Chapter Four

“What do you mean, you were there?” I asked. He was lying. He had to be. There was no way he’d been at my house on the day of the fire. I would’ve known about it somehow…wouldn’t I?

“Just what I said. I was there…inside your house.”

A couple of jocks ran down the path towards us, cracking jokes. Luke grabbed my arm and steered me to a bench on a grassy knoll. He sat and gestured for me to do the same.

“I don’t understand. Why were you there?” I crossed my arms over my chest, refusing to sit.

“My dad was missing, and I was pretty sure your mother knew something about it.”

My head was spinning. “What? Why in the world would you think that? And what do you know about the fire? What happened to Nick?”

He held up a hand. “Calm down, Princess. One thing at a time. Man, I still can’t believe I have to fill you in on your own family’s twisted magic.”

“Well, believe it,” I said, straining for patience. “I can’t help your father if you don’t. Tell me exactly what happened.”

“Then I’ll start at the beginning, so you’ll understand. The very beginning. Sit down.”

I sat on the other end of the bench so that there was a wide gap between us. With my back and shoulders tense, I turned to him. “All right. I’m listening.”

“You remember what I told you about my old man, Tom, seeing you flip out at me?”

I nodded.

“Well, he told me it was the craziest thing he’d ever seen in his life. You were standing there screaming at me, your face all red, then you closed your eyes. The next thing he knew, this glowing thing just appeared out of nowhere.”

“What kind of thing?” My voice sounded faraway, as if I were wearing earplugs.

“He said it was kind of in the shape of a door, but it wasn’t solid. It just floated there or some shit. And he could see right into it.”

“What did he see?”

Luke lifted a shoulder in a shrug. “I don’t think he knew what he was looking at. It was just this blur. So friggin’ bright it gave him a headache.”

A sensation like ice-cold fingers moved up and down my spine. I had no idea what kind of insane world I’d unlocked when I had been five, but Luke’s description sounded an awful lot like the rectangular opening that had appeared in my bedroom.

“Then,” Luke continued, “some kind of freaky wind started pulling on me. My father said it was like it was trying to pull me into the glowy thing. My teddy bear got sucked right into the hole.”

Oh my God. That explained the flashes I’d been getting of the stuffed animal sailing through the air. It had really happened. Had I blocked out everything from that day except for that single moment? “So, what stopped you from getting sucked in, too?” I croaked, my throat as dry as sawdust.

“By then, Tom was shaking you, yelling for you to stop it. And just like that”—he snapped his fingers—“the hole disappeared.”

I leapt up from the bench, unable to sit still any longer. A sick feeling twisted my stomach. “Then what happened?”

“Well, your mom must’ve seen the whole thing from the door or window or whatever because she came over and told Tom to get his hands off you. And you said you just wanted me to leave you alone, that you’d wished for me to go away.”

He leaned back, his eyes still trained on me. “None of that rings a bell?”

“No,” I managed.

“After that, Tom couldn’t wait to get us out of that neighbourhood and away from you. Look… I don’t remember much from that time, either. Jesus, we were only five.” He shook his head. “But my father made sure I knew what happened that day. He told the story over and over, and I swear, it got more and more dramatic each time. He’s convinced you scarred me for life and that you caused all my ‘behavioural problems’, as he calls them.” He laughed humorlessly. “Okay, so I’ve been in a shit load of trouble over the years, but the truth is that I think the old man is more messed up than I am. Anyway, at the beginning of the summer, just before I got nailed for that holdup, your mom was on the news a lot.”

“Right. She was promoting the play she’d directed.” Despite the warm September sun beating down on me, chills raced over my skin. I pressed my back against the tree next to the bench and rubbed my bare arms.

“Yeah. So, Tom started to get really obsessed with her, saying things like, ‘There’s that witch’s mother on TV again. Goddamn girl is all to blame for the way you ended up, Lucas.’ Then he would mutter these crazy threats like ‘One of these days I’m gonna make her pay for ruining our lives.’ I just ignored him. Like I said, I’d heard the story so many times, but I’d never believed it. I just thought he was messed up in the head.” He laughed again. “The old man’s a bit of an alcoholic, you know? I thought it was the booze talking again. Anyway, I came home late one night, went straight to bed and in the morning realized he hadn’t come home. I figured he’d finally lost it and went after you.”

I put a hand to my stomach, feeling nauseated. I opened my mouth to deny all of it, to defend myself or to tell him he was making it all up, but no sound came out. I couldn’t form the words because I didn’t know if I believed them. I had made a painting come to life just the day before. As much as I wanted to believe that it was a hallucination or a dream…it’d been all too real.

