I’M OKAY. I’LL EXPLAIN WHEN I GET THERE. SORRY I DISAPPEARED.
As I dropped my phone back into my bag, a snake slithered across the sidewalk in front of me. I jumped back with a shriek as it hissed. What in God’s name was a snake doing in the middle of Brooklyn?
I jogged past it and called 4-1-1 to connect me to a taxi service. I didn’t care which one. The cab company wanted to know where I was.
“I don’t know, exactly.”
“Listen, Miss –”
“Please, give me a second, and I’ll give you the next cross street.”
“Call back when you know something,” they said, and the call disconnected.
I stared at the phone in my hand, awash in disbelief.
I rubbed my hands together for warmth and started walking as fast as I could in the direction I hoped was the way I’d come. Up ahead, a few men crowded the sidewalk. I tried to skirt around them, but one stepped in my way, putting both of his arms out to the side.
“Hey, baby, where you going?”
Another closed in from behind me. “What’s the rush? Why don’t you hang with us?”
There were more of them than there was of me, and that alone made the hairs on my neck standing on end. I didn’t think for a second they wanted to be friendly, surrounding me like that. They wanted to intimidate me. And it was working.
“I’m sure you guys are lovely people, but I gotta go.”
They laughed, two of them slapping hands in a sideways high five.
I tried again to go around them, but the first guy grabbed my arm. “What, you think you’re too good for us?”
“No, but I’m meeting –”
He studied me, his head weaving in front of my face. “Who you meeting, boo? Whoever it is can wait. Guys like us are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
The second guy pressed closer. “Yeah, I got something for you, girl. Let me show you what’s up.”
I had an idea what was “up,” and I wasn’t down for it. Panic rising in my chest, I searched for a way out of the situation or for someone who could help, but there was no one. Except for the black-hooded figure. This time I could see her silky blonde hair peeking out. And her face.
Sarah. Her necklace glowed. These guys weren’t going to let up. And now I knew why: She wasn’t going to let them.
Without many options to consider, I elbowed the guy behind me and shoved past the one blocking my path. When someone tried to grab for my arm, I snapped it away and took off.
I wasn’t one hundred percent sure how it all worked, but my guess was Sarah had recently recharged her magic, or whatever it was she did to be able to control people. And that spelled trouble. It also meant I was on the clock if I wanted to stop her before she hurt Noah, or anyone else, again.
I didn’t stop running until a car honked. I glanced over to see the lady from the shop.
“Need a ride?” she asked.
I peered over my shoulder. The street boys were nowhere to be seen. “I shouldn’t take rides from strangers.”
She nodded. “You shouldn’t walk around Brooklyn by yourself, either,” she countered. “Here.”
She handed me her driver’s license.
“What’s this?”
“Take a picture. Send it to someone you trust – if you disappear, it’s on my head.”
I glanced behind me again. Although I still couldn’t see Sarah’s puppets from earlier, at this point I felt a lot safer with the carrot-top lady than I did out here alone.
I checked her I.D. It matched her face. I snapped a photo and texted it to Noah with a note that said IF I GO MISSING, TALK TO THIS LADY, then I hopped in her car and belted up.
“Thank you,” I mumbled.
“Where to?” she asked.
“Chinatown. Actually, Little Italy. I came for the parade.”
“Did you?” she asked, a note of skepticism in her voice.
I pressed my lips together. “I should call my friend.”
When Heather answered, I evaded all her questions long enough to get her to agree to meet me back at the restaurant. Apparently she had taken off searching for me. The knots in my stomach would make any Boy Scout jealous. What if she had ended up in the same situation as me, without a redheaded occult shop employee to come to her rescue?
“See you in ten,” I said and hung up.
When the lady dropped me off, I tried to give her money for gas, but she refused.
Stay safe,” she said. “That’s all I ask.”
I watched her pull away then turned in a slow circle. The parade was already under way. I pushed my way into the throng of people. Little kids dressed as pandas and adults in bright yellow and red gowns filled the street, everyone clanging tambourines and banging large drums. The crowd was a sea of painted faces, of shouts and squeals and laughter, of children on parents’ shoulders and people holding up signs. I couldn’t see far enough ahead to know if I was getting closer to the restaurant where I had agreed to meet Heather.
A familiar face popped up in front of me, and it took a moment for recognition to settle in. The twin with short hair. Jessica or Abigail, it didn’t matter. All that mattered was seeing her meant the It Girls were in New York, not just Sarah.
The girl’s necklace glowed, too, which meant they were charged with whatever magic they possessed. I needed to find Heather, get her home, and make sure Noah was safe.
I cut to the left, but came face to face with the other twin, so I doubled back and found myself right in the middle of the parade. A large dragon bobbed past as I spun around, trying to find a way out or through. But the twins stood on the side, and I was surrounded by floats and marchers and dragons.
