Underworld

by Meg Cabot

  “What about?” He didn’t put down the phone. “How your new boyfriend punched Grandma in the face? That was classic, by the way.” He snickered. “Wish I could meet him.”

  A second later, his phone disappeared. Not because he’d decided to put it away and have an adult conversation with me, but because John had removed it from his grasp.

  “Looks like you’re getting your wish,” he said, sliding into an empty chair beside Alex.

  “Dude,” Alex said, looking outraged and a little stunned at the same time. “That’s my personal property. What did you do with it?”

  The mobile had disappeared into thin air. It wasn’t in either of John’s hands.

  “Your cousin asked you to put it down,” John explained, pleasantly enough. “And my name isn’t dude, it’s John. Pierce has gone to a lot of time and trouble to find you tonight. The least you can do is give her the courtesy of your full attention.”

  Alex glared at him. Even in the pink glow of the party lanterns, I could see that his face was red, but whether it was from anger or embarrassment, I didn’t know.

  Perhaps it was from astonishment. Because a second later, a wide, low bowl, laden with steaming lobster tails, shrimp, chicken, chorizo, vegetables, and Spanish rice appeared in the middle of the table, along with a pitcher of ice-cold water, a plate piled high with warm Cuban bread, and enough plates, glasses, and cutlery for everyone.

  No waitperson was seen delivering these things. They were simply not there one moment, and there the next.

  “Now,” John said, leaning forward to reach for a napkin, “we’re going to enjoy this food. You’re welcome to join us. When we’re through, you’ll get your phone back. Do you understand, Alexander?”

  Now Alex wasn’t glaring. He was staring, his eyes nearly popping out of his head.

  I could relate to the feeling. How had John done all this? I thought the Fates worked only in the Underworld.

  Then I remembered the bird John had brought back to life that day in the cemetery, and the burst of light he’d created in my mom’s house. A cheap magician’s trick, he’d called it….

  There’s nothing cheap about this, I thought.

  Deciding that I was so hungry, I didn’t care how he’d done it, I reached for my own napkin, spreading it onto my lap, then accepting the heaping helping of paella John served onto my plate from the bowl in the center of the table.

  “How … how are you doing this?” Alex demanded, his gaze darting suspiciously between John and me. He sounded nervous. His voice shook a little. “What do you want from me? Is this some kind of reality TV show?” He looked around the courtyard, seemingly scanning for hidden cameras. “I know my rights, you know. You can’t show my face unless I’ve signed a waiver. And since I’m still under eighteen, my dad has to fill out a consent form.”

  “Alex,” I said to him. “This isn’t a TV show. I just want to talk.”

  “Why?” His eyes narrowed distrustfully. “I didn’t do anything. Whatever you’re messed up in with this guy, Pierce, I don’t want to get involved.” He glanced down at the food. It was clear he thought it was all stolen … or possibly bewitched. For all I knew, it might have been. “I’ve got my own problems to deal with.”

  “That’s what I want to talk to you about, Alex,” I said. I was feeling better already from the few mouthfuls of rice and shrimp I’d swallowed. For food that might have been conjured up from the realm of darkness, it certainly tasted heavenly. “I know how upset you are about your dad, and him getting dragged in for questioning about Jade’s murder —”

  Alex’s expression grew defensive. “He was home with me during the time she was killed,” he said. “This whole thing is completely bogus. You know who they should be asking about Jade? This guy.” He stabbed a nail-bitten finger at John. “Who the hell is he? I’ve never even seen him around here before.”

  “Okay,” I said, in a soothing voice. Alex wouldn’t have liked hearing it, but he had a lot in common with John. When Alex felt cornered, he too lashed out at the people who were only trying to help him, because for so many years the only kind of treatment he’d experienced was indifference and cruelty. It was my grandmother who’d raised him, after all.

  “But John was with me when Jade was murdered,” I explained. “So he didn’t do it, either. Someone else on this island did. We don’t know who yet. So taking out your frustrations about your dad on Seth Rector and the entire A-wing isn’t —”

  Now instead of red, Alex’s cheeks went pale. He appeared startled … and maybe even a little guilt-stricken. “What?”