Questions tumbled through my mind. Isn’t it possible that if I could transport myself into a painting, that I might have tried to do the same thing to Luke all those years ago and blocked out the memory? But then why would Mom keep it from me? And if Tom Mercer confronted her, why didn’t she warn me that he was out for revenge? Unless… Unless she hadn’t had time.

“So you came to my house looking for him?” I asked.

“Exactly. And what did I find when I got to your place? No sign of my father. Just your boy Nick and Charlotte the Great, who insisted that Tom hadn’t been by. She was cool as a cucumber, but I knew she was hiding something. So I told her I wasn’t leaving until I got some answers.” His words came out in a rush and his face flushed with anger. “Well, that really got Nick all riled up. He shoved me, so I shoved back. I had to defend myself, right? But then he took a swing at me.” Luke leaned forward and spat on the ground.

I scrubbed my face with my hands. It’d always amazed me how quickly Nick—usually so warm and easy-going—could succumb to his temper when provoked.

“I dodged it easily and punched him. Now Mommy Dearest didn’t seem to like Loverboy getting hurt, so she cried out that she’d sent Tom into your mural and—”

“Wait!” I held up a hand. “She actually told you that? What else did she say?”

A scowl darkened his face. “She said my old man had come to see her, drunk as a skunk, and when he’d threatened her, she’d accidentally sent him into the mural. Like I said, your ability is a family affair.”

My hands trembled. I pressed them together to keep them still. If it were true, my whole life was a lie. My mother and I were freaks of nature. And she’d kept it from me.

“And the fire?” I closed my eyes, dreading the answer. “How did it start?”

“Grease fire in the kitchen. Your mother should’ve been more careful with her cooking oil.”

“B-but… B-but we were going out to an awards dinner,” I stuttered. “She wouldn’t have been cooking anything.”

“Well, she was,” he insisted, his eyes hard.

“So then what happened?” I asked bitterly. “You got out in time while Mom and Nick burned to death?”

“Your boy breathed in smoke. He was unconscious. I got down low, so I didn’t breathe in as much as he did. I crawled to the back door to get out.”

“And you didn’t try to help him?” I pushed off the tree, itching to take hold of his neck and squeeze as hard as I could.

“I didn’t have to,” he sneered. “Your mom took care of that. She was already at his side, going on about how she had to get him out of there. Then she closed her eyes and moaned something about ‘Jules’ mural’. And that’s when another one of those glowing doors showed up. She was freakin’ obsessed with that mural.”

I dropped my hands limply to my sides. My stomach went all topsy-turvy like it did when I was on a roller coaster. “Are you saying…?” I trailed off, scared to even utter the words.

“I’m saying he was sucked up into the mural. I’m just glad I didn’t get trapped in there, too.”

I took a deep, ragged breath. “And my mother?” The fire investigators had found human remains, but they’d had difficulty identifying them. Another point I wished I’d questioned.

He scratched the back of his neck, looking uncomfortable for the first time. “I don’t know if it was your mother’s magic or what, but as soon as that portal opened, the fire got out of control, like crazy out of control. Never seen anything like it. Suddenly everything was crashing down around us.”

“And?”

“A beam fell on top of your mom, and the door to mural land closed. By that time, there was no way I could reach her. I barely made it out myself. Luckily, I was close enough to the back door that I could escape in time. Talk about a close call, though. Another second and I would’ve died in there, too.”

I couldn’t feel my legs. When my knees buckled, I grabbed the edge of the bench to keep from collapsing. A part of me wanted to focus on the anger that hummed in my veins at the image of Luke running away while my mother burned to death. But another part surged with hope.

“Are you sure Nick got out in time?”

“Yeah,” he said impatiently. “I saw him get pulled into that crazy door.”

“Did you go look at the mural? Like, did you see either one of them in there?” Panicked thoughts raced through my head. “If your dad and Nick are trapped in there, wouldn’t we somehow see them in the painting?”

He frowned. “No, I didn’t see them. But that doesn’t mean they’re not in there. Jesus, I don’t know how this works.”

“Well, I don’t either,” I protested.

“But you can figure it out.” He rose from the bench. “I need you to go down to that mural with me, get my dad out and maybe Loverboy at the same time. Everybody’s happy.”

“No,” I repeated, “everybody is not happy. For the past two months, I’ve been thinking Nick was dead, when really he’s been trapped in some fantasy land! You couldn’t have gotten in touch right after this happened?”

“Right after it happened,” he said in a cold voice, “I was picked up for juvie. You don’t get a whole lot of telephone privileges in there. And it’s not exactly something you write a letter about.”

I frowned, not buying it. Why hadn’t he tried harder to contact me, not knowing if his dad was hurt…or worse? Something didn’t add up. “And… And you couldn’t have led with the fact that you saw Nick getting out of the fire?”

“My first priority was my father, not your boyfriend.”

