by Tara Brown
“Yeah, Blake too,” she repeated. “Let's do this. I'll text Aimes to come to the house and see Giselle. You can do the mind thingy there, and then when we go do the push, we’ll hit Blake.”
“Okay.” I stood with dread and walked to my room. I pulled the book from under the bed, the book no one knew I had. I turned the old fragile pages slowly.
That’s dark magic, O.
I turned back to my sisters. “I'm not doing it. I'm looking for something. I need to fix things. You guys stay with Trist, okay?”
Ophelia, dark magic pulls the darkness into you. Every piece you take in kills off some of the light.
“I need darkness to kill my own mother anyway.”
Not the same way. Please be safe, little sister. Our freedom lies with you.
“I will. Everyone's freedom, happiness, and everything else sits with me.” I skimmed over the page once more and closed the book. I pushed it under the bed and spelled the area again. Even Tristan wouldn’t find it.
I shut my eyes and walked to the room, practicing using the air to guide me, like Annabelle and my sisters did.
Opening the door to Giselle's room confirmed it all, removing my doubt. I was certain we were making the right decision. She was a hot mess.
Ari walked in behind me and stopped when she saw Giselle. “Yikes,” she whispered.
“We need to do this fast. Did you text Aimes?” I whispered.
“I did.” She nodded.
“So we driving there after this?”
“Driving.” Ari sighed.
“Who is?” Aimee interrupted us. “Driving where?”
I glanced back and smiled sweetly. “Ari. She doesn’t know how to drive. I learned from my dad, like my dad, dad. I was gonna teach her. You wanna come?”
“No.” Aimee’s eyes never left the tossing and turning monster on the bed. “I have to get back to Aleks. He’s almost done going over the last few hundred years.”
I touched the side of her face. She turned sharply. I locked her gaze with mine and held her arm. Her gray eyes stared blankly at me. “The compulsion Giselle put on you to remember everything when Ari pushed is gone. You won't remember this moment either. When you arrive in Port Mackenzie and touch your feet on the soil there again, you will forget all Roses and all feelings for them and never again be controlled or affected by them.” I envied her as I said it.
My magic burned my fingers as it crept from me into her arm. It left me like a vine growing out of me and flowing into her. Her eyes fluttered for a moment. I was unsure if it would work on her. I dropped my hand and waited. Ari eyed me nervously.
Aimee’s eyes gained focus and she scanned around the room. “So you, uhm, what? Where am I? How did I get here?” She sounded lost.
“You need to get back to Maine, you said.” Ari forced a smile on her lips.
Aimee blinked and muttered weakly, “That was weird.” Her eyes settled on Giselle. “How is she?”
“Bad. She just can't seem to quench the thirst.” Ari sighed.
Aimee's eyes lowered. “I better get back to Maine.”
“See you in a bit. I'll get Phillip to bring me back in like an hour.” Ari’s voice broke a couple of times as she lied. Their eyes met and it was as if they both knew it was the last time they would ever see each other.
“Okay.” Aimee was gone just as Ari's eyes filled with tears.
Ari didn’t cry. I'd noticed it before. Everyone died and everyone was hurt and everything got emotional, all the time. But not Ari.
She was always stoic.
Her tears were harder to take than anyone’s.
I hurried to Giselle and did the same thing I had done to Aimee. Just as I finished, Phillip opened the door. “What are you two doing in here?”
“Nothing.” I glanced back at him. “Just making sure she’s okay. Wanna give us a lift somewhere?” I glanced at Ari. “The drive will take hours. We can’t waste the time.”
Ari nodded as Phillip’s eyes narrowed skeptically. “Why do you two look like that?”
“We just can't take how this is all turning out.”
He appeared unconvinced but Ari's tears seemed to bother him enough. He put a hand out. I grabbed it. Ari pulled her phone from her pocket and showed him the picture. The air moved and we were standing on a windy dock. The ocean was choppy and gray. It was freezing.
“Where the hell are we?” He shivered.
“Maine,” Ari lied. The gray coastline could have fooled anyone.
