The Secret (28 page)

Ruth looked at Sheriff Boyle and then her eyes flashed red. She stared into the Sheriff’s eyes. “You will take your men and go. You will not remember any of this. You will not want to pursue any of these people here today. Do you understand?”

I couldn’t believe it. She could mind control?

Sheriff Boyle blinked and then nodded.

The other officer stepped next to the Sheriff and frowned. “Hey, what are you doing to him?”

Ruth focused on him. “You will not remember any of this. You will go with Sheriff Boyle and not pursue any of the people here. Now, go.”

Another kind of fear washed over me. The red in her eyes shined brilliantly as she turned back to me.

The officers quickly made their way out of the cave without a word.

Mr. Drake wore a defeated look. “I’m sorry, Ruth. I have to go.”

Ruth glared at Mr. Drake. “You were never much help anyway, Phillip. Go on.”

The way Ruth seemed so self-possessed all of a sudden made me worry.

Ruth made a circling gesture with her hand. “Gather around. I cannot save him…but you kids can.”

Reed stepped beside her and gave her a look like she was the walking dead. He swallowed hard. “I’m not going to pretend like your little trick didn’t just totally freak me out.”

Ruth turned to him and shrugged. “While I was under Nicholi’s control, I learned a few things.”

I was hesitant to completely trust her. Something didn’t feel right. “Do you know what Nicholi planned to do to get Jake back?”

The others stepped into the circle around Ruth.

“You just need the link.”

Karen’s face looked determined. “What about the blood and true love? Sacrifice? What about that?”

Ruth’s face softened. “I don’t know. All I know is that one of the things Nicholi feared was having you all discover that if you used the link, you could funnel your powers. You are unstoppable…together.” She nodded at Marsha. “You have the power of healing. You will be the focus.”

Rob hesitated and his voice was apologetic as his eyes met mine. “I don’t have a mark. I can’t be useful to you all.”

Ruth gave Rob a stern look. “Nicholi also worried that you would discover your true destiny.”

Rob looked at her blankly.

Ruth went to Nicholi and stood over him for a moment. A tear moved down her face and I was surprised to see her kiss her fingers and then place them on his forehead. She picked up the leather bound book and went to Rob and placed it into his hands. “You have a talent for codes and languages.”

Rob pushed his glasses back onto his face nervously. “What do you mean?”

I could feel it. Ruth knew something she wasn’t telling us.

She smiled at Rob, a sad sort of smile a parent gives to a child when they discover something that changes their innocence. “Nicholi was your father, Rob.”

I felt myself lose balance and Sam supported me under the shoulders.

Another tear went down her cheek. “There’s so much that happened back then. So much that I can’t tell you…not yet. But—you do have a gift of languages, and it’s not because of your computer. Thomas and Nicholi and your mother kept that secret between them. I didn’t even know you were his until…well, until this past year.” She looked away and stared down at Jake.

No one spoke.

Rob stared at the book in his hands and I could see him trying to understand everything. “That’s why he never gave me the mark. My powers weren’t meant to be combined.”

Ruth nodded. “Use the book to fix things. Okay?”

Rob looked at her with a million questions in his eyes.

Ruth nodded to all of us. “We must begin. Put your thumb on the person’s mark next to you.” She looked at Marsha. “Put one hand on the other person’s mark and the other on Jake’s wound.”

We did as we were told, sitting in a tight formation beside Jake. Warm chills hummed through me. It was like this was what we were meant for. This moment.

I saw Marsha’s eyes widen. “I haven’t used my powers in a long time.”

Ruth smiled and I saw more of Jake in her. “It’s okay. I’ll guide you all. I promise.”

A tingling energy surged through the air and I felt a warm rush of goose bumps form over my skin.

Marsha looked up at me, her face suddenly surprised and happy. “I think we can do it. I feel it.”

The idea that we might really be using our powers for something good…overwhelmed me.

Reed pressed his thumb to my mark. “Jake has to come back.”

Ruth’s face turned sad. “He was always such a good son. He didn’t deserve any of this.”

