Hidden (Hidden Series Book One)

by M. Lathan

  Chapter Seventeen

  I felt myself being lifted and carried, possibly up the stairs. I opened my eyes and screamed.

  “You can walk!”

  “Yep,” Nate said. “It’s three in the morning. Go back to sleep. I just wanted to give you your bed back.”

  “You could’ve slept in there. I was comfortable,” I said, not really remembering when I’d fallen asleep. I’d wanted to watch a movie, but I guess I didn’t make it that far.

  “It’s your bed,” he said. He put me down at the door. “Your house, actually.” I took in his mood and tapered my excitement. We weren’t in danger anymore, and we were still broken up. “That was brave, what you did in the cell.”

  I walked to the bed, and he stayed miles away at the door. “You, too. Thanks for staying with me and standing up to Kamon.”

  He whispered, “No problem,” and nothing else.

  Because we’d stopped talking, I toured my new room. Sophia had taken me away so quickly that I hadn’t seen it, and Lydia Shaw was in here working on Nathan. I’d fallen asleep before I could thank her for saving us.

  Black and white pictures of beaches and cliffs in red frames lined the walls. The hints of color against the plain background of the room were more my style than the soft pinks I had before. Like Sophia knew what I’d like now because she knew me better. She had been working from a picture in a magazine she’d left open on the dresser.

  “Are you going to sleep downstairs?” I asked, staring at the picture she’d copied perfectly. It was the only thing keeping me from crying and being dramatic like Catherine. My living room was in the magazine, too, minus some really cute pillows I hoped Sophia just hadn’t gotten to yet.

  “I was, but you’re awake so I don’t have to wait to apologize before leaving.” I sighed. At least we’d had the time in Kamon’s prison together. I flipped another page to a powder pink room Emma would like. “I’m sorry about what I called you and how I acted. You’re obviously not a hunter. I feel awful. I feel stupid. Embarrassed.”

  “I shouldn’t have lied to you.”

  “I get why you did. I wouldn’t be too eager to tell you something that could’ve changed everything.”

  That stung more than I think he’d meant it to. Telling him what I was had completely ruined something that seemed so perfect before. Maybe it wasn’t. We only dated for a few days. It wasn’t like our ten-year marriage ended. I was sure there were bigger heartaches and way more depressing love stories than this. At least that was what I needed to think until he left and … then I’d break down.

  “I’m not a copy, by the way. My parents really loved me,” I said, like it was fact, not shaky like before. “My powers were an accident.” I wasn’t sure how I knew that, but it felt amazingly accurate. “Oh, yeah. Sophia knew my mom when she was a teenager. They didn’t get along, but she wasn’t a killer. Neither am I. I was just going through something that made me think awful things about myself. None of it was true.”

  “I’m sorry, Chris. I really am. When Sophia found me, she just shook her head at me. Then Emma and Paul, too. I knew that I’d made a huge mistake. I think I knew that while I was saying those awful things to you. When Emma told me you said hi, I wanted to call, but I was afraid to.”

  “What would you have said?” I asked, turning away from him and back to the pictures on the wall.

  “I was thinking of begging … all animal puns intended.” He laughed. I smiled, but he couldn’t see. “Then I would’ve said what I should have said when you told me the truth, which was, ‘Okay, baby. Thanks for telling me, but it doesn’t matter’ … then more begging.” I walked over to the vase of flowers on the white nightstand, yet another random pop of color in the room. I brought one of the pink roses to my nose in the silence, proud of my performance. I was going for aloof. “You can hear my thoughts right now, can’t you?”

  I shook my head. “I think you’re immune to people like me.”

  “Oh. How?” I hunched my shoulders. “Sorry. You just found out about all of this. I remember.” At least he believed me now. “If I’d called you, what would you have said?”

  I dropped the rose in the vase and looked at him dead on, right into those amazing eyes. And I crumbled. “I would’ve apologized again for lying. I would’ve told you how much I missed you. I would’ve begged you to forgive me.”

  “I guess I should’ve called.” He smiled but twisted it away in the next second. “Is it too late for me to beg?”