I rubbed my eyes. “I can’t believe this. This is insane. You shouldn’t have been in my house in the first place.” I stepped forward again and started pounding on his chest. “I lost everything because of you!”

He stopped me with little effort. “Get a hold of yourself. The fire was an accident, and if I’m not mistaken, this whole thing started because of you. But now you have a chance to save Nick and my dad.” He paused. “And if you get my old man back, I’ll tell you something else your mom said that day.”

“What are you talking about?”

“A secret she’d just found out about the origins of your magic. She thought she was close to finding a way to get rid of it…forever.”

My body went completely still. Why would she trust Luke with that? Was he lying? “What secret?”

“Nope. Not yet. Not until my dad is out of that painting. Now, do we have a deal?”

I forced deep breaths through my lungs. I needed to stay in control, even though I wanted to shake Luke until he told me what Mom had discovered. “Fine. But even if you’re right about them being in the mural, I don’t know exactly how to get in there.”

“Then we’ll play it by ear. We’ll go to the mural and maybe it will come to you.” He flashed me a twisted grin. “Time for you to bring out your witchy powers, Parsons.”

* * * *

I must be crazy, I thought as Luke’s car sped through the streets of St. Peter’s. I sneaked a glance at his profile. His jaw was clenched, his knuckles white on the steering wheel. This whole thing was crazy. How could people just go into a painting? And what happened to them once they’d been in there for a long time? I’d only been in the poppy field for a few seconds. If Luke was telling the truth, Tom and Nick had been in my snowy village for two months.

Luke stopped the car in front of the mural. “Here we are.”

My legs still felt like Jell-O, but I forced myself to stand and face the long wall that boasted my artwork. The wall, which was topped with a metal railing, bordered the sloping hill that led to the community of Joseph Heights. I ran my eyes over the painting, taking it all in—the red and brown cottages spread out over a deep blanket of pure white snow, the icy river winding through silvery-green fir trees and my favourite part, the grand mountains that rose in the background, their white-speckled peaks glistening against a pink-and-yellow-tinged sky.

I squinted at the group of villagers interspersed throughout the painting, draped in winter cloaks. There were no extra people, from what I could see. Is Nick really in there? I bit my lip, recalling how I’d opened some sort of portal to the van Gogh painting. So as ludicrous as Luke’s story was, it seemed within the realm of possibility that I could also create an opening to my village.

“How quaint,” Luke said, sarcasm lacing his words.

“Shut up,” I muttered, staring at the wall. “Let me think.”

My heart thundered in my chest. So what was I supposed to do? The crazy trip yesterday had been a total accident. I didn’t understand how I’d made the painting come alive. All I knew was that I’d been overcome with the need to be somewhere else, then the bubble had appeared, pulling me inside. Could I get into a work of art just by wishing it? And even if I could find the way in, there was no guarantee Nick and Tom had survived after being in there for so long. I shuddered at the thought of what a real-life version of my painting would actually be like.

Luke shuffled back and forth in front of me, grunting. “Come on. We’re burning daylight here.”

“I told you that I don’t know how to do this.” I frowned at him. “Why are you in such a hurry to get your dad back, anyway? Sounds like there’s no love lost between you two, the way you were talking.”

Something flashed in his eyes. “Never mind that. Just do your thing. You said you had a meltdown yesterday, right? Maybe you need to have another one. Get mad or sad or something.”

“Right.” I took a deep breath. Emotions did seem to be key in all this. And giving in to them should be easy enough, considering my mood of late.

“Want some help with that?” Luke quirked an eyebrow. “I’m pretty good at pissing people off, you know.”

“Oh, I know,” I said. “But I think I can manage it on my own.”

“I really don’t mind. Hmm… How about… Oh, I’ve got it. Why don’t you think about how you felt when your house burned down? That must’ve been really hard for you, thinking your mom and boyfriend bit the dust in there. But— Oh, yeah.” He whistled. “The thing is that everyone is saying you were so calm about the whole thing.”

“No, not that. I don’t want to think about that.”

“Why not?” He grabbed my chin, forcing me to look at him. “It’s the perfect thing to get you riled up. You can’t tell me it didn’t hurt like hell. You must’ve worked hard to keep all your feelings inside. But we’re old friends, Jules. You can tell me how you really felt. I heard you got there in time to see the roof collapse. Didn’t that make you want to scream and bawl your eyes out?”

I swatted his hand away and took a step back. “No.” My voice was a choked whisper. “It didn’t.”

Wrapped in that protective coating, which had seemed to numb me from the inside out, I hadn’t screamed or cried. But I wanted to now. I wanted to scream at Luke for bringing up the fire. And, at the same time, I felt the overpowering urge to cry.

