“Lia was in the house,” Evie said, her eyes meeting mine. “I was supposed to keep her safe. I’m sorry.”
My chest tightened and Evie wiped at the tears dripping down her face. I squeezed past Roberts and wrapped my arm around her shoulders.
For a moment I couldn’t speak.
After one too many late nights, I’d decided I was a bad cat mom and given Lia to Evie to look after. I visited a few times a week, but now she was likely dead. If I’d just kept her, she’d currently be sleeping in my apartment.
Grief stabbed into my chest and twisted but I managed to swallow around the lump in my throat. I would mourn our sassy little cat later. “Don’t think about that right now.”
“What happened when you returned?” Roberts asked Evie.
“I smelled smoke as soon as I got out of the car a few blocks away. I ran toward the house. People were standing outside. They were just staring. A few of them had already started trying to fight the fire with their magic, but fire is the most difficult element to harness. I had some idea about running in and dragging them out.”
She stared at the house. “I opened the door and something exploded. I guess it… knocked me out because when I opened my eyes, there was nothing but fire. Why didn’t the smoke alarms warn them? Why did the wards fail?”
“We’ll be investigating,” was all Roberts said. “What happened when you came to?”
“I was screaming. One of the neighbors— Delia—pulled me up, told me she’d called the fire department and I needed to get away from the house. I tried to go in, but it was too hot. I tried…” her voice trailed off and she stared at me in horror. “If I’d gotten back earlier, I could’ve saved them.”
I shook my head. “You don’t know that, Evie. If you’d been in that house, you’d likely be dead right now.”
Her eyes were glassy, her face so pale she looked almost translucent. I glanced at the cop. “Are we done here?”
He ignored me. “I’ll need your details in case I have any follow-up questions.”
Evie rattled off her phone number and Roberts noted it down.
“Where will you be staying?”
She gave him a long, slow blink.
“With me,” I said. I gave him the address for my apartment and Evie simply nodded, her gaze darting back to the house.
The flames were dying down now. Kyla appeared at my elbow and I glanced at her. She nodded toward my sister and then gestured for me to follow her.
“I’ll be right back,” I told Evie.
“I’ve been doing some eavesdropping,” Kyla said. Her face was dark with soot. “It’s definitely arson. Looks like the smoke alarms were disabled, and the fire burned too hot and too fast to be electrical.”
I closed my eyes. I’d known it was arson as soon as I’d seen the house, but I’d hoped I was wrong.
“What are the police saying?”
“There’s a fire investigator on scene. He’s been writing his notes on a notepad. I can steal it if you want.”
Despite the subject, I chuckled. Looked like Kyla was going to work out as my intern.
“That’s okay for now. If you could hang around and keep listening, that would be awesome.”
She nodded and melted away again. Across the street, Nathaniel was talking to a firefighter. The burly guy lowered his head submissively in a way that told me he was one of Nathaniel’s wolves.
“Dani?” Evie’s voice was thin and thready as I walked back and sat next to her.
I took her hand and squeezed. “Yeah?”
“Do you think you could ask Samael to help?”
I winced. Demons had an affinity with fire. It was a good idea, but Evie didn’t know what she was asking. For some strange reason, she often had hearts in her eyes when she talked about me and Samael.
