11

THE LATE-NIGHT AIR WAS HOT and oily, leaving a sheen of sticky sweat all over Lottie’s skin. Her clothes clung to her body with gummy adhesion and the peel-thin sliver of the moon provided little illumination on the tar-black paths. She’d run up the decking, all around the giant pond, and off down one of the walkways leading closer to the bamboo forest. Finally her feet slowed, and she found herself at the cat shrine, squinting stone grins watching her curiously. Her blood must have been particularly tasty, because itchy pink lumps were blooming all over her legs and arms from mosquito bites.

“And I suppose the vampire cat of Nabeshima will be after my blood too?” Lottie huffed up at one of the stone statues, leaning her hands on her knees while she caught her breath. “I’m afraid she’ll have to be quick, or the mosquitos will take it all.” She tried to smile at the cat, feeling stupid and lonely in the silence that followed.

The few lights left on in the dorms were a haze in the night, the faint glow of the moon dipping behind a cloud, leaving Lottie submerged in darkness. It was not just physical darkness, but the dark inside her mind of unknowing and uncertainty.

There was too much going on inside her head: Leviathan, Jamie, Ellie, Sayuri. Nothing felt sturdy; even her own view of herself had started to feel warped and confusing.

Bad influence. How could Ellie say something so stupid?

“What do I do?” she asked the statues. “Where do I even start?”

Lottie knew the questions were pointless, but what she hadn’t expected was to get a reply.

Out of the shadows emerged the largest black cat Lottie had ever seen. Its eyes glowed yellow like a witch’s familiar and it walked as fluidly as though it had taken shape from the dark itself.

Lottie watched as the cat sat at her feet. The vampire cat of Nabeshima.

That was Lottie’s first thought, and if she really were about to get strangled to death and have her blood and skin stolen, then it was her fault for suggesting it to the stone cats in the first place. The thought sent a shiver down her back that made her want to retreat slowly and then bolt all the way to the safety of the dorm. Yet the cat merely sat there watching her, its tail gliding left and right, left and right.

You should never ignore these things.

Miko’s words, but the idea of following this cat anywhere in the middle of the night was terrifying.

Lottie’s gaze fixed on the cat’s swishing tail. What would Liliana have done? Had she been here in Japan? Had she felt the same worries and uncertainties?

If she had, then she’d most certainly braved them, and if she hadn’t, Lottie never would have met Ellie and Jamie and all her friends from Rosewood and Takeshin in the first place.

“Okay then. Show me the way.”

The big black cat continued to stare at her, unmoving, and embarrassment crawled up her spine as she realized she was talking to a cat. Just as she was getting ready to give up and walk back to the dorm the cat stood up, stretching out its long back with a little “mrreow.” Its feet made gentle padding sounds until at last it began slinking into the darkness.

The sound of the cicadas got louder as she followed Vampy—the name she’d christened him with in her mind—along some of the smaller scenic pathways that gave the best view of the surrounding bamboo.

They paused briefly on their journey, stopping by a small wood-paneled building. Lottie nearly jumped out of her skin when she looked up at a golden woman pointing a sword directly at her. Only it wasn’t a woman at all, but a statue: Kou Fujiwara watching them as they passed her museum, cast in bronze, her blade humming with quiet warning. Without a second thought, Lottie bowed to the statue, before continuing up the path to follow Vampy. Babbling water gushed beneath her feet as she crossed over a tiny wooden bridge near the back of the theater, leading up to a set of mud and root steps in an area of the school she had yet to explore. It soon became clear why she’d never ventured this far, because when she reached the top she was met with nothing but dense bamboo held off by frayed green net.

The forest in front of her grew thick and large, fog appearing out of nowhere. The noises of the insects seemed to grow louder and wilder at the edge of these trees, the netting scarcely holding back the enchanting melody that echoed from within. Lottie stared down at Vampy, head tilted as if asking the big black cat whether she was supposed to be here, and in response the cat dipped under the netting and vanished into the mystery of the woods.

Lottie stared into the milky darkness where the cat had disappeared, and she felt in the shiver of her skin that the forest was staring back. She was sure she had reached the end, that the bamboo trees could not be penetrated, when two glowing yellow bulbs shone out from the shadows, beckoning her to follow further. She hesitated, but only for a second before getting down on her knees, not caring that her nightdress would be muddied, and crawled into the forest. Everything turned black again, the trees so tall and dense that they blocked out all light. But when she stood up the darkness vanished, replaced with tiny glowing orbs, fireflies that danced around her in a glittering flurry. The forest created its own light and even the moon had a different luminosity here, as if the sparks of its light were caught inside the moss and creatures, giving the world a cloudy, elegant shimmer like the surface of a pearl. The atmosphere felt familiar and new all at once. It felt like the Rose Wood.

The yellow eyes of Vampy continued to shine out, a lantern on a path, guiding her forward. Lottie did not notice, but all her thoughts and worries had disappeared, left behind her.

A prickle of fear tickled her neck then vanished. She felt like she was being watched, yet felt entirely alone. And all the while she kept the image of Liliana in her mind. Brave, relentless, a pioneer. If Lottie was going to make even half the positive impact she had on the world, then she needed to be just as unstoppable. Then Vampy vanished, fading into the moss behind an outcrop of bamboo. Lottie followed, but those glowing yellow orbs were nowhere to be seen. She was completely alone, and now the fear crept up again and there was nothing to push it back.

Turning around, all she saw were repeating patterns, the glowing fireflies dancing in the same image over and over. She turned around again in the hope that the black cat might have reappeared, but all she succeeded in doing was further disorientating herself.

“I’m lost,” she whispered into the dark. She was Gretel in the woods, her trail of breadcrumbs vanished with no way of knowing how to get home. If she was not careful, she might get eaten by a witch . . . or a vampire cat. Even the nighttime sounds of the tiny creatures appeared to have been silenced. Lottie suddenly realized how stupid she’d been. Alone, in her nightdress and sneakers, with muddy legs and mosquito bites.

She remembered the great big oak tree from the Rose Wood, so old and thick that you could imagine setting up a home inside its trunk. It was where Lottie had curled up to cry on her own, and it was where Lola had run to when she was upset about her father. The tree was like a beacon and a mother, calling out and cradling all those who needed comfort, its long branches a set of soothing arms. If Rosewood and Takeshin were really linked, then maybe there was something like that here too . . .

The fog parted on a small clearing, a perfect circle of green bamboo trees. Right in the center was a tree, tall and fat, and with such peculiar and fascinating bumps that it looked like a giant woman emerging from the ground. Along the bottom grew silvervine in abundance, the little white flowers like patterned lace.

“Mrreoow!”

Lottie’s eyes lit up as Vampy reappeared from behind the tree.

“There you are!” She grinned at the black cat, walking over to it. It was so dark she could hardly see a thing, but as she leaned down to stroke Vampy a firefly illuminated the tree, revealing marks on the trunk, browned and white in the center, carved in thick to last for centuries.

Lottie had seen this sigil before in a book and in a diary. Lili’s diary.

It was a lily with two slivers of a semicircle on either side. The crest of the Mayfutts. Her ancestors, and Liliana’s. But what was it doing all the way out here in Japan?

She straightened up sharply. One thought sprang into her head, as bright as the fireflies around her.

The answer to all her questions lay in that diary. She needed the diary she’d left behind at Rosewood—and she knew exactly who could help.