Circle of Fire (Damask Circle 1)

She sighed. “I’ll be there in half an hour.”

“Thank you,” Jayne whispered, and hung up.

M

addie gulped down the remains of her coffee, then turned and ran toward her bedroom. Grabbing an old canvas carryall from under a pile of sweaters, she threw in everything she thought she might need for the next week. Maybe Jayne was right. Maybe her hated abilities were the only way to find Evan quickly. Even so, she couldn’t do it alone.

Once she’d seen Jayne, she was going down to Taurin Bay to find the man who wasn’t a ghost.

* * *

MADDIE CLIMBED OUT OF THE TRUCK AND STUDIED JAYNE’S large, two-story home. It was barely eight in the morning, but the winter light was so dim it might as well have been early evening. And though the house was lit up like a Christmas tree, the silence that draped it was so heavy she could almost touch it. Maddie counted the windows along the top floor until she found Evan’s room. From the outside, at least, it showed no sign of forced entry.

She shoved her hands into her pockets and walked up the newly shoveled driveway, trying to ignore the insidious whisper in her mind that was telling her she should have stayed home, should have stayed safe.

Jayne opened the front door. Her eyes were puffy and red, and her face looked much older without its usual coating of makeup. Maddie stepped up onto the porch, then stopped, unsure of what to do next. Jayne was usually the one in control, the one who believed any sign of emotion should be kept out of the public gaze. Even as children, it had always been Maddie who had lost her temper, Maddie who had cried, never Jayne.

“We should have taken your dream seriously,” Jayne said, her gaze not quite meeting Maddie’s. “But we didn’t listen. Oh God, we just didn’t believe …”

Maddie hesitated, then stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her sister. Jayne stiffened for just a moment, then collapsed against her, sobbing softly.

“I’ll find him,” Maddie promised. “Somehow, I’ll find him.”

Jayne sniffed and pulled away. “He hasn’t left a note or anything. He’s simply vanished.”

Vanished, just as Jon had warned. Maddie shivered. Something told her that if she was to have any hope of finding Evan, she had to find Jon first.

“I need to see his room, Jayne.”

“Okay …” Jayne hesitated, then stepped away from the door. “But hurry. Steve will be back at any moment.”

He’d be furious to find her in the house—and would take his anger out on Jayne. Not physically, but emotionally. From what Maddie had observed, that was, in some ways, tougher to handle.

How had the two of them managed to marry men so like their father?

She clomped up the stairs, stripping off her coat as she approached Evan’s room. The house was unusually warm—odd, given Steve’s conviction that it was better to put on a sweater than turn up the heat. If Evan was like her—if he could light fires with just a thought—then this heat could very well be a residue of his fear. But if that was the case, then he’d been knocked unconscious before his talent could fully rise to protect him—although she’d always considered it a curse rather than a talent.

But how had his abductors gotten into—and even out of—the house?

Nothing had changed in her nephew’s room from the last time she’d seen it, three weeks before. Posters of rock bands and scantily clad women still vied for space on the walls. His clothes were strewn all over the floor, and the football she’d given him for his last birthday still held pride of place on his overcrowded bookshelves.

And yet there was one difference—the smell. Maddie frowned as she tried to place it. It was burnt ash, mud, and a soft hint of citrus, all rolled into one. An odd and unpleasant scent that made her stomach roil.

She blinked back the sudden sting of tears. She had to find Evan. He was all that stood between her and utter loneliness.

Biting her lip, she walked across the room to the windows. White dust covered much of the frame, highlighting the fingerprints. But as Jon had warned, there was no sign at all that the windows had been forced.

She turned away. The odd smell grew stronger, until it became a cloud that encased her in sweetness and decay and darkness. She groped blindly for the nearby dresser. Oh God, she thought, it’s happening again.

Her fingers brushed against something cool and metallic—the gold chain Evan had bought with the cash he’d received for his birthday. Maybe, just maybe, she could use it to try to control the direction of the dream. As the room spun around her, she squeezed the chain into her palm and hung on tight.

For several heartbeats, darkness encased her mind. Then pinpoints of light danced through the gloom—slivers that gradually lifted the darkness. Around her, she saw the rough wooden walls of a small cabin. Two small forms lay huddled on the dusty floor, wrapped in blankets that hid their faces from sight. One of them was Evan; she could just see the gleam of his red-gold hair.

The vision swirled slightly, and the shadows moved. A slender figure walked across the room, features hidden by a large coat and hood. It bent and lovingly touched the person lying beside Evan. A chill ran through Maddie. It was a woman’s hand, and yet it had the claws of a panther.

“By the light of the new moon,” the woman said, her sultry tones oddly tremulous, “your youth will become my youth.”

A hand touched Maddie’s shoulder. With a small squeak of fright, she spun around. Jayne stared at her, glassy eyes widening in surprise.