Grabbing the ice cream and a word search, I sat down at the kitchen table. I was half done with the word search and completely full of ice cream when my cell rang. Jumping, I snatched it up. “Chay, stop calling. You’re gonna wake my parents.”
“Sorry. How long have they been out there?”
I didn’t bother asking who he was talking about. “I’ve been watching them for about an hour.”
“Why didn’t you call?”
“Because they aren’t doing anything except pulling up my mom’s plants and running through the yard. Besides, they can be entertaining… until I think of what they are.”
His low laughter made me smile. “Yeah. Too bad all demons aren’t like them.”
We fell into an easy silence. I couldn’t hear him on the other end of the phone. I’d just decided he’d fallen asleep when he spoke.
“I really am sorry, Milayna.”
“I know.”
“I shouldn’t have… it wasn’t your fault.”
“You don’t have to keep apologizing. You were upset. It’s okay, really.”
He let out an unsteady breath. “I’m… what are you doing for your birthday?”
What was supposed to come after the ‘I’m?’
“Apparently, I’m going to be fed to the hounds of Hell on my birthday,” I said, only half joking.
“That’s not going to happen,” he murmured. “So, after the official time of your birth and all this is behind you, what do you have planned?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think I have any real plans.” I pushed the word search away.
“What about your parents?” I could hear Chay moving in bed, the blankets shuffling, and butterflies started darting through my chest. I tried hard, really hard not to think of him in bed. I really did. It didn’t work. “Milayna?”
Crap… What? Oh, right. Birthday. Focus.
“We’ll probably have dinner with family, but that’s it. Unless you know something I don’t.”
Please, not a surprise party. I just want to forget about this birthday.
“No, I don’t know anything.” He didn’t sound like he was hiding anything.
“Really? Because even though I don’t think they would, I can’t put it past my parents not to throw a surprise party. And I’m just not up for it. I just want this birthday over so I can forget about it. So if you know something, tell me so I can prepare myself.” I stood and wandered through the house.
“Geez, you’re a real party animal.” He laughed. “I don’t know anything. I swear. I have a feeling your parents want your eighteenth birthday to be over and done with as much as you do. So if this whole hounds of Hell thing doesn’t work out, you want to go out to dinner with me?”
Right then, my toes curled and my heart did a cartwheel. “Yes. I think I do.”
A date. He asked me on a date! Not… I think I do. I do. I really do. “Good, it’s a date.”
“Huh.”
“What?”
I looked out of the window overlooking the front lawn. I could see Muriel’s house across the street. “Muriel’s car is gone. I know it was there when I went to bed.”
“Any visions today?”
I thought back over my day. I didn’t have any major visions; those were hard to forget. But I hadn’t had any minor flashes either. “No.”
“Not even now? With the hobgoblins running around?”
“Ugh, those pipsqueaks. But no.” I wrapped my shirtsleeve around my fingers and stared at the empty space where Muriel’s car should’ve been.
“Then it’s probably fine. Doesn’t your uncle go into work early? Maybe he took her car,” Chay said.
I sighed. “Probably.” Then my heart sank. “Their kitchen light just came on. He hasn’t left yet.”
Chay was silent. It stretched between us. I knew what he was thinking. I was thinking it, too. Lily had switched sides. It wasn’t beyond any of us to get sucked in by Azazel’s lies.
“I’m sure it’s nothing.” His tone was flat, expressionless.
“No, you’re not.”
“You’re right. I’m not. Remember, Milayna, we don’t know who we can trust.”
“What do you mean ‘we’? Before, you told me I didn’t know who I could trust.”
“You can trust me,” he said quietly.
Isn’t that something a person I couldn’t trust would say?
***
“Where were you last night?” I asked Muriel in calculus. “I looked out of the window at four this morning and your car was gone.” I pulled my calculus book from my messenger bag.
“Spying on me?”
“No, I couldn’t sleep and was walking through the house. I happened to look out of the window and noticed it missing.”
“I had to babysit for the Jenkins’ kids. The mom works nights, gets home around five.” It made sense. Muriel babysat the Jenkins’ kids a lot. But I couldn’t shake the feeling she was lying. “I didn’t know I needed to punch a time clock. You can check with my parents if you want.” She tapped her pencil on her book.
I glanced up from my homework and turned to her. “Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know, Milayna. Why would you?” She arched a brow.
“I wasn’t trying to be nosy, Muriel. I was worried.”
She sighed and tossed her pencil on her book. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to get bitchy. I’m just keyed up with everything going on.”
“I know. Everyone is.”
Class started, and Muriel and I fell silent. The teacher was babbling when I texted Muriel.
Me: Who follows me after calculus?