Craft (32 page)

Ellie followed after them. Her anger
threatened to take over her common sense. Her hands trembled with
the impulse to put powerful craft over them all. Her anger told her
to forget the odds.

Neveah sat Thane’s mother on the
paisley sofa and crafted ropes around her hands. They were not
necessary to keep her in place but the ropes made Neveah feel
better. It made her prisoner feel more like a prisoner. Neveah
turned and saw Ellie staring between the two of them.

“What?” Neveah asked.

Ellie fixed her expression. She did
her best to look eager. “I’m supposed to be part of things now,
right?” Ellie asked.

“I guess…” Neveah said.

“I’d like to keep an eye on her…make
sure she doesn’t escape,” Ellie said.

“I don’t think you have talent for
that,” Neveah said.

“It doesn’t take much to look after a
woman who can’t even move on her own,” Ellie said. “Besides you and
the others have to focus on drawing out her husband, so you can
fight him.”

Cousin, Eugenia and Careen had
followed them inside. They did not share Neveah’s worries. They
knew the house was protected by the Bumbalows surrounding it. The
Coopers would not be able to get to Thane’s mother without a
fight.

“The girl has a point,” Eugenia said.
“I’ll stay with her if you’re worried about the Coopers sneaking up
on us.”

“There’ll be no sneaking,” Neveah
said. “There’s just going to be me killing the man who killed my
father.”

Ellie froze. Did Neveah really know
who killed their father? Was it Thane’s father all this time? How
could she know for certain? No one had witnessed the murder. At
least that was what Ellie had been told.

“How do you know he killed our papa?”
Ellie asked. “How’d you find out?”

“A recently caught Cooper told me,”
Neveah said. “He had no reason to lie.”

Careen and Neveah exchanged a secret
smile. It was a smile with hidden darkness. Ellie did not doubt
from the looks on their faces that they had found out the truth.
They had found the man who had murdered her father.

Kidnapping Thane’s mother was not
about ending the feud as Neveah had claimed. It was about revenge.
Neveah wanted to punish the man who had broken their family apart.
Ellie shook with the realization. Thane had been closer to the
truth than Ellie had thought. Had he known the truth all along? Had
he known since Ellie had admitted her papa had been killed in town?
Had he put the pieces together? Thane would not be afraid to ask
about the past. He would discover the truth quick
enough.

Ellie felt her plans falter. Did she
want to free Thane’s mother before Neveah had a chance to face his
father? She was uncertain. Her resolve waivered. What was the harm
in waiting? The fight felt more personal than it had ever felt
before. It was about her father, a man she had never really gotten
to know. Neveah did not notice Ellie’s struggle. She was focused on
the task.

“We have to send out a message,”
Neveah said. “Cousin, I want you take a bunch of the others and
make sure we know who’s coming our way. Give a shout when he
arrives.”

Cousin nodded and left the house.
Neveah followed after him with Careen. Ellie heard her family
asking about the attack as Neveah left the house. Eugenia pulled a
chair near the sofa and sat. She kept a stern gaze on Thane’s
mother. Her eyes did not show any sympathy. She would kill Thane’s
mother without thinking twice.

Ellie was still wrestling with the
information Neveah had left on her shoulders. She did not know how
to focus her emotions. Letting Thane’s mother get hurt because of
vengeance was wrong. Was letting Neveah get revenge for their
father’s death also wrong? Ellie wanted someone to pay for what had
happened. She wanted some form of closure. She realized that was
the whole problem. There was always a reason for the vengeance.
There was always an explanation. It would not change things. It
would just make her like Neveah.

Ellie sat on the sofa next to Thane’s
mother and tried to keep her body from giving away her emotions.
She tried her best to sit still. She held her hands on her lap to
keep herself from doing something rash. They twisted endlessly in
her lap. She could not hide her emotions. She was lucky that people
were used to ignoring her. Eugenia did not notice her agitation.
She was more focused on her captive.