I grabbed a mask on a stick from a little boy’s hands and held it up to my face, ignoring the yells of “Hey! Give that back!” as I jumped onto the back of one of the floats. I climbed over and across and dropped down on the other side, then ran as fast as I could to the nearest street corner.
It took a moment to orient myself, but seconds later, I spotted another It Girl. Kate’s fiery red hair sprung through the crowd like ribbon curls as she sped toward me, leaping over people and roadblocks like some kind of triathlete, the same smoky glow emanating from her necklace.
How long until Sarah made it back, too? Her minions were frightening, but she was the one who truly terrified me.
As I broke out of the crowd, I could just make out Heather on the opposite side of the street. Sarah stood behind her. Thing One and Thing Two – the twins – popped up in front of me.
“Have you seen Heather?” they asked.
I dropped the mask only for it to be stomped on by the next person, then pushed the twins out of the way to run toward Heather. Sarah dipped into a small restaurant as I approached. Was she hiding? Why?
“We need to get out of here,” I shouted over the horns and drums and chatter. I grabbed Heather, pulling her behind me. To where, I didn’t know.
“Geez, Emily!” She yanked her hand back. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
I searched in every direction, but the It Girls were nowhere in sight. Where did they go? It made me more nervous, not being able to see them.
“I’ll explain later, I promise.” I took her hand again. “Please, trust me.”
I didn’t deserve her trust. But for whatever reason, Heather’s expression softened. “Okay. Calm down. We’ll head back.”
Just as we arrived at the train station, Noah’s old blue truck screeched to a halt in front of us, sending Heather, me, and a few other people on the sidewalk jumping back.
Noah’s commanding voice came through the open window.
“Get in!”
11
WHAT DID NOAH DO TO SARAH?
My heart rattled. If I was panicked by my run-in with the It Girls, now I was in full-on meltdown mode. W
as this my Noah? Or Noah, Sarah’s puppet?
It’s a sad day when you fear getting into your would-be boyfriend’s car more than you did getting into the car of a stranger who works at some occult shop.
Heather was already grabbing the truck’s door handle, but I snatched her hand back. “Don’t.”
She looked as if I’d grown a third ear. “What, you want to take the train? It smells!”
I shook my head, unable to explain.
Noah leaned across the Chevy’s cab and pushed open the passenger door. “Emily, it’s me.”
I wanted to believe him.
“Come on, brat. Let’s take you home.”
And that’s how I knew. Sarah could control his actions, make him say things he didn’t want to say, but she couldn’t fake his personality. To do that, she would need to at least care a modicum about who Noah was as a person, which would’ve required a shred of common decency.
I climbed in and scooted to the middle as Heather followed behind. Noah glanced in the rearview at the same time I did. Behind us Sarah stood in the street, her face contorted by rage.
Noah slammed his truck into gear. As he careened through the next two turns, his hands gripped the steering wheel and his jaw clenched so hard it looked made of stone. But seeing him brought me enough peace to calm down everything except the way my heart clamored at the sight of him.
He’d saved me. But only because I’d been looking for a way to save him. Hmm. I wasn’t sure if that made being a damsel in distress now better or worse. What had Sarah planned to do? I can only imagine what she’d wanted to accomplish with those jerks by the occult shop.
Things did not bode well for me. Not with the depth of danger I was in now that I was on Sarah’s hit list. I didn’t only have to worry about what she or the It Girls might do to me; I also had to worry about what she might make other people to do to me while under her spell. She’d done it with Noah, but he wasn’t the only one she could control.
If I understood correctly, she could only control people who wronged her. That must be why her attacks against me were never direct. She couldn’t use voodoo against me – not directly – and she wasn’t willing to sacrifice everything by attacking me herself.
It was only a theory, but it was the best I had. Truth was, I couldn’t quite figure it all out. How had Noah gotten so close to her without her controlling him? Clearly her magic had been out in force today? Shouldn’t she have been able to place him under her spell? Or did it not work that way?
Noah wove through the crowded streets until we made it to the highway. I must have lost more time than I realized, because it was getting dark out. His palpable anger was enough to keep us all from talking, and I tried not staring at him as he drove. I didn’t want to be that girl.
Finally, he spoke. “Are you okay?”
“Mostly,” I said. I glanced at the speedometer; the car’s speed increased more with each mile driven. “Are you?”
“No,” he said through pursed lips.
I clenched my hands tighter in my lap and stared at the stretch of highway ahead, at the flow of light and dark from the streetlamp and the blur of telephone poles and wires. Heather’s body trembled next to mine, her hand gripping the edge of the seat. I owed her an apology, but the words stuck in my throat.
Noah gave me a sidelong glare as we passed under another exit sign. “You didn’t tell me you were going to New York.”
“No,” I said. “I didn’t.”
His hand slid down the side of his face. “Anything else you’re not telling me?”
“What about you?” I shot back, my irritation growing by the second.
His hands wrapped tighter around the steering wheel. “That’s not fair,” he said with a scowl, “and you know it.”
I reached over and turned on the radio. He immediately snapped it back off.
