A second hand reached out of the pond. Jenny. The bony fingers gripped the grass, and she dragged herself out onto the bank. Her head came first. Then her back, hunched up like a crab. Her black hair hung like a curtain in front of her face. She looked exactly as she had the first time I’d seen her at Grimm Pond.
Jenny didn’t go after Garner and Lucy even though they were closest. She turned toward our circle. The witch wanted me.
“She won’t attack Chi,” said Leigh Kate, spinning around so she could throw her arm around my neck.
“I’m Algonquin,” said Chi. “The Abenaki were an off-shoot of our tribe. I’m protected by that.”
“You and I won’t be so lucky, though.” Leigh Kate was close enough to speak directly into my ear. “The salt will slow her down, but she’s strong enough to break through it.”
Jenny ambled toward us. She hesitated at the salt circle and sniffed loudly.
I grabbed Leigh Kate’s hand. They’d better have a plan.
“Hey, Jenny,” said Leigh Kate. I caught the smile in her voice. She slipped something over my neck. A leather cord. It wound around her neck too. We were effectively tied together. At the end was a small leather pouch. “You can’t hurt us either. Hannah said so.”
Chapter 59
Greenteeth reached out her clawed hand; Leigh Kate wiggled the pouch at her.
“Don’t you understand what this means?” taunted Leigh Kate. “Hannah isn’t on your side anymore.”
“What is that?” I demanded.
“It’s a lock of Jenny’s hair from before she was taken by the Abenaki. Hannah has always worn it around her neck.” Leigh Kate kept it held up for Jenny to see.
I’d seen a leather cord around Hannah’s neck before.
“It represents their bond as sisters. Or at least it did. Because Hannah gave it to us, she is ending her part in Jenny’s sick game.”
Movement caught my eye. Foster and Luke had reached the middle shack. Luke grabbed hold of the door, and the duplicate shacks vanished. The boys burst inside as Garner and Lucy joined them. Their shouts momentarily stole Jenny’s attention. She turned her head to watch them.
“Hannah isn’t here,” shouted Leigh Kate. “She’d rather have her husband even if you did turn him into a dragon.”
Jenny whirled back around. She growled at Leigh Kate and tried to break through the salt barrier once more, but the salt line held up.
Leigh Kate took the pouch from around our necks and held it up. She produced a lighter from her pocket. Chi threw an arm around my shoulders as Leigh Kate lit the pouch. She held it until the pouch was nothing but charred remains, leaving behind the smell of burnt hair.
Greenteeth threw her head back in an unnatural angle and her back arched. Her legs actually bent backward, and she howled. The muscles in her throat constricted as she screamed.
“Here.” Leigh Kate shoved a small, burlap sack into my hands. “When I say, throw this at her.”
The sack was heavy, and several small grains fell through the weave into my hand. Salt.
Luke shouldered his way out of the shack. In his arms was a tiny bundle. Lila. Greenteeth hissed and turned away.
“Now,” shouted Leigh Kate. I drew back my arm and tossed the bag of salt, but as I did, several bright lights came on at once. Both Jenny and her fog disappeared. The bag of salt hit the ground and flopped over twice. Salt rained down.
Jennings and three park rangers climbed out of Jeeps that we hadn’t heard approach. Leigh Kate ran toward the shack. Foster was carrying her sister, Cassie, outside. Garner followed with Chase slung over his shoulder. I sagged back against Chi.
“They found them,” I said. Chi slid her arm down around my waist and helped me take a few hobbling steps forward.
Cassie.
Chase.
Lila.
But no one was going back into the shack. I stopped in my tracks as the rangers swarmed the siblings. I heard voices, the crackling of radios; no doubt they were calling for medical help. Jennings separated from the pack and walked briskly toward me.
He snatched me into a fierce bear hug that squished all the breath out of me, not that I had much breath. My gut said something was very wrong.
