by Nicole Maggi
But I wasn’t sure of anything. If only someone—Nerina, Lidia, anyone—would tell me the truth. Maybe when I got home I would demand a reckoning . . .
We sat in silence for a few minutes while the sun grew brighter outside, streaming warmth through the window. Muffled voices seeped in from next door. I knocked Jenny’s knee with mine. “I’m glad you know . . . about me. It’s really sucked, having to keep it from you.”
“Yeah. It has.” Jenny’s mouth turned up in a rueful half-smile. “Though I think I’m probably going to be in big trouble when my dad finds out I told you.”
“Don’t tell him.” I hated the thought of more secrets, but it wasn’t Jenny’s fault she was caught in the middle of this. “I won’t say anything.”
Outside in the hall, a door opened and closed, and footsteps padded on the floor towards our room. Jenny held up a hand, little finger crooked towards me. “Pinky swear.”
I hooked my finger on hers. “Pinky swear.” A knock thudded on the door, and we broke apart. “Come in.”
Carly burst into the room. “Oh, good. You’re up.”
“We are now,” Jenny groaned, rubbing her face as though she’d just awakened.
“My dad told me about this fabulous bakery in Deerfield,” Carly said. “But you have to get there super early before they run out of their special donuts. It’s right on the way to Amherst.”
I looked at the clock on the nightstand. Six o’clock. “These donuts better be worth it.”
“They will be.” Carly clapped her hands. “Let’s meet downstairs in half an hour.” She backed out of the room.
Jenny sighed. “I’m sorry. You didn’t get any sleep, did you?”
“It’s okay.” I slid out of bed. The uneven plank floor was cold on my bare feet. “I don’t sleep much anymore.” Nor would I, until we knew where Bree was. I stared out the window for a moment. She could be anywhere. She could’ve freaked out after the battle and taken off. I shivered. Or she could be in a basement somewhere, strapped to a chair with a tray of knives next to her . . .
“Lessi?” Jenny came up behind me and put an arm around my shoulders. “Are you okay?”
I shook my head. If nothing else, it was a great relief to not have to lie. “Someone—from our Clan—is missing. That’s what the meeting was about.”
Jenny drew in a breath. “We’ll go home. I’ll tell the girls you’re sick or something.”
“No. It’s okay. He—my Guide—said I shouldn’t come home. They have it covered. But—” I swiped at a couple of tears that had fallen on my cheeks.
Jenny pulled me into a tight hug. “If they say they have it covered, then they do. One thing I know about the Benandanti—they’ll Call you back if they really need you, no matter how inconvenient it is.”
I sniffled into her pajamas. “You’re right. I just—”
“I know.” She shook me a little. “Go take a shower. Maybe a fabulous Deerfield donut will help.”
Surprisingly, the fabulous donuts in Deerfield did help a little. I couldn’t stop thinking about Bree, but our day was so jam-packed that the hours flew by without my realizing it. Before I knew it, we were on our way back to Williamstown.
“What’s for dinner tonight?” Jenny asked.
“Anything but lobster,” Melissa groaned.
“Italian?”
“Sounds good.” Melissa turned to me. “Do you think Lidia will mind?”
“I think she won’t mind what she doesn’t know,” I said.
Melissa laughed and leaned into me a little. “I’m so glad you were able to come, Lessi.”
“Me too.”
“I’m definitely leaning toward Mount Holyoke,” she said, turning back to everyone else in the car. “I didn’t think I’d like it as much as I did, but I’m impressed.”
“Amherst all the way, baby,” said Jenny. She turned the car off the highway, toward our inn. “My mom went there, you know.”
“We know,” the rest of us said in unison.
“Well, I liked Williams,” Carly said. “Plus they have a great music program.”
“I thought you didn’t want to go into music,” Melissa said.
“I think I want to minor in it.” Carly traced circles on the window. “What I’d really like to do is art therapy.”
“Wow, Carly.” Jenny glanced over at her. “That’s really cool.”
