Midnight Ruling (9 page)

I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at the black book. “I figured,” I said. “You didn’t have to come and tell me that, though.”

“Because I need a Neophyte for the Demon’s Grave,” he answered, and for once, he looked away from me first.

I stared at him. “A…what?”

Nell had said that.
The Erebus needed a Neophyte
.

Aw crap. I felt every muscle seize, and I shook my head hard enough to feel my brain jostle. “You’re kidding.”

Damien’s predatory gaze shifted back to me before I could move. He was perfectly still, perfectly balanced in his crouch. It was unnatural at his angle. He should have toppled backward.

“I’m here,” he said, “to tell you that if you lose, Nora, you will be trained as the next Challenger to the Demon’s Grave.”

My skin prickled, and I knew my eyes were close to bursting. My lips parted, but I couldn’t make a sound. Joel’s words echoed in my head:
Everyone will find out what kind of people you really are.

Taking my silence as an opportunity to speak, Damien said, his smooth voice threatening and low, “By then, you won’t be so worried about keeping your friends alive.”

My throat was dry, and my voice cracked with my next question. “My friends are still alive?”

“Don’t you already know?” He cocked his head in a bird-like motion.

“I guess,” I said, remembering the dreams. Before I could stop myself, I blurted, “Why’d you kiss me?”

It was refreshing to see Damien uncomfortable. He looked away immediately, his expression hidden before I could see it.

“Was it a mistake?” I asked.

He paused and leaned closer to me. “Was it?” he asked, eyes narrowing.

“Was it a test?”

He’d leaned closer, eyes darting to my mouth.

“Yes and no,” he said, looking back up.

He was close enough that I could feel his breath, cool and inhuman. I almost leaned in just to kiss him again when an image of Aidan stopped me cold. The temptation was squashed by nervous embarrassment. I cracked a half smile, feeling snarky. “Don’t tell me it’s because I smell like some kind of fruit.”

“No,” he said, his gaze hardening. “You smell like fear.”

I swallowed nothing, my throat dry. He had me there.

“Watch out for the other three warnings,” he said. Then with a dismissive flick of his wrist, he added, “Wake up, Nora.”

My alarm blared, making me jump and slap the off button so hard my palm throbbed.

Looking around, I realized I was in my bedroom. The morning light drifted through the window, appearing like mist.

The shrill sound of the alarm still rang in my ears as the dream stabbed at my memory.
By then, you won’t be so worried about keeping your friends alive.
I shuddered with not only the memory but the cold sweat that often came with waking up these days.

If I became his Neophyte, I’d have to hurt my friends in those Challenges, wouldn’t I?

I grabbed my phone from the bedside table and looked up the word
Neophyte
to find what it meant.

I pulled up the webpage on my phone and read
: novice
.

“Shit,” I whispered. “I’d be a Damien in training…”

There was a soft knock on my door, startling me. I shut off the phone before yelling, “Come in!”

Mom poked her head in. “How are you feeling, honey?”

I shrugged and forced a quivery smile. “I’m okay,” I lied.

Her expression switched to her worried-mother-look. “Nora, you’re soaked.”

I frowned, not sure how to respond. Instead, I struggled to kick the damp covers off and swung my legs over the side of the bed.

“Did you have another nightmare?”

Her simplistic observations irritated me somehow.

I nodded, not knowing what else to tell her that wouldn’t be a sarcastic retort. I glanced at the alarm clock. It was 8:01 a.m. Five hours of sleep, that’s wonderful.

She came into the room, and for the first time I noticed the brown paper bag in her hand.

My mom sat on the edge of my bed and cupped my forehead with her warm palm. “You’re still really pale. I think that you should stay home today. You don’t have any tests, do you?”

I shook my head. Today I’d study anyway. As much as I wished I could just fall back asleep, I was wide awake now—it was maddening.

“Is there anything I can get…” Her eyes shifted to my bedside table as she pushed the paper bag onto the surface.

The brazen black book lay in the open, and the recognition on her face was undeniable.

I had been far too tired last night to hide it. It hadn’t occurred to me that my mom might come in at eight.