As Ellie sat, Thane’s mother looked
over at Ellie. It was the first time Ellie had seen her move on her
own. She took in Ellie for a long moment. Her eyes showed no
emotion, but the gaze was meaningful. Ellie could not repress her
shudders at the dead stare. She reached out and touched Ellie on
the wrist. Her hand connected with the bracelet Thane had given
Ellie. Ellie could tell in the touch that Thane’s mother knew Thane
had crafted the bracelet. She was not as lost as Ellie had thought.
She knew her son’s craft when she felt it. It made Ellie more
determined.

An hour passed. The party outside grew
louder. Ellie heard Cousin and a bunch of the others leave. She
heard Neveah send out one of the cousins with a message to Thane’s
father. It demanded he come and meet her or she would kill Thane’s
mother.

The message was delivered and news of
the Coopers’ impending arrival trickled down through her family.
Thane’s father was actually coming. He intended to meet
Neveah.

Ellie’s time was running out. She
teetered on the edge of two powerful impulses. She kept reminding
herself that Thane would not be so friendly if his father and
mother were killed. Their friendship kept her grounded in the
truth. No death was ever good. There was always a
downside.

Neveah and Careen finally left the
house to meet Thane’s father on the road.

Ellie kept her eyes on Eugenia.
Despite the serious nature of their task, the heat was working its
own brand of craft. It made the feeling in the room lazy and warm.
There was comfort and familiarity in what they were doing. Eugenia
was relaxed. When Ellie was certain Eugenia had let down her guard,
she acted. She pulled in the craft that she would need and, without
a gesture, released it.

The smoke was not noticeable at first.
It was a vague hint that something was not right. It came from
upstairs, in Careen’s room. It took Eugenia a minute to notice the
smell of burnt wood and fabric. When she did, she was alert in a
moment.

“What’s that?” Eugenia
asked.

“Hm?” Ellie asked.

“Do you smell that?” Eugenia
asked.

Ellie sniffed the air. “I don’t know.
Is it smoke, maybe?” Ellie said.

Eugenia pushed off the chair. Her face
was concerned. “I should go check. Keep an eye on her. No telling
what her craziness will get her up to.”

Eugenia slowly made her way across the
living room and to the stairs. She followed the smell of smoke to
the second floor. The slow creak of the stairs were deafening to
Ellie. Ellie was moving before Eugenia had reached the last
stair.

She flicked her wrist once. Thane’s
mother lifted into the air, her toes dragging against the floor.
Ellie flicked her wrist again, and they both moved to the kitchen
door. Ellie peered through the kitchen door. Her family was on the
yard. They were eager for the coming fight. They were alert for
signs that Neveah needed them. There was no avoiding them. Her
distraction would have to be larger. She focused and flicked her
wrist for a third time. She unleashed the craft upstairs in
Neveah’s room.

“Fire!” Eugenia yelled from upstairs.
“Someone help me!”

People turned at the call. Many of
them ran inside. None of them looked at Ellie or Thane’s mother.
They were background noise to the more immediate emergency. Ellie
flicked her wrist again, to make the fire larger. Her distraction
complete, she moved through her family to her side yard.

Outside, she had a choice to make. She
could take Thane’s mother through the woods, a two-day walk with a
woman who could not walk, or she could drive. Driving was easier
than carrying. It would end the situation faster. It would be a
more immediate solution.

There were plenty of cars on her lawn.
Cousin had left in the van with the others; his truck was closest
to the road and the most familiar to Ellie. She thought she could
manage to drive it best.

She carefully sat Thane’s mother in
the passenger seat. As she did, fire surged out of the windows
upstairs. It boiled to the heavens with angry contempt for the
structure it was destroying. The others were having trouble
crafting away the fire. Ellie’s determination had made the fire too
strong. They could not put it out. The fire was stronger than they
were. The craft of her family felt increasingly desperate to Ellie.
Shouts of fear followed the explosion of fire. The shouts told
Ellie they were about to abandon the house as lost. Her distraction
would be lost.

