“Fia,” James says, and for once he doesn’t sound angry. He sounds lost.
Fia doesn’t go to him.
“You can’t burn it to the ground, Fia,” Mae says, voice teasing. “So stop thinking it. Annie and Cole will work out the details of the school with James after the funeral.”
“Yeah. Come on, Sadie,” Cole says. I feel safe with him here, shielded from James so that I can focus on Fia.
She walks forward and I walk with her. “Good-bye, Pixie,” Fia says. “I’m sorry. I lied about everything.”
“You can’t lie to me.” Tears play at the edges of Mae’s words. “I always knew you liked me, you stupid brat. I’m coming with you. I have a suspicion I’m out of a job as a receptionist. My typing skills sucked anyway.”
We walk out to the elevator, Mae talking down security, saying exactly what they need to hear to turn around and leave before finding Mr. Keane’s body. Eden is waiting in the lobby, flirting madly with the guard. “Well,” she says, huffing. “It’s about time.”
Together, we walk out. Five very not-dead girls, plus the love of my life. This future was never supposed to be any of ours. It wasn’t one Sadie saw, or I saw. It was one Sarah couldn’t begin to hope for, to the point where it drove her mad. It was a future not even Fia could make for herself.
This is my future. The future I made happen.
We are free.
The New York day is bitter cold and devoid of sunshine, but I’m warm.
FIA
After
“I NEED YOU.” ANNIE SCOWLS IN FRUSTRATION AND disbelief. “I can’t do this without you.”
I smile, because she always has been the worst liar. “You can.”
“But I don’t want to.” When I don’t answer, she changes tactics. “What about Adam? He’s going to be in Chicago near the school. We have to keep an eye on what he does, help him. And he’s in love with you, Fia.”
I zip up my bag, tap tap tap tap the zipper, try to think of anything I’ve forgotten.
I’d like to forget nearly everything.
Adam, sweet gray eyes long fingers Adam. “I hope he finds someone who can love him back.”
“But where will you go?”
I close my eyes, breathe deeply, think of nothing. I need to be nothing. I need to be nothing for a very, very long time until I can decide what something I want to be. “James bought me a sailboat.”
“He what? I thought you two weren’t speaking.” She stands, alarmed. She has a right to be. Most minutes it’s all I can do to breathe without him.
“It’s okay. He doesn’t know he bought it for me.” I can’t figure out whether the idea of seeing James or never seeing him again hurts more. I don’t want to talk to him until I can decide. We walked the path together, but he almost took me so far down it I would have fallen off the edge. Not even he could have caught me then.
Annie laughs, and I wrap my arms around her, bury my face in her hair, soak her in enough to last me for as long as I need it to.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but . . . I think James has the right idea. Granted, I don’t trust him to actually do it well, but someone has to be here. Someone has to find these girls and help them before they get taken advantage of like we were. I think we’re doing a good thing.”
“You are,” I say, smiling. Annie is staying. I am leaving.
It is right.
Funny, what a freeing thing right is. And how . . . flexible it is. There is all sorts of right available to me now. Before, when I had to choose between Adam and James, I chose the hardest right path. It almost killed me. For now, I’m choosing the easiest right path.
It’s time to go. “Tell your grouchy boyfriend I said good-bye.”
Annie blushes deeply, touches her lips. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
“I’m rolling my eyes,” I inform her. “A lot. And take care of Pixie for me.”
“I will.”
I smile. I know she will.
And me?
I have a date with the endless empty ocean. I am ready to leave.
I am choosing nothing, and, for once, nothing is exactly right.
Acknowledgments
For this, my sixth novel, a list of people who helped me along the way:
Noah, always, for being the foundation of my entire life and making it a happy one.
Elena, Jonah, and Ezra, for filling that life with more joy than I thought possible.
Erica Sussman, for always seeing through what I actually wrote to what I meant to have written, and helping me get there. Also for timeline angsting with me.
Michelle Wolfson, for being so much more than a literary agent—a friend, a business partner, and an ever-willing substitute curser for those times when I want those four-letter words but just can’t say them myself.
Natalie Whipple, for reading way too many drafts of this book and supporting me through all of them. Also for naming the book. Also for pretty much everything. Annie will always be yours.
Carrie Ryan, for reading not one but two books to be able to offer me a critique, and for making me realize (in the nicest, smartest way possible) that I needed to start completely over before it was too late to do so.
Stephanie Perkins, for our joint insanity that goes so far in keeping me sane. Meet you at the cottage?
Shannon Messenger, Daisy Whitney, and Jon Skovron, for various industry venting services—I value your friendships more than my suckily infrequent emails would indicate.
The phenomenal team at HarperTeen: Christina Colangelo, Tyler Infinger, Casey McIntyre, Michelle Taormina, Stephanie Stein, Jessica Berg, and everyone else I’ve had the privilege of working with. You make awesome books, and I feel so lucky to be a part of HarperTeen.
Mom and Dad, for creating a childhood in which I never doubted I could be a writer for a living. All the rest of my very large family, both natural and married-into, for the support and friendship.
All the friends who have been a part of my life, and the ones who will doubtlessly come in a future that I, fortunately, cannot see: thank you for liking me.
And finally, always, to my readers. The space in your heads you rent to me one book at a time is a very great privilege indeed. Thank you.
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About the Author
Photo by Blue Lily Photo
KIERSTEN WHITE is the New York Times bestselling author of the Paranormalcy trilogy, Mind Games, and The Chaos of Stars. Although originally meant to be about a femme fatale, the Mind Games series quickly turned into a story about two sisters and impossible choices. This may be because Kiersten has three sisters, none of whom she has killed for, but all of whom she has considered killing at one point or another. Kiersten lives with her family near San Diego, California. Visit her online and read her blog at www.kierstenwhite.com.
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Books by Kiersten White
MIND GAMES
PARANORMALCY
SUPERNATURALLY
ENDLESSLY
THE CHAOS OF STARS
Credits
Cover art © 2013:
FACE by Kimberley Akrigg
Boarding School by Cintia Fuentes Sanchez
Outdoor café, New York Skyscraper, Pill Overdose,
Girl on Balcony © istockphoto
Cover design by Michelle Taormina
Copyright
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
PERFECT LIES. Copyright © 2014 by Kiersten Brazier. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known
or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
www.epicreads.com
* * *
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
White, Kiersten.
Perfect lies / Kiersten White. — First edition.
pages cm. — (Mind games)
Summary: “Sisters Annie and Fia have had their abilites manipulated by the Keane Foundation for too long—and now they’re ready to fight back against the twisted organization that has been using them as pawns”— Provided by publisher.
ISBN 978-0-06-213584-1 (hardcover bdg.)
EPub Edition December 2013 ISBN 9780062135865
[1. Psychic ability—Fiction. 2. Sisters—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.W583764Per 2014
2013008056
[Fic]—dc23
CIP
AC
* * *
14 15 16 17 18 CG/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
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