Velocity (19 page)

“I was so close,” I pleaded. “I can just go back and see the end of the first ritual, we’ll know what stopped Dexter, and we’ll use it to our advantage.”

Now he was getting angry. “Ariel, you don’t understand. It’s not going to happen at all. The grounding stone is gone. I sent it back to Georgia.”

“Then get it back,” I said, sitting up, panicked.

“We’ll figure out some other way. There’s got to be another way.”

“You’ve shot down all my other suggestions!”

“Do you remember when you came out of your vision?” he asked, ignoring my outburst. “You said something about Dexter.”

I softened. I’d hoped he hadn’t heard. “I found out in one of my visions of Eleanor that John Dexter is my great-grandfather. He tried to keep it a secret, but she got a letter from the man who took her in. Her mother was Ruby, the girl who Dexter tried to sacrifice.”

Hugh was floored, staring at me in shock. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? How long have you known?”

“I’ve known Dexter and I are related for about a month or so now. But I just found out about Ruby in my vision. And I figured out something else…she’s the woman in red.”

He stood up from his chair, still focusing on the first bit of info. “You should have told me. We just talked about this. Why would you keep such a big secret?”

I raised my voice even though my throat was hoarse. “You’re one to talk about secrets! You lied to me for years, too. So that’s not even fair!”

The nurse popped her head in and Hugh and I stared guilty at her.

“Is everything okay in here?” she asked coolly. I nodded and she left us alone.

“I need to go home and take a shower,” Hugh said, grabbing his coat and not making eye contact with me. “I’ll see you later this afternoon.” He brushed his lips against my forehead and was gone.

I stared up at the ceiling, wishing I had Jenna to talk to. She was the only person who could really understand me at this point, and she was gone. I wondered if she was okay, if she was in pain. I shut my eyes against the tears that leaked out, feeling very alone. If I couldn’t see the last half of the ritual, I didn’t know what else to do. I had no real plan B.

“I just wish you would come back,” I said to the air. I tried to concentrate on her face, hoping maybe I could bring her into existence just by willing it. But of course nothing happened.

It hurt my heart to think that Jenna was wandering the Dark realm. She probably barely remembered me at this point. It was only a matter of time before her spirit was corrupted and I could never get her back.

I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to sleep, but I had enough anxiety to keep me awake for a while.

###

Hugh drove me home two days later when the doctor released me. We said nothing the whole way. I sensed his unspoken wishes―he wanted me to say that I forgave him, that I understood…and I did, in a way. I knew how important it was to protect the ones you love, how irrational those feelings could make you. But I couldn’t sort out my thoughts.

When we got home, I went directly to my room. The hospital bed hadn’t been too comfortable, and being hooked up to wires wasn’t my idea of fun. I fell into a heavy nap the instant I laid down

A knock on the door stirred me awake later. It was dark outside the window. Hugh came in, carrying a mug of hot cocoa. There was a bird made out of a swirl of milk on the top.

“How do you do that? That’s like magic.”

“Many hours of pointless practice,” Hugh said, grinning. “I worked at a lot of restaurants when I was putting myself through school.” He took a seat on the edge of my bed.

“I’m sorry, Ariel. Things have been completely wrong since your mom died. I’ve been desperate.”

“I’m sorry, too,” I said. “I didn’t mean to go against you. I’m just so used to keeping secrets that it’s very hard for me to talk about certain things. You know I’m not great at sharing my thoughts.”

“I know. But I’m very firm about the grounding stone.” He could tell I was going to protest again so he cut me off. “We will find another way, honey. The doctor said that you could have died, that you were dehydrated. I know you’ve been worrying about it as much as me, and that’s my fault.”

I let the seriousness of his words sink in. “If I’m so powerful, why don’t I feel that way? Why am I still so human and frail and lame?”

He put my hair behind my ear. “I think you’re stronger than you realize. No one else could have put up with all this and made it through still standing.”

“When I saw Ruby―the human one, not the floaty red one―she looked so scared,” I told him, remembering. “Dexter paused, like he didn’t want to kill her.”

“After everything you’ve explained, that makes sense. They had a child together, no matter what the situation,” Hugh said softly.

I looked at him. “But he was such a bad guy. Like major evil villain status. It’s hard to believe.”

“Even the worst people have their nice days. They don’t just walk around slaughtering people on the way to get coffee. Most of the time.”

“Something really bad must have happened for her to become what she is now. I wonder why she’s appearing to me, though?”

“Maybe she wants you to know what you are.”

I drank my hot cocoa. I wasn’t going to fight him on the grounding stone. The prognosis had scared me, too―I didn’t exactly want to die. “What about crashing a meeting, though? That’s our second best chance.”

“That is a last ditch scenario. Whatever they do in those meetings is extremely secretive. Some kind of brainwashing.”

“Is that really what happened to mom? I suspected as much.”

“Why else would she turn like that?” Hugh asked honestly. “Despite your differences, your mother loved you, and me. I know that’s the truth. The only thing that could break that would have to be a supernatural force or indoctrination.”

“But you’re not entirely ruling a meeting out?” I asked hopefully.

“No. I can’t, at this point.”

“So, what’s your plan for where we are?”

Hugh sat back, pressing his fingers together in front of his chin. “I think we need to go to the police. I know they might be in Thornhill’s pockets. I know it’s the stereotypical response. But Stauner and I seem to both agree about Thornhill. I didn’t explain everything about the necklace, but I know Stauner was a religious man, and superstitious―we’d talked about it before―and I introduced the idea of the necklace being an occult object.”

“But all he wants is evidence. He said the next time I come and talk to him, I had to have good evidence.”

