The Dragon Heir
Page 45

No. I will not let this happen, she thought. Not on my mountain.
“What the hell do you think you're doing on my property?” She shouted it out really loud, hoping to warn Grace and J.R. in the house and Jason in the barn.
The wizards jumped at the sound of her voice and milled around in confusion, peering into the darkness, trying to figure out where she was.
With any luck, Grace would be levelheaded enough to grab J.R. and leave out the back door. She'd know better than to come out and get mixed up in this.
“I knew it. I knew somebody was home,” the first wizard said.
“Look, she can't stop us. What's she going to do?” The tall wizard continued walking toward the house, trailed by his accomplices, who kept looking back over their shoulders.
“What are you doing?” Madison called. When he didn't answer, she screamed, “There are kids in that house!”
“Well, then you'd better get them out now,” the wizard said coldly. “Because we're going to burn this dump to the ground.” He extended his hands, and fire coalesced around his fingertips.
And then she knew for sure. “Brice Roper! You come away from there or I'll have the sheriff all over you!”
That brought him up short. He stood frozen for a moment, then shrugged and swung around, yanking off his hood and raking a hand through his mashed hair. “Hello, Madison.”
“Brice,” one of the other wizards whined. “This isn't what we …”
“Shut up, I said,” Brice muttered. “I should have just handled this on my own. Don't make me sorry I brought you along.”
“I'm warning you,” Madison said. “You'll never get away with it.”
Brice laughed. “Who's going to believe you? This place is a firetrap. It'll be your word against mine, and I'll be sure and have an alibi and ten witnesses to put me someplace else. If anyone does believe you, I'll persuade them they don't.”
“People know me around here,” Madison said, trying to sound more confident than she felt. “They'll believe me.”
Right. When have they ever believed you about anything?
“Really? You think so? I say the word, and you're a witch. I say the word, and you burned your house down yourself. The people in this town are sheep, Madison, and I can drive them wherever I want.”
“You're the ones who set all the fires last year,” Madison breathed.
Brice bowed mockingly. “Proves my point, wouldn't you say? Here we were, burning up the whole valley, and these idiots are blaming you. If the whole town turned against me, I'd sell out and move away. But you didn't. Oh, no. Instead, you pull a shotgun on them. You're stubborn as a rock. And about as smart.”
In that moment, the gut-clenching sensation went away and she was just really, really angry. She strode toward them, into the light. “People know what you are. Some of them, anyway.”
“I'll tell you one thing they know,” Brice said. “My father provides jobs for half the county—anybody who's making a decent living. What's going to happen when we close up the mine? This place'll just dry up and blow away. Booker Mountain will keep Roper Coal going another ten years or more.”
“And then what?”
“Well, then they'll have a nice flat place to park something on, won't they? It'll be the only level piece of land in the whole county.”
“I won't sell,” Madison said. “Not to you, I won't.”
“Where are Carlene and the kids going to live, then, after I burn this place down?” Brice snorted. “You can't even afford a phone. I bet you can't scrape up the first month's rent. You going to pitch a tent, or what?”
Madison clenched her fists and took a step forward. “How can you live with yourself?”
“It's your fault. You should've agreed to sell. That's the way the world works. Everybody knows that. But not you. You walk around like you're royalty in rags or something. Like you're better than me. Me!” he repeated, his voice rising.
“Brice,” one of the other wizards said. A girl, from her voice. “Let's do it or go.”
Brice collected himself. “All right, Madison. You have five minutes to get those kids out of the house, and anything else you want to keep. There can't be much worth saving.” He smiled. “Don't worry. We'll still give you a good price. The house doesn't add any value, if you know what I mean. We'd just tear it down.” He paused, and when Madison didn't say anything, added, “You'll thank me in a year.”
Madison caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye, and then someone screeched in pain. One of the wizards—the whiny one—went down on the ground, clutching at his head. He lay there, groaning, pressing his hands into his bleeding scalp.
Then Madison saw Jason, backpack slung over his shoulder, J.R.'s baseball bat in his hand, backing away from the downed wizard. A baseball bat against wizardry? She opened her mouth, meaning to shout, to say something. Jason shook his head, raising his hand to shush her.
And then she realized—he was unnoticeable to the other wizards in the yard. Noticeable only to her, the elicitor.
