by Libba Bray
Of course, there was a way to know. Evie knew that to read an object without a person’s permission was considered a violation of privacy. It was a violation; Evie couldn’t deny that. But she remembered her third-grade teacher saying once that if keeping a secret was harmful, then it was right to tell it. Evie needed to know. From her bedroom window, Evie had seen Sarah Beth loping across the yard toward Isaiah. Evie stole into Sarah Beth’s room. What to read? It needed to be something Sarah Beth used every day. The dolls. They sat in the rocking chair, staring back at Evie. She lifted them into her arms and pressed into their history—into Sarah Beth Olson’s secrets.
She could feel the girl’s loneliness first, and that struck a chord with Evie. Her anger was in there, too. Sarah Beth wanted more than this small life on a dying farm in the middle of Nebraska, and Evie understood that viscerally. It was the first time she’d felt a true kinship with the girl. She had half a mind to stop right then. This was terrible, what she was doing now.
Then something pricked.
Evie could feel it scratching inside her, begging to be let in.
Something about the night Sarah Beth died.
“No. Oh, no, no, no,” Evie moaned as the hidden life of Sarah Beth Olson began to scream its horrors.
The rains had swelled the river to the very edges of its banks. The water rippled and swirled across nearly submerged rocks that two days earlier could easily be seen. Where it sprayed up and caught Isaiah’s arm, the water was still very cold.
Sarah Beth marched right up to the bank, though, unafraid. Isaiah hung back. The frog was starting to tire in the jar.
“Let him go now,” Isaiah said.
Sarah Beth clamped a hand on top of the lid. “I will under one condition. You got to share some of your moon glow with me first.”
Isaiah didn’t want to do that. Every time he did, he ended up feeling kind of sick, and really tired. “Just let him go, Sarah Beth.”
She bunched up her lips and narrowed her eyes. “Moon glow first.”
Isaiah looked at the frog, so desperate to be let out. He couldn’t bear it. Not after the kittens. “Fine,” he growled. He let her take what she wanted, but it felt like a lot this time. More than the other times. When he surfaced, he was tired. A deep throb troubled his muscles; a touch of fever haunted his blood, as if his power had not been shared with Sarah Beth so much as it had been drawn from his body.
True to her word, Sarah Beth let the frog out of the jar. It plopped into the mud, unsure, and then hopped away into the grass.
“So long, Froggy,” Isaiah said. He was a little wobbly, and sick to his stomach. All to save a little frog who might get eaten by something in the tall grass anyhow. But the frog needed saving. Isaiah could sense its misery and fear as it gasped for breath in that jar. And if he hadn’t saved the frog, well, then, who would?
Crows had taken up residence in the trees. It was like they were watching. They started in on their cawing, and Isaiah got that bad feeling in his stomach like he sometimes did before a vision came on. But ever since he and Sarah Beth had been sharing moon glow, he’d been having a harder and harder time seeing those visions. It was like a dream he half remembered but couldn’t quite get back to sleep to finish.
The current was swift. Rapids foamed across the smooth black rocks near the bank. Isaiah could only think of the kittens. His kittens. It was unbearable. He wanted to go back and join the others.
“Aren’t you coming?” Sarah Beth called.
Seeing her there at the edge of the river, Isaiah remembered the vision he’d had weeks earlier of Sarah Beth’s discarded socks and shoes near the fast water, and there’d been blood on the rocks. He couldn’t leave her. What if something happened to her?
“Let’s go back, Sarah Beth. I’ll push you on the tire swing!”
“I don’t want to go back yet.” Sarah Beth unlaced her shoes and laid them in the grass along with her socks. Just like in the vision.
Isaiah watched the water slipping over the rocks. “I can’t swim,” he said.
“Oh, is that all? Isaiah, this li’l ol’ river can’t hurt you. You and me, we’re special. Come on,” Sarah Beth beckoned. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
He couldn’t leave her here.