“Why not?” he sneered. “What are you, a robot? Or you just didn’t give a damn about mommy and your loverboy?”

“Shut up!” I pushed on his chest so hard that he stumbled back. “I loved them. I loved them so much I can barely stand to think about them. So don’t you dare tell me I didn’t care!”

Tears filled my eyes. I let myself be lost in them, let the grief and anger at long last consume me. My body shook with sobs that had me gasping for air. The tears rolled down my cheeks one after another, and with them came the deep-seated need to be with Nick again.

My vision blurred. Once again, an unseen energy forced my eyes closed. I heard the sound of crunching snow, and a blast of cold air hit my body.

Then a shrill ringing eclipsed everything else. The sensation of spinning fell away. The sounds of winter disappeared.

When I could open my eyes, I stared at the mural for a few seconds, dazed, before I realized it was my cell phone that had gone off. And it was still ringing. I fumbled it out of my pocket. The number had a New York area code.

“Aunt Karen?”

“Julia!” she said, sounding breathless. “Are you all right? I got your message. My phone wasn’t charged and I was in back-to-back seminars. What happened?”

I glanced at Luke, who was standing a few feet away, an enraged expression on his face. I turned my back on him and said, “I, uh, don’t really know how to explain it. And I know this is going to sound weird, but do you know anything about…magic?”

A beat of silence before my aunt spoke again. When she did, her voice was edged with fear. “Did something happen to your locket?”

I swallowed. “I lost it. How did you know?”

Instead of answering, she said, “Julia, you have to get that locket back. You have no idea how powerful it is.”

“Powerful? What are you talking about?”

“Have you been getting upset at all? Sad? Angry?”

“Ah, yeah. All of the above.” My stomach churned.

“And did anything else happen?”

“Yes. Apparently, I can do this insane thing with pictures.”

“You— You opened one?” Her voice was frantic now. “Did you send anyone in there?”

“Just myself,” I said bitterly.

“Thank God you were able to get yourself out of there. You—”

“Aunt Karen, what the hell is happening to me? What do you know?”

“Julia, listen to me very carefully. That locket was suppressing your ability and, without it, you’re a danger to yourself and other people. Now I want you to go home and wait for me there. I’m taking the next flight out, so I’ll be back in a few hours.”

My breathing was shallow, and I felt like I was going to throw up again. But I couldn’t dwell on the fact that my aunt had known about my ability all along—and that my necklace had been imbued with some kind of magic. I needed to tell her about Nick.

“Wait! Aunt Karen, I think Nick is alive.”

There was a sharp intake of breath. “Why do you think that?”

“There’s this guy, Luke Mercer—”

“Wait a second. Luke Mercer found you?”

“You know him?”

“I remember him from a long time ago,” she said, her voice tight. “Well, at least what your mother told me. What did he say to you?”

She’d known about Luke, too, and she’d said nothing? Why would she keep me in the dark for so long? I gritted my teeth, biting back the urge to scream. Instead, I gave her the basic outline of Luke’s story. “We’re down at the mural now. If Nick and Luke’s dad are in there, I have to get them back.”

“Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous. There are things you need to know before traipsing in after them. You have no idea how to control your power, and you can’t just go in there without being prepared. You’ll put them both in danger. There are consequences, Julia!”

“Well, then tell me what they are!”

“I can’t and won’t do it over the phone. Promise me you’ll stay put until I get home.”

I was itching to find Nick. I’d already felt the pull of the mural just before the phone rang. But my aunt was right. I was totally clueless about my newfound power, and the last thing I wanted to do was put Nick at risk. So I sighed. “Fine. I’ll wait for you.”

I ended the call and turned back to Luke. “I need you to take me home.”

“What? No way. That wasn’t the deal! Your painting there started to do this weird shimmering thing, but it stopped when your friggin’ phone rang. Now get back over there and try again.”

“Hey, I want to do this as much as you do. Believe me. But my aunt says it’s not safe to go in there until I know everything. And since she seems to know all about it,” I added, bitterness returning to my voice, “I’m going to go wait for her.”

His eyes flashed with annoyance. “Oh, so now someone in your family decides to fill you in. Give me a break.”

“Shut up,” I said again. “Just think about it. What if I get in there and can’t get your dad out? You can wait a little bit longer, and once I know exactly what I’m dealing with, I’ll try again. I’ll call you when I’m ready.”

He started towards me, his hands clenched into fists. I thought he was going to argue again, but then he stopped and let out a grunt. “Fine. We’ll do it your way. I’ll give you until tomorrow morning. If I don’t hear from you by then, I’m coming to find you.”

“I’ll call,” I repeated firmly.

Luke stepped over to his car, muttering under his breath. I glanced back at the mural before following, my heart heavy with the knowledge that Nick could be so close, yet so far away.