Page 83 of Envious Of Fire
Elias lifts an eyebrow. “Problem?”
That’s when Jeremy takes a step forward. He parts his lips, presumably to explain—only no sound comes out. Not even air.
Elias watches Jeremy struggle to speak for a disconcerting length of time before realizing he may in fact be demonstrating the problem itself. “So … you can’t, uh, talk …?” Then his gaze drops down to find Jeremy’s hands hovering shakily in front of his shorts, as if to conceal something. “What the f—?”
Cade comes close. “Really, this is better explained inside, in private, and with a very,veryopen mind.”
Calling himself confused wouldn’t even come close. Elias steps back as the three enter the house.
It’s on the couch that they gather, with Jeremy and Layna next to each other on one end, Cade at the other, and Elias in a dining room chair pulled up to join them. After Cade explains, Elias finds himself squinting and at a loss for words. He’s since donned a shirt. “Hold on, hold on,” he says with a spread of his hands. “You’re telling me your daughter—”
“I don’t havemagic powers,” groans Layna, annoyed.
“Well,Ido,” says Cade right back, “which Henry—sorry,Kyle—has more than confirmed, so it only stands to reason that the gift may have passed on to you … just like I feared it could. I have visions,” she explains to a bewildered Elias. “Even had a dream about how Kyle’s family passed, an accurate one. Well, according to him, at least.”
It wasn’t too long ago that Kyle revealed the dark truths of his past to Elias—including the night he took Tristan home in arush of teenage passion only to wake to a bloodbath.
“Wait,” says Elias, lifting his hands. “What you’re trying to say is … Layna … somehow silenced Jeremy … magically …?”
“While they were making out on her bed, yes, like I said.” Cade sighs. “And also left him with a … a parting gift.”
Jeremy has been holding one of the throw pillows from the couch over his lap to mask the “other” problem.
Elias grimaces at him, leans forward. “Does it hurt, man?”
Jeremy’s silent parted lips is his only response.
“Oh mygod, why are we all instantly assuming the worst?” Layna suddenly blurts out, red-faced. “He just needs, like, a pill from the doctor or something to take care ofthat, and maybe he’s just freaked out from everything going on lately, which is why he can’t talk. It’s, like, psychological or something.”
“That,” says Cade with a finger pointed at Jeremy’s startled face, “isnotpsychological. Lean in closely, you can’t even hear the breath coming out of his mouth, can’t hear him gasping, can’t hear a damned thing. You’ve cast some kind of … of … ofsilencinghex on him.”
“And abonerhex too, apparently,” mumbles Layna.
Cade takes her daughter’s hands at once. “Baby, this isn’t funny. Jeremy can’t speak or communicate a thing. I gave him a pen and paper and he could barely form a word—just a bunch of squiggles. I gave him my phone, he typed nonsense. There is somethingextragoing on with him. Not to mention—”
“Don’t,” clips Layna at her mother, eyes wide.
Elias looks back and forth between them. “Not to mention what? There’s something else?”
Cade struggles, closes her eyes, then says, “There were … a million birds outside the house.”
“Mom,” snaps Layna through her teeth.
“Like, shitloads of birds, birds all over the yard, all over the roof, birds and birds and more birds, fuck-lots of them.”
“It’stotallyunrelated,” growls Layna.
“And when Layna called me and I came rushing home from an errand,” Cade goes on, “I could barely see my house under all those damned birds. I’m talking Alfred Hitchcock number of birds, and I swear, they werestaringat me …”
“Oh my god,” mumbles Layna from behind her hands, now covering her face.
Elias gets up from his chair and starts pacing. “Birds,” he mumbles half to himself. “Birds and boners and silencing hexes. And what is Kyle expected to do about any of that?”
“How am I supposed to know? He’s the one who—” Cade stops herself. “I mean, he’s just … well … he’s …”
Elias stops, gives her a look. “Different?”
“Special,” Cade decides to say instead, smiling tightly.
