by Jo Holloway
CHAPTER 20
Purpose
THE NEXT MORNING, THE butterflies in her stomach were awake before she was. It was no wonder Wes and Jory had been able to pick up on her dumb crush. This was ridiculous. She took a long shower and did her best to make them go away. No luck.
She waited on the front step alone. Jenyx wouldn’t have much to do today, and Jenner would only have to spend three hours in the car for no good reason, so he was staying home. Her arms wrapped around her knees while she waited until the maroon van turned the corner at the end of her street. This crush had to go before she ended up embarrassing herself. She stood up, brushed off the back of her shorts, and walked to the curb.
The van circled around and pulled over for her. The front seat sat empty, so she yanked open the passenger door and climbed in.
Rhys gave her a quick nod, and she turned around in the seat to find Wes and Jory sitting in the back. “Hey, guys.”
Jory turned his face from the window long enough to flash her a grin and went right back to staring out at the street. Only Wes actually said, “Hi,” out loud. The mood in the small space was tense. She hoped it was only the seriousness of what they were doing, but she couldn’t help but feel a little responsible somehow. It was going to be hard enough without Jory and Rhys hating each other the whole time, each for their own reasons.
The van started to move, and she turned to face forward again.
“So, no offense to your van, but why do you drive this?” A nice, safe topic that had nothing to do with Liv or the weird vibe in here felt like a good plan.
Rhys quickly glanced over at her when he finished turning the corner. “It was what I could afford.”
That made no sense given his wealthy family. Her brow pinched down, and he glanced over after another moment of her silence.
“With my own money, I mean.”
“I don’t get it.” Her head tilted to the side as she searched for an explanation on his face.
“I started saving for a car when I was about nine. Flyer routes, mowing lawns—the usual. I didn’t want my parents to buy me one when I turned sixteen.”
“Why not?”
“I just didn’t.” His face gave nothing else away.
“Mine are buying me something stupid-expensive when I turn sixteen,” Jory said. His eyes were still glued to the window.
Cara’s stomach clenched at the bitterness in his voice. Rhys picked up on it too. One eyebrow lifted. He kept his eyes on the road, though, and said nothing in response. Good. She didn’t want to defend why Jory deserved ten Rolls Royces if he wanted them, but she would if she had to.
Soon, they were out on the highway, and they had to close the open windows when the noise got too loud. Relying on the van’s half-working air conditioning meant it got plenty warm inside over the next hour. Sweat dampened the hair at her temples and the back of her shirt while the tension in the car grew. She ran a hand under her hair to sweep it off her neck.
“Sorry it’s hot. I should have taken my mom’s old car. I just like my van.” Rhys broke the silence. Was that a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth?
“It’s fine. We don’t care.” She glanced over the back of the seat.
Wes was speaking softly to Jory, who had finally taken his eyes off the window, but she couldn’t make out what they were talking about. She stared ahead again, watching the trees pass by on both sides of the road. Her heart lifted knowing they’d soon be back in the heart of the forest she loved. Close to the school. At the mansion that had called to her for months.
She hadn’t felt the flutter for a while now. At least, not in a way she attributed to wanting to go to the mansion. Her eyes darted to the left before she could stop herself. He hadn’t styled his hair today, and the dark-blond locks were soft, the way that suited him best. She forced her eyes away and gazed into the trees passing by on her right. She controlled the jittery bubbling sensation under her ribs.
Purpose, Cara. Find a purpose and focus.
That was how she’d managed the anxious, fluttering pull before, by going to stand in front of the mansion, and it was what she needed now.
Clearing her throat, she decided talking about Liv was better than the awkward silence. “Did anyone learn anything more last night?”
Rhys shook his head. “I don’t totally trust the internet for this type of thing.”
“Yeah, and people can manipulate what’s on there.” Jory leaned across Wes to scowl at Rhys.
Cara wasn’t sure if Rhys saw Jory’s face in the rearview mirror, but his face twitched as a shadow crossed his eyes. She assumed Jory was suggesting all the articles about his mom and sister his family must have suppressed over the last few years. Jory had hit a nerve.
Her mind flashed to the photo saved on her phone, and the ‘image not found’ that showed on the link Wes had sent her after the gala. Was that what happened there too? Why would his family care enough to have a dumb picture like that taken down? She’d managed to keep herself from looking at her copy of it again since that first night. She should probably delete it to avoid the temptation.
Wes shoved Jory back to his place and leaned forward between the front seats. “I hit a wall with the internet too. Probably not surprising, but it doesn’t give great information on how to actually kill someone with digitalis.”
“Hope no one checks your search history,” Cara said.
He didn’t look concerned. “Hopefully some of the medical texts will have better detail about what it takes to overdose on digoxin, and we can figure it out from there.”
They reached the turn off. Cara’s heart skipped a beat when they passed the green sign with its golden-yellow lettering.
PRIVATE ROAD
She couldn’t wait to be back in a couple weeks. The rest of the way up the road, her mind stayed on Delaney, Cassidy, Kaylee, and the rest of the cross country team, and even Meygyn, Gabby, and Tish. It was going to be so nice to hang out with some girls again finally.
