His eyes widened as he blew out a deep breath. “It was like I knew I had to get you, and then I was there. I remember the woman’s picture and that she was from Brooklyn. Maybe I assumed you were at the parade?”
“Or maybe Sarah wanted you there to see what she was going to do.”
Noah’s face flamed red. “What did she do?”
“Nothing,” I said, breaking eye contact in favor of examining the vents on his dashboard. “The red-headed lady interrupted things.”
When I looked at Noah again, his jaw was clenched. “Are you okay?”
“I am now,” I mumbled. I considered telling him about what I thought Sarah had planned to do with those street boys, but bit back the words. “The It Girls’ necklaces were glowing, so I figured they’d performed some kind of magic that put you under their spell.”
“They must have done voodoo to someone then,” he said. “But not me, unless she used all her energy to get me there.”
“That’s how it works, isn’t it? She casts her spells to charge those necklaces, and when the magic runs out, she can’t control anyone until she does another one.”
Noah scratched the side of his face and frowned. “Your guess is as good as any. I don’t know exactly how it works.”
“Does that worry you?”
“Yeah,” he said. “It does.” He sighed deeply. “But I’ve been more worried about other things.”
“So you aren’t the only one she can control,” I said, confirming my worst fears. “She could build an army against me, if she wanted to.”
“It’s not that simple,” he said. “I don’t think she’s strong enough to control that many people all at once. Whoever she wasted her energy on today prevented her from putting a hold on me. Otherwise I might not have been able to get us away from there. Which makes me think there are at least some limits to what she’s capable of.”
“Her hold on people is different with you, though.”
He pressed his lips together. “I think so,” he said. “I’ve never seen anyone become as affected by her as I am.”
“But why is she targeting you?”
Noah’s eyes glazed over. He stared past me, shaking his head. “I guess when I first met you…I…I hoped you would be able to figure it out. At first, I thought she only wanted to be popular. Because she had been such an outcast in middle school. But now she has all the recognition someone could ask for, and things are worse than ever.”
I nodded, taking it all in. “Whatever her reasons are, I doubt she’s going to stop. She had something planned in New York, and it won’t go away simply because we escaped back to Hackensack.”
“I know,” he said quietly.
We sat for a while, staring over the frozen lake. Sarah kept ruining everything. I half-expected to see her in zombie form peering at me from between the trees on the other side of the lake or something. For a moment, I would have sworn I saw something – her alter ego, the one that flashed in the window at the asylum – but it was only a shadow.
Chills prickled the hairs on my arms. I scooted next to Noah, and he wrapped his arm around me, engulfing me in his warmth. Inside him was a burning fire. That was what Sarah’s hold on him felt like. Hell.
I remembered what I read about voodoo – that black magic could only be used as revenge – then considered what Noah had said: her hold on him was stronger than on most people.
I peered up at him, one unspoken question still on my lips. One I couldn’t bear to ask.
What did you do?
12
WE ALL FALL
Irolled onto my side and pulled my comforter tighter around my body, curling my legs up to my chest. Holy hell, February was somehow colder than January. My eyes were shut, but rays of sun slanting through my window slapped my eyelids.
Wake up, brat.
I groaned and twisted in the other direction, away from the light. I’d been dreaming of Noah. My stomach tingled. I almost never met with him on weekends, and it hit me it was only Saturday. A whole two days away from the school week. Maybe I could sleep until Monday.
Was I really starting to look forward to school? Ugh. My head throbbed with thoughts of yesterday. Did all that actually happen? I was sure Sarah would love to learn I was asking myself that. Emily, the psychotic new girl with a mental health record a mile long. A record apparently not as confidential as promised. As if I had time to worry about that right now.
I shot up in bed, my comforter still wrapped around my shoulders. So much for sleeping in. I walked downstairs cocooned in my blanket and checked the thermostat.
“Broken,” came Dad’s voice from the kitchen.
I peeked in to catch him reading the paper and drinking coffee from a paper cup. A half-eaten muffin and some crumbs were scattered across a napkin on the table.
“Again?” I asked.
“Yup.”
He’d “fixed” it twice this month already. I told him the first time it needed to be replaced, but Dad had a way of wanting to Frankenstein things back into working.
“The thermostat or the heat?”
“I don’t know,” he mumbled, scribbling with one of his blue ink pens into his paper. “Maybe both?”
“Are you going to replace it?” I asked. “You can’t keep fixing it, Dad. Dead is dead. It’s not a vampire. Nothing good will come from bringing it back to life.”
“Hmm?” he replied. He wasn’t even paying attention.
“Forget it,” I said, hoping he would stop me before I stomped back up to my room.
But he didn’t.
I checked for texts from Noah, but instead found several from Heather: HEY and HEY, YOU UP? and TEXT ME WHEN YOU GET UP.
I shot off an I’M UP and set the phone on my nightstand while I tried to get dressed without dropping the comforter. I almost fell over, but managed to wrench on a pair of jeans, a shirt, and a hoodie without giving up the blanket.
