Chapter 31

Inch by inch, Ephie's awareness of her body returned. Sitting still was hard. She had pins and needles itching at her skin. She wanted to move in the worst way, to stretch and feel each muscle so that she'd know she was in full control again.

But she couldn't. Not with her captor just on the bed. The woman would see, and Ephie didn't want to risk losing her advantage.

Her plan remained a simple one. Wait until her captor fell asleep, then free herself from the chair and get out of the room.

It had to be soon.

As best Ephie could tell, the woman, who'd finished her fast-food meal, had to be getting tired. After eating, she'd approached Ephie, who'd quickly closed her eyes and relied on her other senses to tell her what was happening.

The woman had poked Ephie in the shoulder. Ephie, of course, hadn't responded.

"Dang," the woman had muttered, her accent rounded with the smoothness of the bayou. "Maybe I gave you too much of that dust. Well, you're bound to wake up sooner or later. Hope it's sooner, cuz I don't wanna carry you back to the car."

Then she'd left Ephie alone, gone into the bathroom and, judging by what Ephie had heard, had taken a shower.

During that time, Ephie had studied her restraints as much as was possible. That had been her one good shot at moving. She'd rolled her head around and shrugged her shoulders a few times, trying to get the blood flowing where she could. Her legs still weren't cooperating, but her upper torso was nearly a hundred percent.

The restraints felt like standard zip ties. That was good, Ephie thought. Her idea was to use her minimal abilities to melt them to the point that she could either stretch them wide enough to free her hands or just break them.

She couldn't test out her plan, however, because she was pretty sure the smell of melting plastic would tip her captor off that Ephie was up to something. If the smoke didn't set off the alarm. Although in this motel, maybe it wouldn't.

Either way, Ephie was not-so-patiently waiting for the woman to fall asleep. That seemed like Ephie's best shot at getting free. What the woman had planned, Ephie had no idea. Maybe not knowing was better. Knowing might only make Ephie panic, and it was easiest to work her tiny bit of magic when she was calm.

Right now, the woman was reclining on the bed, still watching television. Like she was waiting for something. Ephie got that impression, because every so often, the woman would sigh or mutter something. So far, she'd said, "Come on, already," and ,"What's taking so long," along with a few more choice words.

Whatever was happening, or wasn't happening, the woman didn't like it.

She was growing impatient.

Ephie didn't quite know what that meant for her personally. All she could do was hope the woman would drift off and give Ephie the chance to get free. And soon.

Ephie had no way of telling the time, but she knew that once the sun was up, Remy would have to end his search for her.

She didn't want to think about that. She wanted him here, with her, just like she wanted out of this room and away from this woman. She had no doubt that the search for her would continue, but she wanted Remy more than anything else.

A soft buzzing sound interrupted Ephie's thoughts. Had to be the woman's phone vibrating with a call.

She answered. "Yeah, what's up? You took long enough to call." There was a brief pause. "Well, I couldn't answer then, could I? I was in the middle of taking care of her, and my phone was on silent."

A much longer pause, then the woman sucked in a ragged breath. Ephie heard movement, too. Like she'd sat up on the bed. "What?" A ragged sob escaped her. "He's dead? My daddy's dead?"

Ephie steeled herself not to react, but all the pieces fell into place. Turner had been killed in a prison riot. Did that mean Turner was this woman's father? It seemed that way. If so, what would happen now? Ephie didn't want to answer that question, but it felt obvious there were two possible ways this could go.

Either this woman would immediately leave to go home, forgetting all about Ephie. Or Ephie was about to become the focus of this woman's wrath.

The woman let out a howl that was full of anguish and rage. As she wept loudly, something hit the mirror with a hard thunk, shattering it into pieces. Shards of glass and the woman's phone fell to the floor.

Ephie barely managed not to jerk back in response to the frightening sound. The question had been answered.

The woman's feet appeared before Ephie, facing her. "This is your fault," she snarled through sobs. Her fists ground against her sides, knuckles white. "Your mother did this. She put him in there. She testified against him so he didn't get parole. He coulda been out. Now you gonna pay."

With that, the woman stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.

Terror flooded Ephie, the rush of adrenaline helping her shed the remaining numbness. This was her chance. She couldn't wait any longer. She had to do something. And she had to do it now.

She shifted slightly, centering herself, and focused on the sunstone that rested against her chest. For once in her life, her abilities had to work better than they ever had before. Not only did she need to free herself, but she needed a diversion.

Something sizable enough that her captor would be distracted by it and forget about Ephie.

First, she worked on the restraints on her wrists. That was hard to do without seeing them. She'd never used her magic blind that way. She pictured the zip tie in her mind, how it might appear around her wrists.

As she did that, she put tension on the zip tie, pulling her wrists apart as far as they would go, and tried to send her magic to the part of the zip tie that wasn't touching her wrists.

She swore the sunstone felt warmer.

Then heat seared her wrists. She sucked in air, grimacing. Her magic was definitely working. Just a little bit more… Pain darted across her skin, and her wrists came free, flying apart. The zip tie shot onto the bed next to her.

