Smolder Chapter 29

"Jade!" Benjamin yelled from out the window. She dropped the plate and suddenly jolted back to reality. But before walking to the window, she couldn't resist pulling the note from her pocket. Slowly, she unrolled the crinkled paper. In elegant, loopy script were the words: "If you want to see your mother, visit my castle any time. Kindly bring Benjamin along." Written below was an address in Romania.

She let her back fall against the wall while she thought. Of course, she would go. She had to now. Her mother would never be living there willingly, not with someone so evil. Something else was going on, she had to believe it.

And maybe it was a trap. Maybe Myron did have plans for her like he had said, but what kind of person would she be if she didn't go? Just because she feared him didn't mean she wouldn't fight him.

Maybe something had changed within her maybe something had awakened inside of her. Regardless she knew one thing: no more playing by other people's rules. She had gone to Crystal River because of the Conclave. She was stuck in that hotel room for a week because of Aiden and Benjamin. She had been playing referee between them and trying to keep everyone from being hurt. But now, she was going to do what she wanted when she wanted to and there would be no stopping her.

If her destiny were to turn into a mindless killing machine, there was only one way she could think to stop it to do what she felt was right instead of driving herself insane trying to please other people.

"Jade? What's wrong?" Benjamin asked again and jumped back up, poking his head through the window.

"Nothing," she said and stuffed the note in her shorts. Nothing at all was wrong. For tonight, everyone was safe, and she had gotten exactly what she wanted. Skye was dead and her mother was alive.

Everything was exactly as it should be, which was why she felt perfectly comfortable diving out the open window. She knew he was there to catch her. In his arms, she felt safe, and he carried her away from the house, only putting her down when they reached the edge of the forest. She peered through the branches and searched for the tree she had sat on before.

When she found it, Aiden was there waiting for them both. She sat down next to him and Benjamin sat beside her, sandwiching her between them.

"Are you okay?" Aiden asked without turning to look at her.

"I'm alive, aren't I?"

"That doesn't necessarily mean you're okay though."

"I am," she sighed and tried to decide how much to tell them both.

"Myron never tried to hurt me, he just wanted to talk about Benjamin mostly but also about my mother."

"You can't believe a word he says, Jade, you can't trust him," Benjamin urged.

"I know. He's gone anyway," she said, "He vanished and any hope of finding my mother went with him."

She stuck her hand in her pocket to feel the slip of paper hidden there, thinking of the address he had written. She might not be able to trust Myron, but she believed he had her mother. The look in Skye's eyes at the end when she confessed, when she was terrified to die and begging for her life, was what told Jade it was the truth. She would never forget Skye's haunted expression staring death in the face and knowing it was too late to stop its approach. Jade could read in her eyes that Skye knew it was her fault, that if she had told the truth Jade probably wouldn't have been able to gather the strength to kill her. Myron was too smooth and controlled to believe, but Skye in those last minutes had been completely truthful.

She fingered the note again and decided to keep quiet. They hadn't seen what she had seen, it would take time for them to understand.

"How's it going in there?" she finally asked, realizing that all three of them were staring straight ahead at the mansion. The windows were broken and glowing orange from the Seraphina flames.

"We got about half of them, definitely more than I expected. They're draining the blood right now, weakening them so we can transport them to an interrogation house. And then," Aiden said with a wide smile, "we're blowing the place apart!"

She laughed at his enthusiasm. "The grand entrance was your idea too, right?"

"That was pretty legit, you have to admit. Breaking through the windows with flames a-flying couldn't have planned it any better."

"As one of the people thrown up against a wall, I beg to differ," Benjamin said from the other side.

"But the timing was perfect, you have to admit," she said, giving Aiden his victory.

"I know," Aiden said with mounting excitement. He started talking even faster, letting his hand gestures grow slightly wild. "That blonde woman came in to warn them and Myron was like, don't interrupt me you insignificant fool, and she was like, but but, and then the Seraphina bust in like, too late... you're all fools!"

"And the look on Theron's face..." she giggled, unable to continue talking.

"No Myron, he was the best. I swear he looked like a little kid playing with a jack-in-the-box for the first time shocked and freaked out. It was great!"

"But Theron," she challenged, "he was so confused. I swear he was looking around like a fish out of water, like 'they are not supposed to be here, they weren't invited.'"

"I think it's safe to say he'll never be hosting a red or white rose ball again," Benjamin added.

