“It’s weird, but I’m sure they’re just trying to protect us.”
“From what? The truth? They were talking about something else, too. They were trying to find someone, Sara something. And about how you can damn us all if you Turn.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask your uncle? See if he’ll tell you the truth for once.”
I had gone too far. “My uncle is risking his life to protect me. He’s always been there for me. He took me in when he knew I might turn into a monster in a few months.”
“What is he really protecting you from? Do you even know?”
“Myself!” she snapped. That was it. She pushed the door open and climbed off my lap, out into the field. The shade of the massive white water tower shielded us from Summerville, but the day didn’t seem so sunny anymore. Where there had been a cloudless blue sky just a few minutes ago, there were streaks of gray.
The storm was moving in. She didn’t want to talk about it, but I didn’t care. “That doesn’t make any sense. Why is he meeting Amma in the middle of the night to tell her we still have the locket? Why don’t they want us to have it? And more important, why don’t they want us to be together?”
It was just the two of us, shouting in a field. The breeze was churning into a strong wind. Lena’s hair started to whip around her face. She shot back, “I don’t know. Parents are always trying to keep teenagers apart, it’s what they do. If you want to know why, maybe you should ask Amma. She’s the one who hates me. I can’t even pick you up at your house because you’re afraid she’ll see us together.”
The knot that was building in the pit of my stomach tightened. I was angry at Amma, angrier than I’d ever been at her in my whole life, but I still loved her. She was the one who had left letters from the Tooth Fairy under my pillow, bandaged every scraped knee, thrown me thousands of pitches when I wanted to try out for Little League. And since my mom died and my dad checked out, Amma was the only one who looked out for me, who cared or even noticed if I skipped school or lost a game. I wanted to believe she had an explanation for all of this.
“You just don’t understand her. She thinks she’s… ”
“What? Protecting you? Like my uncle is trying to protect me? Did you ever consider that maybe they’re both trying to protect us from the same thing… me?”
“Why do you always go there?”
She walked away from me, like she would take off if she could. “Where else is there to go? That’s what this is about. They’re afraid I’ll hurt you or someone else.”
“You’re wrong. This is about the locket. There’s something they don’t want us to know.” I dug around in my pocket, searching for the familiar shape underneath the handkerchief. After last night, there was no way I was letting it out of my sight. I was sure Amma was going to look for it today, and if she found it we’d never see it again. I laid it on the hood of the car. “We need to find out what happens next.”
“Now?”
“Why not?”
“You don’t even know if it’ll work.”
I started to unwrap it. “There’s only one way to find out.”
I grabbed her hand, even as she tried to yank it away. I touched the smooth metal— The morning light turned brighter and brighter until it was all I could see. I felt the familiar rush that had taken me back a hundred and fifty years. Then a jolt. I opened my eyes. But instead of the muddy field and flames in the distance, all I saw was the shadow of the water tower and the hearse. The locket hadn’t shown us anything.
“Did you feel that? It started, and then it cut off.”
She nodded, pushing me away. “I think I’m carsick, or whatever kind of sick you’d call it.”
“Are you blocking it?”
“What are you talking about? I’m not doing anything.”
“Swear? You aren’t using your Caster powers, or something?”
“No, I’m too busy trying to deflect your Power of Stupidity. But I don’t think I’m strong enough.”
It didn’t make sense, just pulling us in and then kicking us out of the vision like that. What was different? Lena reached over, folding the handkerchief over the locket. The dirty leather bracelet Amma had given Macon caught my eye.
“Take that thing off.” I looped my finger under the string, lifting the bracelet and her arm to eye level.
“Ethan, it’s for protection. You said Amma makes these kinds of things all the time.”
“I don’t think so.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, maybe that thing is the reason the locket doesn’t work.”
“It doesn’t work all the time, you know that.”
“But it was starting to, and something stopped it.”
She shook her head, wild curls brushing her shoulder. “Do you honestly believe that?”
“Prove me wrong. Take it off.”
She looked at me like I was crazy, but she was thinking about it. I could tell.