Page 59 of Roaring Flames

“And you hit her, so we’re even.” Reid’s tone is tight with something I can’t quite place. Panic, maybe?

“Reid! She hit me!” Michelle’s lower lip begins to wobble, and tears glimmer in her brown eyes, lightening the color to a woodsy brown.

“Michelle! Leave! Now!” Reid snarls.

The change happens instantly.

The tears dry from her eyes as if they never existed to begin with, and her lips curve into a demented scowl. Unfettered hatred radiates from her in almost palpable waves, contaminating the air just as prominently as the scent of buttery popcorn.

“I’m going to kill you,” she tells me, her voice eerily impassive.

“Michelle!” Reid roars.

Blue sparks dance across Michelle’s skin. At first, I don’t understand what I’m seeing. They seem to skitter across her arms like electrical currents, congregating in her hands. There, it grows and grows and grows, until it resembles two blue flames resting in her palms.

“What the hell?” I whisper in shock.

Michelle…is supernatural.

What the fuck is she?

“No!” Reid roars, and then he’s tugging me to the ground and throwing his body over mine.

I stay perfectly frozen, unable to compute what the fuck is happening. My brain seems to be broken. It keeps repeating random words over and over again.

Power.

Magic.

Michelle.

Reid.

“Get out!”

The roar doesn’t come from Reid—who still lies on top of me, protecting me with the length of his body—but it’s still familiar.

Silas.

“But…” Michelle begins, her voice wobbling, once again reverting to her tearful, weepy act.

“You know the rules about magic in my theater,” he snaps.

Magic?

Silas knows about magic as well?

“But—”

“Get out, Michelle. Now.”

“Fine! But I’ll be back. Mybrotherwill have a few words to say to our little friend.”

I hear the sound of footsteps. A door shutting and closing.

And then Silas leans down beside us, his mouth pressed in a taut line and his good eye unreadable. “She’s gone.”

Reid doesn’t immediately move. Tremors run through his body.

---