She carefully rubbed at her wrists. A blister was already forming on her skin from where the melted plastic had touched her, but it was a small price to pay for being free. She bent over as much as she was able to see the ties securing her ankles to the chair. Her body still didn't seem to be cooperating completely, because she couldn't lean as much as she wanted to.

Seeing the zip ties made a huge difference, though. Using her magic again, she got her right foot free just as the door flew open again.

"What are you doing?" the woman screeched. She had a tripod in one hand and a ring light in the other. She tossed them on the bed and came at Ephie, shards of broken mirror crunching underfoot.

Ephie tried to stand even though one ankle remained attached to the chair, but she couldn't get up. Instantly, she realized the back of her jeans was connected to the chair. No wonder she hadn't been able to bend all the way forward. A zip tie through one of her belt loops? It had to be. Explained why she hadn't fallen out of the chair when she'd been passed out.

She sat down hard, panic flushing through her system. Then instinct and the self-preservation drive took over. She shoved her hands out in front of her and called every shred of power she could muster. The sunstone pulsed with warmth.

A large bubble of fire burst forth from her palms. The woman swerved in time to avoid it, but it hit the wall and exploded in all directions, spreading heat and flames like a gob of jelly. Fire raced over the wall, down to the floor, up to the ceiling.

The woman screamed and started batting at the flames with the closest thing to her, a magazine off the dresser. Her efforts only fanned the flames higher.

Ephie cringed at the heat. She hadn't meant to produce anything like that, but she'd gotten the distraction she'd wanted. She reached behind her, found the zip tie holding her to the chair and used more power to melt through it, then removed the last one off her ankle. She got up, her body stiff and prickly from sitting so long.

She hobbled around the bed, trying to get to the door as she cringed against the heat. The fire was spreading rapidly. A large portion of the ceiling had caught, and the flames were licking their way across it to the other wall.

An alarm went off. Sprinklers in the ceiling activated, but only one of them shot any water out, and it was basically turning to steam as it hit the fire.

Ephie's captor was frantically gathering her things. She caught sight of Ephie and turned on her. "Witch," she spat. She lunged at Ephie, tackling her to the floor.

Ephie, weak from being drugged and tied up, collapsed beneath the woman. She mustered enough energy to fight, shoving at the woman to get free of her. "We need to get out of here."

"Your mother killed my father. You're not going anywhere." The woman reared back, haloed by the flames above her, and punched Ephie across the jaw.

Pain radiated through her face. She threw her hands up to protect herself but shifted tactics mid-movement and sent both fists into the woman's stomach.

Ephie's captor doubled over, coughing and taking in smoke as she rolled to the side.

There was no avoiding the smoke. It billowed through the room. Ephie used the side of the dresser to pull herself up. Her head swirled with dizziness that had nothing to do with the drugs she'd been dosed with.

She tried holding the edge of her cardigan over her mouth and nose. She had to get out of the room, but the door seemed so far away.

The curtains burst into flames, the fabric dripping away like lava. The alarm continued to peal, but the fire seemed to grow louder.

Ephie's vision wavered. She forced herself to take a step toward the door.

A hand wrapped around her ankle, tugging her back. Her grip on the dresser was the only thing that kept her from stumbling to the floor.

She tried to get free, but the woman's grasp was too strong.

Then the woman grabbed a fistful of Ephie's jeans in her other hand and pulled.

Ephie held on to the dresser for dear life, but what strength she had left was fading fast. The heat was almost unbearable. It was getting harder to breathe. Harder to see. She kicked out her leg, trying to shake the woman off. "Let me go! We need to get out!"

Fire dropped from the ceiling, some of it clumps of building material, some of it just free-falling flames.

The woman yanked on Ephie's jeans, finally pulling her to the ground. Ephie landed half on the woman, who cried out as Ephie made contact.

Ephie dug her elbows into the woman and shoved. Her will to live was the single thing driving her now. Her body was only barely responding.

At least being low meant the air was a little easier to breathe. She inhaled, trying to fill her lungs for one last attempt at freedom.

She had to get up. She had to get to her feet and make it to the door. She needed to get outside, to get free. Maybe she could crawl.

She started forward, but the woman had hold of Ephie's hair. Ephie would have screamed at her, but her throat was already raw from the smoke. Ephie shoved at the woman again, who seemed to finally be weakening. Ephie managed to get free, roll off and onto her back.

One of the windows shattered. The fresh influx of air turned the existing flames into a raging inferno.

Ephie lay there, trying to breathe, knowing she had to get up. The heat was intense. The room was an oven. The rivets on her jeans burned into her skin.

Darkness beckoned. Sweet, cool darkness.

Ephie fought a moment longer, struggling to get up. She fell back, her strength gone, her will to live no longer enough.

She tucked her thumb over the stones on her pansy ring, needing to touch them, her mind on Remy. She hoped he had a good life.

Then she closed her eyes.