“You guys okay here?” Phillip didn’t look impressed.
“Yeah, we’re fine.” Ari hauled her hood up. “We just need to check on some shit. Thanks.”
“Don't say anything, okay? I don’t want Oliver to know I'm out and about.” I played it off like it was nothing.
He rolled his eyes. “Dad's a bit intense lately. See ya back at the house.” He was gone with a whoosh and we stood on the cold wooden wharf.
“I sent a text to Blake to meet us. We should hurry.” Ari pointed. “It's this way.”
We walked through a quaint town. I struggled to see Aimee as one of these people. She was too classy and city to be a bumpkin like me.
Ari didn’t talk. I didn’t expect her to. She was devastated. She cried two more times on the walk, drying her face when we reached the door of a house with big windows in the front. She took a deep breath and rolled her shoulders before climbing the stairs and closing her eyes as she knocked.
A sweet-looking man, with a haunted look on his face answered. He sounded stuffy. “Hello?”
Ari smiled through her glassy eyes. “Hello, Mr. James. My name is Ari.”
“Ari!” His eyes lit up. “Aimee's Ari?”
“Yeah. I was in town and thought I would stop in and say hello.”
He grabbed her hand and pulled her inside. “Come in. Both of you. Please. Blake just arrived. He said some of Aimee's friends were coming over.”
I hated the fear in my guts as I climbed the stairs. My eyes scanned around the quiet neighborhood as I closed the door and locked it. What we were doing seemed so wrong.
Chapter 7
Part A of the plan
Aimee
My head still felt funny. I kicked a rock and circled the log house once more. Everything felt fuzzy.
“Aimee?” Aleks spoke in a panicked tone, one I’d never heard before. He ran toward me, flustered.
My stomach was a tight ball. “What?”
“Don’t leave me.” He flashed and scooped me up, gripping me to his chest. “I'll find you again. I swear I will.” He pressed his face into mine.
I pulled back. “What’s your deal?”
He swallowed. “Ari. She just sent me this.” He showed me the message on his cell phone.
“Oh my God.” My eyes widened. “My dad.”
I was mid wink when the world stopped. Aleks’ arms became sparkles in the air, clutching me. Everything moved slowly. His lips spoke in slow motion and the sounds were muffled.
“ARI!” I spun, trying desperately to hold on to him. His body passed through mine.
I spun faster.
Everything made sense.
O and Ari had made me come to them so Ari could say goodbye. I thought the look in her eyes was sorrow for Sam. But it was for me.
I closed my eyes and let the spinning take me. I didn’t know where I would wake up when it stopped. Or what the world would look like.
A voice broke through the spinning world.
“AIMEEEEEEEEE!” he screamed.
But it wasn’t Aleks.
It was someone else.
The darkness took me and everything changed.
Chapter 8
This is not part of Plan B
Port Mackenzie
Aimee
My eyes fuzzed out. I blinked and tried to focus on what I was doing, but I was lost for a second.
“Aimes, you going tonight? Hello?”
“What?” I glanced up at my mom. “Yeah. I think so. Bla
ke wants to go.” Everything felt weird for a minute. I inhaled through my nose and noticed it right away. I could smell my mom. There was mix of old perfume, laundry soap, and her clothes. It tugged at my heart but I didn’t know why.
I got up from the computer and wrapped my arms around her, taking a deep breath. The scent of her and the feel of her warm skin made me hungry.
“Honey, are you okay?” She chuckled and hugged back, giving me the mom hug that involved more patting than hugging.
“I think I had a bad dream last night,” I muttered. Starvation almost crippled me, making me clutch my stomach. “I need something to eat.” I walked away from her and stumbled down the stairs to the kitchen and poured a heaping glass of chocolate soy milk. I drank the glass and then finished the carton off. I lowered it and burped. The hunger was burning my belly and the milk didn’t make it better.
“Gross.” Alise scoffed. “No wonder you’re painfully single.”
“Just like all the hair products are why you’re painfully dumb.” I burped a second time and rubbed my belly. “I’m starving.”