  “No,” I said. He crossed the room in a moment and kissed me, reminding me of every reason I couldn’t live without him. I didn’t care how much I sounded like CC. I didn’t care about anything. The things he’d said to me, being trapped by Remi, and some other dull ache that didn’t have a name. None of it mattered. I just wanted to finally kiss him without holding some huge secret and wondering if he’d still love me.

  “I’m sorry. It’s okay that you’re human. It doesn’t matter. It never did. I was just insecure and an idiot. Even Paul called me a jerk and said he’d replace me as your boyfriend.” He leaned in for another kiss. It lasted a while, a good while. “I love you. I’m sorry. Can I replace me as your boyfriend?”

  “Yes.” Just when I thought I’d cry, he turned into my goofy best friend and tickled me.

  “Can we talk about the red lipstick and heels now?” he asked. I smacked his shoulder, embarrassed.

  “I wanted to look sexy,” I said.

  “Mission accomplished.” Somehow, we made it to the bed while we were kissing and laughing. It was like no time had passed at all, like nothing had ever happened between us. We healed as quickly as his spine. “Do you still have the lipstick?”

  “Um … no.” I spaced out for a moment, trying to think about where I’d gotten it. “Oh, it was for Lydia Shaw. Like … the Lydia Shaw.” He looked at me like I was on fire. “Sophia works for her. And she … didn’t want me to be alone in New Orleans … so she … brought me to work with her in Paris … I think.”

  Nathan babbled his disbelief for a minute. He thought Lydia had saved us by coincidence, but Sophia had sent her. He eventually stopped shivering because she was the reason he could walk right now.

  “What time do you think you’ll wake up?” I shrugged my shoulders. “I wanted to know what time I could stop by to see you tomorrow.”

  I pushed on his chest so he’d unpin me from the bed. “Where are you going?”

  “I don’t know yet. Somewhere. But you’ll see me every day. I promise.”

  I almost pouted and whined, but I knew Nathan well. He didn’t want to go. He just didn’t want to be the kind of person who needed to stay with his girlfriend, especially after running out on her. I’d have to convince him to stay. I twisted my fingers in his hair, not interested in playing fair.

  “Nathan, would you really let me stay in this big house all by myself after we escaped from a hunter?” He didn’t answer, but he sniffed me. I’d won already. “You’ll be here all day anyway. And didn’t you say you sleep better with me?”

  He nodded and kicked his shoes off, surrendering with ease.

  We caught each other up on the last few days we’d been apart. He’d been at Sophia’s, sharing a room with Paul. I didn’t have much to tell. I’d been asleep mostly. I told him about the movies I’d watched in Paris. He wasn’t looking forward to the movie marathon I had planned for tomorrow.

  Fighting sleep, I told him everything I knew about my parents—the love story, the tragic ending caused by the man we heard Kamon’s followers worship, and that their spirits floated around the house in New Orleans. He apologized with tears in his sleepy eyes for yelling at me and implying that I was disgusting and horrible. With his arms wrapped around me in bed, I felt anything but disgusting and horrible.

  “I hate myself for saying that,” he said. I was too tired to kiss him to show him I was over it, so I stuck my finger in his ear to make him laugh. And he tried to make me confess to tasting my own earwax as a c
hild until we both fell asleep.

  Kamon’s prison smelled like mold and urine in my dream. I ran from cell to cell, opening the doors, freeing all the prisoners—witches and vampires and copies with bloody faces. I wanted to bring them to Lydia Shaw, but I didn’t know where to find her. I’d get close, running into random houses, one with a laundry room I swore I’d been in, but she was never there.

  The helpless people followed me, hoping I would be the one to save them, to end this. I knew I couldn’t. I wanted to find the real hero. I wanted to meet her and tell her I’d worn her lipstick. The next door I came to felt like the one. I straightened my clothes, wanting to make a good impression. I opened it and a single orange rolled through the door and stopped at my feet.

  Epilogue

  “You two had better have on clothes under there,” Sophia said, shaking my shoulder. “Up. Up. Up. I see we’ll need to set new ground rules.”

