“Hey, if things work out, I could be your stepdad.”
“This is what you called me for?”
“No, no. I was just wondering what happened to your dad.”
“I suppose you could date him, too, if you wanted. I don’t really know his type, though. I know it’s not my mom, or else they wouldn’t have gotten divorced.”
“Oh.” Bryce was disappointed. “Do you have a relationship with him?”
“Yeah. I mean, sort of. It’s tough with all the distance and the time zones.”
“What do you mean?”
“My dad runs a security company.”
“Yeah, I know. We have an Endicott Solutions system over at my place.”
“You, and everyone else in town.”
“What does your dad running a security company have to do with anything?”
“They’re headquartered in Copenhagen. You know, Denmark. He lives there. I don’t even know what time it is there right now. It could be tomorrow. Or yesterday.”
“And you see him?”
“No. I haven’t seen him… since I was real little, I guess.”
“What kind of relationship do you have?”
“He calls me. On my birthday. And Christmas. Sometimes the other holidays, but always those two. We catch up. It’s nice.”
Bryce was silent as he tried to process this. “Have you ever seen him?”
“I guess so. I mean, I must have.”
“How old were you when he moved to Copenhagen?”
“I don’t know.” He could practically see the angry shrug she was giving him. He knew he was pushing her and she was maybe two seconds shy of losing her temper, but he had to press on.
“Seriously, Sindy? This doesn’t seem strange to you?”
“I don’t know. I guess. I mean, now that you mention it.”
Now that you mention it. Stuff that seemed normal, because it was normal. Normal was defined by the realities of your existence, so if something was the status quo, it was, by definition, normal. Sindy obviously never examined her situation as an outsider might, just like Bryce had never looked at how many single parent households were in Arkham. Even taking into account divorce statistics-the first thing he’d researched-this was too much.
“Do you have his phone number?”
“Of course I do.”
“Would you mind giving it to me?”
“Bryce, what’s going on?”
He sighed. This was the first time anyone had really asked him what he was up to. She was one of Abby’s best friends. In Bryce’s mind, he automatically owed her a small bit of consideration, so he told her everything that he had found so far. She was so quiet that for a moment he thought she had hung up.
“And you think…” she said.
“I don’t know what I think. All I know is, it’s weird.”
“Yeah.” She was quiet again. “I’ll send you the number. But I need to talk to him first. I need to see… I just need to talk to him first. He calls on Christmas. Just wait ‘til then, okay?”
Bryce hated waiting, but Christmas wasn’t that far away. He could give Sindy a little time. “Okay, thank you. I appreciate it, Sindy.”
“One more thing, or no deal.” He braced himself for her demands. “Whatever you find, you have to swear to tell me, okay? No matter what.”
“No matter what. I promise.”
“I don’t know what I’m hoping you’ll find out.”
“Me neither.”
Even though Bryce was in his own home, speaking with someone he was finding to be a better friend than he’d first realized, he felt very alone.
46
The Call
sindy was freshly cleaned up and waiting for her phone to ring. Her light breakfast-crepes and fruit-was jostling around in her belly. She felt foolish for letting Bryce’s theory get to her, though she couldn’t deny that it was compelling. And while she might be willing to accept that all of those other dads had disappeared through sinister means, she didn’t believe anything of the sort about hers.
Her phone buzzed not more than forty seconds after two. She could have set her watch by the call; he was always so punctual. Two pm. After the present-opening, but before the Christmas party. Her phone said ‘Dad’ on the screen, but she had no accompanying picture for him.
“Dad?” she said into the phone.
“Hello, princess.”
Their conversation was normal, even boring. He asked her about Arkham Academy and her friends. As usual, he seemed honestly interested in how she was doing. She answered his questions openly, but everything felt tense and awkward. She couldn’t keep Bryce’s theory out of her head, and she cursed her friend for messing up one of the few times she actually got to talk to her father.
“What’s wrong, baby?” he asked.
“Nothing, Daddy.”
“Come on. I know you better than that.”
“When are you coming home?”
“It’s not my home anymore. I thought you understood that. Your mother and I still love you very much, but we can’t live together.”
“I didn’t mean to live. I meant for a vacation.”
“I wish I could. I really do. This is a difficult time for the company. A lot of expansion, new business. We have to be competitive on these bids, or it’s belly up.”
“It’s been like that for fourteen years.”
“It hasn’t been that long.”
“Yeah, it has. I’m fourteen and I don’t remember you at all. I know a lot of dads who work a lot, but they still see their kids.” This was a lie. Between her own friends and Bryce’s research, she could think of one dad who worked a lot and was active in his child’s life, and that was Elijah Grant. That was a whole other can of worms that she didn’t want to open up right now.
“I’m sorry. I really wish I could come home, but I’m stuck here. Listen, I’ll do everything I can to get home next year for your birthday, all right?”
“Okay.”
“Merry Christmas, princess.”
“Merry Christmas, Daddy.”
She ended the call and stared at the phone. After a moment, she texted the number to Bryce.
Thx Sin, came the response so quickly that he must have been waiting for it.