“That’s because you don’t eat meat.” Alise mocked me as the doorbell rang.
She left to answer it as I opened the fridge and grabbed a block of cheese and pulled off a hunk. I took a bite, but it wasn’t what I wanted. I tossed the cheese I had broken off into the trash and put the rest back in the fridge.
I couldn’t seem to satisfy my hunger.
“Aimes, we're leaving now,” Alise spoke impatiently.
“Okay.” I scrutinized my reflection in the glass on the wall-mount stove. “Coming.” Something was different. I just couldn’t put a finger on it.
Sighing, I left the kitchen.
Mom was standing at the bottom of the stairs, smiling. “You sure you want to do this?”
“Yeah. I sort of have to. It's the last party of the year. I leave for Harvard in a few months. It’s cool.”
“Mom, don’t discourage her. One party every five years is bad enough.” Alise kissed our mom and turned to walk out of the house.
I grimaced as she sauntered in those strappy silver wedges and tiny silver shirtdress. “Besides, someone has to make sure the hot mess comes home.”
Mom laughed. “Oh, you know what she’s like.”
“I do.” I grinned. “Aunt Karen.”
“Let's just pray she doesn’t end up in Vegas dancing like Aunt Karen.”
“Responsible parents would have crushed her wickedness years ago. I blame you both.” I scoffed.
Mom hugged me tightly to her and laughed. “One day, Aimes, you're going to see that the crazy spirit inside her means well.”
“No way.” I went out the door. “I'll text if she gets out of control. Tell Dad to be ready.”
“It’s just me.” She winced. “He’s in Portland for the night. He won't be home until tomorrow. I’ll come and get you if I have to.”
“We'll be fine.” I didn’t know what the reason was, but I didn’t want her leaving the house. I had a terrible feeling in my stomach.
“Aimee, haul ass,” Alise shouted from her car.
Mom waved and blew kisses, closing the door.
“Shut up.” I climbed in and buckled up. “I want you to pick up Blake first.”
Her face glowed. “Whatever. You two dorks better not do anything dorky tonight.”
“We made a deal, Alise. You have to be nice to me and Blake and do my laundry according to washing instructions for a month. Calling us dorks is not nice.”
Glancing back at our house as we drove away, I couldn’t shake the déjà vu. Alise drove like a maniac, picking up everyone. She pulled up to Giselle's last and honked.
“Dude, this car’s full. We're picking her up too?” I didn’t see where we would fit her.
“Stop.” Alise waved a hand dismissively at me. “Stop annoying me. I didn’t know she was coming. She wasn’t feeling well earlier.”
“She’s sick and you're letting her come in the car with us all packed in here? We're all going to get sick.”
Alise shot me a glare. “Shut it.”
“Whatever,” I groaned as Giselle opened my door and raised her eyebrows.
“You're in my seat.” She pointed at me like I was a disgusting peasant.
“Aimes, it’s a proven fact the people in the back seat have better survival odds,” Blake murmured as I climbed out of the beater and squished into the back seat. My face was on fire when I realized I was sitting on Blake's and Tommy's knees.
“You look good for a nerd.” Tommy mouth breathed all over me.
“You look good considering you only just learned to walk upright.”
His eyes narrowed. “Easy, nerd girl. I was just trying to pay you a compliment. You clean up nice.”
I glimpsed down at the tee shirt I was wearing. “Gee, thanks.” What I wanted to say was lucky me but I didn’t want him to take it seriously.
Blake laughed, drawing Tommy’s attention. “McGinnis, dude, you're huge. Way too big for the back seat. What are you, six-one?”
Blake scowled. “Six-three.”
“You should try out for the basketball team when you go to college.” Tommy grinned at him.
Blake gave me a desperate look.
“He isn’t very coordinated.” I tried to end the discussion.
Tommy shrugged. “Too bad.”
“What are you wearing, by the way?” Blake whispered when Tommy leaned forward and started bugging my sister and Giselle.
“Nothing.” I growled at the stupid shirt and jeans Alise had assaulted me with. “She attacked me. Makeup and all.”