They took the right turn just before the SCOVELL ACADEMY sign at the fork in the road, and her heart squeezed one more time. In just a minute, they would be there. The forest ahead lightened. The van’s wheels hit the rough cobblestones of the driveway as the clearing opened up, and they pulled to a stop in front of the mansion.
She took in the grey stone, the graceful patio stretching across the front of the wide structure, and the surrounding meadow, green and yellow with late-summer grasses blowing in the breeze. Her lips parted, and a content sigh escaped. She opened the door to step out of the van. She took a deep, cleansing breath of the fresh forest air, so different from the city. Pangs of longing hit her, and echoes of laughing classmates from school sounded in her mind. She couldn’t wait to be back.
For now, she’d settle for being this close to the school. She started forward to the door. Perhaps it was the extra weight of the serious task that brought them here, but the old flutter under her sternum didn’t have the same pull it used to. Something felt different. She turned back to her friends climbing out of the van behind her. Rhys came around from the driver side and walked by her to go unlock the house. This time, when she stepped forward again and followed him to the door, the sensation she used to get came back. Maybe the time away had made it take a while to kick in again.
Rhys turned off the alarm system. “Where do you guys want to start?”
“Library,” Wes said automatically.
Cara grinned. “Me too.”
“Yeah, okay.” Jory followed them down the hall to the long room with the wall full of books.
Cara kept herself from focusing on the spot near the bottom of the stairs where they’d found Jory unconscious, but his blond head flicked toward it as he walked beside her down the hall. She banished the image from her nightmare from her mind. The last thing she needed right now was that haunting image of Rhys standing over Jory, raising the bat. She shook her head and tried not to shiver. It had only been a dream. She knew better now.
> The library held an absurd number of medical books. They’d spread out across the floor and the two small couches, books open on every available surface. Rhys was hunkered down at the desk, gradually vanishing behind a giant stack of thick books continuing to grow in front of him. Cara rubbed her tired eyes. Wes sat cross-legged on the floor, encircled by open pages. She stood up from the rug and stretched her cramped knees, moving gingerly around her own precarious book piles.
“I need a break,” she said. “Anyone want to go look for foxglove?”
Mostly she wanted to go out into the meadow again, maybe over by the path to the school where she’d spent a lot of late afternoons in the shadows of the trees, just looking at the stone walls and admiring the beauty around her.
“Yeah, me.” Jory stood up to join her.
Wes didn’t even look up from the book he was bent over. Rhys raised his gaze from the desk. His eyes flicked between her and Jory, but he shook his head slightly and returned to reading. She and Jory went to the front door.
Outside, the bright sun was temporarily blinding. Jory bumped into her, having the same issue she was. “Oops, sorry.”
They set off to the right across the flagstone patio.
“Weird being back here,” she mumbled. “Being in there, I mean.”
He grunted.
“Are you okay? I should have asked you earlier.”
“Totally. I don’t have the best memory of that night, anyway.”
“Lucky you.” She grimaced, turning to look at him. “I saw you check out the spot where we found you, though.”
“Yeah, well . . .”
“Sorry, it must be hard for you being around him.”
He gave her a long look, and her throat tightened. What she’d said could be taken a couple different ways, depending on what he’d been thinking about. “Nah, I’m fine. I don’t actually think he’s that bad.”
“No?” She stopped. They stood in the middle of the meadow, and the long grass tickled the backs of her knees. “Could’ve fooled me.”
An awkward silence descended. Cara plucked one of the long grasses that had gone to seed and smoothed the end between her fingertips. “So, Wes said—”
“A lot of things. I know. He told me.”
“Of course he did. I should have known.” She shook her head.
Jory reached out and covered her hand holding the bit of grass. She looked into his bright-blue eyes. “He’d already told me what he thinks about how I just know you better and all that, and maybe he’s right. But it is different, and it’s more than just that. You are special, Cares, and whoever you like should know that too.”
She stared down at his hand covering hers. Her scratchy throat made her voice break when she spoke. “That might be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
Jory dropped his hand and swallowed. “Yeah, well, that’s what best friends are supposed to do, right?” He stood a little straighter and pulled his shoulders back.
She wanted to throw her arms around him but couldn’t decide if a hug would only make things worse right now. Her eyes blinked rapidly. “I’m so sorry, Jor. I never knew . . .”
“Doesn’t matter now. Let’s find this murder flower and get going.” He spun away from her. “So what are we looking for?”
She could describe the plant to him, but there was really no need to keep any secrets at this point. “There was some over here a few months ago.” She pointed and unstuck her feet from the ground to follow Jory.
He raised his eyebrows at her but carried on without saying anything. They reached the spot. Her eyes scanned the area. Nothing. Had she gotten it wrong? Then she spotted the tall stalks blending into the grass. The flowers were gone.
“Crap. Do you remember, Jor, do we need the flowers, or are the leaves good enough?”
“Any part of the plant. It’s all poisonous.”
“Oh, good. I was worried for a second.”
“Totally. Wouldn’t want to wait until next spring to kill this girl and be rid of this guy, would we?” He grinned at her.
