The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove (37 page)

exploded.

Mr. Mason’s screams were an unholy sound that transformed me into the

terrified child I’d once been. I shook with fear and my only thought was to run

away, run into the night.

The fire drew the oxygen and light from the room, and the noise was

overwhelming -–crashing, creaking, rumbling. I crawled toward the door,

holding my breath against the scorching, poisonous air.

I finally felt the doorsill when a hand gripped my sprained ankle and I

screamed in shock and pain.

I reached forward and my hand touched something long and solid on the

floor. The birch branch. I twisted my body upward and then bashed the branch

down upon the burning man until he let go.

I wrapped my hand in my long sleeve of the robe, reached for the burning

hot doorknob and turned it. The air rushed in, feeding the voracious fire, and the

flames blazed out to grab me. I ripped the robe off and flung myself into the hall.

My eyes were so hot and it was so dark that everything lost shape. The

sprinklers in the hallway began showering water and the fire alarm’s screech was

deafening. I slipped on the slick floor and fell.

The thunderous roar of fire and the cold water spraying down and the

twisted face of a madman ---suddenly I remembered everything.

I remembered my stepfather’s rage as he dragged me from my mother’s

body and told me, “Now it’s your turn.” I remembered the yellow linoleum, the

pool of blood, my mother’s face. I remembered running into the night and

looking for someplace safe.

I needed to be safe. Jack had said there was a passageway across from the

lab. I dragged myself across the hallway until I reached the wall and pressed

frantically against the panels, struggling to stay conscious. I pulled myself further

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down the hall and tried pressing against the bottom corner of another panel.

It popped open. I crawled inside the dark passage and closed the panel

behind me, shutting out the ferocious fire and muffling the blaring alarm.

The tunnel was pitch black and musty. I leaned against the birch-lined

wall, gasping for breath and I thought,
please, please, please
.

And when I next inhaled, the air had a delicious clean scent, green and

earthy like Jack, and I was in a lush forest. I recognized a path and took it to a

crystalline stream. I bent my head and drank from it, soothing my throat.

Something,
someone
moved toward me. I knew her immediately because

she had lifted me from the ground on that terrible night.

The Lady of the Wood smiled at me.

Someone far off called out, “Jane! Jane!”

Jack, I thought, Jack, I’m here.

The Lady of the Wood whispered in her leafy language and I knew she was

telling me to go back, that she would always be with me.

I opened my eyes and saw darkness and felt intense heat. I tried to shout,

“Jack! Jack!” but my throat was so dry, I could only cough. I kept trying to

scream his name, because I needed to tell him that I loved him, because I wanted

to live, but no sound came from my throat.

No one would ever find me here, hidden completely in the dark. I’d die

here, trapped in the shadows that I’d once sought.

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“Each of our students is indelibly marked by her education. As she goes out

into the world, she will recall her experience at Birch Grove Academy as

remarkable and life-changing.”

Birch Grove Student Handbook

WHEN
I came to, red emergency lights were flashing in the night. I was lying on

the cool marble bench that faced the main building. Fire trucks and police cars

crowded the drive and fire fighters aimed hoses at the blaze on the third floor.

Everything was unnaturally orange, reflecting the flames coming from the

third-floor of the school. The stone angels on the façade looked as if they were

rising from the apocalypse.

Paramedics were rushing medical equipment toward me and shouting

directions to each other, while Jack gripped my hand and looked toward them.

“Did I die again?” I asked, my voice a painful rasp.

Jack turned to me and smiled his beautiful smile. “Jane!” Then he shouted

to the medical team, “She’s conscious.”

When paramedics tried to give me oxygen, I pushed them away, saying,

“No, I’m fine, I’m okay.”

“Your heart stopped!” one said. “We thought… Lucky, your boyfriend

saved you.”

I looked up at Jack’s wonderful sooty face and wide green eyes. “Jack

saved me, not Lucky.”

Someone wrapped a blanket around me as I began to shiver in my wet

clothes.

A firefighter, who’d been hovering behind the medics, now came forward

and asked, “Miss, was there anyone else inside?”

“Mr. Mason was in the lab,” I said.

The firefighter shook his head and hurried back to talk to his crew.

“We’re going to take you to ER,” a paramedic said.

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“No,” I said and I reached out to Jack, whose wet clothes clung to him. He

helped me sit up and I leaned against him on the bench.

The paramedic said to Jack, “We can take care of her better at the clinic.

Do you have her parents’ number?”

“She’s an emancipated minor,” he said. “She makes her own decisions.”

The woman shrugged and then quickly examined my eyes, lungs, and pulse.

Her clever fingers found a scab on the back of my earlobe and a bruise on my

inner elbow.

She looked sharply at Jack and said, “Is she a
companion
of the Monroe

family?”

“She’s our friend,” he said and she nodded.

“Okay, you have minor smoke inhalation,” she said. “Other than that,

you’re okay. It’s a miracle.”

“It’s magic,” Jack said. “She’s a magical creature. She can vanish and

appear at will. She can talk to the trees.”

The woman looked at him and shook her head. “Whatever you say.” She

packed her gear and returned to the ambulance, leaving us alone.

Jack kissed my brow and I smelled his singed hair. He said, “I thought I

lost you, halfling. This is why I wanted you to leave – to keep you safe.”

“I came back for you,” I said. “Mr. Mason killed BB and he was going to

kill me and make it look like the Family had done it.”

“Oh, God,” he said. “Poor BB. I can’t believe Uncle Albert would…” His

eyes welled and he said, “My parents couldn’t have known.”

“I don’t think they did.”

Despite the clamor, I became aware of someone weeping. I searched

through the crowd and saw Mrs. Monroe.

