“Are you all right?” Mr. Jefferies demanded as he came around his desk toward them.
“She’ll be fine, no thanks to the piss-poor quality of furniture this school buys.” Sandra kicked the leg across the floor, and while everyone was looking at it, she rushed Avery toward the door.
“I’ll make sure she’s taken care of,” Sandra said.
She opened the door and hurried Avery out before closing it and turning to Avery. “Oh,” Sandra breathed, and Avery looked down to see blood soaking her sweater. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t think I can do this anymore.”
Resolve settled over Sandra’s face. “You can and you will. We’re all going to get through this. Don’t you dare give up on us, Avery.”
Avery bit back a whimper as Sandra led her down the hall. She stopped next to a locker and helped ease Avery to the floor. A combination clicked overhead before a metal door banged open and a coat draped around her shoulders. Looking up, she blinked when she saw the blood covering Sandra, her blood.
“Sandra.”
She was close to passing out, and it scared her to death. If she lost consciousness, Regan would have her, and she might never wake again.
“I’ll be right back. I’m going to get Reid,” Sandra said as she removed another sweater from her locker. She didn’t care that they were sitting in the middle of the hallway as she pulled off her ruined sweater and tugged on the new one. “You have to stay awake. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” Avery muttered.
Sandra hesitated before resting her hand on Avery’s shoulder. “Stay awake, Avery.”
Before Avery could respond, Sandra turned and sprinted down the hall.
• • •
Sandra knew Reid had Spanish now, but she wasn’t sure which classroom it was. She peered into countless windows before spotting him slumped at his desk with a bored look on his face. She knocked on the door and tapped her foot as she waited for it to open. A small, gray-haired woman opened the door.
“I need to talk to Reid,” Sandra said.
Reid blinked at her before shoving his books into his bag and rising.
“I’m sure it can wait until after class,” the woman said. “Now, please leave.”
Sandra held out her hand to stop the door from shutting in her face. “It’s important.”
The woman glowered at her, but Sandra didn’t back down or look away from the steely gaze. She’d faced a lot worse than this woman.
Reid pushed past the woman and stepped out of the classroom. “You’ll both get detention for this!” the woman said and shut the door.
“What’s wrong?” Reid demanded.
“Avery.”
The color drained from Reid’s face, and he ran beside her down the halls to Sandra’s locker. “Avery!” Reid cried when he spotted her slumped against the lockers where Sandra left her. “She’s out cold! What happened?”
Sandra clasped her hands against her mouth to hold back a cry. She’d seen what Regan did to Avery before, what would he do to her now?
“Wake her up,” Sandra choked out.
When Reid shook Avery’s shoulders, her head lolled to the side, and she slumped forward. “Avery, wake up, please,” he pleaded. “What happened?”
Sandra gulped as she lowered her hands. “She fell asleep in French class. It was awful, Reid. Her stomach’s all cut up.”
“We have to get her out of here.” He bent and scooped her into his arms.
CHAPTER 29
Landon sat in the chair on the other side of the principal’s desk and watched as Mrs. Landry hung up the phone. She jotted something down before lifting her head to smile at Landon. “Ms. Davis,” she said as she clasped her hands in front of her. “How are you doing?”
“Good,” Landon said though she had no idea why she was here.
“I suppose you’re wondering why you’re here,” Mrs. Landry said as if she were reading Landon’s mind.
“Yes,” she admitted.
“As I know you’re aware, we recently lost a student.”
Landon shifted uncomfortably in her chair. “Yes.”
“I’m sure you’ll be happy to we’re doing a memorial in the yearbook, and we’re going to have a service here where the students can talk about how this loss has made them feel. You and your brother can come to me, or any of the counselors, if you need to talk.”
“Ah… thank you,” Landon said.
“I know this loss has been difficult for you.”
Landon didn’t understand why she was getting the pity eyes. “It is very sad.”