“It about scared the life out of me when that witch called and told me where you’d gone. I didn’t think I was going to be able to get the rangers out here fast enough.”
“I’m okay, Grandpa,” I whispered.
Over his shoulder, I spotted Foster. He turned around as if he could feel my gaze on him. He frowned and shook his head. My insides deflated. Good thing Jennings was holding me. Foster’s message was clear.
Sam hadn’t been with the others.
Chapter 60
Cops were called. Parents were called. Plenty of tears were shed by Leigh Kate and Lucy; even Luke got choked up. We were all bundled into the SUVs. The police and all our parents were going to meet us at the medical center. Lucy had broken a couple of ribs. My ankle was probably fractured, and they’d have to cut the boot off. The children were all in some weird unconscious trance. Nothing we did roused them; the rangers worried about extreme shock.
On the way out, the Jeeps stopped at our cars so that Luke, Foster, and I could get out and drive the vehicles we’d brought there back to the medical center. Jennings wanted me to ride with him, but I promised we would be right behind him.
However, once inside the car, I turned to Foster.
“I want to go to the pond on Grimm Road,” I said.
“You need to go to the hospital,” he said, but I was already shaking my head. “Don’t argue, Sophie, please.”
“Sam . . .”
He raised his hand and cut me off, “I’ll go find Sam, but let me get you to safety first.” He cut his beautiful blue eyes at me.
“No, it has to be me,” I crossed my arms over my chest. Greenteeth and I had started this. It would be us who finished it.
He sighed and gave up. When we reached the fork in the road, he turned right, toward Grimm Road, instead of left into town.
I assumed Leigh Kate would call Hannah. She’d be able to lift the trance from the kids. I couldn’t handle being at their reunions knowing Sam was still out there . . . if he was even alive.
Leaning forward in my seat, I buried my face in my hands. I wanted to be numb. Cold fear gripped my heart and squeezed, trying to crush the life out of me. I forced air into my lungs. This was a panic attack, plain and simple.
Foster stopped the car. He left it running so the heat blew full blast. I sat back and studied him. I didn’t think he’d slept for the last couple of days. He appeared wrinkled and haggard.
“I don’t suppose you’d leave me here and drive back to town?” I asked.
“Not a chance, Popsicle.” He tried to smile but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Will you at least wait here?” I begged. “She might not show. She might not want to have an old western showdown with me.”
He laughed; the sound warmed my heart and gave me more courage than I’d had a moment earlier.
“Ten paces at midnight,” he said.
I attempted a smile.
“I’ll give you two minutes.” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “Then I’m right behind you.”
“Five.”
He shook his head. “If Jenny were to hurt you and I could have done something about it, how could I live with that?”
“But how can I live if she takes you?”
“That’s my choice, Sophie. I won’t hide from her. Certainly not at your expense.”
“Okay, fine.” I put my hands up. “I don’t want to fight with you.”
“Two minutes. Can you walk?” he asked.
I nodded. The park rangers said my hiking boot would serve as a stabilizer until they cut it off. I doubted I could run, but walk, that I could do.
I swung my legs out of the car. My gait was more of a hobble than a walk, but I reached the edge of the pond.
Greenteeth stood on the b
oulder where I used to sit. Her back was to me.
“I’m here, Jenny,” I said aloud.
Something small and cold wound its way into my hand. I wasn’t surprised to see Little Sophie clinging to me. Her eye sockets were empty pits of blackness again.
“Why does she take your eyes?” I asked.
“We get to keep them when we’re in the glade,” she said. She must have meant the clearing at Mikwa, the second pond where the other children had been found. “Once we step outside, though, we lose our sight. She doesn’t want us to see someone we once loved and be sad.”
“That’s dumb,” I said.
“Ghosts aren’t known for their brains,” she said with a weak smile.
“You still always find me.” I knelt to her level. It put an awful amount of stress on my ankle, but I pushed it out of my mind. My pain was of no consequence compared to what she’d been through.
