CHAPTER ELEVEN

 

 

I was awake now. With nothing else to do, I changed back into my clothes and wrinkled my nose at the rank smell of body odor. I needed a shower and new clothes. I couldn’t wear this outfit forever.

I tiptoed down the stairs and discovered I wasn’t the only one up. Rory had already gathered the eggs. He pulled the skillet off a rack and set it on top of the gas stove, but I intercepted him before he could start cooking.

“Let me. You don’t have to just serve us the whole time.”

“I don’t mind. It reminds me of what my role used to be.” But he stepped to the side, putting a lump of butter next to the pan along with the freshly gathered eggs.

Trey popped into the kitchen next, his red hair spiking up, wearing a button-up shirt under a pair of overalls. “Look at you, miss farmhand.”

“What are you supposed to be, the farmer’s son?” Meredith came into the room also, her hair still in yesterday’s ponytail but not nearly so neat.

“You should write a poem about how the farmer’s son wakes up better looking than the farmer’s daughter.”

Meredith joined me at the stove, pulling down plates so I could spread eggs onto them. “If that’s supposed to be an insult, you’re gonna have to try harder. Because I ain’t the farmer’s daughter.”

“What are your plans today?” Rory asked Trey, interrupting their verbal sparring.

“I need to take Jayne out to practice.”

Meredith sat down at the table, passing out plates of eggs and forks. “So you can continue to prove what a horrible teacher you are?”

“Hey,” Trey protested, “she actually got two kids to turn around and meet her eyes yesterday.”

“Hardly because of you,” Meredith said. “If I stared at the back of someone’s head long enough, they’d probably turn around and look at me also.”

“Because you would give them the heebie-jeebies.”

I raised the spatula I’d been using to cook. “I have a request. I need new clothes.”

Beth stumbled in, somehow totally cute in her frumpy pajamas. Her straightened hair had long since returned to its natural curl, and she gave a huge yawn. “Did somebody say clothes? I need some. I reek.”

Meredith sniffed her shirt and made a face. “We all do.”

“You can say that again,” Trey said. He avoided Meredith’s fork as it tried to stab his arm and brought his empty plate to the sink. “Thanks for breakfast, Jayne. We can find somewhere for you to get clothes and practice at the same time.”

“But I’m definitely coming today!” Beth said, piling her plate high with more scrambled eggs. “Can we buy some bagels?”

I looked at Trey. “I have a debit card. We can use it.”

“And give away your location? I raided my piggy bank last night. We’re set.”

“You kept a secret stash at your grandpa’s house?” Meredith said, arching an eyebrow.

He looked at her coolly. “At my house. I grew up here. I moved in with my mom in Jersey only to be close to Jayne.”

I blinked in surprised, startled to realize how much I had uprooted his life before I’d even met him. “We’ll pay you back, I promise.”

He shrugged. “I’m not worried about it. It’ll be fine.”

“Well, in that case.” Beth stuffed the last bit of her eggs into her mouth. “Let me go wash my face and I’m ready to go.”

“Guess I’ll change into what I wore yesterday,” Meredith said with a sigh.

I took the skillet over to the sink and began to wash it. Trey followed me, hovering near my elbow. “I wanted to talk to you, Jayne.”

He sounded so serious, not like the Trey I’d come to know over the past few days. I put the skillet down and faced him. “What about?”

He licked his lips and slipped his hands into his pockets. He actually looked nervous. “That dream you had last night.”

It was a good thing I had put the skillet down, or I would’ve just dropped it on my foot. Or his foot, if I was lucky. Knowing me, I wouldn’t be. “Dream?” Which crazy night time experience of mine was he referencing?

His hand came out and took my wrist, flipping it over so it was palm up. His fingers traced the brand of his star, barely visible in the sunlight pouring in through the window. “How many times have you been to those stairs?”

I gave a startled gasp and jerked my hand back. “Were you—how did you know? Is it real?”

He met my eyes. “It’s real. It’s the way to the underworld. I want to know how you got there.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know. Aaron. I heard Aaron calling me. All I’ve done is follow his voice.”

Trey’s eyes narrowed. “How many times?” he repeated.

I tried to remember. “Three times, maybe.”

He stared at me, gnawing on his lower lip. “We have to speed things along. You have to get your memories back before you go into the underworld. You’re doing this without me, and that’s not how it’s supposed to be done. But I don’t think you have any control over it.”

“I don’t. But the first time, when I opened the door—that’s when your star appeared.”

