Forty minutes flew by like five as I gathered my thoughts, piecing together what I would say. Finally, the meeting was adjourned. Students glared at me as they filed out, probably wondering who I was waiting for.
“Thanks, Mr. Brody. See you tomorrow,” Noelle called chirpily. She scrolled through her phone as she exited the classroom.
“Noelle.”
She jumped at the sound of her name. “Oh, Neva. What’s up?”
I grabbed her arm and led her away from Mr. Brody’s classroom. “You can drop the act now. I know who you are,” I whispered into her ear.
She frowned slightly. “What?”
I stopped walking and locked eyes with her. Was this really her? The woman who had been my stepmother? The one who had hired someone to kill me? The person who had cursed me and ruined my life? I had the sudden urge to tackle her to the floor, but I remembered there were surveillance cameras in the hallway, and I was already a murder suspect.
“I know who you are,” I repeated.
She raised her perfect eyebrows. “Ooookay. I would hope so, since we’ve been hanging out for the past few weeks.”
“Don’t play stupid with me, Noelle. I know who you really are. I can’t believe you’ve been playing me all this time. I should have known there had to be some ulterior motive to your wanting to be my friend.”
Noelle’s jaw dropped as she searched for words. “Neva, seriously, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Get off it, Noelle, or should I say. . . Stepmother.”
“Stepmother? What the hell are you talking about?” She threw her hands up. “All right, you’re acting really weird. I’ve always had your back when people said you were crazy, but I’m starting to think they’re right. I gotta go.”
I watched her scurry down the hallway away from me, as if I had the plague. “You’re not going to win! I’m going to break my curse!” I shouted.
She threw a look over her shoulder, shook her head, and kept walking.
***
“Noelle denied it. She denied the whole thing,” I told Henry that night as he sat in my rocking chair. “I thought you were going to give me a clue. I had to figure it out on my own.”
“I’m sorry. I got scared. She’s going to be really mad at me for helping you.”
“What can she do to you that’s worse than what she’s already done?”
Henry sighed. “She can find my sister and take it out on her. She knows how to get to you by using what you love most. She knows I’ll do anything for Gretchen. Still, a promise is a promise. I’ll give you the clue tomorrow.”
“What for? I already know who the witch is.”
“No, you don’t. You’ve got it all wrong.”
***
On Tuesday, I tried my best to avoid eye contact with Noelle. She must have thought I was a total nut, and I couldn’t blame her. She was probably the only real friend I had in the entire school, and I had blown it. I had more important things to worry about, though. I had to keep my eyes open for Henry’s clue.
At lunch, I spent the period resting my head against a giant willow tree by the baseball diamond. The area was always deserted at lunchtime. I took advantage of the quiet and closed my eyes for a few minutes. I had stayed up almost all night talking to Henry about our former lives. Slowly but surely, our relationship was healing.
A bird chirped above me, jolting me awake. I had been on the verge of falling into a deep sleep. I was grateful to the bird for waking me, since lunch would be over in a few minutes.
I gathered my leftovers and stood, sliding my backpack over my shoulder. I felt something hard underneath my shoe. I looked down to see a large pebble, white and glistening. It was beautiful, almost like a giant pearl. I noticed several more of the pebbles ahead of me. They were in a line, forming a trail. I followed it, smiling. This is what Henry had done in his story—left a trail to find his way back home. The stones took me past the baseball diamond, underneath the bleachers, through a clump of newly planted birch trees. At first, I didn’t see anyone, and I didn’t understand what Henry was trying to show me, but then I heard a familiar giggle.
I hid behind a tree and peered around it. A boy stood there with a girl’s hands wrapped around his neck. From where I stood, I couldn’t see the girl’s face. The boy was much taller than her. He leaned in for a kiss, and the girl came into view. My breath caught in my throat. The trail of stones had led me to my former best friend, Aubrey Hayes.