“Must have been savage.”
“Completely.” I sighed.
Alise pulled into the long driveway and my stomach danced at the thought of seeing Shane. He was finally single and possibly over the fact his dad had left with a twenty-five-year-old cashier.
“God, it’s hot in here.” Giselle fanned herself.
I noticed the sweat on her temple and realized I was hot too. But more than hot, I was hungry. “I hope there’s food here. I'm starving,” I grumbled at Blake as we all filed out of the car.
People started screaming and laughing.
Tommy threw a girl on his shoulders.
Blake and I stood back and watched the chaos.
The house was booming.
I didn’t want to come, but Shane had asked me himself when I tutored him in English. The fact that I’d loved him since forever, secretly, made the decision easy. I had even let Alise dress me and do my makeup.
“Wanna go in?” I asked quietly.
Blake nodded, nervously. I noticed he wasn’t wearing his glasses. And he appeared even more massive without anything in his hands. He was almost always fidgeting with something.
The front door opened and Shane stepped out. “Aimes!” He grinned at me. “Didn’t think you'd make it.” My sister walked past him, giving me the evil eye. He smiled at her too. “Hey, Alise, Giselle, Tommy. Refreshments are in the back. I even made lemonade.”
The word “lemonade” made my cheeks sour.
Giselle didn’t go in with Alise. She stood outside alone, not looking so hot, which was a feat for her. She basically would make a hot corpse.
I noticed the way she kept glancing at me.
Shane sauntered between her and me, taking my gaze with him. “I'm glad you came.” He smiled at me and then Blake who couldn’t have been more uncomfortable. “Hey, Blake.”
“Yeah.” Blake offered something of a smile. “Guess I'll go get some lemonade.” He slouched and walked off.
“Straight,” I spoke softly. His back straightened. He turned back and arched a brow at me. He slouched at his computer too much. It drove me and his parents insane.
“So, Aimes. You came to a party.” Shane grinned like the Cheshire Cat.
“Yup. Looks rowdy in there.” I didn’t budge or attempt walking inside.
He put his hands in his back pockets. “Yeah. Uhhhh, wanna come i
n?” He said it like maybe he didn’t want me to. Like maybe he wanted to say something else.
“You okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Can you say anything beyond ‘yeah?’” I giggled.
His face flushed. “Yeah.” He opened the door and held it for me. “I can say ‘you look nice.’”
“Thanks. Alise did it. You know what she’s like.” I blushed too.
“I do. Any guy would do anything for that girl.” His face turned crimson. “Except me. Of course.”
I wondered where this conversation was going or coming from. “Of course.”
“She still dating that Luke guy from Handley?”
“No. They only ever last a couple of months. She’s, uhm, well, fickle.”
He chuckled. “Fickle. That’s not the word I would use.”
“Right. Anyway, they just broke up and now she’s on the market, but she’s not hitting on anyone. I don’t know. Something’s up.” I laughed as I went to close the door, noticing Giselle was still in the yard. “I'll be back in a minute.” I opened the door again and ran out to where she was. “You okay?”
“No.” She paled. “I think I'm sick. Like the flu or something.”
“Want me to drive you home?”
“Uh no. I just need a minute, Aimes.” She turned and walked away and I couldn’t help but frown. She’d used my nickname. She had never called me Aimes in my life.
She rounded the back of the house and I went back inside.
Shane was holding a drink for me. I took it and sniffed.
“Hey, come on now.” He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t put booze in it. I know you don’t drink.”
“You do?”
“I've known you for a long time, Aimes.” His voice turned throaty at the end of the sentence.
I sipped my lemonade and tried not to cringe at the taste.
“You don’t like lemonade?”
“I do, I did. I don’t know but it just tastes funny. Too lemony.” My belly rumbled. Through the back door to the deck I could see Giselle standing, leaning against the railing with a guy. His back was turned to me. Something about it bugged me.
“You want to go sit?” Shane grabbed my hand, sending electricity jolts up my arm. “Ouch.” He pulled away.