Marta smacks her lips together. “I didn’t realize you think I’m such an overbearing bitch.”
“You didn’t?” I ask, feigning sincerity.
Racine pulls me back and pushes me toward Angel’s Bronco. “Go. Call me later!”
Nodding, I run off toward Angel without another word. Marta isn’t worth it. Compared to Ezra, my issues with Marta are rosy.
“You okay?” Angel asks as we pull away from the high school.
“Noooooo …” I draw out. “But I’ll be better if you buy me pie.”
A smart girl would probably stay away from Angel right about now. The last thing I want to do is feed the already rampant rumor mill. But Angel believes me and trusts what I say without bombarding me with questions, and at the moment, what I know doesn’t really care about what I want.
Angel grins his assent and drives us straight to Margarita’s. After stopping to talk to Daisy, we find a booth in the back, far enough away to catch up about Ezra in private. Angel sits down next to me and slips an arm around my shoulders. He orders pie and coffee for both of us, then tells me about the crimes and misdemeanors he faced earlier, how he helped Mr. Jensen pull a lame horse out of an arroyo, and how he filed a bunch of fish and game papers.
“Exciting, right?” He smiles at me.
I start to nod yes, but Daisy yelps, “Holy shit!” from behind the counter.
She drops a pot of coffee onto the countertop, shattering it, startling the heck out of everyone. As Ezra saunters down the aisle toward our table, his gaze fixated on me, a hush settles over the diner.
Angel scowls, speaking through his teeth when Ezra stops at our booth. “Go away.”
“This is between me and Ruby,” Ezra answers, looming stiffly over the table.
“You’re standing in the middle of Margarita’s with a brand-new freaking face. You ask me, you just made it everyone’s business,” Angel growls.
Daisy walks out from behind the counter. A few people stand up in their booths, trying to get a better view.
Ezra’s irises shift almost imperceptibly, turning just the slightest bit violet near his pupils. “Ruby,” he says, ignoring Angel, “we really need to talk.”
“No way.” Angel jerks his head, vehemently against it.
Ezra glares down at him. “I didn’t ask you.”
Angel starts to stand, but I grab his shirtsleeve, pulling him back to the seat. “Angel’s right. I told you, I don’t want to talk.”
Ezra’s eyes flare as if someone lit a fire behind them. “You can’t just undo your feelings, Ruby.”
“Watch me,” I lie.
“She’s not going back to you,” Angel says, straining to keep his cool.
“She never left.”
“You’re right,” I snap, staring up at him. “Because you can’t leave someone you never had. I don’t know you. You’re a stranger.”
“You do know me. You understand me better than I do. Except for this,” Ezra points to his face, “I’ve always been honest with you. One way or another, I’ve always been myself.”
I believe him. And I can tell he knows I’m thinking it. But the hurt is still overwhelming, leaving little room for forgiveness.
Ezra draws his body up like an arrow. “If it takes you forever to trust me, Ruby, I’ll wait. But I’m not giving up. Because this—me and you—it’s right.”
My heart jumps, and I try to make myself speak, to say something like, “I forgive you.” But all that comes out is, “Go away. Please. I meant it when I said I don’t want to see you anymore.”
Ezra’s beautiful face twists into a grimace. He reaches out to touch my cheek, closing the distance before quickly walking away, sending a wave of regret through my body.
When Margarita’s front door closes behind him, a collective sigh ripples through the room. Daisy turns and stares at our booth like we descended from the Heavens in little silver spaceships. Everyone starts talking. Loudly, insistently, asking a million unanswerable questions. I cross my arms over my chest and try and sink beneath the booth as people stare. It’s like I’m stuck in Hell—if you pulled Hell inside out, dipped it into liquid nitrogen, and then smashed it into a billion tiny pieces.
As if Ezra’s unmasking in Margarita’s isn’t bad enough, gossip about his new-old face makes it back to Liddy. At dinnertime, she walks into the house with a big bag of takeout food and Torrance.