  Nathan scrambled out of bed, fully clothed, of course. “We just slept together,” he said. Sophia gasped, and I laughed. “Literally slept!”

  I got out of bed to show my clothes, too. Sophia tossed Nathan his duffle bag.

  “Breakfast is ready. You have five minutes to get your butts to the kitchen before I come back up here to get you.”

  We laughed when she left, and he chased me into the bathroom for a smelly kiss. I grabbed my toothbrush first. “It’s going to have to happen eventually,” he said.

  “Gross,” I said, cringing at the thought of him tasting my morning breath.

  Nate sniffed under his arms, his toothbrush hanging out of his mouth. “I’m still good. I took a hobo bath last night before I woke you up.”

  I laughed and made him describe the specifics of a hobo bath. It shouldn’t be called a bath at all.

  “So … show me your powers,” he said.

  In our allotted five minutes, I moved two towels from the cabinet to us, showed him the fire, and then brought us downstairs. I was in serious need of a nap now.

  Emma ran to me when we landed. “Chris! I was so worried!”

  Her thoughts echoed that. I heard them immediately when she hugged me.

  “I was worried, too,” I said … because I wasn’t a creep who couldn’t hold a conversation anymore. Whitney would like Christine way better than Leah.

  “Can I, dude?” Paul asked Nathan, nodding to me.

  “Go ahead,” Nate said. Paul picked me up and hugged me, too. This time, he wasn’t thinking about my bra. He was just glad to be alive. “That’s enough,” Nate said.

  We met Sophia in the dining room. Emma pulled me to the seat next to her, across from Nate. There was an empty chair with a full plate at the opposite end of the table from Sophia. She was expecting someone else, I guessed. I hoped it was Remi.

  “First, Christine, everyone wanted to thank you again for being so brave,” Sophia said. I looked down at my plate, uncomfortable with the attention. “And Paul and Emma have something to ask you.”

  Emma grabbed my hand. “Please, please, please, please, let us stay here. We’ll pay,” she said.

  “I’ll do all the chores. Cut the grass. Anything you ask. Please,” Paul said. “I gotta get out of the house with my grandfather. He smells like mint and wrinkles.”

  “Watch your mouth,” Sophia said, pointing her fork at him.

  “Yes, you can stay. Oh, Emma, Sophia has a magazine with the perfect room for you,” I said. “It’s pink!” She smiled, and I gave her more good news—telling her about my collection of every predictable teen movie ever made. Nate wouldn’t have to watch them with me after all.

  I jumped when I heard the doorbell. The last time I’d heard a doorbell, I lost my boyfriend and my world crumbled. I could almost feel myself in pieces, too many to believe losing Nate had caused them all.

  Sophia answered the door. Emma and Paul jumped out of their chairs when she came back with the guest—the Honorable Lydia Shaw.

  I stood, too. I was the only one who remembered to bow.

  “Relax and sit down,” Sophia said. “This is my boss. She wanted to join us for breakfast to speak with you guys. Paul and Emma, I expect you to keep this from your parents like you do most things.”

  It was really awkward and tense as Lydia Shaw took the empty seat. Emma and Paul were still looking like she was about to cage them, and I … was staring at the woman I’d spent hours looking for in my dream.

  “Thanks for saving us, Lyd … uh should I call you Your Honor?” I asked.

  “Lydia will do.”

  I looked away because I was smiling too hard, like a crazed fan or something. I guessed since I’d wanted to see her so badly last night, I wasn’t too nervous to talk to her. How Lydia Shaw had gone from my biggest fear to an idol in my mind was beyond me.

  “On the news, you said you knew. Did you mean like you knew everything about me?” I asked. She nodded and lifted a forkful of eggs to her mouth. “And those things are … okay? My mother giving me powers and everything?”

  “It’s perfectly okay. I promise. Don’t worry.” She smiled at me, and I just stared because she was so pretty and so famous and … in my dining room. “The rest of you can relax too. I swear I’m not going to do anything to you,” she said. Sophia motioned everyone to eat. “Emma, isn’t it?”

