“No, Lydia,” Wickham said.
“I’ll hold my breath. Fifteen seconds, tops,” I said. “I’ve got to at least try.”
“Fine, but I’m coming. We’ve got to be fast. If we can’t put it out immediately, we leave.”
I aimed the fire extinguisher in front of myself, hoping to find the flames. As Wickham and I took another step, the door swung shut behind us.
Forgetting to hold my breath, I screamed. Wickham tried the door, but someone had locked it.
“I can break it down, but it would damage it.” Wickham stood ready. With his vampiric strength, it would’ve been easy for him.
“No. We have windows in the basement.” I coughed, not wanting to damage or fill the house with smoke. “This way.”
We ran down the stairs, and I finally caught sight of the flames. The heavy velvet curtain on one of the basement windows was ablaze. I aimed the extinguisher at them.Wickham steadied me by wrapping his arms around mine as we put the fire out.
Choking and coughing, I ran to raise the window, which was already cracked open, but the latch scorched my hand. “It’s hot.”
“Sorry to do this, but we’ve got to get you out of here.” Wickham picked up the fire extinguisher and used the back to smash the glass. Thankfully, smoke rises, and it poured out through the broken window. As we ducked to the ground, we sucked in fresh winter air, still coughing. We must’ve caught the fire very rapidly, or our protective enchantment worked, because the brick walls around the window were undamaged.
I pulled myself close to Wickham. “Don’t be mad. I gotta go find out who did this.”
“What?” he coughed.
I stood, used a rag to fully open the window without hurting myself, and then climbed out. The killer had to be in the area.
In the back alley, someone was climbing the fence connected to Main Street.
“Stop!” I screamed, running towardthem.
The individual was unidentifiable due to a ski mask, dark jacket, and the distance between us.
“Seriously, Lydia.” Wickham grabbed my shoulder mid-stride, pulling me to a stop for the second time that evening. “Stop trying to do everything alone. We can do this together.”
“Someone ran off that way.” I wriggled my shoulder away from him and slid my hand into his. “You can help me, but don’t stop me.”
Wickham released an exasperated sigh, and we ran down the alley together. But by the time we reached the wooden fence, whoever I’d been chasing had vanished. The area where the fire went out the window was, fortunately, undamaged, aside from the broken glass.
Sirens approached the café.
“I thought we'd be safer if we gathered everyone together, but it’s feeling more dangerous than ever. Together, we’re all easy targets,” Wickham said as we turned and walked back to the bakery.
“I can’t believe someone attacked my home, my family’s home.” I shuddered. “They need to leave my family out of whatever this is. Ugh... I’m so frustrated that we still don’t have any clue as to why this is happening.”
“I agree. We’re not making any progress, and people are being threatened. We should get out of Austen Heights for a while—to let this simmer down. I don’t want to add fuel to the fire by searching for them if it puts us and your family in danger. Everyone in the band ought to get out of town for a bit too.” Wickham turned toward the distant horizon, and something new flashed through his eyes. His aura rippled with burnt umber.
“What do you mean?” I frowned.
“An old friend of my parents, Brig Ingersol from England, owns the Sky Powder Lodge. They studied hospitality together in school. We can hang out there for a while to let the police deal with this.” Wickham stopped walking and looked into my eyes. “Do you think it will help your family if we leave?”
“The two of us? Together?” I stopped and stared at him, wondering if he realized what he was asking me.
“If that’s okay with you,” he responded way too casually.
I didn’t have to think long. It wasn’t like I was going to pass up the opportunity to spend more time with Wickham, even if it didn’t completely make sense. “Sure, why not? I don’t have any classes rightnow, and my family can handle the bakery. I’ll just need to shower and pack an overnight bag as long as my clothes don’t all smell like smoke.”
Fortunately, with the basement door having been sealed shut, the rest of the house took no more smoke damage than if we'd burnt a batch of cookies. But it still took forever to give the police our statements, board up the basement windows, and help my parents calm down enough to go back to bed. By midnight, everything was calm enough for me to pack a bag and meet Wickham downstairs.
“I didn’t tell my parents I’m heading out. But I told Kitty. And I asked her to try to find a spell to identify the owner of the wig.” In the dark foyer, I looked up at the wooden staircase, suddenly hesitant. “I’ll call my mom first thing in the morning.”