  “That’s right, I know,” I said, giving him my best disapproving older cousin look. I was older than he was only by several months, but it still counted. “I know you’re going to try to do something to the coffin.”

  Alex’s shock only increased. “The coffin?”

  “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about, Alex,” I said. The water John had poured into my glass was refreshingly cool, especially after the spicy paella. “You told me yourself it was kind of perfect that I was on the coffin committee. That way you’d know where they were at all times. That’s what you said. It’s obvious you’re planning on ruining the senior coffin to get back at Seth Rector for something he did to you.”

  Alex shook his head. Some of the shock must have worn off. “Yeah, Pierce,” he said, his voice dripping in sarcasm. “That’s it. The reason I was so excited you were on this year’s coffin committee was so I could destroy all of Seth Rector’s dreams, the way he destroyed all mine by bullying me in kindergarten. Are you serious with this? Come on.”

  I glanced uncertainly at John. His attention was focused on Alex. But his fingers, I noticed, were moving restlessly, even as they held his fork. He was ready in case of any kind of attack.

  I looked over my shoulder. Frank was still spinning Kayla around on the dance floor. She looked as if she was in heaven, a huge smile on her face, her head thrown back, her wildly curling hair a brown and purple aurora. She was completely unaware that as they were dancing, Frank, like John, was watching the rest of the courtyard, especially the dark corner where our table was located. Not that it mattered that Kayla hadn’t noticed this … or that I was looking her way. She’d never been able to give me any insight as to why Alex hated Seth Rector so much, either.

  I looked back at Alex.

  “Actually,” I said, “I am serious about this, Alex. I know you’re planning on doing something that’s going to get you in big trouble with Seth Rector. And I’m not going to let you.”

  Alex’s face contorted into an ugly sneer. “Oh, why?” he demanded. “Because you’re so concerned the popular crowd won’t like you anymore? You don’t want to be associated with us lowly Cabreros? Well, let me tell you something, Pierce. You kind of shot your opportunity to hang with A-wingers when you took off to go slutting around with this muscle-bound freak —”

  To emphasize his words, Alex reached out and flipped the table over, sending paella flying everywhere, then lunged at John.

  I don’t know what Alex could have been thinking. John was almost a foot taller than he was, and quite a bit heavier, all of it lean muscle. Then there was the small fact that John was keeper of the dead and ruler of the Underworld … though Alex had no way of knowing this.

  In a heartbeat, Alex was thrown back into his plastic chair. John stood over him, holding him down with one hand as Alex panted and struggled, looking like a bait worm on a hook.

  “Are you insane?” I asked Alex in disbelief as I flicked bits of rice from the skirt of my dress. “What is wrong with you?”

  John looked over at me and asked, “Are you all right?”

  “Of course I’m all right,” I said. “But your beautiful dinner …” I stared at the mess on the courtyard floor. “It’s ruined.”

  “Never mind about that,” John said, turning his attention back to Alex.

  How was I supposed to not mind about that? I could feel everyone’s
gaze on us — though mercifully the music hadn’t stopped. Pieces of broken plate littered the bricks, along with glass from the smashed water pitcher. Rice and lobster tails were scattered everywhere.

  Mr. Liu strode over, as boldly as if he were running the place. “Everything is all right here,” he said in an authoritative voice, standing in front of John and Alex and blocking the view of them from onlookers with his bulk. “Everything is fine.”

  The curious drifted away, though Henry scrambled down from his tree, and Frank and Kayla were making their way from across the dance floor.

  “We’re only trying to help you,” I said to Alex. “I don’t care about being popular, or the stupid coffin. I care about you. I’m trying to keep you from getting hurt.”

  “If you really cared about me,” Alex said in an angry voice, still straining against the hand holding him into the chair, “you’d leave me alone. You have no idea what I’m going through.”