21
I didn’t have time to waste. After school that day, I waited on the stoop of Aubrey’s house, where she couldn’t miss me. I had taken off right when the bell rang. She always stayed a few minutes after school to have an afternoon make out session with whomever she’d chosen as her flavor of the day.
Aubrey turned up her walkway, talking on her phone. She smiled like a girl in love until she saw me. Her smile quickly faded.
“JR, let me call you back.” She hung up and glared at me. “What are you doing here, Neva?”
I stood to meet her gaze, refraining from the sudden urge to scratch her eyes out.
“You know what I’m doing here . . . Witch.”
She frowned. “What?”
“You know, if you really want to blend in, you should stay a little more current. The leather, the feathered hair, the Candyman reference—it’s all very nineties.”
Her lips curved into a cunning grin. I remembered the evilness in her smile. This was my stepmother.
“Took you long enough to figure it out, stupid girl. Come inside.” She brushed past me, heading for her door, but I grabbed her arm.
“I’m not going in there. Everybody knows you never enter the house of a witch. That was Henry and Gretchen’s mistake.”
Aubrey shrugged. “Very well. What do you want from me? You already have your instructions. What are you doing here?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out. I was suddenly overwhelmed with the fact I had spent so much time with this person and told her so many things about me—nearly everything except my deepest darkest secret, which she already knew. I felt like an idiot.
I swallowed hard. “You didn’t have to kill Hadley and Mia just to get at me. You could have just come after me.”
Her smile disappeared. “I didn’t kill those bubble-headed fools. As much as I’d like to take credit for that, I can’t. And the fact that you’re being blamed for it—I call it a happy bonus.”
She was a liar—a bad one.
“Remove our curse,” I said forcefully. No, I didn’t expect it to be that easy, but you never knew.
“I will be more than happy to when you bring me the heart of a teenager. I can’t explain to you the sheer ecstasy of devouring a youthful heart. It keeps my own heart young. Bring me one.”
“What if I can’t do that?”
“What if you can’t do that?” she taunted. “Your time is almost up. The elixir will expire. You and that traitor you call your father will live the life you’ve been living until the end of time. No rest for the weary. Ever. Alas,” Aubrey continued, “a spell was cast over me by some godforsaken fairy which prohibits me from killing a princess. However, it says nothing about a poor, insignificant huntsman.”
“You won’t do anything to him,” I said through clenched teeth. I had caused Father enough damage. He’d lost his life and his family trying to protect me.
Aubrey stepped so close to me that we were practically nose to nose. “You will bring me what I require by Friday night or I will take his heart, and you won’t get the elixir. Either way, I will collect my debt. Time is running out and we must take what is owed to us.” She placed her ice-cold hand on my cheek. I slapped it away. “Until then, my pretty.” She sighed. “Still the prettiest girl around, I see.”
She glided inside, slamming the door shut behind her. I felt more hopeless than ever.
***
Henry didn’t visit me on Tuesday, but Wednesday night he appeared. I only had two more d
ays before the witch would kill my father.
“Did you tell her I gave you a clue?” Henry asked. His voice quivered with fear.
“Of course not.”
“So, what are you going to do?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t want my father to die, but I can’t kill anyone. I—”
A rap on the door interrupted me. “Neva, I need to go out,” Father said.
“Okay.”
“I shouldn’t be long.”
“Okay.”
We sat quietly until the front door closed. I was about to say something, but I was cut off by Henry’s sobbing.
“Henry, what’s wrong?”
He sniffed. “Why didn’t you just do it?”
“Do what?” I asked.
“I tried to help you, Neva.”
“What are you talking about?”
Henry coughed for a good twenty seconds. “The girls. I admit Mia was a mistake—I didn’t think that one out properly. You had to be the one to remove the heart for it to count, not me. But Hadley, I gave her right to you. I led you right to her dead body. You wouldn’t have had to kill her. You’re too kind. I knew you didn’t have it in you. All you had to do was take the part you needed, and you couldn’t even do that. I even left you a knife. I gave her right to you.”
