A knock sounded on the door before I could answer. “Everybody decent?” Patrice called from the other side.
Ember winked and pressed a finger to her lips in a shh gesture before opening the door. I could shh all she wanted. My throat felt like I’d swallowed the Sahara.
Sympathy crumpled Patrice’s brow the moment her gaze locked on me. “Wow. You weren’t kidding, Ember.”
How bad did I look? I was tempted to ask for a mirror but thought better of it. I didn’t want to know, and I certainly didn’t want Chaos to see me looking like a blistered tomato. My status as the most beautiful witch he’d ever seen would be knocked down to zero.
Not that it mattered what he thought about my looks. It didn’t, but he’d surely use my scorched skin as proof my plan didn’t work, which it did.
Patrice swirled a bundle of straw in a mug and flicked the liquid over me. “How did you get electrical burns over your entire body?”
I looked at Ember, who luckily had already devised a story that didn’t involve us breaking laws and harboring a demon. “We had water in the basement. A breaker had flipped, so the power was out. Ash tried a spell to get the circuit running again, but it bounced off the reflective cover and hit the water. She was standing in it, and zap. She’s lucky I heard the thud when she flew back onto the stairs.”
Gee, thanks, Em. Way to make me look like an idiot.
“Only a fool would cast electricity while standing in water.”
“No kidding.” Whoops. No talking to Chaos in front of others. Why was that so hard to remember?
“This will make you feel so much better.” Patrice finished sprinkling me with her potion. “Drink the rest of it.” She offered me the mug.
I lifted my arm, and the searing pain of movement caused a garbled yelp to erupt from my throat. Ember took the container and pressed it to my lips, pouring it into my mouth slowly as I drank.
Patrice recited the incantation, and a glorious cooling sensation swept through my body, dulling the pain. The tension in my muscles eased, and I no longer felt like I’d been breaded and dropped into a vat of oil.
I lifted my arm. My skin felt like it was stretched too tightly over my frame, but I could move without sounding like an injured animal, so that was a plus. I pressed my fingertips to my cheek. Though the skin was smooth, it felt raw, like I’d stood on the windy beach too long in winter.
“Ahh. Sweet relief.”
“You’ll be tender for a bit.” Patrice dropped the straw bundle into the mug and clutched it with both hands. “Take a cool bath tonight, and you’ll be back to normal soon. No corsets until you are. They’ll chafe.”
“Thank you.” I pushed to sitting, and my corset stayed on the bed where I’d lain.
Ember tossed me a t-shirt. “Sorry. Had to free the girls. You were burned beneath your clothes.”
“Take care.” Patrice flashed a sympathetic smile and slipped out the door.
I put on the shirt. The fabric felt like sandpaper against my skin. Could she not have picked something softer? “Do you have my bag?”
Ember gestured to the floor near the nightstand before tossing a pair of flannel pajama pants my way. I put them on and stood to look in the full-length mirror. Pink tinged my skin, but I was blister-free.
“The fabric rubbing your body is irritating. You should stay naked until you’re healed.”
“And look in every mirror I pass? You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I grabbed the satchel and set it on the bed before sinking onto the mattress.
“Very much.”
Ember looked at me quizzically.
“Demons are perves.” I grabbed the page I’d torn from the book.
“I merely suggested a way for us to heal faster.”
“There is no ‘us,’ mister. This is my body, and you’re about to vacate it.” I peered at the map as Ember sat next to me. “It’s not quite as detailed as I remember.”
A lopsided pentagram took up most of the page while a few squiggly lines here and there could have indicated topography. A cross sat near the bottom right point of the star, and an arched line sat below the left side.
Ember pointed at a set of three wavy lines. “That could mean water. Do you think it’s the ocean?”
“I don’t know. There’s water over here too.” I pointed to the top left. “I bet the skulls are hidden at the points of the pentagram.”
“Except there are five points and only three skulls. What’s at the other two?”
“Traps.”
I repeated Chaos’s answer.
“Fabulous.” Sarcasm laced my sister’s voice.
“That’s probably a church.” I pointed at the cross. “If we can figure out which one, we can line it up with a modern map.”
“This map is nearly four hundred years old. Whatever church it was, it’s not there anymore.”
“Good point. Most of the buildings from that time don’t exist anymore.”
“How did Cinder figure this out?” She took the paper and flipped it over. The back was blank. “What else did the book say?”
“Just a warning to her descendants that if her plan didn’t work, they’d need to find the skulls and beg the demons for forgiveness.”