“Yes. Well, since you were Talia’s best friend”—Landon’s eyebrows shot up, but she refrained from correcting Mrs. Landry—“her parents have requested you to pick up some of the photos they would like to use in the yearbook and the memorial. I told them I would speak with you first and see if it was something you felt capable of doing.”
Landon opened her mouth to tell her no, she did not feel up to it, but before she spoke, she changed her mind. She’d heard the rumors flying around the school, but she didn’t know the truth. She couldn’t flat-out ask Talia’s parents how she died, but maybe she could find something out.
“Um, yes, I would like to do that after school today if I can.”
“Wonderful,” Mrs. Landry said. “I’ll call and let them know and confirm with you before school is out.”
“Can I bring a friend with me?”
“Oh, of course. I’ll make sure they know. Now, it’s time for you to get back to class.”
“Thank you,” Landon said and rose.
“I am very sorry for your loss.”
Landon had no idea why the principal believed she and Talia were best friends, but she nodded as she lifted her backpack from the floor. “Thank you.”
She left the office and stepped into the empty hall. Her anatomy class was to the left, but she turned right and strode toward the main entrance. Entering the large foyer, she gazed at the staircase on her left before walking across to the auditorium. Outside the doors, piles of flowers, teddy bears, and notes had already begun to surround a smiling picture of Talia.
She’d been friendly with Talia but not enough for people to consider them best friends. What had the girl told her parents about them?
The hair on her nape rose as she got the feeling someone was watching her, but when she glanced around, no one was there. Turning, she forced herself not to run as she strode away from the picture.
• • •
“Okay, we’ll see you soon,” Landon said and hung up her phone as she pulled up in front of a one-story, Cape-style house with cranberry paint and black shutters.
“What did Reid say?” Rosie asked as she gazed at the house.
“Avery’s still unconscious, but so far, she’s not dreaming.”
“I hope it stays that way.”
“Me too.” Landon stared at the house before taking a deep breath. “Let’s get this over with.”
Landon opened her door and stepped out of the car. She shivered when the frigid November air blew down her neck. Huddling deeper into her coat, she walked around the car to join Rosie, and together they traversed the slate walkway to the door. Before she could knock, a petite woman with blonde hair and her swollen blue eyes opened the door.
“Hello, Mrs. Potter?” Landon asked.
The woman smiled at her. “Yes, and you must be Landon.”
“Yes, and this is my friend Rosie.”
The woman pushed open the screen door. “Please, come in. I’ve heard such wonderful things about you both.”
Rosie and Landon exchanged a glance. Unlike the rest of the coven, which had been mostly indifferent to Talia’s presence, Rosie never liked her. She was never outright hostile toward Talia, but Rosie’s dislike was evident. What had Talia told her mom about Rosie?
“This way. Would you like some coffee? Tea? Cookies?” Mrs. Potter asked as she led the way down the hall.
“No, thank you,” La
ndon said.
“No, thanks,” Rosie said when the woman gave her a questioning look.
Landon glanced at the pictures of the smiling family lining the walls. In them, she saw Talia growing from a baby to a teen. Identical twin boys eventually joined the photos and looked to be about eleven or twelve now.
They stepped into a small kitchen with yellow paint and more cows than Landon had believed possible. The wallpaper border was cows, porcelain cows covered every inch above the cupboards, the dishtowels were cows, the magnets on the fridge were cows, and even the coffee mug next to the pot was a cow. She knew what her next nightmare would involve.
“I grew up on a dairy farm,” Mrs. Potter said when she saw Rosie and Landon staring at the cows. She lifted the coffee pot and poured coffee into the butt of a cow. “I still miss it.”
“That must have been nice,” Landon murmured.
The woman gave her a sad smile as she gazed at all the cows. “Talia hated them.”
Landon didn’t know what to say.