  “No,” John leaned down and said to him in a low, dangerous voice I knew he hadn’t intended for me to overhear. “You have no idea what she’s been through to get here to talk to you. The only reason you’re still breathing right now is because she doesn’t like it when I hurt people.”

  Alex threw him a rebellious look, but seemed to believe him, since he pressed his lips together.

  Kayla rushed over, clutching a handful of napkins.

  “Oh, my God,” she said, beginning to dab at the front of my dress. “Chickie, you’re a mess! Alex, what is wrong with you? I saw the whole thing, don’t even try to deny you started it. Whatever happened to letting it go, like they taught us in the program?”

  Alex scowled at her. Apparently he didn’t care to listen to New Pathways rhetoric just then.

  “Kayla is right,” I said. “I don’t know why you hate Seth Rector so much, or what he ever did to you, but you’ve got to let it go. It’s only going to get you in trouble.”

  “Show ’im, miss,” Henry said, gravely, pointing at my bag. “Show ’im how much trouble, on your magic mirror. Then he’ll believe you.”

  I saw John’s eyes flash silver at me, catching the light from the nearby hanging lanterns. I wasn’t certain if it was with approval or disapproval of Henry’s idea, but I figured I had nothing to lose, now that my parents knew I was not being held against my will. How fast could the FBI triangulate a signal, if they were even tracing it anymore?

  I reached into my bag for my cell, then turned on the power. Disappointingly, my phone behaved exactly the way it was supposed to, showing me my messages — over a hundred of them, mostly from my mother — instead of the creepy video of Alex. That was nowhere to be found.

  “My, er, magic mirror doesn’t work the same way here as it does back home, Henry,” I said.

  Henry looked disappointed. “Well, you really want to do as she says, anyway,” he told Alex. “Trust me.”

  Alex seemed unable to sit in silence anymore. Looking from Henry, in his strange clothes, to me, he burst out, “Jesus, Pierce, what is going on? Who are these guys? I get that your dad is the richest guy in America, but what did you do, go out and buy your own circus?”

  I glanced at John and Mr. Liu, who were, it was true, standing over him somewhat menacingly. But Alex had attacked John first. He was the one being the most offensive.

  “These are my friends,” I said indignantly. “And they came with me to help find you because I was so worried about you.”

  Alex’s voice cracked. “You disappear without a word to anyone, then come back because you’re worried about me? Why?”

  “You’re my cousin,” I said, hurt by his incredulous tone. “You’re someone I care about a lot. I get the sense that you’re in trouble. Your dad told you I was home, and that he’d like you to come home, but you sat here in the dark and kept playing World of Warcraft by yourself. Don’t you think that’s a little worrying, Alex? Don’t you think that’s a sign that something weird is going on?”

  “God, you are so self-centered,” Alex said with a laugh. John’s eyes weren’t the only ones flashing. Alex’s looked unusually bright, too. But his eyes were brown. “So you disappear for a while, and then come back, and I’m supposed to drop everything to rush home to see you? And because I don’t, you gather this search party of freaks to come looking for me, because I’m in some kind of trouble?”

  “That doesn’t make her self-centered,” John said, in a cool voice. “It makes her probably one of the few people in your life who actually cares about you.”

  “None of this has anything to do with her,” Alex said with a scowl. “It happened over twenty years ago, and my dad is the one paying the price for it — continues to pay the price for it, every day. It’s nice that you want to help all of a sudden, Pierce — your mom, too, moving back here to play house like everything’s hunky-dory. But you’re both a little late to the party.”

  It wasn’t until the end of this speech that I figured out why Alex’s eyes looked so bright: They were filled with tears.

  He was crying.

  Shocked, John released his hold on Alex.

  Instead of trying to get away, however, Alex slumped forward in his chair, burying his face in his hands, weeping soundlessly.

  I exchanged astonished glances with Kayla, uncertain what to do. I’d hoped that since she’d spent more time with him than I had, she could give me some insight into how to deal with him.

  I could tell from her wide-eyed expression, though, that she had no idea either … nor, judging from the looks they gave me, did anyone else.