“Yeah, so noble.” Melissa punched her lightly on the shoulder. “You’re such a do-gooder.”
“Whatever,” Carly said. “You’re the one who wants to be a doctor. You should be looking at Boston College.”
“I probably will,” Melissa admitted. “But it would be so cool if we all went to college near each other. Wouldn’t it?”
“We could totally see each other on weekends,” Jenny said.
I looked out the window at the dark trees. The three of them would be down here, having the time of their lives, and I’d be stuck in Twin Willows. I was stupid to think anything different. We won a battle, but the war still raged on, and now Bree was a casualty. I caught Jenny looking at me in the rearview. She knew. She knew what I had given up. It was the same reason her family had never taken a vacation.
“So, Italian?” Jenny asked. “Or Mexican?” That set off a dinner debate.
I gave her a grateful smile.
“I’m sorry,” Jenny said when we were alone in our room. We’d been out late, checking out the college scene in Williamstown, and it was now the wee hours of the morning. “This weekend kinda sucked for you, didn’t it?”
“No way.” We were both sitting on our beds, deep in our covers to ward off the chill that seemed to seep in through the frame of the old inn. “It was awesome to spend time with you guys. I’ve missed it. My old life—I’ve missed it.”
“Do you think you’ll ever get to college?”
“I hope so.” I rolled to my side and propped myself up on an elbow. “I have a deal. If we defeat the Malandanti, I get out. I just don’t know . . . when or if that will ever happen.” It had seemed so possible just a day ago, but now it was like a faraway dream again.
“It will.” Jenny’s eyes gleamed in the darkness. “Good always wins, doesn’t it?”
“I used to think that,” I whispered. “But the things I’ve seen . . .” In my mind’s eye, I saw the light going out of the Lynx’s eyes. I saw the Raven flying away from my burning barn. And I saw Bree, working her magic . . . Had evil won over her?
My phone buzzed. It was a text from Heath.
We got her.
I sat up. My fingers shook as I texted back.
Is she okay?
She will be.
Will be? What the hell did that mean?
Where are you?
Memorial Hospital.
I’m coming.
I threw the covers back. “They found her. I have to get home.”
In a flash, Jenny was up, too. “I’ll wake Carly and Melissa.”
“Oh, God.” I ran my hands through my hair. “What’re you gonna tell them?”
“Don’t worry.” Jenny opened the door. “I’ll tell them my mom had a vision of a car accident on the interstate, and we have to come home.”
I almost laughed; Jenny’s mom was kooky enough that it could be true. But Heath’s text—She will be—haunted me. Where had they found her? What state was she in? If she was in the hospital, she was obviously hurt. How badly?
“Sorry, guys,” Jenny said for the umpteenth time as she sped up the interstate toward Maine. “I tried to reason with her.”
“It’s okay.” Carly yawned. “Sarah texted me that Mrs. Coppell is springing a test on us tomorrow in chemistry, and I need to study.”
“Um, Jenny?” Melissa leaned over Jenny’s shoulder from the backseat. “If you don’t slow down, we’re going to be the accident on the interstate.”
I glanced at the speedometer; she was pushing eighty. She slowed to seventy-five. I knew she wasn’t speeding home just for me. It could have easily b
een her dad who was missing.
Less than five hours later, we were pulling onto Main Street in Twin Willows. The sun peeked over rooftops, lengthening shadows along the street. Jenny dropped Carly and Melissa at their houses. “Tell your mom she’s a sucky psychic,” Melissa said as she hopped out of the car.
When they were both gone, Jenny turned to me. “Where to?”
“Memorial Hospital.” It was two towns over, twenty minutes away. Jenny peeled onto Main Street and gunned it. We barreled along back roads until she skidded to a stop outside the hospital.
I opened the door and stepped one foot out. “Thank you, Jenny.” I flung my arms around. “You’re the best friend a girl could ever have.”
“I know, I know.” She shooed me away, but her eyes were bright as I climbed out. She waited until I was inside the glass doors, then waved good-bye before she sputtered off.