47
Christmas
Biking over to Harwich Hall while all of Arkham was smothered under a thick crust of snow was crazy. Veronica said as much to Nate before he left. His mother clucked her tongue about catching pneumonia, and his father shot him a knowing smile and raised his cup of eggnog from the couch where he was watching basketball. They all knew Nate was going to go over there. He had been doing it for years, including two years ago when there had been an honest-to-god nor’easter. He spent most of that afternoon shivering in front of a fire at Abby’s place while Bertram brought them mug after mug of cocoa.
It wasn’t snowing when he set out. The roads were freshly coated but that wasn’t deep enough to keep him at home. He put Abby’s gift in the basket and stood on his pedals to get enough force to bring him up to speed. The wind was cold on his face and his breath burned, but Nate felt alive.
There had been a time when Nate was terrified of change. He still didn’t like it, but he was at least curious about it now. He had become more or less used to the reality of Abby’s pregnancy, though because she still wasn’t showing quite yet, he could sometimes ignore that part. What he couldn’t forget was the church out in the woods and the creature that had hunted them.
In his mind, he called it the Woodsman. It wasn’t an accurate name, but all Nate could think of was the Big Bad Wolf. It probably would have been more appropriate to actually call it that, the Big Bad Wolf, but that felt too childish to Nate. More than that, he had the unmistakable sense that the Woodsman, whatever it really was, was protecting that section of the wild from people like him and Abby.
One stray thought about the Woodsman was enough to chill Nate to the bone. He knew it was out there in that ancient
stretch of woods. It had to be connected to that church in some way, though he couldn’t imagine how. The mystery about why the wealthiest women in Arkham would choose to spend their time out there was a puzzle too complicated for him to unravel just yet.
Christmas let him put those thoughts away, at least for a little while. He could concentrate on family. For him, that included Abby. He selected all his Christmas presents with care, but with Abby’s, he took extra time. He was secretly ashamed that he didn’t have the money to get her something expensive like she always got him, but he tried to make up the difference with thought and consideration.
He wheeled his bike onto the porch-a privilege that was only permitted in weather like this-and knocked. Bertram answered the door and invited him inside. There was no warmth to the old servant, no matter how many times Nate tried to bond with him via their mutual station.
Nate went into the parlor and found Abby there, showered and dressed, looking radiant in her simple clothes. Her face broke into a wide smile at the sight of him. “Nate! I didn’t think you were going to make it!”
“Please. Do you really think a little bit of snow is going to be able to hold back all this?” He gestured at his slender frame as if presenting himself, then patted his chest. “I got the mad flex on my bike, yo.”
“You are a dork.” Abby giggled and slapped the couch next to her. Nate grinned. As he joined her, she bounced up again, unable to contain her excitement. She conjured a beautifully-wrapped package from under the tree and gazed seriously at him. Her eyes were full and glossy, and she put her smile away for a moment.
“Merry Christmas, Nathan.”
Nate felt a tightness in his chest. Whether she said it out loud or not, they were both aware that this was the last Christmas of this sort, ever. He would never again be able to pedal to her house on Christmas morning to sit with her alone on this couch and sip cocoa and exchange gifts. Their world was in an uproar. And he only thing he could be certain of was that one more part of their childhood was being set aside this morning.
He held up his gift to her and found his voice. “Merry Christmas, Abigail.”
Her smile returned like sunrise. Nate smiled back as they settled back down on the couch together. He waited to unwrap his present, wanting this moment to last. He also wanted to see what she thought of his gift before he got an idea of how much she spent on him. As guilty as he sometimes felt about that, he also knew that whatever Abby had got for him was going to be incredible. She’d never failed, not once.
She opened the package that he had so painstakingly wrapped. He’d heard that using more than three pieces of tape meant you were wrapping a present wrong. He hadn’t managed to bring his tape use down from six pieces, and there would be no ribbon until further advances in technology.
Abby opened it up, revealing a book cover. It was old. Nate had found it in The Inkwell, Arkham’s local second hand bookstore. It had been pretty cheap too, which was good because Nate had yanked all the guts from it. The cover said, FLORA AND FAUNA OF NEW ENGLAND. It looked like a textbook from the ’60s. Abby opened it, revealing the true gift inside.
Every page contained notes from Nate’s jagged hand, and included pictures he had taken, drawn, or found online. Some pictures and sections were mostly unaltered. Other parts had been printed out from articles online; still others were cannibalized from different sources. It was exactly what the cover said, a guide to the plants and animals of their home, but Nate had compiled it himself. He’d even organized the book by season. There was a big section on foxes, and another on asters, two of Abby’s favorites. Nate had spent hours carefully rendering the purple blooms in detail.
“Oh my God, Nate. It’s just… incredible,” Abby paged through the work as if it were priceless artifact in a museum.
“I’m glad you like it.”
“No. I love it.” She looked up and Nate had never seen that kind of joy on her face. It was like watching spring bloom in a single corner of Arkham. “You just…” Her voice caught and a flicker of dew danced across her eyes before she hugged him tight.