Torrance plunks down onto the living room sofa, interrupting the already intense conversation I’m having with Angel. Pitching forward on the couch, he grabs a magazine off the coffee table, flips through its pages for a few seconds, then abruptly tells Angel to go grab silverware.
“Well?” he asks me after Angel walks off.
I do my best to look dumb. “Well, what?”
“All the talk, Ruby. I’d call it crazy, except we saw Ezra when we picked dinner up.”
Liddy sits on the edge of the couch. “We just want to know what’s going on.”
“We? Since when did you two become we?” I snip.
Liddy gives Torrance a look. “Well,” she says softly. “That’s not the point now.”
I drop my chin, shaking my head at the coffee table.
Torrance sits back, popping open a takeout carton after Angel dumps a pile of forks and spoons in front of him. “I’m not your father. But I do care. You’re a good kid, Ruby.”
I look at him questioningly.
“I don’t know how to figure Ezra’s new face. Maybe you can help me out?”
“Leave Ruby alone.” Angel stabs at his food, forking the bottom of the takeout carton. “She’s been through a lot this week.”
Torrance groans. “And of course, my nephew’s involved.”
Playing stupid isn’t going to get me far. But there isn’t any way to explain Ezra’s baffling, incomprehensible change. Upset, I stare out the window, scrubbing fresh tears off my cheeks. “I don’t know how it happened. He wants to explain, but I won’t let him.”
“People think he’s a goddamned witch,” Liddy snorts. “It’s ridiculous. You’d think we’d regressed to the Dark Ages.”
Torrance looks uncomfortable. He opens and closes his mouth, wavering before finally asking, “He is Ezra, right? Not some relative, or long-lost twin, or look-alike?”
“Yes, he’s really Ezra.”
He picks at the edge of a magazine, flicking it absently. “Then I’ll be damned if I can explain it.”
“He knows how to change … to shift,” I stutter.
Both Torrance and Liddy gape at me with the funniest expressions. Angel shoots me a cautioning look. He doesn’t want me to say it, I can tell. But I can’t lie to them anymore, even if they do think I’m crazy.
“Liddy,” I swallow, “I mean it. The boy I met up at the ruins, Leo, he's Ezra. Only I didn’t know then. I’d never seen a picture. But it’s not just his face … he can also … turn into an animal. He’s the mountain lion Angel I and kept running into.”
“We think,” Angel interjects.
Torrance and Liddy give each other a seriously solemn look. Her brow furrows so deeply, I think she may sneeze.
“You’re joking,” she half asks.
“I’m not. It’s crazy, I know. But you have to believe me. Us.” I nod at Angel.
“That’s just not possible.”
Torrance leans forward, his face immobile. “Assuming you’re right, and I have to tell you it sounds more than crazy, how does he do it? And why?”
“It has something to do with the ruin. I’m sure. Think about it, Liddy. Almost every time I went up there, I ran into Leo. And when I fainted on Halloween, Ezra knew where to find me. That’s what you all said, that he knew exactly where to go.”
“Impossible,” Liddy murmurs.
“I hear it sometimes. I mean, now I realize that’s what it is. I hear the ruin. And I read this book about the Pecos. Ezra’s clan protected the forest—they watched the mountain. And his Pecos clan name, Shiankya, it means mountain lion. The
y’re called Watchers, and when I saw Mom, she said something about a Watcher. There’s no way it’s all just coincidence.”
Torrance scrubs his chin. “Shape-shifting? Magic ruins? I have to tell you, it’s hard to swallow.” He leans closer, staring at me. “You’ve been working hard in school. Liddy told me. You sure you’re not leaving something out?” He squints. “Sleep deprivation? Or drugs maybe?”
“What?” I squawk. “No!”
“You saw him, Torrey.” Angel paces the room, speaking quickly. “How else do you explain it?”
Liddy’s eyes are the size of pomegranates. If she wasn’t such a skeptic, I know she’d be terrified. “Sera is dead,” she says sharply. “And magic ruins, really?” She balls her hands into her lap, squeezing them together nervously. “Ruby, you know that’s impossible.”
