Triumph of Chaos (Red Magic) (27 page)

A loud crash woke me, and I sat up in the dark, disoriented. Gradually, I realized that I was at home, sleeping in my own bed for the first time in what felt like years. Another crash rattled the bed, and I hurried to the door.

I crept down the stairs, gathering Red magic as I went. My arms tingled as the sparks danced on my skin, and I gritted my teeth, getting ready to do battle with whatever was waiting for me. I stepped off the stairs and paused. Everything was quiet for a minute, but then a burst of laughter filled the air.
They’re laughing when they’re being attacked?
I started to relax. “What in the world are you guys doing?”

They didn’t answer, and I could see for myself when I entered the kitchen. Izzy and Ben were facing each other like fencers, brandishing frying pans. They crashed their weapons together with another clang, and I felt my teeth rattle.
Gods, do they have to keep doing that?

The kitchen was a mess. Eggshells were piled up in the sink, and soggy bread sat on the counter, forgotten. My stomach grumbled, and I realized that Izzy had never brought me food the night before like she promised.
Is she already forgetting about me?
It was just a small thing, but for some reason, I felt my anger pulsing.

“Where’s the food?” I gestured at the mess. “Or did you guys forget what you were doing?”

Izzy laughed breathlessly. “Actually, we did. We
were
making a feast.” She dissolved into wheezing giggles.

“What she means to say is, I was making a feast, and then she challenged my skills in the kitchen.” Ben twirled his frying pan casually, which just made Izzy laugh harder.

I glared at both of them. “Did you forget that some people just got back from a transatlantic flight?”

They started giggling again, and I stomped to the table. Brad slid a chair out for me, and I sank into it, gritting my teeth. “I don’t know why they can’t be serious.”

“Everything’s been pretty serious lately. You can’t blame them for blowing off steam.” He handed me a cup of coffee, and I tried not to show how grateful I was.

“Yeah, but they could blow off steam without making it sound like the house is falling down.” I took a quick swallow.

Brad stared at me steadily. “Cause you’re such an expert on healthy stress relief.”

I ignored him and took another swig of the coffee. It was bitter and tasted old: clearly, this strange kitchen party had already been going on for quite some time.

Brad got up from the table, neatly stepped around Izzy and Ben, and returned with a banana. “They were going to make French toast, but I figure you need food before they remember what they were doing.”

I took the banana without looking at him. “Have they been this nutty since I left?”

“Love makes you do crazy things, so I’m told.”

“Love?” I snorted. “She’s just a kid.”

“Are you saying my brother’s robbing the cradle?”

I glared at him. “She’s fourteen.”

He shrugged. “So? We’re seventeen.”

“Doesn’t that seem like a big difference to you?”

Brad looked back toward the stove, where Izzy and Ben had finally put their frying pans to their intended use. “I don’t know. She acts older.”

I took a bite of the banana. “She’s still a kid,” I repeated sullenly.

He looked at me and narrowed his eyes. “It’s not up to you, you know.”

“Whatever.”

Brad grabbed my arm. “Seriously. I know you think you’re all big and bad, but there are some things that are out of your control. You just have to let it be.”

I wanted to smack him, but instead, I felt myself choking up. “I get that. I can’t control much. Trust me, that’s one thing I’ve learned fairly well.” I pulled my arm away and sniffed, willing my tears to stay put.
No way I wanted this Non to see me cry.

Brad looked surprised at my outburst, but before he could say more, Izzy plunked her pan down on the table. Slices of slightly burned French toast were piled on it.

“Dig in! They taste better than they look, I promise.”

Nobody reached for the plates; they just grabbed the bread and started eating it. My mother would have laughed, but my father would have brought everyone napkins and silverware. I didn’t do either. I grabbed a burned piece of toast and shoved it in my mouth.

Izzy and Ben’s lighthearted banter slowed until we were all eating in silence. I could tell that my presence had altered things between Izzy and the twins, but I tried not to care. When we had eaten everything, Brad pushed back his chair.

“Darlena and I will clean up. You guys should go outside or something.”

Izzy smiled. “I don’t mind helping.”

I glanced at Brad. “No, you cooked. We can take care of it.”
This might be my only chance to find out what he saw when he was scrying. And figure out how to get him to keep his mouth shut.

Ben grabbed Izzy’s hand. “Can’t argue with that. Let’s go for a walk.”

“I’ve got a better idea.” She smiled at him sweetly. “Let’s race!” She skidded through the house with Ben laughing behind her. When the front door closed, I breathed a sigh of relief.

I didn’t bother with any preamble. “Tell me.”

Brad turned to the sink. “We really should clean up.”

I glared at his back, but finally I stood up and started to load the dishwasher. He scrubbed the stovetop and the counters, and I was surprised how quickly the kitchen returned to normal. I felt a pang of loneliness at the thought: the kitchen would never be normal again. Normal would be my mom making something while my dad read the morning paper. Normal was gone.

“Okay.” I wiped my hands on the dishrag and tried to push my parents from my mind. “Now will you tell me what you know?”

“Like I said, I’ve gotten pretty good at fire scrying.”

I nodded impatiently. “Well?”

“Loki isn’t trapped forever.”

That wasn’t what I’d been expecting. “Are you sure?”

He nodded. “Every time I try to see the future, he’s there. Destroying things.”

I frowned. “How does he get free again?”