  “Yes,” Emma whispered.

  “I met your parents once. Nicholas and Lacy Arnaud, correct?” she said. Emma nodded again, visibly terrified. “Sophia said you’re a nice girl and a very talented witch.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Nothing like my sister,” Emma said, nervous and loud. Lydia chuckled, like Emma didn’t need to offer that bit of information.

  “And Paul, you’re Sophia’s youngest grandchild?” she asked.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “I’ve known Sophia a very long time, and oddly, I have never met your parents,” she said. Sophia laughed. “Or any member of the Ewing family for that matter.” Sophia Ewing? I felt entirely too close to her not to know her last name until then. Or Paul’s. “I’m sure they’re wonderful, and you, too, Paul.” I hadn’t stopped staring. I just averted my eyes each time she looked my way only to stare again a moment later. “I wanted to talk to you all about Kamon, what you saw, and also to make sure you understand how incredibly dangerous it would be to ever contact Remi Vaughn again.”

  Kamon and Remi cast a dark cloud over our star-studded breakfast. We all promised the famous woman to never speak to Remi again. Now that she was in Kamon’s cult, she’d be our enemy forever because of my powers and their magic. She said, in a serious and terrifying voice, that if Kamon caught us again, even though she promised to be there if he did, he wouldn’t waste time blood testing and talking.

  “Christine,” she said. Why was I so excited to hear her say my name? It freaked me out. It reminded me of Remi salivating over Kamon saying her name. “If you ever get tired of having nosebleeds and want to practice your powers, let Sophia know. She’ll work you into my schedule.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, really.” I grinned at my eggs. I was going to learn more psychic powers from the best there was. I wouldn’t have to be afraid of Kamon or sedatives. “Nathan, you’re awfully quiet,” she said. He stammered through an apology. “How’s your back?”

  “Fine. Thank you.” He looked at me then at her, then back to his breakfast. “Christine and I are together,” he blurted out. “I love her. Please don’t hurt me.”

  She and Sophia laughed. Slowly, the rest of us joined in. “I know that. I’m psychic, remember? And it’s okay. As long as you don’t shift in public, you two will be fine.”

  “Thanks,” Nathan said, his hands still shaking.

  “Speaking of public, Christine,” Lydia said. “Since Sophia decided to so boldly take you from school in the midst of a crowd, it would be a great idea if you made an appearance to show the world you’re still alive.”

  “Appearance?” I asked.

  Sophia got up and put her hands on my shoulders, ma
ssaging them like I wasn’t going to like this.

  “Your school is interested in throwing you a welcome home party. It has been mentioned on the news already,” Lydia said.

  “Please. I really don’t want to go back,” I said.

  “Not back … back. They have agreed to let you finish the rest of your classes independently. You’ll only go for this party. Sophia, didn’t you say this was a good idea?”

  “Yes.” I looked back at the traitor. “Please, sweetheart. It will settle everyone and you’ll finally be able to move on with your life. Here, with your friends.” I groaned because I didn’t stand a chance of getting out of this with Sophia’s sweet voice along with a command from Lydia Shaw. “They can go with you. You won’t be alone.”

  “Fine,” I said.

  Emma, Paul, and Nate shook Lydia’s hand when she stood to leave. I had the urge to open my arms for a hug and freaked myself out. I settled for a wave. She seemed fine with that.

  When she left, me feeling oddly sad about it, Sophia gave us our new phone numbers that Remi didn’t have and gave Nate a new phone since his was stolen.

  Instead of watching movies, I helped Sophia and Emma with her room that was next door to mine. They had spells and snaps, and I had my mind … well until I was too tired, and then I had nothing. I needed to be penciled into Lydia’s schedule sooner than later if I was going to make this a normal part of my life.

  We moved on to Paul’s room downstairs. It was way easier. He just needed a bed and dresser, and he didn’t care if they matched.

  “Nate’s turn,” I said. Sophia passed the empty room next to Paul’s, across the hall from mine. We followed her downstairs, picking up Nate from in front of the TV on the way. She opened the back door, and I groaned.