She stood staring at the building and sobbing. Tobias Monroe was

motionless beside her. Lucky was there, too, watching the fire. He looked as

glorious as the stone angels in the eerie light, and I felt as much for him as I did

for the angels.

The fire was horrible and magnificent, too, and I thought of the vampires’

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blood sacrifice to the ancient sun-god and the harvest.

Jack said, “I have to talk to my parents and then I want to get you away

from here. Will you be all right for a minute?”

“Yes, go ahead.”

I watched as he went to his family. He must have been telling them what

Mr. Mason had done. Mr. Monroe turned to his wife and put his arms around her.

Lucky put his hands over his face, and Jack hugged him.

Jack left his family and went to talk to one of the cops. Then he came back

to me and said, “One of the officers is giving us a lift to the Heyers.”

On the short ride, I saw all the neighbors outside of their homes, watching

the fire at Birch Grove. Mary Violet and her family were waiting for us in their

driveway.

“Jane!” my friend cried out, and her family talked in an excited jumble,

asking if I was all right, telling me that I was welcome, wanting to know if I

needed anything.

Mr. Heyer said, “All of you, quite the heck down, and let Jane rest.”

Jack helped me inside.

Mrs. Heyer led the way to a first-floor guest room and Mary Violet helped

her take off my shoes and my wet uniform and the dirty bandage on my ankle.

They wiped off my hands and feet with a warm washcloth and smoothed lotion on

my skin and wrapped a clean stretch bandage over my ankle.

As they lifted my arms to slip them into a flannel nightgown, I looked at the

wall and saw a pink, rose, and beige swirly painting on the wall.

I smiled, because now I understood that the painting celebrated life and

womanhood, and I was so happy that I was alive.

Mrs. Heyer held out two pills and a glass of water. “This will help the pain

and help you sleep.”

I shook my head. “I spent so long not feeling anything. I want to feel

things.”

Mary Violet placed a silver bell on the bedside and said, “Ring it and we’ll

come right away.”

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When they moved aside I saw Jack standing in the doorway in sweat pants

and a clean t-shirt. “I’ll stay with Jane.”

Mary Violet’s eyes went wide and her pink mouth opened in surprise.

“I want him here,” I said.

Mrs. Heyer took Mary Violet by the hand, pulled her out of the room, and

closed the door behind them.

Jack came to the bed and lay down beside me.

I curled toward him and said, “How did you find me?”

“You were calling me so loud,” he said. “I followed your voice.”

I cupped his face in my hands and fell asleep.

A long time later, I heard a child say, “This room smells like a barbecue.”

“You are a vile pestilence upon this earth.”

When I opened my eyes, the room was bright with sun and Mary Violet and

her brother were watching me.

“You’re awake!” my friend said. She came and sat on the bed, telling

Bobby, “Tell Mom that Jane is awake.”

He went running out the room, shouting, “Moooom!”

“Where’s Jack?” I asked MV.

“He went to his house. He’ll be back soon. I’m not supposed to bother you

with questions even though I am consumed by curiosity.” She blinked away tears

and said, “You could have been killed, JW, and Mr. Mason died in the fire.”

“I thought so.”

“How did it start?”

It was such a simple question: how had it all started? Had it started with

Birch Grove, or before that with the Alphas, or with Hosea’s death, or on the

night that I ran out into the storm?

Telling the truth wouldn’t help BB or punish Mr. Mason. “Mr. Mason was

setting up an experiment and that old elements chart fell over and caught fire. He

tried to put it out.”

She nodded and said, “Everyone guessed it was an accident. School is

closed for a week and when we go back some of the classrooms will be moved to

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Flounder and the Gin.”

Mrs. Heyer brought me tea with honey and a blueberry muffin. “Hi,

sweetie,” she said. “The kids baked these for you this morning.”

The Heyers were careful with me. They didn’t ask too many questions

and then Mary Violet filled the tub with a scented bubble bath for me. Agnes

brought by a brand new set of pink warm-ups and tennis shoes and said, “I think

these will fit even though pink is for silly bitches and you’re not a silly bitch.”

“Thanks, Agnes.” I couldn’t resist saying, “Your sister loves pink.”

Agnes laughed. “My sister is a secret genius.”

The warm-up pants fit perfectly.

Jack rode his bike over at noon. I was resting on a lounge chair in the back

garden, soaking in the rare sunshine.

“Hey, halfling,” he said and he sat down on the grass by my lawn chair. His

hair had been haphazardly cut shorter.

“Thanks for finding me last night,” I said. “Were you in the building

already?”

“No, I was still in the grove when you left the cottage. I followed you to

the main building and I was waiting outside when the fire alarm went off.”

“Were you spying on me again?”

“No, I was thinking about apologizing.” He wove his strong, calloused

fingers with mine. “I couldn’t bear having my fairy creature hate me. She might

cast a spell that turned me into a real jackass, instead of a guy who acts like a

jackass.”

When I laughed, my lungs hurt. “Are you actually going to apologize or

just think about it?”

“I hereby issue an open-ended apology to Jane Williams for all my past,

present and future behavior.”

“Apology accepted. Who cut your hair?”

“I hacked off the singed parts. I needed a haircut anyway,” he said. “Do

you want to tell me what happened last night?”

“Yes,” I said and told him about finding the jewelry box and going to Mr.

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Mason. “When he’d talked to me before about the Companions, he acted as if it

was a wonderful opportunity.”

I hesitated and Jack said, “It’s okay. I knew about my father and Aunt

Claire. We all knew, but we pretended that everyone was just friends.”

“Was it awful for your mother?”

“It’s hard to say. She accepted it as normal for the Family, and with Aunt