Hexed

pounded on the door, and Mick stepped away from it, breathing hard.
    “That should hold him,” Mick said. “For a while.”
    “A while is all we need.” I wiped my brow. “The air in there is still cold enough to make him a little sluggish. By the time he breaks out, hopefully we’ll have this curse thing resolved.”
    “Breaks out?” Fremont asked, his eyes wide. “What happens if he breaks out?”
    Cassandra answered from behind her tear-dampened paper towels. “Then he’ll want more than a snack.”
    Maya put one hand on her hip. “You do know that most of our food is in there.” Aside from the little pile of half-made sandwiches on the counter, dangerously close to spattered cow blood, she was right.
    I gestured to the refrigerator, where Ansel was already denting the door from the inside. “Go on in, if you really want to. Pick something out for me, too. In the meantime, there’s something I need to do on the roof.”
     
    “IS THIS SOME crazy Indian thing?” Maya asked me as she walked out onto the roof with me.
    “No,” I answered. “Just some crazy desperation thing.”
    Mick followed us, but Cassandra, Fremont, and Coyote remained below to make sure Ansel didn’t get out. Or at least Coyote and Fremont did. Cassandra had curled into a ball on a sofa, still weeping.
    I was pleased to see, as we walked outside, that the emerging stars were being swallowed by thick clouds to the north and west. My skin prickled. A storm was coming, a big one, and my Stormwalker magic wanted to lick it all over.
    Once the storm grew big enough, I’d suck it inside me, bind it to my Beneath magic, and let it rip.
    Mick laced his fingers through mine, and I knew he sensed my storm magic awakening. The aftermath of storms usually involved him calming me down from the overwhelming magic, and that involved our grappling bodies and plenty of sweat.
    Maya shivered as the approaching wind cut through her thin dress. “You think Nash will see your smoke signals from twenty miles away and come running? Nash never even looks out the window.”
    “No.” I crouched down and set out the supplies I’d grabbed: a brazier, sage, charcoal, and towels from the linen supply closet. I piled charcoal and sage in the brazier and looked at Mick. The butane lighters had stopped working, and I hadn’t been able to find any matches.
    Mick’s eyes were still black, without a hint of blue. He pointed at the brazier, a fireball streaked out of his forefinger, and the brazier exploded into flames. Maya and I jumped away.
    “I only needed a spark,” I said as I grabbed a towel and beat the flames in the bowl back to manageable size.
    Mick balled his hand. “Sorry, I was trying for a spark. That just came out.”
    Terrific. If Mick lost control of his Firewalker fire, he could burn the hotel down around us. The hex might burn with it, but we, trapped inside, would still be dead.
    Was that what the hex meant to do, I wondered, bring out the worst in us so that we were the means of our own destruction? The wind turned suddenly icy.
    “So, what happens now?” Maya asked.
    I got to my feet and fed the towel I’d been using into the fire. The cloth sputtered and caught, then started to smolder, sending up a wisp of stinking smoke.
    “I’m hoping that someone will see smoke coming from the top of the Crossroads Hotel and report it. A 9-1-1 call will bring firefighters, the police, and Nash.”
    “Carlos couldn’t see me or hear me through the window,” Maya said. “What makes you think the smoke will be visible?”
    I had no idea. Mick had demonstrated that the bubble of the hex extended fifteen feet upward. Possibly the smoke would simply collect in the bubble and not disperse, but wouldn’t that look weird enough to attract attention? A glowing ball of smoke on top of the Crossroads Hotel?
    “If Nash hears about it, he won’t be able to stay away,” I said. “He’ll have to know what trouble I’m getting myself into this time, so he can gloat if no other reason. Besides, he and you were supposed to meet tonight, right? He’ll get worried when you don’t show up.”
    “He won’t.” Maya folded her bare arms. “Out last date didn’t exactly end well.”
    I grew curious. “What happened?”
    “Do you know what he talked about during our nice dinner out? Nonstop? You.”
    “Me?”
    I felt Mick at my shoulder, his breath hot on my skin. “Why?” he asked, his voice taking a dangerous edge.
    “Because he and