“I don’t know. But that’s only one of the problems we need to deal with.”

I didn’t bother telling him there was no “we” anymore. “What else?”

“Rochelle. She’s split her power somehow. She’s weak as a Red, but she’s done something to sort of let Red magic do its own thing. I don’t entirely understand it, but it’s like she can be in two places at once.”

I sat down heavily. “You mean she’s not controlling things in Europe anymore?”

“She still is, but not directly, I don’t think. I can’t explain it, but whenever I try to see what she’s doing, it’s like looking in a prism. I see hundreds of her, each doing something else.”

I stared up at him, surprised. “How do you even know what she looks like?”

“Izzy described her, and I found an old picture in your room.”

“You were in my room?” The thought creeped me out, and I resisted the urge to smack Brad.

“I’m the one who was learning to scry. I needed to know what Rochelle looked like.”

It made sense, but I still felt violated. “Whatever. So you found her picture.”

He nodded. “It was the one in a frame on your desk.” His eyes searched mine. “Why do you still have that?”

“What, I’m supposed to throw away my past?”

“No, but she’s trying to kill you. Why didn’t you get rid of it?”

Honestly, I hadn’t thought about the photo in a long time, but I knew the one he meant: me and Rochelle posing in front of the Carowinds sign the summer before all this started. It was an awful picture: we were both sunburned from a day of standing in the long lines at the park, and I looked stoned. But Rochelle had given it to me in a frame for my birthday, and I sort of loved how bad the picture was. I loved that we weren’t trying to be anything but ourselves. But I didn’t want to tell all that to Brad, so I just shrugged.

He looked at me for a minute, but when he realized I wasn’t going to say anything else, he moved on. “So, Rochelle can replicate herself or something, but that isn’t all I’ve seen.”

I stared at him, waiting for him to continue. My heart was racing.
Can he possibly know what I’m planning?

“I’ve seen the end of the world.”

I exhaled quickly. “Because of me fighting Hecate and Rochelle?”

He shook his head. “You weren’t there.”

My ears rang, and I stared at him. “What?”

“You weren’t there. Every time I see the end of the world, you’re never there.”

“Do you see anyone else?”

He nodded. “All of us. That snotty boyfriend of yours, Izzy, and my brother, we’re all there. But you aren’t.”

I felt a small icicle on my neck. “Then I must already be dead before that happens.”

“No,” he began slowly, “I don’t think that’s it. I think you aren’t there because you choose not to be.”

His words made me feel guilty. “I wouldn’t abandon my friends!” I glared at him, but he held his ground, choosing his words carefully.

“Not if you’re a Red, you wouldn’t. But I think you’ve found a way to change your mind, and I’m not sure you wouldn’t take it if the option presented itself.”

We just looked at each other for a minute.
How the hell does he know about that?
Finally, I opened my mouth. “Whatever I do, it’s my choice.” My words sounded empty, hollow.

“Is it? Is it your choice to doom the world?”

I tried to sound more confident than I felt. “You just learned to scry. You might not really be understanding everything that you’ve seen.”

“I understand enough. Loki isn’t trapped, Rochelle can be two places at once, and when the world ends, you won’t be around to stop it.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Admit it, Darlena. You’re going to sell us out to get your own happy ending.”

“It’s not like that!”

“No?” he challenged. “Then what is it like?”

“If I weren’t a Red, none of this would be happening.”

“If you weren’t a Red, no one would be trying to stop it.”

I glared at him. “You need to worry about your own choices, Brad. Let me worry about mine.”

“I’d like to, but your choices affect everything.”

“Well, we’ve both seen what a mistake that was!”

His eyes hardened. “I didn’t ask for magic. You forced me into this world. I will not let you abandon us.”

The weight of my mistakes threatened to destroy me, but I gritted my teeth.“It’s not my job to save you! You better figure out what you’re going to do in case the world ends.”

I hurried out of the kitchen before I dissolved in frustrated tears, but his words followed me, and my heart almost stopped. “There’s no ‘in case’ anymore.”

Ben drove. It was like déjà vu of the ride home from the airport, although the tension had increased. When we pulled off the highway, I leaned forward to look out the window.

“I’ve never been to this part of Raleigh before.” Abandoned warehouses and overgrown grass lined the road.

“This is the only Witchy store for a hundred miles.” Izzy turned around and looked at me. “Didn’t your parents ever take you here?”

I shook my head. “We weren’t really big on tools, remember? Everything Trinity taught focused on the Witch’s mind and will, not on using stones or candles or whatever.”

“But you use candles. And clearly, your mom used some tools.”

I thought of the athame, abandoned in the museum in Athens. When Mom had given it to me, it was the first time I felt like I could actually handle being a Red. Losing it was like losing her again, only worse: it was as if I had let her down.

I can’t let her down any more than I already have. Dead is a pretty big letdown.

When we turned into the drive for the store, I was surprised. I don’t know what I’d been expecting—maybe a rambling farmhouse, like the one Dr. Farren’s old Coven used to meet in. Whatever it was, I wasn’t prepared for a small brick strip mall with a sandwich place and a tanning salon.

Three other cars were in the parking lot, and I wasn’t sure where their drivers were; the windows of all the businesses were tinted, making it hard to see inside. Izzy led the way to the center door, where the name of the shop was discreetly stenciled in white paint.
Maybe this won’t be too bad
.