Weary, my eyes shifted back to her. I began mentally preparing myself for a fight, my shoulders tensing at the same time as hers.

I’d hidden the box and odd Robin doll under my bed.
Why didn’t I hide the book too?

I expected a reaction, an explosion, a fight.

Instead, Mom stood up, her eyes avoiding me as she hurried out of my room, her back staying to me.

“Mom?”

The door slammed shut, and I heard Caitlin start to wail from her nursery.

Easing out of my chair, I listened for her pounding footsteps down the hall before I slipped closer to the door to hear her voice. She’d either called Dad or was talking to Caitlin. I doubted Dad said anything about the conversation last night.

I would have to hide the book, I decided.

Turning, I fell back onto my bed, and noticed the brown bag on the bedside table.

Worried, I opened it and dumped out a sandwich, apple, and Coke. She’d made me lunch. She hadn’t done that since I was in junior high.

Feeling angry with myself, I snatched the black book from the bedside table. I needed to read it or get rid of it before Mom got rid of it. Besides, I didn’t want to think about that look on her face. It made me feel like the worst daughter in the world.

Hi, Mom, remember this? It helped kill your daughter.

Snapping the book open, not caring if I wrecked the binding, I scanned the pages.

At first it was all jot notes. There was a list of what I believed to be plants; some were crossed off while only two were circled. The list took up nearly four pages.

One of the circles was around
Salvia
and another around
Ergot
. I didn’t know anything about either of these plants, though Nell provided crude diagrams of their leaves and how to prepare them. Smoking and drinking in a tea seemed to be the best choices, according to her notes.

After about ten pages of preparations and little obscure notes like,
Test One: Fail. Test Two: Fail. Test Three: Possible,
I finally found something that led me to understand why all the information about the plants was necessary.

They were hallucinogens, and I knew why her writing became harsher with spikes and ridges that weren’t there before.

Mad men say Sacrifice of Blood. Hair and my Blood.

Did the sacrifice of blood mean a blood relative instead of her own? That could be why she sacrificed one of us instead of using hers. I took a deep breath as I read on.

Burn sacred oak, ash & spruce together. Make fire hot. Add ingredients of mad man.

The ingredients would be blood, hair, and mud from a bodiless grave. Could the ingredients be different every time? He didn’t say anything about a sacrifice of blood. The last thing I would do was throw a relative in a goddamn fire. I glanced at my cell phone, which was still silent. Where was Aidan?

I read the rest of the little book in an hour, eager to tell Aidan of my discoveries. We had our instructions at last, and with the rain only a day away, we needed to be ready.

I glanced at the alarm clock to see that I had been sitting in bed for an hour.

I heard Mom slam the front door downstairs and decided to get out of bed. I knew I should be studying, but my concentration would be shot.

Trudging over to the window, I saw that the sun promised a warm day. I made sure that the blinds were down before I changed into a tank top and blue-jean shorts. Stuffing the little black book under my mattress, I noticed that a strange number had texted my cell.

The text said:
It’s Cooper. Sorry about the other day. Can we talk?

I debated texting back but deleted it instead. He was probably in on the whole thing with that Joel guy and Claire. The last thing I needed was to involve him in my mess. Or rather, him involve me in his.

Hastily, I dialed Aidan, almost hitting the wrong contact.

It rang up to the customary three rings when his voice came on. I hesitated, thinking perhaps it wasn’t him at all. “Hello?” he asked again.

“Aidan?” I asked, unsure. Though it had only been a day, it felt like weeks since I’d heard his voice.

“Yeah, is it safe to talk?”

I felt my anxiety begin to ease just hearing him. “Yeah, it is here,” I said.

There was a silence before he asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I had a dream last night about someone you know,” I admitted.

“Uh huh.”

“It was really him.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive and he knows we’re coming back. Also, I have some things to show you.” My eyes turned to my bed, the doll and parcel tucked beneath.

There was a pause before Aidan asked, “Should I come over?”

“No, I was wondering if I could come over there. My mom could come back any minute, and I don’t want her to hear any of this.”