Marsha’s whole body began to tremble and a growl of pain escaped her lips.

Another warm wave of energy swept through the air like a crackling burst of electricity. My whole body surged to life and I could feel Marsha’s healing power working. I could feel the energy inside of me being drawn out and funneled to Marsha.

The wind picked up around us and I looked at the other’s faces. Reed was smiling like a child. Marsha was focusing. Karen gazed at Rob, who was outside the circle. Sam…his eyes stared into mine with a pain and a love I couldn’t describe.

I stared down at Jake and my heart surged. He would come back. He would come back and…we had Ruth to guide us now. We could focus on letting go of all of this and live normal lives. And everything would be alright. Everything would finally be over.

Ruth moved away from the circle. She shouted at us. “Keep going! It’s working!”

Marsha let out a long, slow “Ahh,” like the very depths of her was pushing energy into Jake. “Something’s wrong. I don’t think it’s going to work.”

Ruth moved back to the circle. She held the large, gold coin my mom had given to me in her hand…and the dagger.

Ruth put the coin into my lap. “Don’t ever use it. If you do, it will take Jake back.”

It was one of those moments that I knew something was going to happen—but it happened too fast to try to stop it. It happened before I could think about what, exactly, was going on.

Ruth looked at Karen. “You were right, Karen. Everything demands a sacrifice…and, believe me…I love him.”

And before we could stop her…she plunged the dagger into her heart.

Episode 32: Whispers

- Two Weeks Later -

Jake

The school halls looked the same as they had before; an inordinately thick amount of wax shined the floors, the hallways smelled of faded Pine Sol and a mixture of cologne and women’s body scents, and an assortment of posters dotted the painted blue cement walls. For all intents and purposes—it was the same. Everything was the same.

Except me.

I listened as the second bell sounded and I watched the students scatter to their classes. It reminded me of ants rushing away before another attack on an ant hill. I saw Reed coming down the hall, twitching his head back and forth in a searching pattern. He was looking for me.

I ducked into the bathroom and hoped he hadn’t seen me. Reed had been stuck to me the last three days. It was our first week back. Our first week back since…everything. Mr. Drake had made a strong case to all of us that we needed to get back to normalcy. We needed to get back to living our lives. There were only three weeks left of school and all of us needed to buckle down if we were going to see our Senior year.

And I wanted that. I wanted to forget I’d come back from the dead. I wanted to remember that Nicholi
was
dead…but it was all wrapped together in this little package of my mom and the past and the original seven and our powers. It made my head hurt.

I stepped to the side as another student finished washing his hands and rushed by me—tiny droplets of water fell on me as he went past. It didn’t bother me. The normalness of everyday life at school didn’t bother me at all.

I looked into the mirror and immediate apprehension pulsed through me. The face looking back at me…didn’t look right. I had told them all I was fine. But, I hadn’t admitted that I really didn’t feel that way at all. I’d been having nightmares about my mother. I’d been hearing what sounded like strange whispers at random times. It sounded…crazy.

And maybe I was. I worried about it. Maybe coming back from the dead
had
changed me more than anyone realized. More than they wanted to see. More than I wanted to admit.

The bathroom door swung open.

I jumped, even though I shouldn’t have been surprised at all.

Reed frowned at me and stepped inside and grunted. “You don’t avoid me! I’m better than man vs. wild. I could hunt you, trap you, or pick you out of a crowd. Remember that!”

I could feel his anger, mixed with something like a tangled need inside of him to do something mischievous. That had been one of the most overwhelming things to me since I’d been brought back from the dead—my powers were not only back but…magnified. It was like I could sniff feelings and emotions if I wanted to. I no longer had to be near someone, either, to tell what they were feeling. I could just think about them and know.

I thought of Lanie and immediately felt her worry for me. I put up a wall against it. Against her. That had been nice, too. The walls I could construct against people.

I turned to Reed and gave him an innocent look. “Can’t stop nature; I had to use the facilities.” I washed my hands for effect.

Reed crossed his arms and gave me a bored look. His primal need to do something assaulted me. He was like a big puppy that had to be walked every day. “Do you know how much grief I get if you don’t show up at the lunch table? Seriously? I don’t know why any of them think I should be the one responsible for keeping track of you.”