“Except it’s true!” I almost shout at her.
She tips her head to the side disbelievingly. “Then how do you know he’s not dangerous?”
“He’s the same Ezra. Sort of. Maybe.”
All three of them look at me peculiarly. Angel scratches his head. “He’s gone out of his way to get Ruby’s attention. But if he wanted to hurt her, by now I think he would have.”
“He says he still loves me …”
“Forget it!” Liddy snaps. “I want you to stay away from him until we make sense of all this craziness. You hear me?”
I’ve been afraid to let myself think about being with Ezra again. But the second she tells me to stay away, I know I can’t. “If I let him, he’ll tell me everything.”
“No!” Liddy’s answer is categorical.
“Liddy, I love you. You know that. But you can’t really stop me.”
“Ruby’s right.” Angel shoots me another look, silently telling me to chill. “It’s the only way we’ll understand—and we need to understand. That or come up with a darn convincing story. The way people talk, they’ll be gathering a lynch mob soon.”
Torrance sniffs, hunching his shoulders. “What makes you think they shouldn’t?”
“Torrance!” I yelp. “How can you say that? His family has lived in the pass longer than any of you. You said it yourself; weird as they were, they’ve always been harmless.”
Torrance pulls his chair closer, leaning forward. “There aren’t many people left ’round town that put much credence in the Peñas’ family history, but the ones who do will be quick to judge.” He pivots toward me. “Listen to me and listen good; think long and hard about this. The Peñas are broken people. Even if there isn’t an ounce of truth to those rumors, you’re fighting an uphill battle.”
I stand up, moving to the fireplace. “It’s not like it was easier before, Torrance.”
“Ruby, no matter the truth, certain folks are bound to think he cast some kind of spell on you. That he used you to do whatever it is he did.”
“Let them,” I tell him. Ezra never made it easy to love him. Even if it is over, I have to know the truth. “I’ll talk to him. He’s just waiting for me to give him a chance.”
Liddy grimaces, shooting me her fiercest don’t-you-dare look.
“Mom would tell me to do it. She’d say, ‘Don’t jump the shark, Ruby, grab it by the fins.’ You know she would.”
“I don’t like it, Ruby.” Liddy’s eyes soften. They water a little before she sniffs.
“You can trust me.”
“It’s not you I don’t trust, love.”
Underneath, I’m as unsure as she is worried. But I have to know. I won’t be able to concentrate on anything else until I do. “I’ll go see him tomorrow after school.”
Torrance coughs. “At his place?”
“It’s really not the kind of conversation you have in public.”
Liddy interjects again. “Forget it!”
“You’re going to have to handcuff me to my bed then, Liddy.”
Her mouth drops open as her eyes narrow to fine daggers. “Don’t tempt me.”
Torrance places a hand on her knee, squeezing gently. “It may be for the best.” When she shoots him an even harsher look, he adds, “I’ll drive her there and stay while she talks to him.”
Liddy looks at me, contemplating. “That’s the deal. You go, he goes.” She nods sideways at Torrance, then back at me.
“Fine,” I sigh. “Tomorrow. You can drive me there after school.”
Torrance holds out his hand. When I take it, he pulls me into a bear-hug. “Thank you, Ruby.”
My consent buys me the consensus I need, but the next afternoon, when the sixth-period school bell rings, even I’m not convinced. After Torrance picks me up out front on the quad, he fixes his gaze on the street, going out of his way to avoid my questioning stare. Tense as he is, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out he’s still unhappy with my decision. And I’m not sure I blame him.
“Hey,” I say, trying to lighten the mood as we merge onto the highway. “I’ve been meaning to tell you I really appreciate how much you do for Liddy. She’s the greatest, Torrance. I’m glad you found each other.”
“I’m crazy about her.”
Torrance glances sideways, shooting me a smile so small it could be a tick. Worry uproots his expression, and I love him for caring. “I know you are. I am too.”