“I might not have eyes, but I can still see. I see your heartbeat.” She wrapped her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly.
I returned the gesture.
“How can I help you?” I asked.
“You can’t, but you can walk away now and save yourself,” she said. “Leave her the boy, and she won’t go after any more children in your lifetime.”
Leave Sam to her. Greenteeth thought herself quite a negotiator.
“I can’t do that. He’s my brother.”
Greenteeth turned around and faced me. She held Sam. He was upright but dead weight, in the same trance as the others.
A strangled sound came from my throat, and I fought to stand. I wouldn’t be on my knees in front of this bitch.
“Let him go,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “Please.”
“Trade for Foster,” said Little Sophie.
“How can I make that choice?” I cried. I looked away from my brother, staring down at Little Sophie. “How can you expect me to choose one life over another?”
Jenny twisted her head to the side as if curious. Had she never weighed the cost of what she had done? Was doing? I doubted it.
“Do you want to be free, Sophie?” I asked her.
“Free?”
“To not have to live with Jenny in the pond. To be at rest with your family.”
“I don’t know. This is all I’ve known.”
I physically couldn’t stand anymore. My ankle throbbed, and my heart bled. I sat down in front of Sophie. I took both of her cold hands in mine.
“Don’t you remember your mom? Your dad? Your sister, Della?” I asked her. “She’s still alive, you know. An old woman, but still here.”
“I remember.”
“She misses you.”
Little Sophie smiled. The expression must have been a fraction of what her real one had been like. So brilliant and hopeful.
“Tell me how to put Jenny to rest. Then you can be free.”
Little Sophie shook her head and pulled her hands from mine. “Jenny will always be,” she said.
From her perch, Jenny hissed. I glanced up at her and thought I was going to be sick.
Foster stood at the edge of the pond, watching.
“I’m here, Jenny,” he said.
“No, Foster.” I climbed painfully back to my feet.
“Stay back, Sophie.” He glanced at me with sad and haunted eyes. “Let her have Sam, Jenny. Let them leave, and I will go with you. I will be yours. Again.”
“Foster,” I shouted and hobbled forward.
Jenny shoved Sam aside.
“No.” I twisted and tried to catch him, but he hit the ground with a sickening crunch.
I fell beside him. He was still breathing, but he must have broken bones.
“Sam.” I cradled his face. His face that I had dreamt of seeing for months. He was here in my arms.
The sound of a splash brought my attention back to Jenny, who’d backed Foster into knee-deep water. I left Sam near Little Sophie, who sat beside him, patting his cheek. I rushed toward the water, reaching for Foster or for Greenteeth, hoping something could be done to save Foster.
Maybe I could convince her to take me instead.
“Don’t, Sophie,” said Foster. His eyes were sunken in, his hands clenched into fists. “This is my choice.”
“But . . .” I sobbed.
“Remember that I fell for you too,” he said, winking at me, “Popsicle.”
Jenny jumped at him, and in a flurry of rancid pond water, they were both gone.
Chapter 61
I screamed and rushed into the pond after them. He might be just out of reach, near the surface of the water. “Foster!”
The water was barely over my shoes when someone grabbed me from behind and hauled me out of the pond.
“Foster,” I screamed, thinking my throat was going to rip open.
“Sophie, darling, don’t. Please don’t.” It was my dad. Here at the pond. As he dragged me away from the water’s edge, I caught a glimpse of Mom. She was cradling Sam to her chest.
To her left, Little Sophie stood, clutching Gram’s hand. I broke. I hadn’t been able to save them.
Dad slid his arms under my knees and picked me up. I turned my head into his neck and sobbed uncontrollably.
“Carly, can you carry Sam?” he asked Mom.
“I can.”
Dad had parked behind Foster’s Mercedes, which sat cold and quiet. It didn’t hum with life anymore. We were both cold without Foster.