“Never do that again,” he said.
“Turn on the radio?”
“Go off without telling me where you’re going!” he nearly shouted. Then, in a quieter voice, “For now, at least. With things the way they are.”
Heather shifted next me and cleared her throat, and Noah shut up. There wasn’t much more either of us could say with Heather in the truck, so we drove the rest of the way in silence.
All the lights were on in Heather’s house. Her dad stood in the living room, blinds open, arms crossed, staring out at us in the window. His beard seemed grayer than I remembered from this morning.
Great. I was going to be the kid parents warned their children about. Or forbid them from seeing at all. And this time it wouldn’t even be “because that Emily girl is a compulsive liar.” Or like that one time when a friend’s parents actually thought my name was Ryder Soren, so it was “because that Ryder girl is a compulsive liar.” It wasn’t the best of my aliases.
By the way Heather hurried out of the truck when we dropped her off, it was safe to say Noah and I had made her uncomfortable. Or she’d seen her dad from where we parked.
Probably both.
I scooted over the passenger side and called out the window. “Talk to you tomorrow?”
She turned back for a brief moment and said, “Sure,” before rushing into her house.
Now clearly wasn’t a good time to tell her I bought her a new lipstick. I slunk back in my seat and sighed.
Noah raked his hand through his dark hair. “You okay?”
“Maybe I should be asking you the same thing.”
“I don’t recommend it.”
Before I could say anything else – not that I planned to – he was pulling out of Heather’s driveway and back onto the street. He’d finally stopped driving as if he was in a race; now we were going ten miles under the speed limit.
“I suppose you want to go home?” Noah asked in a defeated tone.
“No,” I choked out.
He nodded slowly. “You scared me.”
“Yeah, well…”
He shook his head and reached over to put his hand over my eyes. “We’ll talk when we get there. Close your eyes. Please.”
At least his manners were making a comeback. I definitely liked polite Noah more than pissed-off Noah.
After another five minutes, he told me to open my eyes. He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes then slumped against his steering wheel with his head on his forearms.
“Okay, Emily. I give up. Tell me what’s going on.”
As I considered how to approach my confession, I stared down at my nails. The bright purple from my rainbow had chipped. There was probably a metaphor in there somewhere, but I wasn’t feeling philosophical as much as I was feeling drained.
Telling Noah what I learned would be like the time I jumped from the cliff into the quarry in eighth grade. I knew I wouldn’t get hurt, but I had to work up the courage before taking the plunge. Once I was mid-leap, though, there was no going back.
That was where I was now. I had no reason not to tell him all I knew. It would make things easier, wouldn’t it?
“I know,” I said quietly.
He lifted his face from where he’d buried in his arm. “Know what, Emily?”
“What Sarah’s doing to you.”
His head slid farther to the side, making his whole face visible now. “What’s she doing to me?”
“Don’t you know?”
He sat up, and his head fell back against the cab’s window. “I do. But I can’t say it.”
I pulled one leg up on the seat and turned toward him. “Why not?”
“If you know what you think you know, I shouldn’t have to explain that.”
“Well,” I said, my shoulders slouching. “Then I guess I don’t know everything. But I know enough.”
“Then spit it out already.” Noah was getting frustrated.
“Voodoo.”
; His eyebrows knit together. “What about it?”
“Sarah’s using voodoo to control you. Isn’t she?”
“Yes, she is.” His whole body visibly relaxed. “And part of that means forcing me into silence. I couldn’t say it. Literally. You had to figure it out.”
Well, that was simple. “I see. But she doesn’t control you all the time?”
Noah chewed his lip. “She doesn’t control my actions all the time, but some things never go away. I don’t know if it’s her…or something bigger. But I couldn’t tell you. I swear, Emily, I would have told you if I could.”
I slid my hands over my thighs to the top of my knees and took a deep breath. “I know you would have.”
“So how did you find out? When did you find out?”
Maybe the answers to those questions were why I had been afraid to tell him. It meant I didn’t like lying to him, even on accident – which was a start.
“Last weekend I went to the asylum –”
“After I specifically told you not to?”
Yep. There it was. I’d pissed him off.
“After you promised you wouldn’t go?” he continued.
With a jut of my chin, I said, “I changed my mind after Sarah made you kiss me.”
The color drained from Noah’s face.
“Don’t get pouty,” I said. “I’m not mad at you, but you don’t get to be mad at me. This doesn’t only affect you.”
“I don’t want to see you hurt,” he said meekly.
“You won’t be able to see me at all if we don’t do something about Sarah,” I insisted. “I went to the asylum I figured she was going to, and I saw her. Then I started researching the clues, and then I went to New York to try to get more answers and –”
“Did you?” he interrupted. “Get more answers, I mean?”
I shook my head. “All I got was more questions. Why was Sarah there?”
Noah rubbed his temples. “I have no idea. All I know is I received that text from you, and I got worried.”
“How did you find me?”
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