“Okay, I’m not at the apartment though. I’m at my folks’. You remember where that is, right?”

How could I forget? It was where we’d all met before taking off to Aidan’s grandfather’s house.

After hanging up, I left a note for my mother and bolted.

The Birket house was a small, one-story brick home with shutters and a dark shingled roof. Untrimmed shrubs snaked their way along the sidewalk and under the windows.

My insides were doing acrobatic tricks as I stepped up the sidewalk and knocked on the front door hard enough to bruise my knuckles. I shuffled my feet in place. I didn’t dare stop moving. That meant I’d have to think about things.

The door swung open immediately, forcing me to jump back. I realized my mind had been so preoccupied that I didn’t hear, or even feel, him coming.

Aidan rushed me inside, ignoring my startled expression.

Eager to get out of the open, I shoved the box at his stomach and kicked the door shut behind me.

All at once, the hum that vibrated off of him filled the room; it was as if I’d just stepped into a bee’s hive.

“Are your parents home?” I asked.

He shook his head, staring down at the cardboard box I’d given him. “They left this morning for South America. That’s why I couldn’t call back last night.”

I motioned to the package, eager for him to open it. “I got that in the mail.”

“There’s no stamps or logos,” he observed, as if I were lying.

I glowered at him until he looked up and flushed. “I just mean, it’s probably not an online order or something.”

“Uh huh,” I grumbled, unimpressed, and followed him into the living room.

As I passed the mirror, a flash of orange made me look to see my own startled expression. My large blue eyes looked even wider. My dark blonde hair was pulled back in a lopsided ponytail, and I looked pale. I looked a mess.
Kiss me now, Aidan. I dare you.

Glancing behind me for anything orange that might have flashed in the mirror, I only saw the red brick wall. I was getting edgy, I decided, and tucked my hair behind my ears instead of tugging at my shirt.

Dark furniture and closed blinds made the already dark room filled with books and masks seem smaller. His parents were archeologists who toured the world. He’d once admitted to having seen most of the world, but the only place he felt at home was his grandfather’s, and now he wasn’t so sure.

I sat on the couch as he sat in a recliner. Read sat there during a Challenge, I remembered.

Trying to wipe the image of Read from my head, I focused instead on Aidan as he flipped open the box and pulled out the object.

Turning it around in his hand, Aidan said, “It’s an
ankh
.”

“Sorry?”

Aidan wore a small smile, not showing teeth. Without looking at me, he stood up and wandered to the bookshelf to pluck a giant textbook free. It was practically as thick as it was tall. Leaning the edge against his chest to balance the
ankh
, he thumped it on the coffee table between us. I winced but saw he still kept the ankh secured in his fingers. He flipped through the book until he found the right page and turned it around for me to see.

The largest picture amongst the text was similar to the object Aidan held. Beside the picture, it showed an old hieroglyphic of an Egyptian man holding it by the handle.

Sitting down beside me on the couch, Aidan read out loud. “The
ankh
represents life and was very sacred to the people of ancient Egypt. Most symbols were to represent ideas or forces beyond and within the boundaries of nature.” Aidan mumbled the rest of the passage. When he finished, he looked up at me. “Why would a symbol of
life
be sent to you? I thought Damien was out to eliminate it.” The way he spat the name jolted my insides with its venom.

I couldn’t claim to be a supporter, but Aidan didn’t hide his hatred easily.

I took the box from the coffee table in front of us and rummaged through the wood chips until I found Robin.

Aidan did a double take. “Holy shit,” was all he said before his jaw went slack.

“It was in my locker,” I explained. “Cooper Mesick saw.”

The cold stare froze me. “How did
he
see it?”

Frowning, I suppressed my initial reaction to snap at him and took a deep breath. “Like I said, it was in my locker. The thing had been trashed. I was trying to clean it up when Cooper came along.”

Slumping forward, Aidan rested his elbows on his knees, gaze trailing back to the doll. He swallowed loud enough for me to hear and held out a reluctant hand. “Can I see her?”