After Dad put me in the front seat of his car, he opened the door for Mom to climb in the back with Sam.
I didn’t remember the trip to the hospital. Or being admitted for shock and a broken ankle.
None of that mattered. I got Sam back but hadn’t been able to save Gram, Little Sophie, or Foster.
I had failed.
Chapter 62
At some point during the night, I woke, feeling groggy. The medical staff must have given me some good drugs through the tubes in my arms because I could barely keep my eyes open. Mom sat in a chair next to my bed, holding one of my hands, but more surprisingly, Leigh Kate was curled up in the big hospital bed next to mine. I drifted back to sleep.
The next time I cracked my eyes open, sunlight filtered into the room through faded, cheap blinds. Leigh Kate’s bed was empty and freshly made, but Mom still sat with me.
“Good morning, honey,” she said. She pressed a button and raised the head of my bed. “Here, drink.”
She held a cup of cool water to my lips, and I gulped it down.
“Not too much.” She took the glass away much too soon. “How are you feeling?”
“Lightheaded.” The word came out garbled. My tongue still felt thick and dry. I remembered the old Bugs Bunny cartoons where he’d stick out his tongue and it would have a winter coat on it. I giggled.
Mom smiled and smoothed my hair back.
“Sam?” I asked.
“He’s got a broken collarbone, but he’s fine,” said Mom. The tiny wrinkles around her eyes creased. We were all relieved to have him back, but it still must have been painful for her to see him so severely injured.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“No.” Mom shook her head. “You don’t apologize. Without you and your tenacity, none of us would be together. You and your friends did so much more than save Sam. You reunited them all.”
She brushed her lips against my temple.
“I am so proud of you,” she said. My eyes burned, and I looked away, into a dark corner of my hospital room. If she only knew . . . I wondered if she’d still be proud of me.
And Foster. I sucked in a shaky breath and closed my eyes against the hot tears threatening to spill down my cheeks. I’d completely failed him. I’d lost him.
“How did you know where I was?” I asked, trying to erase the image of Greenteeth knocking Foster into the filthy pond.
“I knew my mother even better than you did.” She sat on the bed, her weight jostling me. Pain shot up my leg. I ground my teeth and did my best not to g
rimace. “Gram told me about Greenteeth shortly after we moved here.”
“What?” I opened my eyes and searched her face.
“I thought she was delusional and believed we were losing her to dementia.” Mom tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear. “Then I dreamt about her. She was in my room, telling me you were fighting for Sam and needed me.”
My eyes brimmed with tears. Oh, Gram. I should have known she’d tried to help me.
“The call from Officer McCloud came soon after. I told your Dad about my dream. He was nervous, bless him, but he listened to me.” Mom paused and sipped from my water glass. “And if that hadn’t been enough, when we got to the hospital, Hannah Grimm was here when we pulled in. She told us that you weren’t with the group that had come in. Thankfully though, she’d been able to wake all the kids and confuse the doctors enough that they thought they’d performed miracles. Something magical happened last night.”
“Something witchy, you mean,” I snorted. What Jenny and Hannah did wasn’t necessarily magical. It had been dark and evil and rooted in this land.
Mom shrugged. “I don’t care what you call it. She revived my son. She wants to treat your ankle but wanted to get your permission first.”
I twisted my fingers together in pain. Hannah wanted to treat me? I sighed.
“I’ll send her away if you don’t want to see her,” said Mom.
Foster wouldn’t want me to hold a grudge, but if Hannah had been upfront with us, if she hadn’t been apathetic toward Jenny for hundreds of years, this whole story could have played out differently.
“I’m not ready to see her yet,” I said.
Mom’s smile was sad as if I had failed a test. Maybe I had, but I knew I wasn’t ready to speak to Hannah. The pain of losing Foster was too fresh.
“Try to get some more sleep.” My mom tucked the blankets in around me. “We’re gonna bring Sam in later so we can have dinner as a family.”
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