When Devils Sing(85)

“Yeah, okay,” Neera conceded, smiling a little. She shut her eyes, resting her head fully against Sam’s back. They rode for a bit more before Sam brought the four-wheeler to a stop, killing the engine.

“I’m climbing off, but keep ’em closed,” Sam said. A moment passed before she spoke from Neera’s right, “Take my hand.”

Hesitantly, Neera held out her hand, and Sam took it in her own. Sam guided her from the four-wheeler to the ground, gently leading her forward. Without her sight, Neera focused on the things she could hear. As always, the katydids and tree frogs. A dog moaned balefully in the distance. In the quiet of the night, even the softer sounds came alive: the hoot of a barred owl, squirrels skittering in the trees around them.

Then she focused on the things she felt. The warm breeze that brushed against her skin, briefly keeping the thick humidity at bay. The tickle of grass and ragweed at her ankles. But it was Sam’s hand that Neera felt more than anything else. The warmth of her skin, the electricity of her touch. She didn’t know what to do with those thoughts. Her instinct was to pull away, but she only held Sam’s hand tighter as they walked.

“All right,” Sam said. “You can open them.”

Neera opened her eyes, finding herself standing in a wide-open clearing with a small pond a few yards away.

Softly, Sam suggested, “Look up.”

Above them was a dazzling sea of white stars, varying in intensity, coating the blackness of the night. She’d never seen so many stars at once. They blanketed the dark, shimmering and mesmerizing. There were thousands upon thousands of them, more than she could ever hope to count.

Neera swallowed, finding herself speechless. She felt entranced by the sky, her head angling up and up and up, causing her to spin in circles. It was as if her eyes couldn’t possibly look at them all, but begged to.

“Cool, right?” Sam asked.

Neera pulled her gaze away, returning to Sam. “I’ve never seen stars like this around here.”

“It’s a rare thing,” Sam said. “But this is my secret spot. The only place in all of Langley County the light pollution barely touches.”

The two lay at the base of an oak tree and gazed up at the stars. The longer Neera looked at them, the more entranced she became. It was so expansive, so incredible, she felt foolish for thinking she’d ever seen a proper night sky before.

“How’d you find this place?” she asked after a spell of silence.

Sam shrugged. “This land’s owned by a family friend. Good guy named Gator. I used to come out here a lot when I was younger to fish with my daddy.”

“And now you come here to stare at the sky?”

“To clear my head. Worries seem a lot smaller when you look at all this.”

Neera was quiet for a very long time before she said, “Yeah, they do.”

“What’re you thinkin’ about?” Sam asked.

Neera exhaled a heavy sigh. “You ever feel like bad shit just follows you wherever you go? Like you’ll never be free of it, no matter what you do?”

Sam hummed in agreement. “Every damn day.”

“How do you cope?”

“I don’t.” Sam snorted. “I just break things. Don’t be like me.”

Neera laughed. “Well, my way of coping is running away. That’s my solution for everything—getting the hell out and never looking back.”

“Where will you run to next?” Sam asked.

Neera sat up on her elbows, considering her answer. “I wanna go someplace where I can see stars like this every single night. Maybe in the mountains, or by the ocean. Somewhere beautiful, far away. I’m not picky as long as it’s a place I can call my own.”

“Sounds like my kind of place.” Sam rolled over and propped herself up, her green eyes now on Neera. “Maybe I can come visit sometime?”

Neera cracked a smile. “I’d like that.”

It was then that Neera found herself leaning closer to Sam. Their hands were touching again, brushing against each other. Sam looked into Neera’s eyes, her gaze soft and searching. Neera didn’t know what to do with that closeness.

In the humid night air above, a crow cawed, high and shrill, taking the moment with it. Neera pulled away, while Sam cleared her throat.

Sam looked to the sky, her eyes tracking the crow’s silhouette, then went back to Neera. “You wanna talk about what happened last night? With the cicada?”

Neera’s hand went to her throat, grazing her fingers over the scabbed cuts that ran down her neck. The awful memory of the buzzing cicada in her mouth. “What’s there to say?”

“I saw you play up on that stage,” Sam said slowly. “It was different from the audition. Not that you weren’t good before, but that performance was something else entirely. The way your music made me feel—hell, even the whole crowd feel. It was like everyone was frozen in place while you sang. That was nothing short of magic.”

Neera went still. When she’d made her bargain with Crow, she never expected this. A musical gift beyond simply being remembered. He’d given her something more—the ability to bewitch an audience. A gift of power in a world where she had very little. “I did what I had to do.”

“I get it,” Sam said knowingly. “I really do.”