Chapter 21 · Don't Touch the Boy

Callum looked straight at Nolan and whispered, “The fire knows you.”

Evelyn’s hand froze on the van door.

The words came out of a nine-year-old boy’s mouth, soft and flat, like he was reading them off a wall only he could see. His feet didn’t reach the floor. His wrists were too thin under the oversized gray guild sweatshirt Mara had found for him.

Nolan made a rough sound beside her.

“Don’t,” he said.

Evelyn turned on him. “Don’t what?”

“Touch the boy.”

Her fingers were still wrapped around the edge of the door. “That’s my brother.”

“I know who he is.” Nolan’s face had gone pale under the blood and soot. One hand pressed hard against the burn spreading over his chest beneath his ruined shirt. “Evelyn. Don’t put your magic on him.”

Inside the van, Mara sat behind the wheel with both hands locked around it. The engine was running. The rear windows were blacked out with old spell film, but blue guard lights kept flashing over the front windshield from somewhere down the alley.

“We have maybe two minutes,” Mara said.