Nate held her close for a moment as she whispered another ‘thank you’ into his hair. She gave him one more long squeeze before pulling away.
“Okay! Now open yours!”
“Are you sure? Mine was pretty awesome. I don’t want to ruin your Christmas.”
She punched him in the arm and shoved the present at him. He grinned as he took the wrapping paper off the package. Unlike his own job, this was art. Abby was like that. She approached every task, no matter how small or menial, with pride and care. He took the lid off the box and found a shiny, new tablet. He had been wanting one, even remarking to Abby on more than one occasion that he was saving to get one. His eyes felt like there were about to bug right out of his head. “Are you kidding me, Abby? A freaking tablet? This is crazy!”
“Psh, like I only got you a tablet.” She tapped the screen and made a few swipes. “You read too fast for me to buy you any books, so I loaded it up with some credits. Don’t spend it all on card packs!” She looked at him and then laughed in delight. “I wish you could see the look on your face.”
“Was it anything like yours? Because that was priceless.”
She reached across the boxes on their laps and hugged him again. “Merry Christmas, Nate.”
“Back at you.”
When they parted, their each went back to looking at their gifts. They both wondered how they could have gotten so lucky. They were united, for a moment, in the two best gifts they would receive until next Christmas.
Constance Thorndike entered the room, and Nate could swear she was preparing for a party. Then again, Constance always looked like she was getting ready to go to a party to which you were specifically not invited.
“Merry Christmas, Nathan,” she said, producing an envelope out of thin air. “Please give this to your father. It’s his usual Christmas bonus. Be sure to thank him for me.”
Nate nodded, and accepted the envelope with a muttered, “Thank you.” There was no malice in Constance’s words. He knew it had not been her intention to remind him that his family scraped by on the good graces of people like her, but she had torn Nate out of the moment he was sharing with Abby. The quiet, magic spell of their Christmas morning, their last Christmas morning, had been broken. No amount of hugs could bridge the gap between his family and hers. In that moment, he hated the tablet that Abby had given him. For the same amount of money, Nate’s mother could have fed their whole family for two months. He didn’t belong here.
He stood up. “Actually. I should go do that right now.”
“No, Nate, stick around. I’m not doing anything right now,” Abby said. “We could shop for books.”
“Maybe another time, Abby.”
Nate tucked his gift into his jacket and headed for the front door.
48
Making It Work
sindy wasn’t planning to go anywhere special on New Year’s Eve. She had no boyfriend, so she was trying to avoid parties. Standing alone with some stupid party favor while all the couples kissed at midnight would just depress her. A month ago, she would have thought that staying in on New Year’s was just as (if not more) depressing, but something about it seemed very comforting now. She was planning to go over to Abby’s house and ring in the new year with snacks and trashy movies.
A night together, just the two of them, might help their friendship. Even after she’d apologized about Halloween and Abby had told her that the town was crawling with these monsters, their friendship was still… off.
She looked for the men Abby claimed were croatan, but she lacked whatever ability Abby had to see through their disguise. If she kept staring at normal-looking men on the street, people were going to think she was crazy. Still, Sindy didn’t doubt Abby in the slightest. The memory of Eleazar transforming into that thing was enough for her to believe just about anything.
Then, there was Hester. First, she’d told her how to make a
cake that revealed Eleazar’s false face. Second, Hester had intimated that she was being groomed for leadership in the Daughters, not Abby. It made her wonder whether Hester was testing her, trying to see how far she could push her. The scary part was that Sindy didn’t know where that line was.
To make it worse, Sindy couldn’t bring herself to mention it to Abby. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to. It was one more wedge between them, and she found herself wondering if that was also something Hester wanted.
Sindy was waiting for Abelard to drive her over to Harwich Hall. She had all of her things ready to go, and she was beginning to get antsy when she got a knock at her door.
“Miss Endicott,” Abelard said, “you have a visitor.”
“A visitor?” Maybe the wires had gotten crossed and Abby was coming over here.
Sindy shrugged and headed downstairs. Eleazar Grant was standing in the foyer looking up at her.
Her blood went cold. She froze halfway down the staircase. He looked like he had before, handsome and melancholy, but now there was a more tangible sadness in his eyes. His skin was pale, his cheeks and nose red from the cold outside. Good disguise, creeper, she thought.
“Sindy,” he said. There was a plaintive note in his voice that made her uncomfortable.
“What do you want?”
“You don’t return my texts. You don’t talk to me…”
“That’s called a hint. Take it.”
“Sindy, what’s wrong? We were doing fine and then-”
“And then I saw what you are,” she hissed. She stalked a few steps closer to him, anger overriding her fear.
He flinched. “What I am? Presbyterian?”
“You’re a monster, Eleazar, and you know it. A dirty, scaly Crow.”
She caught the glimmer of recognition in his eyes. She flagged a weakness in his disguise. In this form, she could read his mood. His eyes gave away his emotions, unlike the awful, piscine eyes of the thing beneath the boyfriend-mask.
“Sindy, please, you’re acting crazy.”
Mother of Crows Page 22