My phone buzzed with a new message. Heather again.
I’M COMING OVER.
When she arrived, strolling into my room and rubbing her arms over her jacket, I was still hiding under my comforter.
“Why is it like a freezer in here?”
I pointed out the window. “Because it’s like a freezer out there? And ’cause my dad hasn’t fixed whatever is broken.”
Heather raised both eyebrows. “I should’ve had you come to my place.”
“If you could have gotten me out of bed,” I said, my teeth close to chattering.
Heather normally smiled at my jokes, but her lips didn’t budge. Instead, she slanted her I’m-worried-about-you look in my direction.
“What now?” I asked.
She shook her head, lips pressed together. Then she flopped down on the edge of my bed. “I’m not usually one to get involved in people’s relationships –”
“And that’s a great way to be,” I said, smiling hard in an attempt to erase whatever she was about to say. Apparently my smile didn’t possess any magical powers of influence.
“I always thought Noah was the shy, quiet type,” she said, peering over at me. “But now…”
I waved her off and went for the lightest tone I could muster. The complete opposite of what she was using on me. “I’m not into the shy and quiet type, ya know?”
“Clearly,” she mumbled. We sat in silence for a while before she added, “I’m not sure he’s safe for you to be around.”
“He is,” I said, matter of fact. If anything, it was unsafe for him to be around me.
“He seemed so intense the other night. And sort of controlling.”
“It’s not like that,” I said flatly. “Are you worried he would, like, tell me I can’t hang out with you or something? Is that what this is about?”
She whipped her gaze at me. “No,” she insisted. “It’s not about me, Emi
ly. Geez, can’t you ever take anything seriously?”
Perhaps I was a little sick in the head, but I derived some satisfaction knowing Heather and I were close enough friends she felt comfortable criticizing the aspects of my personality that she didn’t understand.
“I need you to trust me, Heather. As my friend, I need you to trust I wouldn’t get involved with some jerk-waffle. I think you know I wouldn’t.”
“I don’t think you would –”
“Good.” I pointed to her fingernails. “But see what all that worrying did to your nail polish? You’re a nail biter, aren’t you?”
She gave me a don’t-go-there look, but a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.
I tossed my comforter aside, braving the cold to retrieve my nail case. I selected a bright, lemon-yellow polish and gave it a good shake. It would contrast awesomely with her red glasses, which was exactly what I’d had in mind when I picked it up at the drugstore.
“Sunshine,” I said. “The color of friendship.” I dug through my messenger bag, found the frosted plastic tube I’d been saving, and held it up. “Should go good with Lizard Red.”
For a moment, her brow furrowed, confused. When I lobbed it toward her, she caught it and smiled.
“Got it in New York. It might not be the best lipstick you ever own,” I said, “but it will probably be the most expensive.”
Finally, Heather laughed, and for the briefest of moments, life was perfect.
When I arrived at school on Monday, Sarah was sitting in Noah’s homeroom seat, smirking.
“Looking for Noah?” she asked sweetly, batting her eyelashes. “I heard he caught a bad case of the flu.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I can only imagine how.”
She put a hand to her chest and whipped her silky blonde hair over her shoulder. “Don’t blame me! I don’t control the weather.”
“Not the weather, no.”
She scowled. “You know, I worry about these little fantasies of yours. What exactly is it that you think?” She leaned across the desk, hands flat, blood-red nails contrasting sharply with her creamy pale skin. She tapped them against the wood and said in a low voice, “There’s nothing you can do. Everybody owes me something, Emily. One day, even you.”
A shudder iced up my spine, and I froze, fighting to maintain my composure. She wanted to scrape my already raw nerves, and I couldn’t let that happen.
I considered pointing out to Mr. Dougherty that Sarah wasn’t supposed to be in this class. Knowing he would have felt I was challenging his intelligence more than Sarah’s misplacement, I clamped my mouth shut and slumped in my seat and spent the rest of homeroom drawing. At some point, I must have fallen into one of my trances, because when the bell rang, I came to, and there was Sarah, staring up at me from a page in my sketchpad.
I glanced over and realized she’d noticed, too. But instead of making some cutting remark, she gathered her books to her chest and hurried from the room.
She probably knew about my gift, which meant she knew to be scared. But should she be scared of me? Or my drawings? And which of us should be more scared – her or me? Right now, no one for sure knew about my little secret besides Dad and Noah. But had Sarah somehow found out? Or was I reading too much into this? The pit in my stomach exploded into something the size of a cannonball.
I shoved my books into my messenger bag and slung it over my shoulder. I paused long enough to send Noah a text, even though that was probably a bad idea. I bet Sarah had been messing with him since she returned from New York. And now my guess was she had something awful planned for me, too – whatever it was she hadn’t succeeded in making happen yet.
DO YOU REALLY HAVE THE FLU?
I didn’t wait for Noah’s response. Just shoved the phone into the side pocket of my bag, tucked my hair behind my ears, and started toward second period for chemistry. Sarah was at her locker, fumbling with some books. One of them tumbled from her pile to the floor.
