"I'll help," she said, giving Phoenix a sharp look. "But you better keep your end of the deal."

"I will," he said. "The books are yours."

"They better be good," she snapped. "Fine, what exactly do you want me to do?"

"Stop people from harming those we need to keep safe," Phoenix said.

"Yeah, but there are a million ways to do something like that." Her face brightened. "I can make them invisible. Not forever, but to prying eyes. I've been practising."

"It's a lot of s.p.a.ce to make invisible," Phoenix said doubtfully.

"It's not really invisible," she said after a moment. "It's more like the wrong eyes can't see it. Like, if I wanted to hide something in the house, I might use magic so that only the grownups couldn't see it." She flipped her hair over her shoulder with a mischievous smile. "Not that I would ever do something like that."

"So you can hide the werewolves?" Phoenix asked. "And Ava's neighbourhood?"

"Piece of cake."

"Won't you get tired?" I asked. "I mean, drained because of using so much magic?"

She snorted derisively. "Like you'd know. I have power, and it's limitless."

"There's no such thing," I said. "Nothing is limitless. Everything has consequences. Everything requires some kind of payment. Are you sure you can do this, Ari? Are you sure you understand?"

"Oh, look at her. Because we lived in h.e.l.l, we don't know anything. We're just the idiots whose families let them get taken."

"Whoa." I held up my hands. "n.o.body ever said that. I just wanted to let you know that magic isn't given freely. It takes, and there's a cost."

"Well, maybe I'm different," she said, pouting.

Somehow, I doubted she was.

Chapter Fourteen.

I had to sit in the backseat on the way to the werewolves' territory because Ari was being a spoiled brat about everything in existence. If Dita ever acted even slightly similar, Anka would have dealt with her quickly. But I had to feel at least a little sorry for Ari. She had been through a lot. Still, something told me she would only get worse if her behaviour wasn't quashed every now and then. She played a horrendously bad radio station on the way, ignoring Phoenix's pointed looks when she sang along off-key.

She turned in her seat and narrowed her eyes at me. "Why are you so obsessed with Noah anyway?"

"I am not obsessed with anyone. He needed help, and I was able to give it to him."

"Hmm." She kept staring at me.

"What, Ari?" I said when it grew too unnerving to bear.

"It just seems like you really want him to move out."

I held her gaze. "Noah really wants to move out."

Her eyes glittered with anger. "Tell me, because I'm still behind on the terms humans like to use, but would that make you a cradle-s.n.a.t.c.her or a cougar?"

"Phoenix," I said warningly.

"Enough, Ari," he said. "Stop trying to make enemies."

She settled in her seat and folded her arms. "I'm just saying. How would you feel if you caught her getting it on with your little boy?"

"Oh, you little-"

"Ari!" Phoenix said sharply. "Two weeks with no common room privileges. Do you really want to continue with this?"

Pouting, she raised the volume on the radio and was soon singing at the top of her lungs again. The car journey felt endless, and by the time we arrived, I was ready to strangle the girl.

"Are we going to actually see the werewolves?" she asked as we got out of the car. "Because I don't really like them."

"They won't hurt you," Phoenix said wearily.

"The cubs are weird at our school," she said. "Always biting and sniffing each other. It's creepy."

"People think you kids are weird and creepy, too," I snapped. "So give it a rest if you're not going to give them a chance."

"You can't tell me what to do," she said. "I can hurt you with magic before you ever touch me."

"Try me," I threatened.

"I will when you're least expecting it," she said with a toss of her head. "And you'd deserve my worst."

"Enough," Phoenix said. "If you don't want to help, you can go back home with the other little children, Ari."

She shrugged. "I said I'd help, didn't I?" She made a face. "You two aren't any fun."

"You have to be at least seventeen," I couldn't help saying. "Why are you acting like a tween gone wrong?"

She looked furious, but Phoenix got between us and urged us forward. "This is the start of their territory. How do you want to do this?"

"I'll need to make points at the borderlines," she said. "It'll stop people from accidentally wandering in. It's so big that there will probably be gaps, but it'll take all day to do it properly."

"We have all day," Phoenix said.

She made a face and slipped off her shoes. "One every mile should do." She stuck her toes into the gra.s.s and dug her heels into the earth. "This is a good place to start." She moved to an old oak tree and wrapped her arms around it.

I sensed a surge in the air, and the world seemed to vibrate a little. She really had been practising.

"It's done," she said. "Let's go."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"I can feel it. The magic is already there."

"There's magic in that tree?" I asked doubtfully.

She looked at me as though I were the dirt from her shoe voicing a question. "There's magic everywhere. I see it, and I use it."