Ellie hurried to the driver’s side of
the truck. The keys were in the ignition. She used craft to turn
them. Operating on what she had seen Cousin do a million times, she
switched the gear to drive. She flicked her wrist and the gas pedal
went down. It went down too hard. The truck jerked forward. It
barreled toward another car on the side of the road. Ellie grabbed
the steering wheel and turned hard to avoid the car. The truck
sideswiped the car, but it kept going. The rusted truck was tougher
than it looked.

Ellie turned the wheel again and they
swerved onto the road. She fishtailed between the two lanes, but
she managed to keep the truck on the pavement. She flicked her
wrist again and the gas eased up. She was finally able to get
control of the truck.

In the rearview mirror, she saw that
some of the family had noticed her theft and her abduction of
Thane’s mother. They stared after in confusion. No one tried to
stop her. They did not understand. She was just Ellie. She was just
the girl who cleaned the floors. What was her role in the
abduction? The fire of the house had grown. The flames had reached
the first floor. No one knew what to do. They were helpless. The
first part of Ellie’s plan was complete.

Ellie did not smile at her victory.
She was too worried about what it meant. She had just burned down
her house. There would be no hiding from the truth. She was going
to free Thane’s mother. She was going to do it publicly. Neveah
would kill her once she saw the truth. There was no choice for
Ellie after she accomplished her task. Her life was never going to
be the same. Everything had shifted with the craft she had
performed on her house.

Ellie ignored those thoughts and
focused on keeping the truck on the pavement. Her hands were steady
on the wheel. She did her best to put her fear to the back of her
mind. Her fear was the enemy. It would make her uncertain. She had
to be brave to face what was coming.

Thane’s mother did not move again. She
did not touch Ellie. Her face did not hold the same fear Ellie’s
did for what she was about to do. She was calm. Her calm steadied
some of Ellie’s nerves. Ellie could not help but wonder what nature
of craft had made her lose her mind. She wondered how anyone could
delve so deeply inside of something and not be able to find their
way back. She thought that maybe her obsession had been her
undoing. Trying to end the feud was as unhealthy as fighting it
without end. Thane’s mother and Neveah were two sides of the same
coin. Ellie did not want either side. She wanted to be free from it
all. She was finally ready to be free.

It did not take Ellie long to reach
the barricade Cousin had formed on the road. The blue van and two
other cars blocked off both lanes of traffic. The Coopers had not
yet arrived with an answer to Neveah’s challenge, but Ellie knew
they were on their way. They would not let the kidnapping rest for
long. They might think that Thane’s mother was already dead, but
they would come anyway. They would come to fight.

Ellie did not think that returning
Thane’s mother would stop the fight Neveah had planned. She did not
care about that. She cared about Thane and showing him that she had
no part in the kidnapping. She cared about saving an innocent woman
from a plan that should have never included her in the first
place.

Cousin, Neveah and Careen were near
the back of the van. Their eyes were locked on the road, in the
direction of town and the coming Coopers. They looked excited at
the idea of the fight they were about to face. They did not notice
Ellie until it was too late.

Ellie took a deep breath when she saw
them, then she gripped the steering wheel harder. She forced the
gas pedal down again with a flick of her wrist. The truck lurched
forward, directly at the space between the van and one of the cars.
She closed her eyes at the last second. The sound of the truck
hitting the van and car was loud. It sounded like an explosion to
Ellie. Ellie opened her eyes again as the truck moved beyond the
barricade. The front end was bent inward and one side of the truck
was lower than the other side, but she had moved beyond the
barricade. She had done it.

Ellie’s eyes moved to the rearview
mirror. Neveah was staring at her. Her expression was not an
expression Ellie had seen before. She had seen Neveah angry, bitter
and pleased, but she had never seen her sister look quite so
insane. Neveah’s eyes were wide and full of inner fire. Something
had snapped in her sister’s mind. She was out of
control.