The Thrashers(76)

Blue. As the morning sky.

Jodi’s chest rose sharply. She felt the cold air seep in deep. Her fingers tried to pull from Kiera’s hand, and then Emily Mills’s eyes landed on her for the first time in nine months.

Kiera’s nose was longer. Her hair and brows dark. Her teeth almost too small. But there was ice in her eyes and a bright greediness in them that drew the air from Jodi’s body.

“Hi,” Kiera whispered.

“What the fuck,” Zack muttered next to her.

But Jodi couldn’t turn to him. Couldn’t move her head. Couldn’t move her arm. Like waking up in bed feeling something sitting on your chest, or sleeping on your arm until it was completely numb.

Kiera smiled at her.

“Don’t break the circle,” Paige said suddenly. “Not until we’re done.”

“She’s—” Zack stuttered. “We have to—”

“No, don’t.”

Jodi watched as Emily’s blue eyes slid over to Zack. Breaking her trance, Jodi searched the rest of the circle. The lights weren’t back on, but she could make out Lucy’s measured breathing, the stillness of Julian’s posture, Paige’s slow rocking.

“Emily, I have a question,” Paige stated slowly.

Kiera’s head swiveled like that of a doll. She waited.

“What did you write in your journal?”

“Only the truth.”

“I never threw a soda bottle at you, Emily,” Lucy hissed.

“I know.” Kiera’s voice was pitched high and airy.

“What is it about this place?” Paige cut in. “Why did you tell us to go to the rose garden?”

She seemed to think about it. “I didn’t.”

“Do you want revenge, Emily?” Zack finally found his voice.

“For what?”

“Cut the shit.” Tension rolled off Julian in waves. “The drive-in. The inhaler. Paige and me getting hurt. You want revenge, don’t you?”

It was the first time Julian had accepted that anything supernatural was going on. Jodi watched him shift under Emily’s gaze.

“Why would I want to hurt my friends?” Kiera smiled, glancing at each face in the circle. “It’s nice to be back with my friends.”

A choked sound came from Lucy’s throat, and Jodi saw there were tears falling gently down her cheeks.

“Why did you write about a soda bottle, Emily?” Jodi whispered. Kiera rotated back to her. Jodi couldn’t feel her fingertips, like her blood flow stopped at her wrist. “You know that wasn’t your story to tell.”

“You’re right. You should tell it,” Kiera’s voice sang. “That’s one thing she and I agree on, actually.”

Jodi felt frozen, like the winter wind had slithered in through her mouth and taken root inside her lungs. Her arm went numb, up to her elbow.

She looked down and only saw Kiera’s fingers tightly wrapped around her own.

“I’ll protect you.” Emily’s words seemed to float down to her. Jodi raised her eyes. “I’ll protect you from everyone.”

There was an echo reverberating in Jodi’s head. Hissing and shouting floated into one ear and out the other as she tried to focus on the echo. Kiera leaned in toward her, and Jodi watched Emily’s eyes as her voice sang, “She wants you to go to Rosa’s.”

Jodi was at the far end of a tunnel, holding Emily’s hand in the darkness, and her friends were screaming on the other side. Like running at full speed at a brick wall, sound and awareness broke across her.

“—the fuck away from her!”

“Stop it!”

“—swear to god I’ll—”

“Shh!”

“Don’t let go—”

Kiera’s eyes rolled back in her head. She blinked once, and her eyes were green. She fell backward into a rosebush, eyes closing as she fainted.

Jodi was ripped from the ground, uprooted. Arms wound around her chest and placed her on her feet, taking her away.

Her legs folded under her, and the cold wind that had planted itself like a garden inside her chest was rushing upward—

She gagged, vomiting on the grass. Her left arm swung lifeless at her side, her other bracing herself on a tree.

A large, warm hand rubbed her back, pushing her hair away from her face. The others were shushing and gasping just feet away, but Zack was with her.

She sniffed, wheezing and dry heaving. When she straightened, her gaze roved up a water polo team sweatshirt—Julian.

“You okay? What did she say to you?”

Jodi looked over her shoulder. Zack had Kiera pulled to his chest. She was shaking, her sobbing getting louder as Paige hushed them. Lucy was packing up the Ouija board and crystals with unsteady hands.

“You shouldn’t have broken the circle,” Paige hissed at Julian.

“Are you fucking kidding?” Zack turned on her. “We should have stopped this the second Kiera—”

“Shut up.” Lucy hefted the tote bag on her shoulder. “We have to go.”

Jodi blinked her eyes clear and saw the streetlamps were on. Kiera was sobbing and gasping, making too much noise. She remembered the sounds of them arguing just before Emily disappeared.

She wants you to go to Rosa’s.