"Just like that?"

"What's your problem? This is what I do. It's why they call me a natural. There's magic already present; I just focused it. Anyone other than the werewolves and us three won't see past this tree anymore. They won't even try."

"That's impressive," Phoenix said.

"I told you I can do it," she snapped.

We got back into the car and drove for about a mile until Ari, who had been dangling her arm out the open window, barked at Phoenix to stop.

Intrigued, I got out to watch her work again. This time, Ari caressed a flower. Again, the same spark of power filled the air. She was very powerful, and I was likely a fool to have p.i.s.sed her off, but the perverse side of my nature didn't care at all. I watched her carefully for signs of tiredness, or even pain, but she seemed flawless.

Why does nothing work that way for me? When I tried to use my own power, half the time it almost killed me. That's why I had to be so careful. But this kid seemed able to run all day, with her magic permanently switched on.

"I could probably help her strengthen the power," I said to Phoenix while Ari was busy planting another magical point in the earth. "I am a conduit."

"We may need you later," he said. "Besides, she seems to be handling it." He sounded awestruck.

"But what price is she paying?"

"Maybe a natural witch doesn't pay a price."

But I knew that couldn't be true. It wouldn't be balanced.

In fact, the longer the day went on, the less comfortable I felt with the whole situation.

"There's something wrong," I said a couple of hours later. "No one person has endless power. It's not balanced. It doesn't feel right."

"Nothing feels odd to me," he said. "What do you feel?"

I screwed up my face and rubbed the back of my neck. "Itchy."

He raised both eyebrows in concern. "Itchy?"

"It's making me feel uncomfortable. Something she's doing is making me feel not good."

"Are you all right? You're sweating."

"I think we should stop," I said in a panicked voice. "It's not right."

"Ari," Phoenix said coldly. "Are you doing something to Ava?"

She turned around with a smile on her face. "What do you mean?"

"I'm going to sit in the car," I said, feeling ill. Either the girl was purposely doing me harm with magic-which I doubted because I tended to make sure I knew what magic felt like when it was being used against me-or my distress was a side effect of her actions. Could that be the payment? If she didn't pay, maybe somebody close to her always would. That was an unsettling thought.

The same niggling worries haunted me all day. When we left the werewolves and moved onto the cul-de-sac, I went inside my house just to get away from the girl. Esther and Carl were hanging out in my living room.

"You look terrible," Esther blurted. "Are you okay?"

"Teenage witches abound," I said, rubbing my temples. I threw myself onto a chair. "I feel gross. She can go on forever, just throwing magic all over the place. She's not even tired."

"How can that be?" Carl asked, looking confused. "There's always a price to pay."

"Duh!" I held out my hands. "That's what I keep trying to tell them. But n.o.body ever listens to me until it's too late."

The pair exchanged a bemused glance.

"Oh, shut up," I said. "I've been feeling weird all day. I don't know if I'm the consequence to her magic or if" I let my voice trail away, unwilling to bring up the balance. Phoenix was the only one who knew the truth about my indentured slavery for one hundred years, and I really wanted to keep it that way. It came with its benefits, and it wasn't really slavery, but I still didn't want to share that kind of information with my friends.

"Or if?" Carl continued.

"Or if she's purposely trying to drive me mad. Parker's fire was a part of him, like it existed because he did, and he got tired from burning fires. How can she be okay after using magic all day? Magic that's still continuing, for that matter."

"Where is she now?" Esther asked.

"Oh, making this place invisible."

"Invisible?" Carl looked worried. "Is that what it's come to?"

"Phoenix told her to make the shifters avoid it. I probably should have asked for the Senate to avoid the place, too, after what happened."

"They're not going to be stupid enough to try to lock you up again," Carl said.

"Yeah," Esther agreed. "They're too afraid of Phoenix for that."

"But are they more scared of the paragon than Phoenix?" I said. "It really seems like they were more scared of the paragon than the werewolves."

"That was just panic," Esther said. "It's going to work out, Ava. Stop worrying."

"People are dying," I said, "and n.o.body can agree on who's doing the murdering. All it's done is turn everyone against each other. I keep thinking about Mac's body, and I just don't know how it's connected to the werewolf killings."

"Maybe it's not," Carl said.

"It's some coincidence, though," Esther said.

"Mac's death was very it just seemed personal," I said. "Like, I don't know how somebody could do that to another person without there being a serious amount of vengeance behind it. The other murders seem more like hunger than vengeance. I don't know what kind of person could do both."

"Doesn't have to be a person," Carl murmured.

"Don't you start. Everyone's so hot on the werewolves being guilty that they aren't even looking for an alternative."