I texted Heath as I backed away from the door.
Which room?
I didn’t want to ask at the desk; she might be here under a different name.
216.
I followed first red, then yellow, then blue lines up to 216. The curtains were drawn. I cracked open the door. “It’s me.”
“Come in,” said Heath.
I ducked around the curtain and stopped short.
Spiderwebs of red lines stretched across Bree’s face, as though every capillary beneath her skin had broken. Bruises surrounded each of her eyes. Both hands were bandaged, leaving only the tips of her fingers visible. The neck of her hospital gown was loose, showing the edge of a bandage around her torso as well. I swallowed hard, trying to dispel the lump of bile that had risen into my throat.
“Oh, God, Bree,” I whispered.
“What?” Her voice was little more than a croak. “You’ve never seen someone who’s been tortured?”
Chapter Twenty-eight
I’m Fine, Thanks
Bree
Alessia reacted in her typical Alessia fashion—she burst into tears. I tried to roll my eyes, but the bruises in my sockets went bone deep. Everything hurt. “Oh, for God’s sake,” I said. “I’m alive, aren’t I?”
“I’m so sorry, Bree.” Alessia sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. She looked like a little kid who’d fallen off the swings. “I’m so sorry I got you into this.”
I sighed and winced as pain radiated across my rib cage. Three broken ribs, two cracked . . . Even breathing was agony. I wished the nurse would come back with more drugs. “Hey, Heath? Can you give me and Alessia a few minutes?”
“Sure.” He rose from his chair beside the bed and tucked his hands in his pockets. “I’ll be right outside. Keeping watch.”
“Thanks.” I managed a grateful smile even though it felt as if my skin would fall off. After what he and Nerina had done for me, I wasn’t ever going to make fun of him again.
As soon as Heath left the room, Alessia dropped into the chair he had vacated. “What happened? How did they get you out?”
“They were holding me in the basement of the Guild offices in Bangor. There’s like a whole labyrinth down there I never knew about.” I shifted a few inches. Searing-hot needles pricked my torso. “Heath and Nerina tracked me there and waited until my guard went to the bathroom. They broke in and got me out.”
“I should’ve been there,” Alessia muttered. “I’m so sorry, Bree.”
“Will you shut up? Seriously, if you say that one more time, I will punch you.” I lifted one bandaged hand. “Even though it will hurt like hell.”
Alessia snorted. “Okay, okay.” She tucked her legs underneath her. “How did the Malandanti find you in the first place?”
“It was that freaking Harpy.” I saw her in my mind, her face contorted with sick pleasure as I writhed in pain beneath her. “She saw me, at the Waterfall. I was visible after I fell in the water.”
“The water . . .” Alessia snapped her head up. “Did you have a vision? Of the future?”
I pressed my lips together. For sure, one of the things I’d seen was real, a true vision of what was to come, but it was all jumbled with everything they’d put into my mind, all the hallucinatory crap they’d squeezed in there to torture me. I’d seen Jonah, dead on the side of the road, all the Benandanti hanging from the willow tree above the Waterfall . . . I squinched my eyes shut to block it out, but behind my eyelids, the images were even clearer. I opened my eyes again. “I saw lots of things.”
Alessia’s face was expectant. But I wasn’t going to say more. I wasn’t going to tell her that all my injuries had come from the Rabbit. Apparently, I hadn’t put him out of commission for as long as I’d hoped. He’d used all his power on me trying to get me to talk, all without ever laying a finger on me. I eased back onto the pillows and turned to look at Alessia. “I need to tell you something.”
She reached out and touched my unbandaged fingertips. “It’s okay, Bree. No one expected you to withstand torture.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “What are you talking about?”
“You told them stuff, right?”
She searched my face.
“I mean, no one will blame you.”
“Are you kidding?” I hoisted myself onto an elbow with a grunt. “I didn’t tell them shit.”
Alessia stared at me, her mouth open.