  “You’ll be staying in the pool house, Nathan, and you have a curfew of eleven o’clock,” she told him. “You’ll never know when I’m watching, so you’d better sleep here every single night.”

  We didn’t laugh about the curfew until Sophia left to go to work—meeting freaking Lydia Shaw in Tokyo. We’d find a way around that rule. She hadn’t given me a curfew or said I couldn’t sleep in the pool house with him.

  Emma had the wonderful idea to turn one of the empty rooms downstairs into what she called The Girls Only room. It would be for movies and whatever else we decided to do in there. We covered the floor with pink and green pillows, her favorite color and mine. I had to crash on them after, completely exhausted.

  “In her old room, mounted on a wall, I summon a television that will be useful to us all,” she said, and it appeared. She clapped, and I added a listless hooray. “How about we get the boys to hook it up for us?”

  We watched the guy I loved and the guy she pretended not to love hook up the TV and move every movie they would never want to watch into our room.

  I realized it was the best day of my life some time around four. Emma and I had watched five terrible but awesome movies, and she’d somehow convinced me that we needed to learn the cheers from the last one. I sucked and had absolutely no coordination. She laughed when she saw that I’d resorted to watching and didn’t scold me for not trying like Whitney would have.

  Everything was perfect until Sophia came in and sucked all of the air out of the room.

  “Hurry and get dressed, loves,” she said. “I need to have you in New Haven by 7:30 their time.”

  Emma pulled out every shirt, dress, and skirt in my closet and scattered them across my bed.

  “No,” I said as she held up the mustard, see-through one.

  “Good, I’ll wear it.” She changed right in front of me, and I rolled my eyes. The shirt looked infinitely better on her. “What about this?” she asked, holding up a black and green polka-dot dress.

  “Okay. It’ll do.”

  “It’ll do? This stuff has tags that I don’t think Sophia would copy. Do you know how much she had to spend on this dress? Of your money, probably. I doubt she can just afford to splurge like this with all the people she takes care of.”

  “She was just trying to cheer me up, but I’m happy now, so how about you take this,” I said, handing her a pink blazer I didn’t think I’d wear. “And this. And this, too,” I said. She screamed and pulled the black mini skirt over her jeans, then pulled them off. The nuns were definitely going to hate her outfit.

  “Oh … that reminds me,” she said. She snapped twice and black pumps appeared in her hands. “Your shoes. Unless I can have these, too.”

  I stared at them. There was something inexplicably troubling about them.

  “Oh!” I covered my mouth, embarrassed. “I stole those from Lydia Shaw.” Her eyes widened and she threw them on my bed like she wanted nothing to do with them now. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’ll just give them back.”

  I threw a few pillows on top of them until I would turn them over to Sophia, ashamed of my theft from the famous woman.

  I told Emma about Sienna and Whitney and how unpopular I was while she plucked my eyebrows and forced mascara on me. With make up on, there was no way I was also putting on heels – stolen or my own. I went with black flats, toppling her strut in like a model to show how awesome my life is plan.

  We assembled in the living room. Sophia snapped and we landed in a SUV, all in our own seats.

  Cameras flashed in the window, and I groaned. Nathan turned around in the driver’s seat. “This is awesome! They think we drove in?”

  “Yes,” Sophia said. She reached over the seat from the third row and touched my shoulder. “Just breathe, dear,” she said. For a moment, my mind blanked. I stared at her, waiting to be reminded of when she’d said that before. Her eyes were watery then. I was panicking. It must’ve been when I was here last, when I decided I was evil enough to take two lives.

  Nathan opened his door and the press went nuts, snapping me out of the daze. Emma and Paul got out, too. I waited, like Sophia would change her mind and get me out of here.

  “Come back when you’re ready to go.”

  “I’m ready now.”

  She laughed. “Stay for a little while, dear. Call if I’m not inside,” she said. Nate opened my door, and I stepped out, causing an uproar of questions and flashing lights. I looked back to Sophia, but I couldn’t see inside the truck from out here.

  “Ten minutes after a heavily tinted vehicle arrives at the school, Leah emerges with three teenagers,” a reporter said, facing a camera, not us. Nate wrapped an arm around my waist as we pushed through the crowd.