That’s why a knife was in her back pocket.
I squeezed the stuffed bear in my hands. “You killed Mia and Hadley?” I didn’t want to believe he was capable of murder.
“Yes. They were so mean to you, and you had this curse to break—it was like killing two birds with one stone.”
I couldn’t think of a word to say to him, but suddenly, I felt more afraid. The last time I had felt like this was when Father had told me to turn around that day in the woods, so he wouldn’t have to look in my eyes when he swung the ax.
I was alone in my home with a murderer. “Henry, I want you to go away.”
“I can’t.” His voice cracked.
“Why not?”
“Neva, it’s too late. I loved you, and that clouded my judgment. I wanted to help you break your curse so you could be free, and I forgot what my job was.”
I shivered. “What was your job?”
“To get one of the elixirs for my sister. I don’t care about my curse. Look at me. I can’t have any kind of life looking like this, but I can help my sister. The witch told me that if I completed my task, she’d give me the cure for my sister and she wouldn’t hurt her. Gretchen’s not a princess like you, the witch could kill her if she wanted.”
Dread settled in the pit of my stomach. “What was your task, Henry?”
He paused before answering in a chilling whisper. “I have to take her the heart of a cursed princess.” Of course. Once again someone had to do her dirty work. She couldn’t kill me, so she wanted Henry to do it.
My body stiffened, and I looked around in the darkness for something I could use as a weapon. I wished Father hadn’t gone out.
Clearing my throat, I tried to speak calmly. “Henry, you can take the heart from any princess. It doesn’t have to be me.”
“These witches know what they’re doing. They can’t kill you, but they’re going to make sure you kill each other. Of the thirteen girls who were cursed, only six of you are princesses. What are the chances of me coming across another one?”
Slowly, I reached for the top drawer of my nightstand. I kept a knife there for when I sliced apples in bed.
“I’m sorry, Neva. I promised my sister I would take care of her. I told her not to worry. I have to do everything in my power to free her from her curse. This witch only has one bottle of elixir, and it belongs to Gretchen. I tried to warn you. I told you she wasn’t your real friend.”
I slid the drawer open. Henry must have heard it, because his silhouette jumped up from the rocking chair. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
My fingers felt for the knife. I pushed a couple of books aside, reaching desperately for it. Finally, my fingers grazed the smooth metal of the handle. I threw my covers back and leaped out of the bed. “Henry, don’t make me do this.”
He made a noise I’d never heard from any person before. It was a cross between a bear’s growl and a snake’s hiss. Henry pounced on me like a ravenous animal.
I tumbled to the ground, and he landed on top of me. I lost hold of the knife, and it fell somewhere beside me.
Henry wrapped his burned fingers around my neck and squeezed. He was a lot stronger than he looked. My breathing cut off immediately.
I tried to push him off me, but he wouldn’t budge. I did the only other thing I knew to do—I pressed my thumbs into his eyes with all my might. My skin crawled as I dug my fingers into his charred, hanging skin. Henry squealed and let go of my neck. I let go of his eyes, grabbed for the knife, and swung it at him, but he scurried away. I sat up as my bedroom door flew open, and Henry bolted from the room.
Rubbing my neck, I tried to catch my breath. Loud clattering and the sounds of things being thrown around came from the kitchen. Most of our dishes and utensils had been packed away, but Father had left a few things out for us to use. The knife I held wasn’t very large. There were much bigger, sharper knives in the kitchen.
When the noise stopped, I crept toward my door. Where was Henry? Was he coming back to get me, or was he somewhere hiding? I froze at my door, too petrified to go any further. Henry could have been standing right outside the door, ready to plunge a knife into my chest.
The basement door opened and closed. My heart raced faster. The basement was where my father kept his hunting equipment. I didn’t stand a chance if Henry grabbed any of those things.
