“Okay . . . all right.” He laughed as he backed away from me. “They’ve got you brainwashed, too. Use your head. If we can’t get out of the corn . . . and no one can get in . . . how could you have possibly seen Coronado and the Arcanum?”
“Dane,” I blurted. “Dane can walk the corn. He’s the only one. It’s a secret, but he can get us out of here.”
“How?” My brother turned on me.
“I . . . I don’t know . . . we’ll hold hands or something. He said we might be able to slip by Coronado and his men at dawn on the summer solstice.”
“Are you serious right now?” He grabbed my shoulders, giving me a hard shake. “Is that what he told you? That we can all walk through the corn together, holding hands, singing ‘Kumbaya’?”
“She’s telling the truth,” Beth said with a faraway look in her eyes. “I don’t know how I know about Dane, but I do. He can lead us to the outside world.”
Rhys dragged his hands through his hair and let out a frustrated scream. “Every fiber in my body is telling me not to trust that asshole. Didn’t Mom always say we should trust our instincts? There’s something not right about him . . . about any of this.” He stared out over the corn. He was so disgusted he couldn’t even look me in the eyes. “There has to be another way.” He took Beth’s hand and pulled her away.
“Where are you going?” I called out in desperation.
“We’re going back to the bonfire. One of us has to keep up appearances. We’ll tell everyone you came home with a fever. A fever we need to let you burn out.”
32
TABOO
“HE’LL COME AROUND.” Dane’s voice bled through the stalks behind me.
I turned to find him standing in the corn. “I’m sorry I told your secret, but I didn’t know what else to—”
“You were trying to make amends. I understand.” He came toward me, his eyes glistening. “I’ll take him through the corn when he’s ready. For now, I want to help you find answers. You deserve to know what’s happening to you.” He held out his hand. “Don’t worry. I won’t let go again.”
I swallowed back the guilt threatening to pull me under and stepped forward to take his hand. As soon as I touched him, relief flooded me. He made me want to forget about everything. I wanted to live in this moment for as long as I possibly could.
As we moved through the corn, it felt like we were all alone in the world, but I was never truly alone. The conduit feelings were always with me . . . clawing at my skin, scratching to get out. Before I even had a chance to take in another breath, that familiar feeling rose up, consuming me until there was nothing left to do but fall.
? ? ?
Marie ducks under the thick fringe of a willow tree, clutching a rock threaded with light pink quartz and a folded piece of parchment.
“A’kuay’hdah, hakku nay’si’sa,” she whispers to the Great Spirit as she slips the black silk ribbon from around her neck, tying the parchment to the stone. “With this promise, I offer you my most prized possession. This is the ribbon my mother gave to me when I came of age. It’s not a trinket of whimsy. My mother imbued it with power and magic to help me find my one true love. All I ask in return is to be granted immortality. This is my fate. Hear my plea.” She places the parcel against the dark gray trunk.
As if the breeze is answering her call, the branches sway and dance all around her. A smile flashes across her face and then quickly disappears.
“Fate is a curious thing,” a whisper filters through the leaves. “Just like the Ouroboros, the snake eating its own tail, your plea has been answered, but not the way you intended.”
“I don’t understand. I need this . . . now.” Marie stands, searching the leaves for answers. “I fear he’ll leave me if I can’t offer him an immortal life.”
“And so it shall be . . .”
The sound of wings descends upon the clearing. Shadows of black birds permeate the space as they land on the branches of the willow.
? ? ?
Darkness envelops me—the past and the present merging together. Grainy images press in on the edge of my consciousness. A stiff black feather tracing down a woman’s bare spine, blood speckling smooth milky skin, clouds of red-tinged water, the black silk ribbon billowing around entwined limbs, the shimmer of leaves.
But it’s the sound of crinkling rope that pulls me back to the moment.
“I thought you loved me,” Marie whispers as her body is being dragged into the corn.
Blindly, I careen after her, feeling the stalks snap at my skin. A soft halo of light beckons in the distance, illuminating the sacred circle. I stop. As I stare through the stalks, toward the chasm in the center of the circle, I hear a scratching, scraping noise, like something’s trying to claw its way out. A chill rushes through me. This place doesn’t feel magical, far from it. It feels barren and cold. A place for the dead.
? ? ?
“Ashlyn,” Dane whispered.
I opened my eyes to see his face before me. He looked like an angel, with the sun just beginning to rise through the bedroom window behind him.
“Is this a dream?” I asked.