“What?” Aidan and I both spin around and see Lucio standing in his own doorway, wearing nothing but his shorts. “I thought I made that part up. I had nightmares about it for months.”
I should have put the pieces together sooner. Why didn’t I realize that every night I was experiencing exactly what Lucio thought he saw when he was there?
Aidan nods. “I know. Argi and I thought it would be better to hide the truth from you. You were so young.” He steps around me and puts a hand on Lucio’s shoulder. “I’m sorry I lied to you.”
“What happened after that?” I whisper. “How did you stop her?”
Aidan turns back to me. “I had to rip you from her arms.” His grip is tight on Lucio’s shoulder. “I pretended that I wanted to do it. That I believed it was the only way I could make amends for the evil I’d let into the world.”
“You thought I was evil?” I pant, no longer sure of what’s truth and what’s fiction.
“Of course not. But I had to convince your mother—”
I know I shouldn’t waste time with interruptions, but I can’t help myself. “Why do you insist on calling her my mother? My real mother has been there for me every day for the last sixteen years. That’s what it means to be a parent. That’s what matters. Helena is not my mother, just like you are not my father!”
Aidan takes a step back as though I slapped him. I ball my hands into fists and bite my lip to keep from apologizing. I shouldn’t feel bad for saying that, not after everything he’s done. I shouldn’t care that his Adam’s apple is working up and down, up and down, almost as if my incredibly composed, never wrinkled, and almost never rattled mentor/father is trying not to cry.
“She would have killed you if I hadn’t convinced her to let me do it.” Aidan’s voice is barely louder than a whisper.
“I know.” I shake my head vigorously, trying to hide the tears springing up in the corners of my eyes. “I saw it.”
“What do you mean?”
I explain that the nightmares started as soon as I moved into this house, as soon as I walked through these halls and breathed in these scents and slept under this roof. Finally I say, “I don’t think they were ever dreams. They were memories. Things that happened here, in this house. Which means that what I saw tonight wasn’t just a dream either.” Nolan is still in Ridgemont. Helena is holding him prisoner.
“What did you see tonight?”
“Helena has Nolan,” I answer hoarsely. My heart is pounding nearly as fast as it does when a spirit touches me. “We have to go back to Ridgemont.”
“You should have told me you were having visions.”
“I didn’t know they were visions until tonight. I thought they were just bad dreams!” The desperation in my voice shocks me. “It doesn’t matter anymore. All that matters now is saving Nolan.”
“Of course it matters! I’m trying to understand what your powers are, and now all of a sudden you discover you have a new power, and you think it’s beside the point?”
“It is beside the point! We have to save my friend.”
“We’re trying to save the world here, Sunshine, not just one person,” Aidan counters wearily. “Don’t you understand that by now?”
Doesn’t he understand that I don’t want to save a world that Nolan might not be a part of? “Are you going to help me get to Nolan or not?”
“Absolutely not,” Aidan snaps. “I’m not about to hand you over to Helena.”
“Lucio?” I face the boy who said he was my friend. A lump rises in my throat.
“I’m sorry, Sunshine,” he answers. “I’m with Aidan on this one.”
“You’re with Aidan on every one!” I turn on my heel and run upstairs. I sit on the edge of my bed until I hear the sound of Aidan’s and Lucio’s bedroom doors clicking shut. Then I grab my bag and tiptoe down to the front door, begging it not to squeak as I pull it open and slip outside.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Trapped
It’s drizzling outside, but it’s so hot out that the rain feels like a warm shower. The sky above is covered in clouds, barely giving off any light at all, but I manage to feel my way through the darkness to climb behind the wheel of Aidan’s SUV first. Funny, just a few months ago I was scared to drive from my high school to the hospital, and now I’m prepared to drive from Llevar la Luz to Ridgemont. Or at least to the Mazatlan airport.
“What are you doing?” I look up. Aidan’s white shirt glows in the moonlight, turning see-through as the rain soaks it. His voice sounds tinny and far away through the metal and glass between us.
“I have to get out of here.”
“You can’t get out of here. It isn’t safe for you off the property.”
I laugh, but it comes out sounding like a cackle. “It’s not safe on the property either.”
“You won’t get far.”
“Why not?” I adjust my grip on the steering wheel, squeezing it so tightly, I think I could break it.