Page 16 of Ashes

“They wanted her because they believe she’s the key to a prophecy.” I pause, scrutinizing Sarah’s face for a reaction. “Do you know anything about that prophecy?”

Sarah’s muscles stiffen. She looks like she wants to get up and run. Finally, she inhales deeply and says, “Yes. I do.”

I wait for her to continue.

“About five years ago, Ragnor came to see me. He was different. I could tell from his eyes. They were darker and there was a blackness around him that made me go cold as soon as I looked at him.”

She reaches to start gathering up the pictures, but I stop her; not until she’s told me the truth. The whole truth.

“I hadn’t been in touch with Sam since his sixteenth birthday. He stopped writing back to me. I spent every cent I had trying to find him. I hired a private detective, then another, then another. But he’d vanished without a trace. Ragnor knew. I don’t know how, but he knew.” Her face has paled. She looks older all of a sudden. Smaller. “He told me he’d found Sam, and that if I did something for him, he’d tell me where Sam was.”

“What did he ask you to do?”

“Watch Nova.”

My skin prickles with heat. “Watchher?”

Sarah nods. “He remembered what I told him when Alice and Charles were killed. He remembered the voicemail I left… I said that Nova wasn’t harmed but that Sam had very bad burns.”

“So, when Kole accessed the prophecy for them, Ragnor put the pieces together and decided Nova was the Phoenix.”

Sarah frowns at me as if she’s got no idea what I’m talking about.

“Phoenix?” she knits her fingers together tightly. “I don’t know what the prophecy said. Ragnor never told me. All he told me was that he believed Nova could beimportantto him.”

“So, you were to watch her, and then what?”

“I was to watch her, and if anything like the first fire happened again, I was to tell him straight away.”

“And then he’d give you Sam?”

Sarah meets my eyes and nods.

“So, when Nova set fire to Johnny’s apartment, you got straight on the phone to your friend at the Human Extinction League and told him exactly where she’d gone?”

A sigh ripples through Sarah’s shoulders. She hangs her head. “I took her to the bus station. I watched her get on the bus, then I called Ragnor. I told him everything.”

“You pretended to be her friend, and you betrayed her.”

Sarah looks up at me, her eyes shining with tears. “I didn’t know he wanted to hurt her.”

I raise my eyebrows.

“I didn’t know,” she repeats quietly.

“Well, now you do.” I take her coffee cup away and shove it toward the window. “So, tell me, where is Sam? Where is Nova’s brother?”

Before Sarah can answer me, movement outside in the parking lot catches my eye. A black SUV. No plates. Then another.

I sit up straight, press my back into the leather seat, and watch as it stops at an angle. Sarah has seen it too. She moves as if she’s about to get up, but I gesture for her to wait.

I look around. The waitress has disappeared. The entire place is empty. This isn’t right… The SUVs’ doors open. A woman steps out. I recognize her.Eve.

Instantly, I’m on my feet, fire in my palm. “We have to go. Now. Out back.” I tug Sarah to her feet and head for the bar. Before we reach it, the entire diner begins to shake. Plates fall from shelves, glasses break. Another shock rocks the building. This time, the windows shatter. Sarah cries out and ducks down, covering her head with her hands.

“No time. Move.” I jerk her to her feet and drag her into the kitchen. It’s empty here too. Someone told the staff to clear out.

We run to the back of the kitchen, but before I can put my hand on the door, it flies off its hinges. Eve is in front of us. She reaches out, twisting her hand as if she’s trying to grab hold of my throat from a far. As my breath swells in my chest, and I struggle to breathe, the fire in my hand flickers.

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