  “Leah! Leah! Care to comment on were you’ve been?” Ken asked. I answered because Nate and I had watched him.

  “A few places,” I said.

  “What do you think about the rumors that a witch abducted you?” he asked.

  “I think it’s crazy,” I said.

  The cameras followed us into the gates and all the way to the doors of the main hall. Like I couldn’t hear them, they reported that my behavior (showing up looking glamorous with teenagers I shouldn’t know and holding hands with one of them) was suspicious. They added a new theory to the case—I’d run away all on my own and somehow used visual effects to pull off the flash of light.

  Paul opened the door, and I held my breath. The feel and smell of the building made me want to wrap my arms around myself and stare at my shoes. Like he’d sensed it, Nate tightened his arms around me. The nuns were waiting in the hall in front of the main office.

  Sister Margret approached me first. “Leah, I’ve been praying nonstop for you. I’m glad you’re safe.”

  “Thank you.”

  “I’m sorry that you won’t be returning. We wish you well.”

  Great. Could we go now?

  Sister Phyllis limped closer. “Her Honor said you requested that the things in your room be donated.” I nodded, even though Lydia had made that decision without me. It was the correct one. I didn’t want to go in there or take anything from my old life into my new one. “And we wanted to thank you for the wonderful i
dea to start an anti-bullying program and also for donating the rest of the money in your student account to that cause.” Another great idea that wasn’t mine.

  “No problem,” I said.

  They ushered us down the hall. “Chris, I have a cause. Would you like to donate?” Paul said.

  “What’s it called?” I said. “The boys with fancy scarves cause?” We cackled in the hall. It had the same effect as spitting on the floor, showing that I was over this place, this building, being Leah. I was completely relaxed when we came to the gym doors.

  Every head in the room turned to us. I looked up at the ridiculous banner that said: Welcome home, Leah.

  The girls I grew up with and the guys I’d never interacted with applauded over the music. I couldn’t focus on any of their faces. It reminded me of when I snapped, hallucinated, and beat up Remi.

  Slowly, the attention turned away from us and back to drinking punch and nodding to music.

  “This party is lame. Let’s spice it up, Em,” Paul said. He pulled her to the middle of the gym. Jaws dropped everywhere when they started dancing entirely too close together.

  “Do you want to dance?” I bucked my eyes, and Nate laughed. “Maybe later.” We sat at an empty table. The buzzing of human thoughts made my head spin. How had I done this all day, every day?

  When the devil walked over, I clutched Nate’s hand. “Want me to bite her?” he whispered.

  “Maybe.” We chuckled. It was the perfect moment for her to see. To meet Christine.

  Whitney trailed a few paces behind Sienna as they made their way to us.

  “So happy you’re alive,” Sienna said, with the fakest smile ever. “You look … different. Who’s your friend?”

  She looked back at Whitney, and they giggled.

  “Nathan. Her boyfriend,” he said. Neither of them believed him, but I was so over Sienna and Whitney and everything about them. In a week, I’d experienced real life and real problems, so they looked as small and insignificant as they had in my dream. I didn’t feel anything. Not sadness or rage. They, and everyone in this room, meant nothing.

  “Want some punch, babe?” I asked. Like the perfect boyfriend he was, he leaned in and kissed me. It was soft and quick but enough to make them gasp. He took my hand and pulled me between my former enemies. I didn’t need to look back to know I’d left them stunned.

  He fixed our cups and we perused the snack table. Emma and Paul were busy grinding on the dance floor. Paul took off his scarf and draped it around her back, pulling her closer.

  “Can we leave yet?” I asked.

  “We’ve been here all of five minutes, babe.”

  He snaked his arms around my stomach as he leaned on the table. He swayed slightly to the left, then to the right. I looked back and so did he, avoiding my eyes. “Stop trying to dance with me, Nate.”

  “Too late.”

  I let him dance, but I didn’t move much. I listened to the buzzing around me as he held on to me. They were all wondering how I’d managed to make friends while being kidnapped. The meanest ones were wondering how I’d manage to make friends at all. One voice was calling, no singing, my name.

