“Does it have anything to do with —” The familiar panic in my stomach dropped like a stone.
“It has nothing to do with her.” Lena looked down. “Gramma and Aunt Del think if I get away from Ravenwood, I might think about it less. About him less.”
If I get away from you. That's what I heard.
“It doesn't work like that, Lena.”
“What?”
“You aren't going to forget Macon by running away.”
She tensed at the mention of his name. “Yeah? Is that what your books say? Where am I? Stage five? Six, tops?”
“Is that what you think?”
“Here's a stage for you. Leave it all behind and get away while you still can. When do I get to that one?”
I stopped walking and looked at her. “Is that what you want?”
She twisted her charm necklace on the long silver chain, touching the littlest bits of us, the things we had done and seen together. She twisted it so tight, I thought for a minute it would snap. “I don't know. Part of me wants to leave and never come back, and part of me can't bear to go because he loved Ravenwood and left it to me.”
Is that the only reason?
I waited for her to finish — to say she didn't want to leave me. But she didn't.
I changed the subject. “Maybe that's why we're dreaming about that night.”
“What are you talking about?” I had her attention.
“The dream we had last night, about your birthday. I mean, it seemed like your birthday except for the part when Sarafine killed me. It seemed so real. I even woke up with this.” I held up my shirt.
Lena stared at the raised pink scar, creating a jagged line across my abdomen. She looked like she was going to pass out. Her face went pale, her expression panicked. It was the first time I had seen any kind of emotion in her eyes in weeks. “I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't have a dream last night.” There was something about the way she said it, and the look on her face. She was serious.
“That's weird. Usually we both do.” I tried to sound calm, but I could feel my heart starting to pound. We had been having the same dreams since before we met. They were the reason for Macon's midnight visits to my room — to take the pieces of my dreams he didn't want Lena to see. Macon had said our connection was so strong that Lena dreamed my dreams. What did it say about our connection if she couldn't anymore?
“It was the night of your birthday, and I heard you calling me. But when I got to the top of the crypt, Sarafine was there and she had a knife.”
Lena looked like she was going to be sick. I probably should have stopped there, but I couldn't. I had to keep pushing, and I didn't even know why. “What happened that night, L? You never really told me. Maybe that's why I'm dreaming about it now.”
Ethan, I can't. Don't make me.
I couldn't believe it. There she was back in my mind, Kelting again. I tried to crack open the door, an inch further, and get back into hers.
We can talk about this. You have to talk to me.
Whatever Lena was feeling, she shook it off. I felt the door between our minds slam shut. “You know what happened. You fell, trying to climb onto the crypt, and you were knocked out.”
“But what happened to Sarafine?”
She tugged on the strap of her bag. “I don't know. There was fire everywhere, remember?”
“And she just disappeared?” “I don't know. I couldn't see anything, and by the time the fire died down, she was gone.” Lena sounded defensive, as if I was accusing her of something. “Why are you making such a big deal about this? You had a dream, and I didn't. So what? It's not like the others. It doesn't mean anything.” She started to walk away.
I stepped in front of her and lifted my shirt again. “Then how do you explain this?”
The jagged outline of the scar was still pink and newly healed. Lena's eyes were wide, catching the sunlight of the first day of summer. In the sun, her hazel eyes seemed to glint with gold. She didn't say a word.
“And the song — it's changing. I know you hear it, too. Time is high? Are we going to talk about that?” She started backing away from me, which I guess was her answer. But I didn't care and it didn't matter, because I couldn't stop myself. “Something's happening, isn't it?”
She shook her head.
“What is it? Lena —”
Before I could say anything else, Link caught up to us, snapping me with his towel. “Looks like nobody's goin’ to the lake today, except maybe you two.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look at the tires, oh Whipped One. They're all slashed, every car in the lot, even the Beater.”
“Every car?” Fatty, Jackson's truant officer, would be all over this. I calculated the number of cars in the lot. Enough to get the whole mess kicked up to Summerville, maybe even the sheriff's office. This was out of Fatty's league.