  Except John, who said, in a considerably kinder voice than he’d used before when speaking to or about Alex, “He’s had enough. Someone ought to take him home now.” I think he could tell that Alex was wounded, far more deeply than I’d ever realized, because Alex had always acted as if he didn’t care about anything — or anyone.

  But evidently he did care, since he groaned at John’s suggestion. “No. Please.” He didn’t lift his face from his hands. “I don’t want to go home.”

  “Wait,” I said to John, and righted one of the chairs that had been tipped over when Alex had flipped the table. Then I sat down in it, and laid a hand on Alex’s back. “Why don’t you want to go home, Alex?”

  “Would you?” he asked, his voice muffled because he was still speaking into his fingers. “If you had to live with her?”

  I knew exactly who he meant, picturing the way she’d stood at the bottom of the stairs by the newel post, reaching into her purse for the pepper spray. She’d never pepper-sprayed Alex, to my knowledge, but she liked to lecture him on what she considered his faults.

  “No,” I said. “But your dad is there now. And when he gets a job, you two can move out —”

  “He’s not going to get a job,” Alex groaned. “No one will hire him, because of his prison record —”

  I’d actually walked in on my mother having a similar discussion with Uncle Chris. Mom had offered him a loan — she’d even offered to buy him a boat, so he could start his own charter fishing company — but he’d refused. He appreciated it, he’d said, but he didn’t want any handouts. He was going to make good on his own.

  “— and he’s probably going to get charged with Jade’s murder.”

  I realized with a sense of frustration that Alex was right.

  “We’re working on that,” I assured him.

  “Working on that?” He was still speaking into his hands. “How are you working on that? You’re a spoiled rich girl from Connecticut who died and came back to life a mental case. Everyone knows it. Now you’ve run off with your roid-head boyfriend. You’re not exactly Nancy freaking Drew, all right?”

  That stung. Not that I’d ever wanted to be Nancy Drew, except maybe when I was ten. And John wasn’t a roid-head.

  “Pierce.” John’s face was hard. “Let’s go. He doesn’t want our help.”

  John was right, I knew. You couldn’t help someone who wouldn’t accept that help or even help himself. But still
…

  It wasn’t until Hope fluttered over and landed by Alex’s feet, peering questioningly up at him, that he finally tore his hands away from his eyes.

  “Oh, my God,” he said, sounding disgusted. “Why is there a bird looking at me?”

  “That’s Miss Oliviera’s bird,” Henry volunteered cheerfully. “The captain gave it to her as a present.”

  Kayla punched me in the arm. “John’s got his captain’s license?” she whispered. “You are so lucky. Frank says he just loads cargo.”

  I glanced at Frank. I wondered if Kayla would like him as much if she knew the “cargo” he loaded was human souls.

  To Alex, I said, “What did you mean just now when you said something happened over twenty years ago that Uncle Chris is still paying the price for? You mean his arrest? What does that have to do with any of this?”

  “Nothing,” he said, sullenly. “I changed my mind. I do want to go home.”

  I didn’t believe in his sudden change of heart. I knew he was trying to avoid the discussion. I had never seen Alex so emotional, although I suppose I should have always known that he was. That’s why he, like me, had been in New Pathways.

  “I know,” I said. “And we’ll make sure you get home. But tell me something first. Tonight I found out that my mom and Seth Rector’s dad used to go out when they were in high school … that they were going to get married. And your dad and Farah Endicott’s dad and my mom and Seth’s dad all used to hang out … up until your dad got arrested. Then my mom and Seth’s dad had some kind of falling-out and broke up. Did you know about all of that?”

  Alex gave me a sarcastic look, despite his red-rimmed eyes.

  “Pierce,” he said. “You must be the last person on this entire island not to know about that.”

  “I didn’t,” Kayla volunteered. When everyone looked at her, she said, sheepishly, “Well, my mom and I haven’t lived here that long.”

  I smiled at her briefly, then glanced back at Alex. “I know Mr. Rector and Mr. Endicott are still friends. They’re building that new private housing development out on Reef Key together. They asked if my dad wanted to invest in it.”