The book that fell was black, and there was something strange about the binding. Was it…was it made from bones?
Before I could get a good look, she snatched it up and pushed it into her locker, slammed the door, and took off. But the locker door popped right back open.
I took a step closer and nudged the door open wider. Through the crack, I spied the book she had dropped. Glancing up, I saw she’d turned the corner, so I pulled the metal door open all the way. Setting my bag at my feet, I tried appearing as though this was the locker I went to every day. In reality, anyone paying attention would know it wasn’t. This locker belonged to the most popular girl in school – and that certainly was not me. I needed to hurry.
Retrieving the book, I saw Sarah’s last name – Williams – in barely legible letters pressed into the leather. Finger-like bones spread across the front and back covers from the spine, and my fingertips tingled with dark energy.
This was her book. This was where I might find the answers. Then I could destroy it.
But something didn’t feel right. Finding this had been easy. Too easy. Sarah didn’t get where she was by being careless, and one doesn’t simply drop a book containing all of their evil secrets from their school locker.
I started to lift the corner of the cover, wanting to peek inside, when Mom’s voice floated through my head. The warning she had given me before she died.
Promise me, Emily – promise me that you will be careful. Temptation is a dangerous illusion. I answered when it beckoned, and now…now look at me.
If I opened this and read the pages, that would be a huge invasion of privacy – which, don’t get me wrong, was not something I usually worried about. In this case, though, it might mean giving Sarah the power over me she hoped for.
Suddenly I knew. This wasn’t an opportunity; this was a trick. I quickly shoved the book back into her locker and closed the door.
“Damn her,” I whispered under my breath. She was baiting me. This was how she got people under her control. She tricked them into wronging her so she could use her voodoo magic as revenge.
Clever. I would have to be more careful. Whatever she had planned, it was evil enough that she wanted to play a more direct hand. No more having others do her bidding. But I wasn’t about to give her that opportunity.
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out. A new message from Noah.
MEET ME AFTER SCHOOL. C HALL EXIT.
I typed back SEE YOU then ran to my next class just in time for Mrs. Walters to glare at me for being late.
I couldn’t keep living like this. Noah and I needed a plan. Preferably one that wouldn’t backfire and land me under Sarah’s control.
You don’t look good,” I told Noah after we pulled into the clearing by the lake.
Dark circles shadowed his blood-shot eyes and his golden-brown curls were plastered to his forehead with sweat.
“Thanks,” he mumbled. “I can’t sleep.”
“Take some valerian root. That always knocks me out.” My mom was really into natural remedies, and that had been one of her favorites.
Noah didn’t seem impressed. He glared at me. “I can’t.”
“Oh.” I put my hand on his. “Hey –”
He pulled his hand away. “She’ll kill you if she has to.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t think –”
“Yeah?” he said, swinging an angry gaze toward me. “Well I do.”
“Why?” I asked. “Sarah’s already got what she wants.”
“No,” Noah said softly. “Sarah can control my actions, but she can’t control my heart. She’s not going to stop until she’s taken away everything that makes me my own person.”
It took a moment for the words to sink in. Even then, I wasn’t sure what he meant, and I was too nervous to ask. I could only look at him, his eyes searching my face for something. I didn’t know wh
at.
“It doesn’t end well for her,” I said finally.
He furrowed his eyebrows as I reached into my bag, pulling out my sketchpad. I opened to the picture I’d drawn of Sarah’s furious expression, hell glinting in her stony eyes.
“She’s gonna lose everything,” I whispered, my fingertips roving over the harsh pencil lines on the page.
Noah scooted close enough to rest his cheek against the top of my head. “Before we do?”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head. “My gift is pretty limited. It’s never helped me before, and I still don’t know how it’s supposed to save you.”
When I felt him pull away, I peered up at him. He was chewing on his lip, staring across the lake.
“I have an idea,” he said, nodding as though trying to convince himself of something. His attention snapped back to me, determination in his eyes. “I want to bring you somewhere. To meet someone.”
“Can we do that? Without Sarah finding out?”
“Kind of.” Noah rubbed his hand over the side of his face, flatting his overgrown sideburns as he scraped against the soft shadow of his jaw. “Do you think your dad would let you go away for a weekend?”
“With you?” I asked.
He smiled, fast and mischievous. “You wouldn’t even ask him, would you?”
“I wouldn’t ask him if I could go with you,” I said slyly. “But I’d ask him if I could go.”
Noah groaned and dropped his head back. “If he finds out I put you up to this, he’ll hate me.”
“But if we don’t go, you’ll probably never meet him.”
He skipped over his response to that with, “I know someone who might be able to help you with your gift.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “She’s the one who told me to find you.”
I recognized that apologetic frown of his. “Oh, don’t worry. We can skip all that. That whole ’how at first you were using me, then you fell for me, and now you want to be with me’ bit.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I fell for you?”
My cheeks burned. “You know what I mean.”
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