“Precisely. We need evidence. Something solid we can hold in our hands.”

###

I dreamed about the white woods again. The trunks were like tall statues or grave monuments. As I wandered through them, I sensed I was no longer alone. I glided in Ruby’s white dress―I understood the dress now, it meant that I was part of her bloodline, that she was part of me―through the trees, until I found a clearing. Someone was speaking in a low, constant monotone just out of sight.

I followed the voice. Mr. Warwick was waiting in front of a free-standing chalkboard. He had a box of matches in his hand. As I watched, he took one match out at a time, struck it into ignition, and tossed it over his shoulder. He kept going until the box was empty. The black board was covered in illegible scribbles, and fallen chalk littered the ground. I stepped toward him hesitantly. Warwick gestured for me to take a seat at the only desk.

I sat down and blew off ashes that covered the desk. Warwick’s eyepatch was gone, leaving a swirling, colorless void. The other eye was coal black, staring at me with flat, animal curiosity. Then he flipped the chalkboard to the other side and started scrawling with his chalk stub.

Seek and ye shall find.
His hand paused.

“What am I supposed to find?” I asked. My voice was far too loud. I saw red eyes peeking out from the woods around me.

He erased his previous words with a scrawl from his sleeve, then wrote,
My words.

Blood started to leak out of his eye again, then down from his scalp. Birds were flocking and swirling and cawing in the sky above.

He struggled to use his arm, scrawling one more distorted word. Then he turned back to me. A green hue had infected his skin.

Warwick took a few stumbling steps towards me and then collapsed. I stood up from the desk, but his body was gone, replaced by a pile of red leaves. The ashes from the fire fell thicker now. I looked up at the chalk board, where the only thing it read was
Evidence.

###

I thought about the dream throughout the next day. The notebook that Henry and I had found, in which Warwick had scribbled his insane thoughts, had gotten misplaced during our move, and I hadn’t the slightest idea of where it might be. All of our stuff had been boxed out of our old house and was in a storage unit while Dad looked for a buyer.

“He had graphomania, right?” Theo asked during lunch. Our group was sitting around discussing options. I didn’t tell them all about my dream, just that I’d misplaced the first notebook. “So he probably wrote more somewhere.”

“But wouldn’t most people use a computer?” Madison asked, eating an apple.

I shook my head. “Yeah, but not Warwick. There was something about writing his thoughts out, and he mentioned it several times―I think he was exorcising his demons that way. Like the physical act of writing was getting them out. I don’t think a keyboard would give him the same feeling. Someone who uses writing like that didn’t just start and stop.”

“You’d make a good detective,” Alex said, then blew bubbles in his chocolate milk. I rolled my eyes.

“So, where do we look?” Henry asked. School was the only place that we felt comfortable being in public together. “We found the first one in his old apartment. Do you know of anywhere else he lived? Any place he hung out?”

“He lived in a bunch of different apartments that I can recall,” I said. “He was always moving into different apartments. I thought the best place to start looking, though, was in his old classroom.”

“I’m going to help her keep look out,” Theo explained.

Henry didn’t look too thrilled about it, a frown creasing his brow.

“He has a free period the same hour as my study hall, and Theo can get out of pottery.”

“Do you want a guy to come, too?” Alex butted in, staring expectantly at me. “Keep you ladies out of trouble?” Madison hit Alex not so gently on the shoulder, and she and Theo caught each other’s eye and glared.

“Let’s keep all the personal drama out of this for now, okay?” I asked shortly. I was getting frustrated. I had received not one but two bad grades on quizzes that same day. Mr. Vanderlip, my math teacher and part-time foe, had said told me I might want to consider skipping any career that didn’t involve the use of a calculator.

Madison, never one to be quieted unless it was by Lainey, ignored my request. “What are you going to do when he takes me to prom?”

My mouth dropped open. “What?” Theo and I asked at the same time.

Alex stared guiltily at the table.

“Oh great, here we go,” Henry sighed, sitting back to get out of the way.

“You are such a skank,” Theo shouted, jumping to her feet.

“And you’re the girl who broke his heart,” Madison said, equally as enraged.

“Ladies, please.” Alex stood up and put his hands out between them, but I could tell by the tiny grin he was barely holding back that he was enjoying the attention.

“You couldn’t have kept his interest anyway,” Madison said, baiting Theo whose face went as red as her hair.

Then Alex went serious. “Madison, don’t talk to her like that.”

Theo’s eyes welled with tears and she stomped away. I followed her.

“I don’t want them helping anymore,” Theo said, wiping her eyes.

“We need all the help we can get. And both of their parents are involved in the opposition now, Madison’s father talked the Perkins into joining.”

“Well, if it comes down to one of us being sacrificed, I’m pushing Madison out front.” Theo turned and stomped away.

CHAPTER 18

WHEN I SAW
her an hour later as I sneaked out of study hall, she seemed to have calmed down. She didn’t want to say a word about either Alex or Madison. We sneaked to the history hall, where the drill sergeant who had taken over Warwick’s class was still teaching.

“How are we going to get him out of there?” Theo asked as we peeked into the hall window. In her neon green sweater and pink sneakers, she stood out.

“We might have to create a diversion. We’ll think of something.”

As we watched him through the classroom window, his phone rang. He stared at it and sighed, then put it to his ear. By the sounds of it, it was from his daughter.

“That’s pretty funny considering how often he confiscates other people’s phones,” I mused.

“Teachers for you. My mom’s the same way,” Theo said, shrugging.

We went around the hall, and pretended to be trying to open a locker. He stalked off past us down to the exit. He’d left his classroom open.