“That’s why I’m still alive, dummy. If I’d talked, we’d be having this conversation in a morgue.” I lay back down. “That’s not what I need to tell you.”
“Bree—I—”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re eternally grateful and all that.” I pointed one of my mummy hands toward the door. “I already heard it all from your farm buddy.”
“Well, I am. So now you’ve heard it from me.” She pulled the chair closer to the hospital bed. “What do you need to tell me?”
“Right before the battle, Nerina left me alone. With the books.” At the blank look on her face, I gritted my teeth. “The books, Alessia. The ones with all the answers. And I found it.”
She rocked forward, knocking against the bed. “You found how to turn a Malandante into a Benandante?”
I started to nod, but a crick pierced my spine. “Yes. But—”
“How do we do it?”
“Would you freaking let me talk?”
“Sorry, sorry.” She pressed her knuckles into the mattress. “Tell me.”
“It’s not good.” I met her gaze. “A Benandante needs to die in order to turn a Malandante.”
She slumped in her chair. “Dammit.”
“That’s not all.”
Alessia looked up. I knew the hopes I was dashing inside her, because the same ones had been stomped on inside me when I’d read it. “The Benandante has to willingly gift their essence, their aura, to a Malandante. In other words, they have to be on the verge of death—but not quite dead—in order to do it. And they have to want to do it.”
“Those are nearly impossible circumstances,” Alessia said.
“I know.” I took a few breaths, deep as my fractured ribs would let me. “It’s only been done once in the history of the Benandanti.”
We sat in silence, letting the disappointment settle like dust around us.
“I’ll keep looking,” Alessia said finally. “I’m not giving up.”
“Me neither.”
Alessia widened her eyes. “You mean . . . you’re going to stay with the Benandanti? After this?”
“Hell, yeah.” I squared my shoulders and raised my chin. “You think this is enough to knock me out? No freaking way.”
She found my fingers again and squeezed. “Thanks, Bree.”
“I know, I know. I’m awesome. Now get out of here and let me rest.”
But the minute she left, I wanted her to come back, even if all she wanted to do was talk me into a coma. Alone, all I could see were the roiling images the mage had planted in my brain. They played like a movie on a constant loop. And I knew that one of the images was real, that it was the future showing itself befor
e it happened.
But which one it was, I had no clue.
Chapter Twenty-nine
The Abduction
Alessia
“She’s resting,” I told Heath when I came out of Bree’s hospital room. “But you shouldn’t leave, right?”
“Absolutely not,” Heath said. He got to his feet and put his hand on the door handle. “Someone will be watching over her at all times.”
He pushed the handle down. Just before he opened the door, I threw my arms around him. “Thanks, Heath.” He gave my back an awkward pat. I half-smiled and pulled away.
“I was just doing my duty,” he said, his cheeks glowing.
“I know. But . . . thanks.”
Heath nodded and ducked into the room. I watched him drop into a chair on the outside of the curtain to give Bree her privacy while she rested. I laid my hand on the glass for a moment until my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a text from Nerina.
I have news. Come to my place.
The red and yellow lines led me out into the afternoon sunshine. It glinted off the icicles that dangled from the emergency entrance overhang. I headed to the taxi waiting stand just to the side, but a voice stopped me.
“Alessia!”
I spun to see Jonah striding up the sidewalk, his dark hair messy and falling over his eyes. My heart seemed to fill again, and I ran to him. But just as I was about to dive into him, he put his hands up.
I stumbled backward. “Jonah?”
“How could you?” His voice was filled with venom, each word a sting. I looked up into his eyes and nearly choked at the hardness in them.
“What are you—?”
“How could you do that to Bree? To me?” A couple of EMTs hurried into the building, glancing at us as they passed. Jonah grabbed my arm and dragged me off to the side, out of sight of the entrance. I tried to pull away, but his fingers gripped my flesh like a vise. There was no warmth or softness in him at all. “I trusted you, and all the time you were working with Bree behind my back?”
