“So you just felt like picking me up for school?” That was something new.
“Nope.” She rolled down the window, the morning breeze blowing her hair into curls. Today, it was just the wind.
“You got something better in mind?”
Her whole face lit up. “Now how could there be anything better than spending a day like this at Stonewall Jackson High?” She was happy. As she turned the wheel, I noticed her hand. No ink. No number. No birthday. She wasn’t worried about anything, not today.
120. I knew it, as if it was written in invisible ink on my own hand. One hundred and twenty days until it, whatever Macon and Amma were so afraid of, happened.
I looked out the window as we turned onto Route 9, wishing she could stay like this for just a little bit longer. I closed my eyes, running through the playbook in my mind. Pick ’n’ Roll. Picket Fences. Down the Lane. Full Court Press.
By the time we made it to Summerville, I knew where we were headed. There was only one place kids like us went in Summerville, if it wasn’t the last three rows of the Cineplex.
The hearse rolled through the dust behind the water tower at the edge of the field. “Parking? We’re parking? At the water tower? Now?” Link would never believe this.
The engine died. Our windows were down, everything was quiet, and the breeze blew into her window and out mine.
Isn’t this what people do around here?
Yeah, no. Not people like us. Not in the middle of a school day.
For once, can’t we be them? Do we always have to be us?
I like being us.
She unclicked her seatbelt and I unclicked mine, pulling her onto my lap. I could feel her, warm and happy, spreading through me.
So this is what parking is like?
She giggled, reaching over to push my hair out of my eyes.
“What’s that?” I grabbed her right arm. It was dangling from her wrist, the bracelet Amma had given Macon, last night in the swamp. My stomach clenched, and I knew Lena’s mood was about to change. I had to tell her.
“My uncle gave it to me.”
“Take it off.” I turned the string around her wrist, looking for the knot.
“What?” Her smile faded. “What are you talking about?”
“Take it off.”
“Why?” She pulled her arm away from me.
“Something happened last night.”
“What happened?”
“After I got home, I followed Amma out to Wader’s Creek, where she lives. She snuck out of our house in the middle of the night to meet someone in the swamp.”
“Who?”
“Your uncle.”
“What were they doing out there?” Her face had turned a chalky white, and I could tell the parking part of the day was over.
“They were talking about you, about us. And the locket.”
Now she was paying attention. “What about the locket?”
“It’s some kind of Dark talisman, whatever that means, and your uncle told Amma that I never buried it. They were really freaked out about it.”
“How would they know it’s a talisman?”
I was starting to get annoyed. She didn’t seem to be focusing on the right thing. “How about, how do they even know each other? Did you have any idea your uncle knew Amma?”
“No, but I don’t know everyone he knows.”
“Lena, they were talking about us. About keeping the locket away from us, and keeping us away from each other. I got the feeling they think I’m some kind of threat. Like I’m getting in the way of something. Your uncle thinks—”
“What?”
“He thinks I have some kind of power.”
She laughed out loud, which annoyed me even more. “Why would he think that?”
“Because I brought Ridley into Ravenwood. He said I’d have to have power to do that.”
She frowned. “He’s right.” That wasn’t the answer I was expecting.
“You’re kidding, right? If I had powers, don’t you think I’d know it?”
“I don’t know.”
Maybe she didn’t know, but I did. My dad was a writer and my mom had spent her days reading the journals of dead Civil War generals. I was about as far from being a Caster as you could get, unless aggravating Amma counted as a power. There was obviously some kind of loophole that had allowed Ridley to get inside. One of the wires in the Caster security system had blown a fuse.
Lena must have been thinking the same thing. “Relax. I’m sure there’s an explanation. So Macon and Amma know each other. Now we know.”
“You don’t seem very upset about this.”
“What do you mean?”
“They’ve been lying to us. Both of them. Meeting secretly, trying to keep us apart. Trying to get us to get rid of the locket.”
“We never asked them if they knew each other.” Why was she acting like this? Why wasn’t she upset, or angry, something?
“Why would we? Don’t you think it’s weird that your uncle is out in the swamp in the middle of the night with Amma, talking to spirits and reading chicken bones?”