While he was in the basement, I ran to get a better knife from the kitchen. I felt for the light switch in the upstairs hallway, but when I flicked it on, the house remained cloaked in darkness. The power box was in the basement, and Henry had cut off the electricity.
I considered calling 911, but decided not to. For one, they would think I was crazy, and two, this was something that needed to happen between Henry and me. Henry was doing what he had to do to help his sister survive, and I was doing the same for my father and me. The thought of my father dying at the hands of that witch motivated me to find my way downstairs in the darkness.
I paused at the bottom of the staircase to listen for Henry. The only sound was blood pounding in my ears.
I tiptoed from my spot into the kitchen. It was difficult making my way around the stacks of boxes. I felt my way to the dish drainer, planning to grab whatever was sharp. I moved around carefully, so as not to cut myself. The tip of my finger touched something pointy. It was a larger knife I had seen Father wash earlier. He’d used it to slice the pizza we’d ordered, because the pizza slicer had been packed away.
I grabbed the knife and wrapped my fingers tightly around the handle. I couldn’t drop this one.
“Henry!” I called. “Come on out! Let’s get this over with!”
Nothing.
“Henry! Don’t be a coward!”
A door creaked. The sound of footsteps came toward me. Taking a deep breath, I held the knife in front of me. Henry was watching me. I could sense it. A few seconds later, he coughed, giving himself away, and then the heavy breathing resumed. He must have been holding his breath the whole time, knowing his labored breaths would reveal his location.
Suddenly, running feet were coming toward me. I braced myself for the impact and held the knife steady. The wind was knocked out of me as I was tackled to the floor. My head made hard contact with the tile.
Bright flashes of light appeared as the darkness spun around me. Henry lay beside me, breathing harder than usual and not moving. I needed light to see what was happening. I sprinted to the kitchen window and pulled the curtains back. Moonlight streamed into the room and illuminated the scene.
Henry lay on the floor, the knife protruding from his belly. I watched his chest rise and fall as he fought for his next breath. His mouth moved like he was trying to s
ay something. He raised his hand weakly and pointed to the knife.
I hated to see him in pain and wanted to let him free. He wanted me to push the knife deeper into his stomach, but I couldn’t bring myself to hurt him any more than I already had. I knelt over him and held my breath. Closing my eyes, I pressed my lips against his. Henry’s lips felt dry and rough. A little air escaped through his parted lips. His breath tasted like smoke. I held my mouth there a few seconds, giving the poison enough time to do its job before pulling away. When I looked down at Henry, he was still.
I dropped to the floor and buried my face in my hands, weeping like a child. I cried for the boy who was just like me—a kid who had been cursed by a witch.
22
I sat in the darkness until Father came home. With the lights out, I didn’t have to look at Henry. Father’s keys rattled at the doorknob. A moment later, he came inside, closing the door behind him. I imagined he was reaching for a light switch, but nothing was happening.
“Neva?”
“In the kitchen,” I answered, my voice cracking.
“What’s going on?”
“Can you turn the power back on in the basement?”
He dropped something heavy on the floor. Probably his hunting bag. “Why is the power off?”
I didn’t answer him as I listened to his footsteps descend to the basement.
I closed my eyes as the lights zapped back on, and the air conditioner hummed. Moments later, Father stood in the doorway of the kitchen, staring at the lifeless body on the floor.
“That’s Henry,” I said.
Father blinked a few times before speaking. “Oh.”
“I didn’t want to kill him, but he was trying to kill me. The witch sent him to do it.”
He ran his fingers through his hair. “Okay. Okay. So what now?”
“He was cursed. If I give the witch his heart, my own curse will be broken.”
Father nodded. “Well, what are you waiting for?”
I shook my head and stared at the pool of blood next to Henry. “I can’t do it. I can’t cut out somebody’s heart.”
Forever Snow (The Everly Girls Book 1) Page 15
