“Lark, we have to go. How do we get out?”
It was coming closer. I could feel it. It wasn’t a constant cry. In fact, I wasn’t even sure it was actually a sound. Whatever it was, I understood it, and it was coming to meet me.
“Oh, my God,” Wren whispered. She had to feel it, too. But unlike me, she was afraid of it. And I wasn’t.
I saw it—a flicker of something in the dark. Just a flash. A face? I tried to take a step toward it, but Wren pulled me back. I whipped my head around to glare at her. Why could I see her so clearly in the dark? It was like the two of us were white shirts under a black light.
Suddenly, Wren’s fear was understandable. We were lit up like a lighthouse. Beacons. All around us I saw other flickers, heard their voices.
They were all coming.
My heart seized. Oh, shit.
A hand reached for me, disembodied as though the darkness was a lake, and I was the only thing between her and drowning.
More flickers. Closer now.
“Lark,” Wren whimpered.
How did I know it was a she? Not just a she.
Alys.
Wren’s panic washed over me.
I reached back. It was Alys, I knew it. My fingers brushed hers at the same time Wren let go of my other hand.
It was like being tossed out of a speeding car. One second I was surrounded by blackness, reaching out to Alys, and the next I was on my back on my bedroom floor. Wren sat beside me, arms wrapped around her knees.
“What the hell?” I demanded, pushing myself upright. My head spun. “It was Alys, Wren! I almost had her.”
Wild eyes turned to me. She looked terrified. “They almost had us, Lark! Once they get you, there’s no getting away from them. And you almost let one take you!”
“It was Alys! Don’t you understand? She’s trapped there!”
Wren’s expression hardened. “If she’s there, then she did something to deserve it.”
I watched her for a moment, taking in the slight tremor in her shoulders and how her hands were clenched into tight fists. “How do you know that?”
She swiped at her eye with the back of her hand. Was she crying? “I’ve heard things in the Shadow Lands. The void is ghost hell. It’s torment and pain. And there are things there...things that like hurting ghosts. There were so many ghosts in the dark. I could feel their suffering, their pain. Couldn’t you?”
“No,” I replied honestly. “I couldn’t. And just because Alys is there doesn’t mean she deserves to be. Didn’t you say the girl at Haven Crest told you to find Alys?”
She held up her hand, palm out. “I’m not going back to that place.”
Wow, she was really messed up. I didn’t argue with her, and I didn’t push it, but we weren’t done. If Alys was trapped, it was our job—our responsibility—to find and help her. And if I could walk into Haven Crest after all that had happened to me there and at Bell Hill, Wren could suck it up and brave the void.
I watched as she stood up. I wasn’t going to be half so graceful, but I struggled to my feet regardless. I didn’t like it when we weren’t on equal footing.
“I can’t believe Robert tried to kill Kevin,” she said.
I shrugged. Fine, she didn’t want to talk about Alys. I wasn’t going to let her avoid it forever. “I can’t believe he was a follower of Bent’s.”
My sister shot me a narrow glance. “What do you mean by that?”
What did she mean by that? “Just what I said.”
“If he wasn’t a follower of Bent, what reason would he have for coming after Kevin or threatening you?”
“Well, he could be just a nut job, but he wouldn’t have a reason. Look, what the hell are you so twisted up about?” Then it dawned on me.
Wren’s fists went to her hips. “You don’t trust the friends I’ve made at Haven Crest.”
I blinked at her. It sounded to me like maybe she didn’t completely trust her new friends. I could understand that. “I don’t really trust anybody—except for you.” And sometimes... Well, I wasn’t going to go there. “And since Noah took me to Woodstock’s grave, I’ve got no reason to distrust him.”
Not to mention that on our way to the grave the one thing he said to me—honestly, we hardly talked—was that he had “the highest regard” for Wren. I figured that meant that he liked her better than any other dead girl he’d ever met. That was a good thing. Anyone who saw Wren’s worth was all right by me.
She was still silent. I sighed in frustration. “I don’t know what you want from me, and I’m too tired to figure it out. But the way I see it is that at this very moment everything is good. Okay? Now, I’m going to bed.” Tomorrow was a school day and after a weekend of parties, Halloween madness and ghosts a-go-go, I was exhausted. All I wanted was to go to bed, but I needed to shower off the grave dirt and soot first.