Allie’s heart raced as they drove the last length of road. As soon as the car stopped, Allie and Mia jumped out and ran to the herd of people gathered by the gates. The farmhands fought the wildfire with water hoses that were too small and too inefficient to put out the tall flames licking at the ground, the strong gusts of wind spreading them wide. Toward Brandon’s green-roofed white house.
Everyone, every single one of the people there, crowded Mia.
“Where is your brother?”
“Where’s Dominic?”
“We need Dom to be here!”
“Our strongest air Wizard, he can put it out!”
The utter shock and panic that registered on the townsfolk's faces when Mia told them Dom was away drilled a hole into Allie’s heart. He was the hope everyone had been waiting for, a hope that suffocated in the heated wind.
“What about Tom and Andrew?” Mia demanded.
Yes. Tom and Andrew. Even if Dom wasn’t here, there were two more air Wizards in Sycamore Falls. They had to be here. Had to be.
But Andrew was visiting his family three towns away, and no one had gotten hold of Tom today. He was their last chance, everyone lamented, as they busied themselves with carrying buckets of water.
The fire department from Rocky Hills? On their way, but would they make it in time?
“Allie.” Mia’s voice trembled, her eyes glistening with terrified tears. “This is his life. Please.”
“Wha—Me?” Allie’s eyebrows rode her hairline, and she clutched her hands to her chest.
“No one in this town wields water or fire. Except you.” Her friend kept her voice down, but the look in her hazel eyes was so, so loud. “I can’t… I’m only an Archivist,” she spat as if she hated the word with the intensity of the sun. Like she loathed herself.
And Allie knew that feeling well. Before she came to Sycamore Falls, before she found a way to her power, she had hated being a Witch. And before Dom and Mia, and Brandon, and Tina and Harper, no one had truly been there for her, not since her mom. Now she could be here for the people she cared about. The people she grew to love.
“Any water or fire wielders in Rocky Hills?” someone asked.
“No need,” Allie heard herself say as she stepped out of the crowd. “Stay with Mia.” She gave Ekko the most admonishing look she was capable of as Mia hugged the dragon to her chest. “If anything happens to me?—”
“Wait. What are you doing?”
“Tell Dom it’s the waterfalls,” Allie said and broke into a jog.
“What is the Witch doing?”
“Where is she going?”
“Oh gods, is she an elemental Witch?”
Allie ran toward the fire, grabbing at thick strings of warm power from her heart.
“Is she crazy? She can wield from here!”
“Isn’t she afraid?”
Terrified out of her mind.
She had stepped into a fire before, but that had been different. It had beenherfire, and Dom had held her hand, looking at her like she was porcelain, and he’d never allow her to break. He had been her safety net, and now Allie was free-falling.
The sharp fear was not enough for her to back down. She was doing this for the town that had become her home, regardless of the mean faces around her. Allie was doing this for Brandon. For her friend.
Brandon had been the only one to help her that night, without a second thought. He’d convinced a skeptical Dom to let a homeless Witch into his house, into his life. Neither was here to defend what was dear to them, and Allie simply could not watch from the sidelines and do nothing. She had to try because…
Because she owed them everything.
