. “What happened?”
“Daddy?” Zoey scrambled to his side and grabbed his hand, clutching it to her chest.
“Hi, baby,” he said, trying to push himself up.
Faith gave him a hand, and when he was in a sitting position, she said, “I’m not sure, but the jasmine appears to have been cursed.”
“It tried to suffocate you, Uncle Hunter,” Daisy said, her hands still shaking.
The back door of the spa burst open, and Yvette came running out. “There you are. Thank the gods.”
Faith glanced at her sister. “We need to get Hunter to a healer. Is there a safe way out of the building?”
“Yes. The fire is out, but stick with me just in case there’s a hot spot we don’t know about.” She hurried over to Hunter’s other side and both sisters helped get him to his feet.
“Are you okay to walk?” Faith asked him.
“I think so,” he croaked out. “Let’s just… go.”
With the girls following closely behind them, Faith and Yvette safely navigated them outside where the fire truck sat with its lights still flashing. But thankfully they’d turned the sirens off.
As they helped Hunter into Faith’s SUV, Yvette asked, “Do you know what started the fire?”
“No,” Faith said, shaking her head. “It appeared to be electrical, but I don’t know why or how.”
“Okay. You take Hunter. Abby and Noel are already on their way for the girls. Do you want one of them to get Zoey home?” Yvette asked.
“No!” Zoey said, standing right next to her dad. “I’m going with him.”
“Okay, sweetie,” Faith said. She turned to her sister and gave her a tight hug. “Thank you.”
“You never need to thank me for something like this. Now go on. I’ll call you when we’re done here.”
Faith nodded. Then she went to start the car and frowned. Her car key was in her purse in her office. She muttered a curse and said, “I’ll be right back. Zoey, keep an eye on your dad.”
“Okay,” the teenager said.
Faith jumped out of the car, enlisted her sister to escort her back into the building, and went in search of her purse.
On the way back out, they passed the women’s dressing room.
She paused, remembering that Zoey was still in her bathing suit, and then went in to clear the lockers of the girls’ things.
After delivering their totes to Daisy and Olive, Faith handed the last one to Zoey. Her stepdaughter gave her a grateful nod and then climbed into the back seat.
Faith jumped in, started the car, and took off, praying the healer’s office was still open.