  Christine. Oh … sweet … Christine. It was a girl. A familiar voice. Christine, I know you can hear me. Remi? I scanned the room. More couples had joined Emma and Paul on the dance floor. Emma inched lower to the ground, finally pushing Sister Margret too far. She looks nice in your clothes. I guess you stole my friend.

  I looked through the harmless students for her.

  I didn’t shiver. I wasn’t afraid. My heart shattered, breaking for her, wanting to bring her home with us.

  Then I saw her and my heart broke even more. She stood in front of the locker room door. Her dark hair was in a long braid. Her leather pants looked painted on, and her top was almost nonexistent. I had bras that covered more. No one seemed to see her but me.

  I looked back at Nate. His eyes were fixed on Paul and Emma getting lectured. He laughed, probably hearing it from here.

  It’s not over. My master wants you, and I begged to be the one to deliver you. I owe you one. She disappeared into the locker room, and I ran after her.

  I blew through the doors. “Remi!” I screamed. It felt like I had to save her from Kamon because there was no one to save my mother from his master. “Don’t go back! You’ll be his property!”

  It was silent except for a dripping faucet.

  “Chris!” Nate said, bursting through the door. “What’s wrong?”

  “I saw Remi. I thought … I saw her, anyway.”

  “She’s gone.” I jumped. Lydia Shaw crossed her legs on the wooden bench between the lockers. “I assumed Kamon would send someone here tonight since this has been all over the news, and you did exactly what she wanted you to do.” She stood, and I bowed like I was supposed to. Nate followed. “She saw me and jumped through the window she came in from.”

  “Why did you let her go? We need to help her.”

  “Not we. You belong in there, dancing with your boyfriend. Remi and Kamon are my problem. You are not a part of that world. Understood?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I said, sinking. I felt like I’d disappointed her, and it hurt. I’d stupidly run after Remi. It could have been a trap with sedatives involved. Thank God she was here to scare her off.

  “If I promise to do everything I can to help Remi, will you promise to ignore her?” I nodded. “Good. Nathan, great job of slowing yourself down out there, but keep a closer eye on her for me,” she said.

  “Yes, ma’am.” With her hand on my back, she led us to the door. It closed before I could say goodbye, and for some reason, that hurt too. “Chris, you scared the hell out of me.” I stood on my toes and kissed him on the cheek. “I accept your apology, but are you going to tell me what happened later?” I nodded and grabbed his hand. “Perhaps in the pool?”

  “I’d like that,” I said. His smile told me he’d love that.

  My sprint to the locker room hadn’t turned many heads. They were used to me being weird like that.

  My friends and I left the party an hour after we got there. The news crews snapped pictures and screamed for comments on our way out.

  Nate opened my door then climbed in the driver’s side. Sophia was stretched out on the backseat reading. “We’ll have to drive for a while until we’re not being followed, Nathan,” she said.

  I watched the chaos and the school shrink to nothing as we pulled away from it. I sighed, happy this whole mess was finally over.

  Emma held a tube of lip-gloss to her lips like a microphone. “Leah slash Christine slash Cecilia, what do you have to say to the people of the world. Certainly, you don’t appear to be a kidnapping victim? What have you been doing?”

  Everyone laughed at her fake reporter voice. She held the lip-gloss microphone to me, and I smiled.

  “Um … I’ve been away, figuring myself out,” I said. “And I’m not so bad.”

  ####

  Continue Christine’s story with Book Two, Lost, for .99 cents.

  From the Author

  Thank you so much for your interest in Hidden. I hope you enjoyed it.

  Check out my website and Goodreads page to rate, review, and discuss. Thanks again!

  More by M. Lathan

  Lost (Hidden Series Book Two)

  Shattered (Hidden Series Book Three)

  Awakened (Hidden Series Book Four) coming soon

  Connect with me online:

  Website: https://mlathan.com/

  Twitter: https://twitter.com/hiddenseries

  Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16155642-hidden

  Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/hiddenseries/

 
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