Page 99 of Clearly Charmed

She pushed out a heavy breath. ‘Get Belladonna. Let her know the situation. She can go with Clo. The less people in the way of the crew when they get here, the better.’

‘I’ll tell her.’

The sky had turned the color of a badly bruised peach. A thick wall of smoke blocked us in on all sides. Wind shook the trees like an angry phantom. I rounded the house and found the hose on the ground making a gigantic puddle.

‘Are you freaking kidding me,’ I cursed. Why couldn’t Belladonna handle the simplest task?

I stalked in the direction of her footprints leading away from the house and into the woods. The trail led to a downhill slope and into a wide sweep of forest. Flashes of red and yellow flames danced between the trees.

It was too close. I jogged my way down the slope, but there was no sign of my mother. The wind picked up again, and I had to shield my eyes from the dust and dry leaves spiraling through the air. I turned in a circle, finally finding her footprints moving into a dense patch of forest.

The farther I walked, the heavier the heat licked across my skin. In the distance the roar of flame, cracking of branches, was deafening. She was close. I could sense her somehow. Like there was a force pushing me deeper into the trees.

Rabbits, deer and elk scattered. Ahead Belladonna’s footprints were still visible. Why was she heading into the fire? Did she have a death wish?

I should have turned around, followed the animals out, but I had to know what the hell my mother was doing.

A few feet ahead, the forest parted into a wide circle void of trees. A flash from my childhood hit me. Grandpa Beau striding out here with a chainsaw, while we three girls chased after him. He’d shooed us back to the house. Told us we deserved a special spot in the forest to play. To have campouts. To learn about the beauty of nature. None of us had been here in years. Not since the incident with Clo in the hospital when we thought the county might split us up. The day all three of us lost our childhoods.

The smoke turned the air into a gray, suffocating blanket that clawed at my lungs. Cracks and moans came from the trees. Heat filled the air, and I called for Belladonna.

No answer.

She was probably running again. Too scared to face what was happening to her mother. To her own children. I hated what she’d done to us, but I kept searching because I didn’t want her to get hurt out here.

‘Belladonna!’ My voice echoed like a boomerang, scattering into the wind and then whirring its way straight back at me.

I hurried past the circle and strode farther into the woods. If Lia was here she’d be cursing me out, warning me to go back to the house, but I had to find my mother.

About one hundred steps ahead, the flickers of red and gold grew brighter. Branches tumbled from trees. Birds squawked as they departed their nests. Mice, squirrels and chipmunks raced to higher ground.

Ten feet ahead, Belladonna stood among the chaos, her image flickering in and out of the haze of smoke. I called her name again, but she didn’t move. Was she sick? It made no sense why she wasn’t responding.

I inched closer until a monstrous wet hiss filled the air. The smoke crowding the woods went from charred black to a pale gray in an instant. My gaze darted skyward. The chief must have called in water tankers. But there was no drone of engines or loud churn of propellers.

That hiss and spewing sound filled the air again. The smoke parted and Belladonna stood like a scarecrow propped up in a cornfield – eyes closed, hands stretched straight out from her body. Water bubbled up from the ground like a hidden spring, rising inch by inch, dousing the white-hot embers once they struck the ground.

The smoke grew murky, stinging my eyes. I rubbed at them, not sure what I was seeing. Ten paces away another stream of water rushed across the dry soil, this time spilling out in a gush and soaking my tennis shoes.

Bryce’s words from our dinner with Clo throbbed inside my skull.

Documents state her mother had the ability to divine water.

No. It couldn’t be. My mother often spoke of magic, but she couldn’t do magic.

‘What the hell, Belladonna?’

My mother snapped out of her trance, spun toward me and her mouth opened in a silent scream. The crack behind me rattled in my ears. A massive branch broke away from a hundred-year-old ponderosa tree above me. I should have moved, dived out of the way, but the shock of the sight held me in place. Belladonna’s blood-curdling cry filled the air, and then I was airborne, my body thrown sideways like a rag doll. I rolled three times until my shoulder crashed against the base of another tree. My head knocked against the bark as the falling branch missed me by mere inches. My bones ached. Smoke filled my lungs. My mother’s cries vibrated through the forest.

‘Dani, are you all right? Can you hear me?’ Bryce cradled me in his arms. Ash and wet leaves were tangled in his hair. Blood trickled from his freckled nose. I tried to speak. Ask about my mother, but stars swam across my vision until the world sank into a hazy swirl of black.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Like a Millstone Around My Neck

The panicked voices came first, followed by the jarring shift of my body. Strong arms cradled me against a steady chest. That familiar woody scent filled my nose. Flickers of blurred images. Onyx-black smoke. The sizzle of heat. Sheets of unexpected moisture. A jarring crack from a tree played in my head like a bad movie.

‘What the hell happened? Why are you carrying Dani?’ Lia shrieked.