I brushed past him and flicked the water at him with a burst of my fingers. “Here I am. See—good job, Lassie.”

Reed followed me out into the empty hallway and a low growl escaped his lips. “Ha, ha—real funny. You’re such a putz. I told them to stop worrying about you. It’s like you’ve been…it’s like…”

He stopped walking and I waited for him to say it. To say I was like…death. I turned around and felt the bottom part of my stomach clench.

Reed let his breath out and punched a locker, making a rather large dent.

My frustration turned to empathy for Reed. He’d been stuck inside listening to everyone try to talk about their feelings for the last week. Everyone was fighting about what to do—what was the next step in our lives? Where was Molly? Was she alive or dead or something else? Was she a threat?

And he hated it. Every minute of it made him feel like a ticking time bomb about to explode. He looked miserable…and I could
feel
just how miserable he really was.

I relaxed and lifted an eyebrow. “We haven’t put the tubes in the back of the truck and headed up to the river for a long time. You up for it?”

Reed looked me up and down, but I could feel the excitement buzz at me, almost knocking me over. “We’re supposed to be on a good behavior schedule. Mr. Drake says we can’t have any more absences for the next three weeks, remember?”

I let his hopeful excitement work through me and turned for the doors. I wasn’t going to disappoint Reed so Mr. Drake could suddenly try to play guardian. “Who cares what Drake says. It’s not like he’s our
parent
.”

Lanie

I paused at the front door to our apartment. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go in. I did. It had just been hard. At one time I thought I could run from everything and get rid of my powers. Now—it stifled me to know there might never be an end to all of it. Nicholi was dead, but the way Molly’s eyes had glowed red still haunted my thoughts.

I dropped my backpack onto the kitchen table and tried to hide my concern at seeing Rob cleaning a gun.

I tried not to react too quickly and went to the fridge to get some orange juice. “Think that’s a good idea? A man just out of jail probably shouldn’t be playing with guns.”

Rob laughed and shifted his weight back onto the two back legs of his chair. It was a pose he often assumed when he was relaxed. “This is one of dad’s old guns. I got it out of the boxes that were delivered from Boston, yesterday. Plus—I just got a call from Mr. Schneider. It appears that the police found lots of things at Nicholi’s house, including evidence that proves he was the one who killed Alana. All charges have been dropped. I’m a free man.”

I tensed. I didn’t want to think about Nicholi’s house. I didn’t want to think about going there and discovering that the health care workers in charge of my mother had already had her body moved to the morgue. And Rob hadn’t been with me. He’d had to do his little “now you see me, now you don’t” magic trick and sneak back into his cell. Then his attorney had worked more magic to get him out on bail.

Rob glanced at me and then back to the gun. “I wanted to be there, Lanie. You know I did.”

I blinked and my body went back into motion. I put the glass down and filled it. “It’s over, Rob. Let’s not talk about it anymore.”

Rob shrugged and blew into the top of the gun barrel. “We haven’t…talked about it.”

I sat at the table and took another sip. “What do you want to say to me?”

He stopped cleaning and stared at me. “I haven’t been here for you. And I know Jake hasn’t been…
available
.”

The juice in the glass contained a lot of pulp and I opted to start counting the tiny pieces that clung to the glass instead of meeting Rob’s eyes.

He cleared his throat. “But Sam’s been
there
—and
here
—and pretty much wherever you’ve been…so that’s good.” He focused his attention back on the gun.

The way he said Sam’s name let me know that he didn’t care for him. Irritation swept through me and the glass started to twitch in my hand. “You’re right. He willingly came to Boston with me and helped me sort through all the police bullcrap. And—then he let me cry on his shoulder at Mom’s graveside service. So, yeah, I guess he’s been with me.” I stood and anger coursed through me. “He should be shot. How dare he be a friend to me when my only brother is trying to get out of jail and my boyfriend is…is…recovering from coming back from the dead.” I threw my hands into the air and started to walk down the hallway.