"Yeah, well let's hope no one will," she said, instantly feeling sorry for bringing the mood back down.

"It's inevitable, though. Both sides have been fighting for thousands of years. I don't know what would ever stop it." Benjamin shrugged. Us? Jade asked silently, believing it could be true for a moment.

The fire in the mansion died down and in the moonlight, Jade saw them carrying the lifeless bodies of drained demons out the windows.

"Won't be long now," Aiden said quietly.

"And why again are we blowing up the house?" she asked.

"Because Aiden is a pyromaniac," Benjamin responded with a grin.

"While that is true," he said, also smiling, "it's just standard procedure, at least I think. They have no home or supplies to go back to."

At the word home, she sighed and thought of her family in Georgia. When she got back she would make pancakes. Abbie, Jade imagined would come running into the kitchen because of the aroma. Then Jade would turn on the coffee machine, lulling her parents awake and dragging them out of bed to a freshly cooked meal and caffeine. Just a normal morning for the Cooper household, something that hadn't happened for a while and something she desperately missed.

"I can't wait to get home. All I want is a huge bowl of ice cream, sweet and creamy mint chocolate chip," she said, salivating at the thought.

"You're such a girl," Aiden chided and leaned back on his palms, thinking of his family. "I just want a home-cooked meal, some of my mother's warm and delicious meatloaf."

She turned to Benjamin, waiting for him to add something before realizing why he remained silent. He was alone in the world except for her. He didn't have anyone or anything to go home to.

"Look," he said instead and motioned to the two last Seraphina coming out of the house.

They ran under the cover of night to the edge of the forest, a few feet in front of them. One pulled out the remote trigger and pressed a button.

After a few completely silent seconds, as if the entire forest were holding its breath, a corner of the house exploded, engulfing the building in flames and sending broken pieces everywhere.

Jade watched the wild movements of the flames, feeling the waves of heat hit her face, and heard the cackling and crashing of wood as the uncontrollable fire consumed it. The power inside her responded, gathering in her heart and warming her insides as if the two fires were friends trying to reconnect. Her powers ached to be released to join in on the chaos before her, but she squelched it. Was she liking the fire in front of her? Wild and uncontrolled?

But the more she looked at the undulating flames, swishing back and forth and lighting the night sky, the more she saw the beauty, like the brilliant golden hues of the flames and the soft glow permeating the yard.

Something had undoubtedly changed in her that night. Like a switch flipped to the on position, her power churned inside her. But she didn't fear it. Killing Skye and breaking through the immunity had given her a taste of her real potential. The hot smoldering burn of her power was a comfort. She didn't fear her strength. There was a purpose, something more than all of the killing. She just wasn't sure what that was yet.

Even though a little voice in her head told her that it was a bad idea, she knew Myron held the answers. Her gut told her going to his home would solve all of her problems. Finding her mother wasn't the end goal anymore, finding the truth about herself was.

"Hotel?" Aiden asked when the fire died down to smoke and the house was charred beyond recognition.

"Hotel," she nodded.

"Hotel," Benjamin agreed.

All three of them stood as though tied together with a string. And maybe they were, she thought, tied together for some inexplicable reason. She watched the last spark of the fire, saw embers drift through the smoke like fireflies, and waited for one of them to make a move.

Aiden reached out his hand, inviting her to follow him.

On her other side, Benjamin reached out his, asking her to move with him.

She stared for a moment, looking at the choice before her, small and unimportant but at the same time symbolic of so much more. She was stuck. Something that had seemed so obvious a choice only days before was somehow difficult now. It was almost as if she were two different people. And like she was cut in half, her hands acted, each taking hold of the hand before them.

On one side, she grasped a hand that was cool and comfortable, a hand she had held a thousand times before, one that enveloped hers and made her feel safe.

On the other side, she gripped a hand that was warm and welcoming, a hand she had held before but never in that way, never with excitement and a twinge of the unknown.

The night may have awakened more than just her powers, she realized. She was taking charge of her life. She wouldn't wait for them to come up with a plan. For the first time, she stepped forward and pulled both of them behind her, forcing them to follow her lead.

At that moment, walking through the smoke-filled forest all she wanted to think about was a hot shower and a warm bed no boys, no Seraphina, no parents, and no demons. Just one night to herself, completely free of worry, because the fire inside her was heating up and, like that house, she knew she was about to explode.