Isaiah took off his own shoes and followed Sarah Beth out across the slippery jetty. The water was knife-prick cold, and the rocks were slick under Isaiah’s bare feet. If they lost their balance, they could be swept up in the current. At last, they made it to the big rocks. Isaiah sat down. That made him feel less wobbly. The river roared around them. The spray hit Isaiah’s cheeks, and it felt good enough to make him laugh.
“See? Don’t you feel brave?”
He did. They were here with the river around them and everything was fine.
Evie came out of her trance. She tossed the dolls away, no longer caring if anyone knew she’d read them. She hobbled down the stairs and out the front door, screaming Isaiah’s name. Theta came running up, Ling making her way behind.
“What is it? What’s the matter?” Theta asked.
“Where’s Isaiah?” Evie said, twirling around, hoping to see him coming out of the barn wearing his goofy grin.
“He was painting the fence earlier,” Ling said. The paint bucket and brush sat in the grass near the unfinished fence.
“It’s… Sarah Beth,” Evie panted.
“What about Sarah Beth?” Theta asked.
“I think they went down to the river together,” Henry said. He dipped a ladle in a bucket of water and drank it.
Evie’s gut was screaming at her. “I read her dolls. I know I shouldn’t have, but I had a bad feeling.”
“Spare us the monologue. Skip to the end,” Theta said.
“I saw glimpses of the King of Crows. She knows him. She admires him. The night she died, she met him. He whispered in her ear, and I couldn’t hear what he said, but she’s been talking to him this whole time! I think that’s her power—it isn’t visions like Isaiah’s. It’s talking to the King of Crows.”
“She never said what she saw while we were under. She’d always get Isaiah to say it first,” Ling said, piecing it together.
“I think… I think the King of Crows put her up to this. It was part of his plan all along, to get us to come to Bountiful. To keep us distracted so we couldn’t work on our powers. Even Gideon and my injury.” Even Mabel, Evie thought. “Sarah Beth’s been his accomplice this whole time. I think that’s why we couldn’t make our powers work before. She was keeping us from it!”
“The gentleman caller,” Theta said, her eyes widening. “It was right under our noses. She was practically flaunting it.”
“If Isaiah’s alone with Sarah Beth…” Henry said.
“We need to find him,” Evie said.
But suddenly, Jericho was shouting their names. He sounded alarmed. A huge cloud of dust was barreling up the road.
“Something’s coming,” Henry said.
“The King of Crows?” Ling asked.
They raced to join the others.
“What is it?” Ling asked.
“Don’t know. Stay here,” Bill said and marched toward the road to get a better look. He tented his hands over his eyes to cut the glare. “It ain’t the King of Crows,” Bill called back. He counted a truck and two cars. Bill kept his eyes trained on the wall of dust and the glimpses of white inside. He had a bad feeling in his gut. Something with the feel of inevitability. He could see the men in those cars and trucks. Even from where he stood, Bill could see their white sheets and white hoods.
Sam had come to stand beside him. “What is it?”
Bill felt the world fall away. “Ghosts on the road.”
GHOSTS ON THE ROAD
Bill and Sam hurried back to the others just as the caravan pulled up the dirt road and parked down the drive from the old farmhouse. The men stepped out of their cars with a mean confidence. There were ten, Sam counted, and two carried rifles.
One m
an marched forward and perched on the front of one of the cars, resting his foot on the grille. Another man with a rifle slung over his shoulder stood beside him.
“We’re looking for Mrs. Roy Stoughton,” the man with the rifle said.
“There’s nobody here by that name,” Evie said. She wished Mr. Olson were there now to tell these men to leave his property. And Isaiah. Oh, where was Isaiah?
“That farmer turned us in,” Ling whispered to Henry.
“We don’t know that,” Henry said. He hoped it wasn’t true.
“That’s not what we heard,” the man shouted. “See, we heard y’all are all Diviners. The ones they’ve been looking for. You’re worth a lot of money. But first, there’s a little lady needs to be returned to her husband.”
“He’s not my husband anymore,” Theta yelled back. “And nobody’s returning me. I’m not a bad Christmas present.”