She stifled a laugh. It really wasn’t funny. “You have to stop being so relaxed about it, you know? I really don’t think he appreciates it, and she is a person.” A swoop in her stomach reminded her of how she felt around Liv, her bizarre connection to the girl, and how desperate they were to even be considering this.
“No, I know that. Still, it’s what we have to do for her, so we might as well get on with it. It’s not like she can get much worse off.”
“She can get dead.”
“That’s sort of the point.”
“I meant permanently. You really think any of us will be okay if that happens?”
He finally frowned. “You’re right. I know.”
She saw his serious side and knew his nonchalance was only his defenses going up. She’d been working on her own walls enough to recognize someone else doing the same thing.
She stepped closer to him and circled an arm around his waist. “We’re good, right?” she asked, looking up into his face.
He draped his arm over her shoulder, looked down at her, and grinned. “Yeah, we’re good, Cares. Don’t worry about me.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what best friends are supposed to do, right?” She gave him a teasing smirk when his eyebrows shot up.
“Oh, I see. Well played, Ransome.” His grip around her shoulders tightened. He reached across with his other hand to mess up her hair.
“Hey.” She blew some strands off her face and looked up at him beside her. “Did that help?”
“Maybe. And you started it.” He laughed, and she did her best to smooth the tangles with her free hand as they got back inside.
Wes was standing hunched over beside Rhys in the desk chair, their heads bent together over one of the texts. Their eyes rose at the sound of footsteps in the doorway.
“You guys find something?” Jory took his arm off her shoulder and moved ahead to join them at the desk.
She held up the fistful of foxglove plants for them to see, and then set it down on the table at the end of one of the small couches. Rhys’s eyes lingered on her and the macabre bouquet. It had to be a sickening reminder of what they were planning.
“We think we figured out how much we need to use to be sure to stop her heart, without way overdoing it. And a rough idea of how much of the antidote she’ll need. I want to recheck the math again tonight—can I borrow this book?” Wes turned his head back to Rhys, who nodded without looking at him. “I also found some good stuff online about extracting glycosides from plants. We’re probably going to have to wait for school to start, though.”
“School? Why?” Jory asked.
“To steal stuff.”
“Excuse me?” Cara’s eyes lifted from trying to read the upside-down pages of the book in front of the guys on the other side of the desk. “What do you mean steal stuff?”
“We’re going to have to get some equipment and supplies from the science lab so we can do the extraction.”
“Oh, crap. I never thought about that.” Stealing stuff from school might seem like nothing compared to planning to kill someone, but it made it more real somehow. Doubt gnawed at her insides thinking of all the little details and things that could go wrong. “Are we sure we should do this? Rhys, are you still sure?”
Rhys closed his eyes and rubbed his hands across his face. When he looked up again, there was a new intensity to the stormy grey-and-gold irises.
He sighed. “I can’t sit back and do nothing. I’ve tried other ways. I tried threatening her when I visited after you guys told me that thing was still in her. She didn’t even react. I could have slit her throat and she wouldn’t have done anything to stop me.”
The hardness to his voice chilled her. He’d been through so much to arrive at a point where he could talk that way. She could see in his face how much he hated doing this, teaming up with them and thinking like that. But he was doing it for Liv.
“She’s going to die
like this if I don’t do something. Your . . . friend . . . was right. This is no life for her. She would hate this.”
Cara remembered Jenyx’s words. She also remembered the feeling of her heart squeezing in her chest, and being unable to breath when she was around Liv. Yes, most of that was from the trapped Pyx she was sensing, but she’d seen the girl’s hands curl into fists. She’d seen Liv tense and her body jerk. She might not respond to much around her, not even threats, but she was still fighting what was inside her. She did hate it. They couldn’t leave her like that.
“Okay,” she said softly, “then we do something. We do this.”
They tidied up the room and tucked the foxglove in a chest freezer out in the garage. Wes brought a couple books, and they climbed into the overheated van for the drive back to the city. The heaviness of the decision drove them all to silence.
Cara’s mind jumped from her conversation with Jory in the meadow, to dread over what they were planning. The first had gone as well as she could have hoped. She was confident she’d be able to save her friendship with Jory. It might even grow stronger from here. The corner of her mouth twitched up remembering the look in his eyes when she’d teased him. She wanted desperately to believe the other plan could go as well. She was too distracted to spend much of the drive casting furtive glances to her left. The couple times she did glance over, Rhys looked lost in thought too.
CHAPTER 21
Good Save
DETERMINED NOT TO LET the start of school sneak up on her again this year, Cara started packing a week early. The drive up to Whalton Manor, and its proximity to the school, had been a good reminder. The essentials were all easy. Her bedding for the dorm room, as well as basics like toiletries and her shower stuff, could all be packed early. She still had to pack clothes, but her mom had promised her a back-to-school shopping trip to replace some of the clothes growing too small for her.
She’d emptied her closet to sort through the stuff to get rid of, and her room looked like one of Cassidy’s wardrobe swaps. Cara had lived through one of them as her roommate before switching rooms, and she remembered marveling at how much the girl had fit into one closet. Jenner lay on the floor, dwarfed by the growing donation pile beside him.