“I have pictures for you,” the woman said and gestured at the photos scattered over the table in a nook that served as the dining room. A cow napkin holder sat in the middle of all the pictures. “Please, go through them and pick out the ones you think would be best for the yearbook and memorial. There are more in her bedroom.”
“I’m so sorry about Talia,” she said as she crept toward the pictures. She did not want to do this.
Mrs. Potter’s eyes filled with tears. “Thank you.”
Landon and Rosie reached the table and started slowly pushing aside the pictures scattered across it. She should ask questions, they were here to learn more, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Talia may have been a little scary with her obsession over Reid, but this family was suffering, and this woman’s heart was broken.
Rosie pushed a picture toward her. “What about this one?”
Landon didn’t glance at the picture before nodding. Rosie elbowed her. Landon frowned and glanced at her friend before focusing on the photo. In it, Talia stood in front of the school as she took a selfie. In the background, Reid was emerging from the school with his hand out as if he were holding someone else’s. Landon suspected it was Avery’s hand, but Avery wasn’t in the picture.
As she looked around the table, Landon noticed Reid was in a lot of the photos, and so was she. In most of them, she and Reid weren’t looking at the camera, and in at least half, a selfie of Talia was involved. The kitchen suddenly felt uncomfortably hot, and Landon gulped as she pulled at the collar of her turtleneck.
“These photos are great,” Landon lied. They were horrible; she’d been being watched and photographed without knowing it.
“I took them off her phone, and my husband had them developed. The ones in her room, she took with her camera and hung on her walls.” Mrs. Potter came to stand beside them, and tears filled her eyes as she gazed at the pictures. “Maybe we should look at the ones in her room; they must have meant more to her if she hung them up. I don’t know what I was thinking with these. Yes, the ones in her room are her favorites; you’ll have to look at them. I’m making such a mess of this.”
Landon rested her hand on the woman’s arm when a tear rolled down her face. “No, you’re not. This never should have happened, and you’re doing the best you can; we all are.”
Before Landon knew what she intended, the woman set her mug down and hugged her. “You’re as wonderful as Talia said.”
Landon awkwardly hugged her back.
“It’s all so… so….” The woman broke off as she pulled away and wiped the tears from her cheeks. “What seventeen-year-old goes to sleep and has a heart attack? That doesn’t happen. That’s not the way life goes. It’s not… it’s not….”
Her voice trailed off as more tears fell off her chin. “I shouldn’t be doing this in front of you. Talia’s room is this way.”
Landon and Rosie followed her out of the kitchen and into another hall with four doors branching off it. Mrs. Potter opened the third door and stepped back as the phone in the kitchen started ringing. “I have to get that. Take whatever pictures you want off the wall.”
The woman left before they could reply. Landon tried not to cry as she watched her walk down the hall with a sad slump to her shoulders.
“Oh my God,” Rosie breathed, drawing Landon’s attention back to the room.
Landon peered into the room over Rosie’s shoulder. The twin bed pushed against the far wall had a blue comforter neatly spread on top of it. The fluffed pillows waited in expectation of Talia’s return.
About a dozen posters hung on the walls, but in between the posters, photos were thumbtacked to the walls. They were too far away for Landon to make out, but she was sure they would be similar to the ones in the kitchen.
“This is where she died,” Rosie whispered.
That hadn’t occurred to Landon, probably because she didn’t want to acknowledge it, but now it was all she could think. Talia died in that neatly made bed.
Her feet froze to the floor as down the hall she heard Mrs. Potter talking to someone and sobbing. “We shouldn’t be here,” she whispered.
“It’s too late now,” Rosie said. “Let’s get this over; I just want to go home.”
“So do I.”
They edged into the room and discovered more photos pinned to the wall around the door. The posters were of landscapes, bands, and movies she mostly recognized.
“I hate this,” Rosie muttered as she crept toward the bed like it might bite her. “It’s so freaking morbid.” She stopped a few feet away from the bed and stared at the photos on the wall beside it before turning toward Landon. “They’re all of Reid. Landon, this is so… so… disturbing.”
