Free Flames in the Midst (The Jade Hale Series) by Sarah Reckenwald Page A

the next door, but this one was already cracked open.  I looked directly into my mother’s eyes and saw a light of recognition flash in them.  It was almost like looking into my own eyes, but not quite as unusual.  She knew, I was sure, but she said nothing, and she didn’t move.  I took in a deep breath and realized I had only moments to act, but I couldn’t think of what to do.  I hoped my gift was my own again and within my power to control, but I had no idea how long the elixir Cameron had given me would keep me from accessing it.  My mother still had not moved at all; she was petrified by the same spell that had left my aunt in Cameron’s hands and put me on this impossible mission to burn books and contracts.  A spell Evan had no doubt taught his son.
    I watched in horror as Evan approached my mother with a knife.  Her eyes told me not to make a sound.  I would have screamed out and tried to stop him anyway, even though I knew it would have just delayed her pain, but I was concentrating.  I put all of my effort into concentrating on his back as he approached her.  If I could kill anyone at anytime, it would be now.  I could kill this man.  Maybe my fire killed my mother, but Professor Michaels went down in flames tonight, too. 
    I thought of Cameron and my newfound hatred for him as he held my aunt prisoner.  I thought of the despicable man in front of me who would take my mother’s life in an attempt to gain control of her daughter, the firestarter.  I thought of my own hatred for what I was, and realized for the first time my gifts were just that, gifts, not curses.  It was not my fault and not my gift that killed my mother tonight; it was this man.  I could feel a burning beginning behind my eyes, and I focused more intently on Evan’s back, but the smoke and the flames did not come. 
    “Once you are dead, your sister will become your daughter’s guardian.  I wonder if she will refuse my generous offer like you have.”  I was transfixed in a nightmare, in Hell, as Evan plunged a knife deep into my mother’s gut.  Still, she did not move, and her eyes did not leave mine.  I could see her pain reflected in them, but it was more than the physical pain.  She was looking at her grown daughter the only time she would ever see me, knowing she would not be there as I grew to the woman standing in front of her.  I kept concentrating on Evan’s back.  If I could kill him, maybe I could get her to a hospital in time to save her.  I could feel the heat rising in me.
    Evan stepped back from my mother and let go of the knife.  It stayed lodged in her stomach, red blood dripping from the base of the blade, my mother’s blouse turning crimson.  She stood perfectly still.  I could not see Evan’s face, but I realized in bleak dismay he was completely unaffected by my attempt to murder him.  His lips were certainly moving as he recited an incantation that sent the blade he had delivered into my mother’s flesh further into the depths of her body.  I watched as the handle, angled downward so the blade pushed up toward her ribs, disappeared, leaving behind only a dripping wound.  I looked to my mother’s eyes where a single tear dripped down her cheek, mimicking the blood dripping to the floor.
    It was too late.  I could not save her.  In moments, the blade would pierce her heart, and no surgeon anywhere could fix that.  It did not matter that she was here when the building burned to the ground.  She was dead already when it happened.  I felt a rush of despair fall over me like a wave, and for a moment I gave up on burning the life out of my mother’s killer.  The situation felt hopeless.
    As my mother’s body fell to the ground, I realized I could still feel the heat even though I was not working to start a fire.  I did not see any smoke, but I felt the sensation of starting a fire as if I was connected to the one who was starting it.  I turned away from the spot where my