He took my hand again, studying my palm. He touched the center of the star, and immediately a heat pressed outward from my palm, a light traveling from my flesh to his finger. He pulled his hand back and stared at his finger in wonder.

“What?” I whispered, unable to tear my eyes from the expression on his face.

“I felt it. My powers.” He stared again at my hand. “It’s like you’ve got them. Somehow, that’s made it so that you can begin the descent without me.” He flexed his wrist, the brand of chains on his arm bulging. “It won’t be enough, though. I need to physically be at your side to protect you.” He lifted his eyes to mine again. “What else did you see?”

The god-dude. I saw him. He made me promises and spoke in riddles about us that I did not understand.

I didn’t say any of that. I was afraid of what Trey might say. Was it shameful for me to consider the guy’s offer to get my memories back and free Aaron? Or was it better to reject him and avoid whatever deal it might be?

“Jayne?” Trey’s sharp tone shook me from my thoughts.

“Nothing,” I said, remembering his question.

He didn’t believe me. I saw it in the way he eyed me. But he shrugged it off. “Let’s get the others and get out of here.”

*~*

By the end of the day, all I felt was frustration. The bag of clothes I purchased from the discount store didn’t make me feel any better. We had wandered around the store for hours, making small talk while quietly trailing any family with small children. I’d had no more success than the day before, with a total of two meeting my eyes. And I couldn’t even be sure if it was intentionally looking at me or just happening to glance my direction.

We all squished into the cab of Rory’s truck when it got closer to dinnertime. We were totally crunched now that there were four of us. I ignored Meredith and Trey bickering over which radio station to listen to. Instead I rolled my window down and tried to get a reaction from the few people we saw outside. I’d been concentrating so hard and for so long that my brain hurt, literally drilling away at the inside of my skull.

Somewhere within my purse, my phone dinged. Three faces swiveled my direction, expressions varying from surprise to accusation.

I gave them my best wide-eyed, innocent look. “I swear, I turned my phone off!”

Meredith let out a huff. “If the police are looking for us, they’ll be able to track your GPS.”

Beth’s shoulders tightened beside me. “You mean they could be tracking us right now?” she asked.

I yanked the offending phone out of my purse, ready to twist it into pieces with my bare hands. But then I froze. The exterior screen on my flip phone was gray. No digital display or any indication of power showed.

“I don’t think my phone’s on,” I said slowly.

“But you got a message. Right?” Trey said.

I flipped the phone open. A message glowed on the dark screen, even though every sign indicated that my phone was off. My stomach give a little tumble even as I read the words.

Samantha is harvesting the powers of the fates so she can defeat the other gods. You must stop her.

That was it. But I knew who it was from. My fingers flew over the keypad, hoping the two-way messaging system worked even with my phone being off. How do we stop her? Where do we go?

She is hunting you. Do not use your powers. Follow her trail.

Trail? What trail?

“What is it?” Trey asked.

I looked up and realized he had stopped the car. We had pulled over to the side of the road while I read through the texts. “I’m not sure. It’s a message from Laima, but I’m not sure how to follow through. She said we have to stop Samantha. That we can find her by following her trail.”

Beth wrinkled her nose. “What sort of trail is Samantha leaving?”

My eyes met Trey’s, and the answer that came to my mind left goosebumps on my skin. “Death and destruction.”

Trey faced the highway again and gunned the engine, jerking the car back onto the road.

“Where we going?” I asked, mildly freaked out by his demeanor.

“Somewhere we can watch the news. We need to see what kind of trail Samantha is leaving.”

I wasn’t sure exactly where Trey had in mind for finding a TV, but I sure didn’t expect him to drive back out into the country and turn down a long dirt road.

“They have a satellite farm out here among the cows?” Meredith asked wryly. “Dish Network, maybe?”

“So funny.” Trey turned a sharp corner, gravel spitting behind us, and a beautiful plantation-style farmhouse rose out of the scenery in front of us. It was pristine, elegant, and noble, nothing like anything else we’d seen around here.

Trey ground to a halt in front of it, already undoing his seatbelt and climbing out of the car before I’d fully appreciated our stop. Meredith followed Trey while Beth and I got out my side.

“What, does his mistress live here?” Beth said.

“Mistress with lots of money,” I replied, waiting for the front door to open and some immaculate Latvian princess to walk out.

Trey smirked. “The only kind worth having.” He climbed the steps and rang the bell.

Meredith grumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, “Male pig,” but before anyone could ask her to clarify, the door opened.

