So...Lydia will be back when her soul...congeals, or whatever? Emma was breathing too fast now, and her face was turning red. Is it reasonable to assume shes going to want her body back when that happens? Are we going to have to share? Her hands gripped the picnic table so tightly her fingers looked like they might snap. Or is she just going to throw me out? Am I going to be a homeless ghost, Kaylee?
Em, it could be centuries before that happens. Thats not on the list of things we need to worry about immediately.
It could be centuries? So it might not be?
Okay, we need to focus on the positives. Sophie laid both of her palms flat on the table. Thats what we do in dance, when we place second. We dont think about how second place is the first loser. We think about how many other teams we stomped into the dirt and how hard theyre probably crying. She shrugged. That always makes me feel better.
For a moment, there was only silence while we stared at her. Even Luca looked a little...disturbed. But Sabine only shrugged. Makes sense to me. And the positive side of this, if you ask me, is that now that you know what you are, you can learn how to control your abilities. Trust me, a little control makes all the difference.
I can control it? Em looked almost hopeful.
I nodded. Lydia could. To some degree, anyway. So, heres what we know. What I think, anyway. At the funeral, you were fine when you were with us, because we knew you werent dead, so we werent as upset as the other mourners. But when your mom came over, you lost it because she was devastated by grief, and you took some of that from her. You calmed her down, at the expense of your own composure.
Okay... Nash looked fascinated. So, yesterday when you got all badass and hell-bent on revenge, you were probably taking a little of that from Kaylee. Shes been itching to make Avari pay since the day you died.
Since before that. Since the day Avari tricked me into killing Alec. Thats when Id started channeling my pain into angera much more useful emotion.
Luca frowned. So then, whose anger was she syphoning today? Somebody must have been really pissed off, if the portion she took was strong enough to make her go off on you like that.
Oh, shit. I hadnt even thought about that. Ems rage had a source, and considering how many hellions were known to frequent the Netherworld version of our school, chances were good that that anger wasnt human in origin. Which meant that someone at Eastlake could be about to lose control.
Again.
Chapter Five
Where are you going? Nash said when I stood, already pulling my phone from my pocket.
To find whoever sent Em into anger overdrive before he explodes in someones face. More violence was the last thing we needed at Americas most dangerous high school. Of its size. You had chemistry before lunch, right? I said, trying to remember her new schedule, and Em nodded. Whose class?
Mr. Flannery.
Did anyone look angry in your chem class? Anyone lose his or her temper?
Em shook her head. Only me.
That just means that whoever it was did a good job of hiding his anger. Which meant those around him would be completely unprepared when and if he snapped. I gotta get a look at Mr. Flannerys roll book before lunch is over. Ill see you guys later.
Before anyone could object, I took off across the quad, headed for the corner of the building, texting Tod on the way. His shift at the hospital had just ended. With any luck, hed have time to come help me deal with...whatever was about to go horribly wrong.
As soon as I was out of sight of the quad, I let myself fade from human sight, then blinked into Mr. Flannerys first-floor chemistry lab. The room was empty, thank goodness, and his roll book was open on his desk, which was another stroke of luck in itself. Most of the other teachers had long ago switched to an electronic attendance and grade program. Fortunately, Mr. Flannery was nearly sixty and set in his ways. Id once heard him complain to a colleague about how long it took him to enter the grades into the computer all at once, at the end of each term.
Still invisible, in case anyone came in, I flipped through his roll book to the third period page and scanned the list. Emily Cavanaugh had been penciled in at the bottom. Most of the students were juniors, which meant I knew nearly all of them. All but four had been in the quad with usunderclassmen usually got stuck eating inside on nice days.
All four of the missing kids were members of the baseball teamNashs former teammateswhod started eating in the practice fields dugout in the two weeks since Brant Williamss death. They seemed to think that was the best place to remember him. And to avoid adult supervision.
They kind of had a point.
I closed the roll book and blinked onto the baseball practice field, but a quick glance showed me that only three team members were in the dugout. Marco Gutierrez was missing.
After several more minutes of lookingI blinked into every mens room in the building as well as both locker roomsI finally found him under the bleachers in the gym, just as the bell rang. Lunch was over. In six minutes Id be late to English.
I faded into the corporeal plane at his backvisible and audible only to himthen took a deep breath. Marco? Are you okay?