“Just grab a couple of them,” Landon said.
“You grab a couple of them.”
Landon couldn’t bring herself to go closer to the bed, so she moved toward the pictures in between the posters on the wall to her left. Like the ones over the bed, they were mostly of Reid, but Talia was in a few of them. In two of the pictures, Talia stood next to Reid and smiled for the selfie. It creeped her out how unaware her brother was.
In some of the pictures, the coven was all together. The hair on Landon’s neck rose when she realized some of the photos were from the beach near their houses. How long had Talia been watching them?
Landon removed the tacks and pulled the pictures of the coven on the beach down as Rosie walked over to Talia’s desk. Stopping at the desk, Rosie rested her fingers on something, and Landon realized it was a notebook.
“Did you girls find anything?” Mrs. Potter called as she came back down the hall.
Rosie ripped out the page of the notebook and shoved it in her pocket, but before Landon could ask what she was doing, Mrs. Potter arrived in the doorway.
“We found a couple of pictures that will be perfect,” Rosie said as she removed some thumbtacks and pulled a handful of photos off the wall.
Mrs. Potter gazed around the room with a forlorn expression. “She really loved your brother; he must be heartbroken.”
Landon looked helplessly to Rosie who smiled kindly at the woman. “Reid misses her.”
“If he’d like to come by, he’s more than welcome. I considered asking the principal to send him for this, but I thought it might be too hard on him given how close they were.”
Landon didn’t know what Talia told her mom about her relationship with Reid, but she didn’t have it in her to diminish the woman’s image of her daughter. “I’ll let him know,” Landon said.
“We should go,” Rosie said.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t like something to drink or some cookies?”
“No, but thank you,” Landon said.
“Oh, okay.”
Landon held back her tears as they made their way out of the house with Mrs. Potter trailing them.
“Please stop by again,” the woman said when they stepped outside.
Landon didn’t consider Tal
ia a friend, but the desperation in the woman’s voice tugged at her heart. “We will,” she promised and knew she would.
They rushed down the walkway and back to the car. “What did you tear out of the notebook?” Landon asked as she clicked her seat belt into place.
Rosie dug into her pocket and pulled the paper out. She flattened it against the dashboard. “Some of Talia’s science notes, but there’s something familiar about them to me.”
Landon started the car. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t know,” Rosie said. “We’ll take a closer look later. I need a shower first.”
“Me too,” Landon said as she pulled away from the curb.
CHAPTER 30
Avery woke and blinked as she tried to figure out where she was. Turning her head, she spotted Reid sitting in a chair beside her bed with his head bowed and his hands clasped before him.
“Reid,” she whispered.
He started, and his head lifted before he lurched toward her. “Are you okay?”
“What happened?”
“You had a nightmare in French class, do you remember?”
She swallowed the lump in her throat as she recalled the faceless beings with the whip. “Yes, I remember. What happened after?”
“Sandra came and got me, but by the time we got back to you, you’d passed out.”
“I’ve been asleep?” A tendril of terror squirmed down her back. “For how long?”
“About ten hours.”
“And I didn’t have another nightmare?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
He stroked her cheek. “Probably because it would have killed you.”
“And Regan wouldn’t want that,” she muttered. “He’s fine with brutalizing me but not killing me.”
She’d been asleep for ten hours, but she was as tired as before. Ten hours of sleep had done her little good. Reid jumped out of his chair when she tried to sit up and helped her rise. She winced when pain flared across her stomach and tugged her shirt up to reveal the bandages beneath.
“Rosie and your dad made an herbal compress to help you heal faster. Your dad wanted to take you to the hospital, but Isla’s mom said you don’t need stitches, and she’s a nurse. We had no idea how to explain the wounds to a doctor, but if you think you should go—”
Dream Walker (The Coven, Book 3) Page 14