“Trey! No one told us you were in town!”

The woman who wrapped her arms around him was about the age of his mother. But she was much rounder and healthier looking, in contrast to the thin waif of a woman Meredith and I had met in Trey’s crumbling house a few weeks earlier.

“Please tell me that’s not his mistress,” Beth breathed.

Meredith snorted. “Mistress? That guy is going to be lucky to get one woman.”

Completely unaware of the topic of our conversation, Trey turned around and gestured to the woman. “This is my aunt Tessa. Tessa, these are some of my friends from school. They’re doing a living farms research project and get to stay at Grandpa’s place for a bit.”

Smooth. Lies fell from his lips even easier than they fell from mine.

Tessa reacted excitedly while I glared at Trey. We could’ve been staying here, in high comfort, instead of wallowing about his grandpa’s place?

Tessa ushered us into her house and quickly sat us down with glasses of ice cold lemonade. Trey settled onto the couch in the living room and obligingly answered every question she threw at him.

“I’ve barely heard a word from your mom since she moved to New Jersey. How do you like that private school Grandpa put you in?”

Trey leaned forward and picked up the remote control on the end table beside him. “I didn’t like it so much and it was really expensive. I’m at a regular public school now.”

Tessa blinked. “But Grandpa worked so hard to get you in there.”

“I know. I feel bad about that, but it wasn’t for me.”

“He was suspended,” Meredith said with a sweet smile. “For killing ducks.”

Trey shifted his body and glowered at her. “I did not. That’s not why.”

“Why, then?” she hummed.

“That’s okay. You don’t have to explain.” Tessa inspected us, and I know she was thinking that we didn’t look like private school material anyway. Not with our discount store clothing. “Well, as long as you’re happy. You’ve got friends. Anyone special?” Her eyes lingered on me.

“Nope.” His lips popped on the final P. “Just going to school and staying out of trouble.”

“Or that’s the plan,” Meredith said.

Trey’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t look at her this time. He aimed the controller at the TV and pounded the On button as if he could inflict pain on it. That didn’t deter Tessa, who kept right on talking over the cacophony of voices that filled the room.

“And your mama?” Tessa’s voice softened. “She never texts or calls. Doesn’t answer my letters.”

“Sorry.” Trey kept his eyes on the television, acting disinterested in the conversation. Maybe he really was? He flipped through channels until he landed on the news. “I don’t know why she won’t talk to you.”

The conversation dwindled, and I wondered what more wasn’t being said.

“Well, you’re here, and that’s all that matters!” Tessa was back to happy. “How long are you staying? Let’s have you and Grandpa over for dinner!”

“Does Grandpa come over often?” Trey asked. He caught me looking at him and inclined his head toward the television. Right. I was supposed to be paying attention to that.

“Often enough,” Tessa replied. “Usually on Sundays after church. Sure would be nice to have you and your mama come up once a month, at least.”

Trey shrugged and shot me another pointed look. I made a very conscious effort to stare at the television. So far the telecaster was going on about a problem with the traffic lights causing huge congestion in the small towns. So fascinating.

Trey was giving some excuse for why he and his mom never came over when the news report abruptly changed, catching my attention.

“Three more bodies have been identified as people who went missing from the tri-city area last week. This brings the total number of dead to eight so far.”

I lifted to my feet, guilt lancing through me like a hot knife, splitting my chest wide open and making me ache. I didn’t even hear what else she said. “They’re dying,” I gasped out.

Tessa looked over at me. She pulled her mouth down, sadness in her eyes. “It’s awful, isn’t it? All of those people. Randomly abandoning their homes, their families, and now they’re showing up dead. Theory is maybe they got some kind of contagious disease and are slowly dying by the wayside.”

“Like zombies.” Beth shuddered. “It’s like the real walking dead.”

I had used the same words when talking with Lieutenant Bailey. It almost fit, except these weren’t zombies. They were people, and Samantha had trapped their souls.

Tessa was still talking, inviting us and Rory over for dinner, though Trey’s eyes hadn’t left my face.

“Thanks, Aunt Tessa,” he said, rising and giving her a hug. “Maybe we’ll come over this week. I think it’s time for us to go now, though.”

I wrapped my arms around my torso, shivering slightly. “Yes. We’ve got to go.”

Laima’s intention had been for us to discover Samantha’s trail and follow her, but something had occurred inside me. I was angry, and indignant, and some fiery and ferocious emotion swelled through me.

War had happened before, and I had lost people to it.

Not this time. Not on my watch.