He turned, obviously startled, and the moment his gaze found me, it hardened in anger. His eyes narrowed. His nose flared. His fists clenched at his sides. And I knew one thing immediately, though it made no sense.
Marco Gutierrez wasnt just angry. He was angry at me.
Kaylee Cavanaugh. How kind of you to save me the trouble of searching for you.
Chills raced up my spine and tingled at the base of my skull. Marco didnt have such a formal, stilted speech pattern. And he had no reason to be mad at me, that I knew of. Avari.
Marco was possessed.
You do not seem surprised to see me.... Marco lifted one brow and clasped his hands at his back in a gesture no high school junior makes, unless hes standing at ease in ROTC.
Surprised to hear from you? No. The escalating pattern of your intrusions into my life is pretty hard to miss. But I cant say I expected to see you...there. I waved one hand at the body hed borrowed. The body of another relatively innocent, uninvolved classmate.
Still, seeing him by proxy was much better than seeing Avari in the flesh. And the fact that he hadnt come in a body of his own told me he currently lacked the ability to come in a body of his own. Which was a huge relief.
What do you want? And how did you get in there? Hellions could only possess people whove diedeven if they were resuscitated minutes laterpeople whove been to the Netherworld, and people they have some kind of personal connection to...
That last thought led me to the answer to my own question. He huffed frost, I concluded, and Avari frowned in confusion. Demons Breath. Your breath.
Ah. Yes, Mr. Gutierrez was among those who sampled the product your new lover delivered for me.
Im seventeen. Calling Tod my lover makes us sound ancient. Like, forty.
An accurate term, though, is it not? You seem decidedly less innocent than when we first met.
Thats number one on a huge list of things that are thoroughly none of your business. Unless it made me less interesting to him. Less worthy of being captured and tortured for eternity. If that was the case, Id happily brand myself a whore, complete with the scarlet letter A. Half the school seemed to think I deserved it anyway. And Tod had no idea what he was ferrying into the human world for you. Hed done it for the chance to help Addison. To keep her sane, even as Avari tortured her damned soul.
But the frost hed brought into our world had hurt countless people, including Marco Gutierrez. How many more were there like him? How many more of Nashs friends and teammates had huffed Avaris breath, unknowingly nominating themselves for hellion possession?
What do you want? I repeated when I realized he was just staring at me. Studying me. Which was somehow even creepier than when he threatened me.
What do you want? I repeated when I realized he was just staring at me. Studying me. Which was somehow even creepier than when he threatened me.
Avari made a tssk-ing sound with Marcos tongueanother gesture not native to human adolescence. That question has been asked and answered so many times surely you are as bored by it as I am. The answer hasnt changed, but the terms have. I want your anguish, both mental and physical. I want to take you apart and see what biological pumps and vessels make you bleed and what psychological gears and levers make you tick. Then I want to put you back together and begin again. I want to hear you scream. I want to see you writhe. I want to taste your flesh, and your blood, and your fears. I want to savor your ill-fated dreams as they burst like berries between my teeth, then melt like sugar on my tongue. I want you, Kaylee Cavanaugh.
I swallowed my own fear, so he couldnt have it, and that left me with nothing but anger blazing like a furnace where my heart should have been. Its always nice to be wanted, but I dont feel like being enslaved and tortured today. Sorry.
Im going to make this simple for you, little bean sidhe. If you dont cross into the Nether and surrendertodayI will come for those you love most. Because he couldnt just take me. Even if hed had a way to make me cross over, and at the moment he did not, he couldnt have kept me in the Nether. Not while I was conscious and in my own body, anyway. Female bean sidhes can cross between worlds at will, which put us among those least likely to be held captive in the Netherworld.
To keep me in the Nether against my will, Avari would have to keep me unconsciouswhich would be no fun for himor dispose of my body and take physical possession of my soul, which was no doubt his intent. The hard partfor himwas getting to my soul. Since my unfortunate demise, hed decided it would be easier to coerce me into willingly surrendering than to forcibly part my body from my soul.
I rolled my eyes, displaying my disbelief in spite of the fear tightening my chest. That threat has been posed and ignored so many times surely were both bored by it. Throwing his words back at him felt good. Seeing the anger rage behind his eyes felt even better.