“Hey! Carl?What's up?” Brice called. “You trip over your feet or something?”
Carl only moaned some more.
Jason pulled a knife from his backpack and headed directly for another of the wizards, a stocky boy in low-slung camouflage pants and those giant high-tops. Jason came in close, thrust in and up with the knife, four quick strokes, and the wizard screeched and clutched at his midsection. He ripped open his shirt, revealing a crude M scratched into his chest and belly. “Wh-wh-what's going on?” he mumbled. “I'm bleeding! Something stuck me. It—it looks like a …” He looked up at Madison, eyes widening. “Did … did you do that?”
Thinking quickly, Madison drew herself up, tossed back her hair, and smiled at him. “What do you think?”
The three wizards still on their feet bunched up, facing Madison. She advanced, hands extended, and they retreated. All of the anger, fear, and humiliation of the past year bubbled up inside her. She found herself wishing she did have magic, that she could incinerate them with a gesture.
Jason kept moving. He pulled a metal can from his backpack, one that Madison recognized from the barn.
What is he doing?
He unscrewed the cap and upended it over the girl wizard. The girl shrieked and covered her head with her arms, fighting off her invisible opponent.
“What is this?” She sniffed, then screamed and ripped off the hood, flinging it away, revealing a pale, horrified face. “That's kerosene!” She backed away from Madison, shaking her head slowly from side to side. “If you think I'm going to set fire to a house while I'm drenched in kerosene, you're crazy.” She turned and fled into the woods.
Madison walked toward Brice, forcing a smile onto her face. She was afraid her heart might burst right out of her chest, it was beating so hard. “So, Brice,” she said, “I hear you like to play with magic.”
“What th-the hell?” The usually articulate Brice looked like he was in the middle of a very bad dream and hoped he'd wake up soon. “How are you doing that? You're not a wizard. I … didn't feel anything…when I touched you.”
“You say the word, and I'm a witch,” Madison said, low in her throat. “Isn't that right?”
Brice backed away as Madison advanced, raising his hands to fend her off. “Stay away from me.” Meanwhile, Jason came at him from the side.
“Spell me, why don't you?” she taunted. “See if you can. I dare you.” Her shadow extended before her, tall and angular.
He stretched out his hands, but then pulled them back, no doubt remembering what had happened in the studio. “Madison. Come on. Let's talk about this.”
She extended her hand toward Brice, mimicking a hex sign Min had used. Unnoticeable Jason swung the bat, smashing Brice in the face. Brice jerked backward, yelling, pressing his sleeve to his face to stem the flow of blood from a perfect nose that was now smashed off-center.
“Ouch!” Madison said, shaking her head. “You're really not all that good at this, are you? I guess you need a little more practice. Want to play again?”
Brice spat out blood and a broken tooth. “I don't get it,” he mumbled through his damaged mouth.
“No. You don't. But I'll tell you what. I'll make the same deal you offered me. I'll give you five minutes to gather up anything you want to keep.” She glanced around—at Carl, who had sat up, blotting blood from his face with his shirt; at the other wizard who was still contemplating the wound in his midsection, looking like he might pass out. “Can't be much worth saving,” she added.
Brice slid his hands under Carl's arms and hauled him to his feet, both of them beat up and bloody.
“One more thing,” Madison said. “You better hope my life runs real smooth from here on. Anything happens to this place—fire, explosions, earthquakes, the well goes dry, bridge goes out, the apple trees get blossom-rot—I'll know who to blame. And I'll come after you. You ever set foot on my property again, I'll incinerate you.”
For once, Brice had nothing to say. He and Carl hustled off into the woods, heading for the road.
Madison waited until the wizards had been out of sight for a good five minutes. Then she crouched next to the old chicken coop and vomited, heaving until she had nothing left. Jason squatted next to her, gathering her hair in his hands and pulling it back out of danger. Then he fetched her a mason jar of water from the spigot so she could rinse her mouth. He helped her back to the house, and they sat down on the porch steps. Madison was trembling, her teeth chattering. Jason put his arm around her and pulled her close, patting her back.
“God, you're good,” he said, shaking his head. He seemed stunned by her performance. “I couldn't believe it. You're so brave. You scared the hell out of them.”