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“Nothing. Forget it.” She moved to the window, giving me her back.
The details were all coming together in my mind, and pointing to one possible scenario. It made more sense than anything thus far.
“You’re not here because youwantto help me as you put it. You’re here because youhaveto be. You have to help me, don’t you?” If I could’ve grabbed her, I would’ve whipped her around and pinned her until she answered.
“Yeah, well, what if I am?”
Now it made more sense. After the mess she’d gotten me into, it was hard not to feel a little satisfaction over the fact that she was stuck here with me. “How long are you here for?”
“I don’t know,” she snapped.
I didn’t care if she bit my head off. “Is there a day or a goal or something?”
“I. Don’t. Know.I wasn’t exactly in a position to push, if you catch my drift.” She spun, squinting as she said, “I don’t even know why I tried to talk to you. I knew it was a mistake. That you’d twist it to my fault.”
She was gone again, and it was a good thing. I’d been ready to test out my hell hands on a ghost.
I collapsed on the bed, realizing things might be even worse than I’d feared.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Do you smell that?”Charlie tilted his head back as he sniffed the air, like he was trying to pick up some scent on the wind.
I shifted the flour bag to my other hip, trying to juggle some jars in my hands. “No, but you already have better senses than I do. What do you smell?”
It was crazy how the differences were already showing up in him. He was always warm, almost never wanting a coat, and he was getting up earlier and earlier, as if his body was synching to a new schedule. I used to have to wake him up, but now it was a coin toss whether he’d be waiting in the kitchen for me or jumping into bed and waking me up.
“It smells like when you burn dinner,” he said, looking around and unaware of the slight.
Wait until he got a little bigger and tried to cook on a wood stove. It wasn’t like there were temperature controls.
“Maybe they’re roasting something up early. Sometimes they like to use the one that does everything really slow.” I didn’t relish going to the roast tonight, but that did make things a touch better.
“No. That has a different smell.”
Whatever was alarming Charlie was spreading through the rest of the pack. People were nudging each other, pointing west. They picked up their pace, as if they could tell where it was coming from.
Looking toward the direction everyone was pointing at and heading, I saw a plume of smoke rising from right about where my cottage should be.
No, Groza wouldn’t. It would be insanity.
I tried to pick up my pace, still juggling the supplies until I turned the corner. My cottage, the place I’d tried to make a home for Charlie and me, was burning to the ground.
I let out a small cry. It wasn’t even pain I was feeling. No, I was almost devoid of anything but shock for a second.
“Piper?” Charlie was crying, grabbing on to my jacket, his lower lip trembling.
I tried to rein in the explosion of emotions that rocked me as I saw what this was going to do to him.
“It’s okay. It’ll be okay. They’ll put out the fire and then we’ll fix it,” I said, still edging closer.
Charlie’s face was now covered in tears. He didn’t believe a word I said. As we got closer, it was hard to argue that I was right. The cottage was going to be a hill of ashes soon. I’d never seen such an all-encompassing blaze. Everyone was gathered around, just watching it burn to the ground.
I stopped at the edge of the crowd, just staring at the blaze in front of me.
“It was too late to save it,” Buddie said, coming to stand beside us.
I didn’t know who else was there. I didn’t care as I watched the best home we’d had since Death Day go up in flames.
