CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
I couldn’t process the passage of time. In fact, it seemed like no time at all had passed between the moment I saw my home—Eliza’s home, which Jean Luc had built— charred and burnt, and now, when Jared and Nicole had managed to rush me back into the house and bring me up to one of the bedrooms in an attempt at calming me down.
Jared was standing by the bedroom door, his arms folded in front of his chest, while Nicole gently dried my eyes. I was looking at her, but wasn’t seeing her. All I could see were the embers, the burned façade, and the way the pulsing orange glow seemed to emanate from what was left of the house and touch everything around it.
“Maddie,” Nicole said. “Maddie.”
The second calling of my name caused my vision to clear, and I saw her now, sitting on the bed in front of me. I blinked repeatedly. “What?” I asked, my voice distant and lazy.
“Are you alright?”
I shrugged. “Should I be?”
“Please tell me how I can help you.”
“I don’t think you can. My house… Lumière… it’s gone.”
She took my hand and pulled me into an embrace that I didn’t resist. I didn’t have the energy to. “I’m so sorry,” Nicole said, “I’m so, so sorry.”
I turned my eyes up at Jared, who also didn’t seem to be doing very well, though he was doing a good job at masking his rage. “You didn’t do this. Tamara did… I could smell her rotten magick.”
“I can’t tell you enough times how sorry I am. I couldn’t see past myself, and my mom. I had hoped that with Remy gone, she’d be different.”
“It’s not important now.”
I wasn’t angry, wasn’t frustrated, I didn’t hate her for not listening to me. I couldn’t feel much of anything, now. It was as if I had gone numb, as if I had withdrawn into a shell. I didn’t want to fight with her, didn’t want to fight Tamara. All I wanted to do was go home, but I couldn’t do that anymore.
“I have to find her,” Jared said, “If we don’t stop her now, she’s just going to keep on fucking with people’s lives.”
“No,” Nicole said, “Not like that. She’ll kill you.”
“I’ll kill her first.”
Nicole turned her head to look at him. “If Tamara did this—”
“She did,” I said. “She did this.”
Nicole nodded. “The vampires probably haven’t had a chance to tell her they haven’t killed Madison yet, so we have the element of surprise.”
“So, she thinks I’m dead?”
“Yes, but surprise alone won’t be enough, though. Tamara is clever. We need to be smarter than her, and quicker than lightning. Our window is already closing.”
She grabbed her phone and sent a text message. To whom, and what the message read, I didn’t know.
“What do you suggest we do?” Jared asked.
“I’m going to call an emergency meeting,” Nicole said, “I’m going to gather as many witches at the Scarlet Cat as I can. I’m going to tell them Madison is dead, and Lumière has been burned down… then when Tamara is in the room, I’m going to tell them Tamara did it.”
“And they’re just going to believe you?”
“They’ll have to.”
He shook his head. “They’ll want proof. Do you have proof?”
“We have to get her to confess,” I said.
Nicole looked at me like I had spoken for the first time in years. “Yeah,” she said, after a time, “Alright, so we’re gonna do this…” her phone buzzed in her hand, and she paused to read the message. “Shit,” she said.
“What is it?” Jared asked.
“Tamara’s already called a meeting of the witches…”
“What? When?”
“It’s taking place in two hours… at Remy’s Garden District house.”
Something inside of me snapped, and my mind returned to me in full force, as if roused from some deep sleep. “That bitch has been using Remy’s house?”
“Yeah… I guess so.”
My hand clenched into a fist, and a freak wind began to swish around the room, causing the curtains to sway. “I’m going to kill her myself,” I said through gritted teeth.
Jared approached, now, and placed his hands on my shoulders. “I need you to calm down,” he said, “You’re only going to hurt yourself right now.”
“I think he’s right,” Nicole said, “And if this is happening in two hours, then we’ve got enough time to get to the Hollow and help you recharge. Whatever happens with Tamara tonight, you need your strength.”
I shrugged out of his hands and stood, a little uneasily at first, but then I held my balance. “I’m fine,” I said, “But if that woman thinks she can get away with throwing me to the wolves and burning down my house, my Lumière, then she’s got another thing coming.”
“She does, okay? She does. I swear. But Nicole is right; we need to be clever about this,” Jared said.
“If Tamara has called a meeting of the witches,” Nicole said, a little hesitantly, “Then it could be she’s going to try and control the story. News of Lumière being burned down has probably already hit local news. The witches may already know.”
“That woman has taken too much from me,” I said, “First Remy, then my coven, and now Lumière. I’ve done nothing to her; I didn’t even know who the hell she was until she came strolling into town. She has no right.”
“Maddie,” Nicole said, “I need you to calm down, okay?”
I spun around hard and the window behind me cracked. “Stop telling me to calm down!” I yelled. “I’m going to kill this woman for what she’s done to me. To all of us.”
Jared, unfazed by my display of power, approached with his hands stretched out toward me. “You aren’t a murderer,” he said, “And you’re cleverer than this. We need to go to that house, find out what she’s up to, and figure out a way to bring her to trial.”
“Trial? Are you crazy?”
“No, I’m just speaking on behalf of your rational side. I’m telling you what I know you would say if you could think straight. Be angry, but learn to use it as a tool—don’t let it use you.”
Nicole, who was standing behind him with a concerned look on her face, now appeared soft and gentle, and every bit her old, kind self.
“I never should have doubted you,” Nicole said. She had something in her hand, a rectangular, brown envelope with a black wax seal on it. Embedded into the wax was the likeness of a skull. “I was mad at the wrong person, and I’m going to spend years making it up to you.”
She stretched her hand out and gave me the envelope, which was addressed to me at Lumière’s address, but had hand-written instructions on the front to ‘deliver to the blue house across the street if no one’s home’. I recognized the handwriting immediately; it was Remy’s delicate, eloquent hand.
“What is this?” I asked, puzzled.
“It arrived yesterday,” she said, “I was going to tell you about it when you were here, but we were fighting… I thought me giving it to you now would help you calm down a little.”
I stared at her, then at the envelope, and then I noticed the broken wax seal. “You opened it?”
“I’m sorry,” she said, “I was mad at you, and confused, and I… I was a jerk.”
My heart started thumping, but instead of getting more worked up, I felt myself coming down from the anger and settling into something like gratitude. Gratitude that Jared had acted so quickly, that Nicole had been so clever, and that I had another chance to communicate with Remy, even if it was one-sided communication.
“We can sit down, and you can read it if you want,” Jared said.
“No,” I said, drawing the back of my hand across my cheeks to wipe the tears away. “If Tamara has called a meeting, we shouldn’t waste time in getting out there.”
“I still want to keep you hidden,” Nicole said, “If there’s even a chance Tamara doesn’t know you’re still alive, we need to use it.”
“Let’s get to the Hollow first, and then we can figure out a plan, okay?” Jared asked.
Nicole agreed, and we started heading out. I had woken up sore and exhausted, but adrenaline was coursing through my veins now, filling me with energy and purpose. And while I had to look upon Lumière’s blackened remains once more before we left the French Quarter, I didn’t feel sad; I felt righteous anger burning through me, as if the divine fire itself were burning in my heart.
Remy and Lumière weren’t to be mourned, they were to be avenged. I was going to do just that.