The man sitting on the car rose. He climbed the steps with swagger, coming right up to her. Memphis came forward, but Theta waved him back. The man in front of Theta removed his hood. The scar on his face was particularly red today.
“Hello, Betty Sue,” Roy said. “Get in the truck.”
“No,” Theta said. Memphis was beside her. All of them were beside her.
“You know what I can do, Betty Sue,” Roy said with a sneering smile.
“And you know what I can do, Roy. And I don’t need nine other fellas in bedsheets to do it.”
The two men with rifles trained their guns on Memphis and Sam.
“I don’t think you better do it, Betty.” Whip-quick, Roy snaked a chain around Theta’s neck. “Mr. Marlowe’s fellas told me this was the way to keep you cool. You won’t be doing any of your magic today.”
Jericho yanked the screen door free of its hinges. “I can do worse.”
Roy laughed. “Not against two guns.”
On cue, the Klansmen fired. The bullets nicked the tree.
“Roy, you don’t know what you’re doing,” Theta said.
“Sure I do. Collecting my wife and a reward at the same time. I’ll be a hero. We’ll all be heroes.”
“You’re not heroes, pal,” Sam said.
One of the Klansmen shot his rifle, narrowly missing Sam’s feet.
“Next time I’ll shoot straight,” the man called, and the others laughed.
Men with guns. Shooting in the village. Her mother bleeding in the snow. Fire spreading from house to house until her entire past had been erased. No. Not completely. Theta was from fire. She had swallowed it down her entire life, until it had become as much a part of her as her heart and lungs. She’d tried for so long to be rid of it. Now she knew that no one could take it from her.
“You know what goes up real quick in a fire?” Theta said, staring down the men. The familiar heat slithered through her veins like gasoline. The iron at her neck was no match for it. She did not try to stop it.
“What, Betty?”
“Sheets,” Theta answered.
“What’s she going on about, Roy?”
“Shut up, Betty Sue,” Roy said. “Shut up and get in that truck.”
“Evie,” Theta said, and Evie knew. They all knew.
“I’m here. We’re all here,” Evie said. Theta could feel them in her, with her. She moaned, welcoming her rage like a lover. And then she blazed like a phoenix.
“Your chains don’t work on me, Roy,” Theta said in a voice that crackled with new heat. She walked forward, forcing Roy back down the porch steps. The chain slipped from her neck. The ground was unharmed by Theta’s heat. Like Miss Addie had said, Theta knew her own heart. She knew her intent. Theta was in charge. Her friends were with her, helping her, keeping her safe. She didn’t know just how much fire was inside her this time, but she knew she was no longer afraid of her power.
Theta lifted her hands. Flames shot from her palms, trapping the Klansmen in a perfect ring of fire.
“Are you going to behave?” she asked the men.
“Lady, you’re crazy!” one of the Klansmen said.
“Wrong answer,” Theta said. She inched the fire closer, and then a little closer still.
“Roy, I’ve got a family at home to think about!” one of the Klansmen shouted. “Lady, I’m sorry. Let me out! Please!”
“I’ll only get stronger, Roy,” Theta said. “And when I do, I promise you, you will never have a peaceful night’s rest again. I will come for you. And everyone will know the truth. Truth is like a fire, Roy.”
“It’s true,” Sam said. “You really don’t wanna be on her bad side, Roy.”
“If you leave and promise never to bother me ever again, I’ll stop.”
Closer by a hair.
“Okay!” Roy screamed. “Okay.”
“Okay, what?”
“I promise.”
Theta retracted her fire, sucking it back into her palms, where it was just a simmer. Roy didn’t need to know that she had precious little of it left, nor how much it had cost her to use it.
“Evie,” she whispered, and Evie understood.
“Get in your cars and go, gentlemen,” Evie said, taking over.
“I wouldn’t call them gentlemen,” Henry said.
The Klansmen raced to their cars and truck. For good measure, the Diviners made their engines run, startling the men with their show of combined energy.
As the Klansmen disappeared down the road, Theta collapsed against Memphis. She was sweating and exhausted.
