“What the…” If something was very wrong, she’d rathernotbe blind. Breaking the spell meant they’d have to go through the whole ritual again, but screw it. She held her hands over her eyes and whispered, “Goddess, break the spell and restore my sight.” She took her hands away from her eyes and blinked when her vision returned, accompanied by stabbing bright light. After a few blinks, her eyes adjusted. Ah… It felt so good to see again. Her vision seemed okay despite the spell. She had missed colors most of all…and knowing where furniture was placed, of course.
“Where’s your fire extinguisher?” Noah called out.
“I don’t think we have one. What’s going on?” She rushed to the living room. Flames leapt from the curtains and sofa, which was covered in shattered glass. It looked as if someone had lobbed a Molotov cocktail through the window.
“Stay back.” Noah grabbed an afghan from the back of a chair and beat the flames. Clearly, that wasn’t going to do enough. Whatever had been thrown through the window contained a great deal of gasoline, if Kizzy’s nose wasn’t mistaken.
She had to get to the book. Maybe whoever wanted it started the fire, but she couldn’t let it burn.
She ran toward the study, but Noah grabbed her. “Kizzy, no! The other way!”
She fought him off. “I have to get something important.”
“Nothing is worth your— Ow!”
She hit the back of his calves with the cane. When he let go, she ran to the study and, thank goodness, got there before the fire did. She yanked a book, which acted as a lever to open the hidden cabinet behind.
Grasping the precious spell book to her bosom, she rushed back the way she came but stopped before entering the living room. “Come on, Noah. Let’s get out of here through the kitchen. I have my phone, and we can call the fire department from outside.”
“Yeah. I thought I could get it under control, but it’s too late for that.”
He looked at her strangely when she glanced up at him, but he didn’t say anything until they were safely out of the house.
It was more important to get the fire department there immediately than to hold up the pretense of blindness. She tucked the book under one arm and dialed 911 to report the fire.
As soon as she hung up, she noticed Noah staring at the book. Then he looked up and stared at her eyes. “You can see…”
“I—I must have recovered.”
He looked at her skeptically, then pointed to the book. “Where did you get that? I have one just like it.”
She gasped. “You have the other one?”
“There are two of them?”
“Three, actually. And we can’t let them fall into anyone else’s hands.”
Two men came around the back corner of the house, both pointing guns at them.
Oh no! The entity found us.
“Give the book to me,” the older one said.
Kizzy clasped it to her chest hard and backed up. “No.”
Noah stepped in front of her. “Leave. Now.”
The younger blond man looked at his partner and smirked. “Oh, he asked us to leave. I guess we should just go then.”
The older man raked the salt-and-pepper hair out of his ice-blue eyes and chuckled. “We’re not going anywhere without that book. Hand it over.”
Kizzy glanced between Noah and the two advancing men. She couldn’t let anything happen to him. “Noah, step aside.”
“Yeah. Get out of the way, boy,” the older man said.
“I’m not leaving.” Sirens interrupted the tense conversation. “The cops and fire department will be here any second.”
“Then there’s no time to waste.” The younger one raised his pistol and aimed it right at Noah’s head.