We drive in silence for a few moments, and I turn in my seat, examining Torrance’s profile. He has a strong jaw and kind eyes, and seeing the concern creasing their corners, it’s clear he’s a kindhearted person, not to mention exactly what Liddy needs. Someone who respects her and knows she’s an equal.
“You know how I said you weren’t my dad?” I ask.
“Listen …”
“Wait a minute.” I shush him with a hand. “What I want to say is that I can’t imagine having a better one. I wish you were my dad. You’re exactly the kind of dad I’d want. I know you’re here for me. I haven’t said it, but that means a lot.”
Torrance’s bright eyes beam. He smiles shyly at me for a second. “Thanks, kid.”
At the entrance to Ezra’s long gravel driveway, he slows the cruiser, letting it idle. “Should I drive up?”
“No, I want a moment to think while I walk.”
Torrance grips the steering wheel, keeping his eyes forward for a moment. After a few seconds of what looks like serious contemplation, he turns back to me. “All right. I’ll be here the whole time. Call or text if something goes down.”
I force a smile, trying to convince us both I’m not terrified. “Is that, like, cop-speak for let me know if something bad happens?”
“Yes, Ruby.” Torrance winks at me. “It is.”
Shaky, I smooth my palms over my hair, sneaking a quick peek in the visor mirror. So, you want to know Ezra. Do you even know yourself?
Stepping out of the cruiser, I take a deep breath and close the door.
No, a voice in my head replies, but I suspect you’re about to find out.
Twenty-Four
Road Less Traveled
Tall ponderosas line Ezra’s driveway. I follow them, moving slowly toward the rustic front porch, checking out the massive lavender bushes growing along the pebbled walk that leads to his front door.
Ezra sits on a porch step. He twirls his hat on the wooden planks and runs another hand through his hair maniacally, combing it over and over. He looks agitated, but when he sees me walking up the driveway, he stands up, waiting on a step still as a board.
We meet face-to-face and he pulls me into his arms. There isn’t time to protest; one minute I’m stepping up to the porch, the next I’m pressed against his chest in a suffocating hug. Flustered, I push back, breaking his iron grip.
“Not so fast.”
“I’m sorry. I’m really happy to see you.” Despite his brash smile, he still manages to look sheepish.
“How do you know I’m not here to tell you it’s over?” I frown at him.
“You’re not.”
I look him over, struck by how cocky he is, even when he’s trying to be charming. “Yo
u’re so sure?”
“Yeah.” He grins.
“You know.” I shake my head and climb past him, up the stairs to the top step so we see eye to eye. “I’m beginning to think I would’ve hated you a couple of years ago.”
Ezra stares at me earnestly. “You would have. Good thing for me it’s not a couple years ago.”
“What are you doing out here anyway?” I ask, flustered.
“Waiting for you.”
“How did you know I was coming?”
“I didn’t. I heard Torrance’s cruiser pull up.”
On my tiptoes, I try to look down the driveway, but I only see trees where the slope drops off. “You heard it?”
“And I smelled you.”
My eyes pop along with my heart. “You what?”
“On the wind.” He points up. “It’s in the air.”
“But we were all the way down the driveway, in his car.”
Ezra shrugs.
“What do I smell like?” I ask.
He leans in close, sticking his nose in my hair. “Like lilacs and sun.”
I push him back, carving out breathing room. “I don’t understand. How can you smell me from so far away?”
“You came here for a reason, Ruby. Why don’t we go inside and talk?” He walks past me to the front door.
Holding back, I stare at him apprehensively, suddenly worried about being alone in his house. My heart feels sure and it muffles the alarm inside my brain, but I still hear it going off.
“Or, if you’re not comfortable, we can stay outside,” he backtracks.
“Do you have, like superpowers on top of everything else?” I ask.
Ezra laughs quietly. “No. Just really heightened senses.”
“Oh.” I gulp, hovering near the door. “So, yeah, Torrance is going to wait down at the end of the driveway. In case …” I feel stupid for saying it. “You know.”
He arches a dark eyebrow. “In case I do something?”
I look down at the steps, ashamed to admit it. “Yes.”
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