“Hey, Princess. Nice show.”
“Thanks, Poet.”
“Never mind that. We have to find Isaiah!” Evie said.
The river sprayed past the jetty where Isaiah sat with Sarah Beth.
“What’s the surprise?” Isaiah asked.
Sarah Beth grinned. “I wanted you to be the first to know. My gentleman caller’s coming to take me away.”
This again. Isaiah couldn’t believe he’d risked getting in trouble with Memphis over something so dumb. “You brought me down here to tell me that?”
Sarah Beth frowned. “I can’t marry you, Isaiah. I thought you understood that.”
Isaiah blinked in astonishment. She thought he wanted to marry her? Before he could think of what to say back, Sarah Beth continued. “Anyway, I thought you’d be happy for me. After all, if it weren’t for sharing our moon glow, my gentleman wouldn’t be able to come for me.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was supposed to keep you here, and I did.” Sarah Beth smiled her little gray-toothed smile. “You know.”
Isaiah was bored and mad. “Can you just tell me?”
“I’ve only ever had one power—I could talk to my special gentleman. The man in the stovepipe hat. The King of Crows.”
The wheat bent in the wind like a parade of mourners. Isaiah blinked, trying to keep it in focus. “But…” was as much as he could manage.
“I know I told you I was working against him, but I’m not.” She let out a little giggle. “Oh, Isaiah! It’s so pretty where he is, didn’t you think? Not like this.” She growled and gestured angrily at the fading farm that he and his friends had been slowly bringing back to life. “I’ll be his queen. I’ll have everything. I won’t have fits ever again. Nobody will make fun of me anymore,” she said on a near-whisper. Her jaw jutted forward, quivering. “Nobody.”
Beneath his growing horror, Isaiah also felt sorry for this girl. She was what his mama would call “pitiful” with a shake of her head.
Sarah Beth’s strange silvery eyes took on a new fire. The sad whisper was gone. “’Cause if they do, my gentleman’ll break ’em apart like twigs. His army will eat up their souls. They’re coming, you know. This world’s as good as gone.”
“What did you do to me?” Isaiah asked.
“He needed some of your power. He needed to see the future so he could shape that future. So he used me to get it from you,” Sarah Beth said, and Isaiah felt so dizzy he was afraid he’d slip right off the rocks and into the current. “Becau
se you’re my friend, he’s going to let me keep you. I told him, ‘You can’t hurt Isaiah. He’s very dear to me.’”
“What about the others? What about Memphis?”
“They don’t understand you. They don’t treat you proper. Only I do.”
Sarah Beth snuggled closer to Isaiah, as if he were her very best friend and she had the best secret in the world to share with him and only him.
Fear buzzed with a cicada whine in Isaiah’s head. The way the light fell on the rippling water. The crows in a line, screaming and screaming at him, and he’d just been too caught up to hear their warnings. Hadn’t he seen this very moment weeks ago in a vision? He hadn’t understood what it was, then, only that it was very bad. He’d thought it was about keeping Sarah Beth safe. He had to get back to his brother. He had to tell Memphis and Uncle Bill. Had to warn the Diviners. His friends were in trouble. That had been the vision’s message, he knew now.
“W-we… we oughta, oughta get back. Th-they’ll be looking for us.” Isaiah took a step backward. His ankles wobbled. The ground was slippery with mud. The river roared behind them.
Sarah Beth’s face clouded over. She set her teeth in a line. “You’re gonna tell.”
Isaiah shook his head. He couldn’t speak.
“Yes, you are.”
“I just wanna get back.” She stood between him and the bank. Why had he let her talk him into coming out on the rocks? He hadn’t wanted to, but he was afraid to stand up to her and say no. He moved to the left and so did Sarah Beth. But she was sure-footed where he was wobbly. The wet rocks were algae-covered and very slippery. He needed to keep one eye on where to put his feet and another on Sarah Beth, because he was frightened of her. She wasn’t the Sarah Beth he had known. She was someone who’d been siphoning his power, he realized; someone who’d been playing with the King of Crows all along.