I waited for him to continue. When he didn’t, I slammed both palms on the dash in front of me. Leaning forward, my head dropped between my arms, I let out a frustrated growl and pushed myself back into the seat. “Damn it, Chay! Stop talking in riddles and tell me what’s going on!” I fell silent and tilted my head to the side. A thought ran through my head. I turned to Chay. “She crossed. Didn’t she?”
Chay licked his lips and scratched his eyebrow with his thumb. He opened his mouth to answer when we heard Muriel yell to us.
“She crossed, didn’t she?” Muriel called, hurrying toward the car. “I’ve been picking up bits and pieces in visions today.”
I waved my hand in the air. “Hey! Am I ever going to get a straight answer?”
“Yeah,” Chay answered Muriel.
“Does she know yet?” Muriel asked.
Chay ran his hand up the back of his head. “She suspects.”
“Hello? I’m sitting right here.” I raised my hand above my head and pointed down at myself.
“She crossed,” Muriel told me.
I nodded. I really didn’t know what to say, so I said nothing.
“She’s an Evil now.” Jen’s voice trembled. “She’s working against us.”
“Oh… wow. I didn’t see that coming.” I put my hands on the sides of my neck and massaged.
“There’s no way you could’ve,” Chay said quietly.
“You did.”
“Because I’m more attuned to what is going to hurt the group. I’ve been seeing her in my visions for a few days.”
“So you were aware that she was going to hurt herself,” I said.
“No, I was aware that someone was going to hurt the group. She isn’t part of the group anymore. But her absence makes us a little weaker, and it makes Azazel’s team a little stronger. Not much, and it’s nothing we can’t handle, but a little stronger.”
“Then why did I have the vision? If there was nothing for me to correct, if there was no one for me to help, why did I have a vision?”
“She’s underestimated your abilities. They’re getting stronger every day. Your vision wasn’t meant for you to step in and protect a human, it was meant for you to protect our group,” Muriel answered.
“So what happens to her now?”
“Who knows?” Drew shrugged a shoulder.
“Who cares?” Chay answered.
“I care!” Shayla cried, her hand on her chest. Her eyes wide, she took us all in. “She was one of us. We should all care what’s going to happen to her.”
“She isn’t one of us anymore. Now she’s an enemy. We don’t have the luxury of caring.” Chay turned his back to Shayla and looked at me. “Let’s go.” He waited until I was settled in the car and closed the door. I waved at everyone through the window. There were no smiles or happy waves. Just somber faces and eyes mirroring betrayal.
Chay got in the car and drove toward home. “There’s nothing we can do?” I asked.
“About?”
I sighed. “Lily.”
“Yeah. Watch our backs.”
I bagged up the garbage, set it on the kitchen floor, shook out a new bag, and stuck it into the trash bin. “This is when it would be nice if you were old enough for chores,” I grumbled to Ben. He smiled and shrugged before running down the hall with his arms stretched out, making noises like he was flying an airplane.
I think there’s something seriously wrong with that kid.
Hefting up the full bag, I walked out of the side door and screamed. The bag dropped onto the paved drive, and garbage spilled out of a ripped seam.
My heart was racing, pumping adrenaline through my veins like I was a junkie. I slapped my hand over my mouth and took two deep breaths through my nose.
His shoulder was leaning against the house and his finger was hooked around his belt loop. “You scream like a girl,” he drawled.
“I am a girl,” I said from behind my hand.
“Yeah, I’ve noticed.” A ghost of a grin touched his lips, and my heart started racing for a completely different reason than him scaring me half to death.
“What the heck are you doing here, Chay?”
“The others will be here in a minute. I imagine your dad will be out here, too.”
“All right, that’s great. We’ll have a reunion. But while we wait, could you please answer my freakin’ question?”
“What are you trained in? Judo, Jiu-jitsu, Tae Kwon Do?”
“Tae Kwon Do, Krav Maga, and a little bit of everything else. Why?” I asked slowly.
“Because you’re about to get a chance to use your skills. Lily and her new posse are on their way over. She thinks she can talk you into switching sides.” Pushing off the house, he walked to me. He stood so close our toes almost touched.
“You know, I never really liked her. I should have trusted my instincts.”
Chay laughed. The light over the door cast his face in odd shadows. He looked almost sinister. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought he was the one I needed to be afraid of, but at that moment, there was nowhere else I wanted to be, and that feeling confused me. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. I didn’t want to be where Lily was, but that, it seemed, was going to be unavoidable.
“Are you scared?” he asked, studying my face.
“Yes,” I breathed. “Are you?”
“Yeah, but not for the reason you think.”
Always with the riddles.