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She meant the dark room they’d held me in earlier. I gave her a hard look. “Kasey deserves to be comfortable.”
My sister’s nerves started to fail her. “I think I’d rather go upstairs,” she said, her voice trembling. “I think I want to be in private.”
“Fine,” Lydia said. “We’ll go upstairs.”
“No, just me and Lexi,” Kasey whispered.
A few feet away, Mimi started fa
“I feel sick,” Kendra complained.
“Don’t worry,” Lydia said. She got up and looked around the room, searching the dark spaces, as if she was waiting for something. When she spoke, she sounded distracted. “It’ll only be for a minute.”
Kasey dragged herself up the steps, and I came behind her, holding the book.
She looked paler, thi
I knew she hadn’t read the giving spell, but my skin broke out in goosebumps. She’d meant to. She’d wanted to. She’d tried to sacrifice herself.
“Sit on the couch in the front room,” I said. The closer to the exit, the better. “I’ll get a pen.”
She shuffled away while I eased back toward the base- ment door. There was an old, loose doorknob that shifted around under your hand when you touched it, and a small metal hook that fit into a loop on the frame. I gently pressed the button lock on the knob; as I’d guessed, it jiggled uselessly. Then I slid the hook in the loop and slowly shifted one of the kitchen chairs under the knob.
I went back to the living room, where Kasey was laid out like a fainting victim.
“I don’t feel good,” she whispered.
Neither did I. “Come on, Kase, get up.”
She sat up. “Where’s the pen?”
“There is no pen,” I said. “We’re leaving.”
Her jaw dropped. “But I—”
“You’re not dying. That was a different spell. I think Aralt is back in the book, and now I need to destroy it. You have to come with me, because they’ll think you were in on it.”
“Oh, Lexi!” she said, her face falling. “How could you?”
The only thing worse than the sheer absurdity of the question was the fact that she really was disappointed that she wasn’t going to die.
“We have to get out of here,” I said. “I’m going to go see if there are any car keys sitting around. You wait here.”
She slumped over, utterly forlorn.
I went back to the kitchen and looked for stray purses. Aha! Megan’s was nestled in the corner of the counter. I dug through it, but couldn’t find the keys.
From behind me came a jingling sound. “Looking for these?”
I turned to see Megan standing in the doorway.
“I believed you, Lex. I stood up for you.” She shook her head. “Even when you excluded me, abandoned me for your boyfriend or your sister…I was always ready to be there for you. And this is how you repay me?”
Then she drew her hand from behind her back to reveal a kitchen knife. Not some dollar-store apple peeler, but a big, fat one from the days when the Smalls had a fully stocked gourmet kitchen.
“Seriously,” she said. “I’m so disappointed.”
She lunged at me, but the separation from Aralt was slowing her down, dulling her reflexes. I dodged out of the way, and the knife just barely nicked my arm. I forced myself to ignore the sting and ran around the other side of the table.
“It’s too late,” I said. “It’s over. If you stop to think about it—”
“I don’t want to stop to think!” she said. “I want to teach you what it means to be loyal to Aralt. And the price you pay for betraying him. Betraying me, Alexis.”
From the living room came my sister’s timid voice. “Lexi? What’s going on?”
Megan froze. “Or maybe your sister can be the gift after all.”
Knife raised, she spun around and headed toward Kasey.
From the end of the hallway, the doorknob rattled. “Hey!” Lydia yelled. “What are you doing up there?”
I grabbed the first thing I could find, a heavy metal kitchen stool, and ran after Megan. She was waiting for me, a few feet from my sister.
“Oh, you found a chair!” Megan said, her voice mocking. “I’m so scared. What are you going to do, sit on me? Or are you going to kill me? I mean, you couldn’t kill your family, but I’m just your best friend. I hardly even count.”
She lunged toward Kasey, who tried to dash away—but Megan’s knife grazed her leg.
My sister yelped in pain and limped backward as Megan steadied herself for another charge.
I didn’t stop to think. I swung the chair low, like a croquet mallet. It hit Megan’s left knee with a sickening crunch. She screamed and fell sideways, grabbing her leg as she hit the ground and curled into a ball.
Kasey, snapped out of her self-pity spiral by the sight of someone coming at her with a knife, was on her feet, halfway to the front door.
There was banging from the basement, then a more concentrated rattle. They were trying to get out—and it probably wouldn’t take them long.
I scooped up the book and followed Kasey to the front yard. It was dark out; I’d been unconscious in the basement for almost an entire day. My sister could hardly even walk on her injured leg.
“Go on without me,” she said. “I can hide in the bushes.”
“If they find you, they’ll kill you,” I said.
“They won’t find me,” she said. “Now run!”
I was about to protest, to try to figure out something safer, but then I looked at the shrubs. Kasey was right. They were so wild and untended that nobody would ever see her. She was already hobbling toward them.
I took a split second to look around, kicked off Mrs. Wiley’s shoes, and ran.
Like my life depended on it.
Which it did.
THE ROUGH PAVEMENT tore at my bare feet as I sprinted away from the house.
From behind me, I heard my name: “Alexis!”
I wasted a fraction of a second looking over my shoulder.
Lydia was chasing me. She was out of breath, but she was moving fast, catching up. She hadn’t read the spell with us; she could still draw speed and strength from Aralt’s energy. Meanwhile, thanks to the abandoning spell, I was growing weaker by the moment.
“Come back!” she screeched.
Two blocks later, I felt like I might pass out, but I forced myself to keep going. Lydia was so close I could hear her footsteps slapping the sidewalk. I turned onto a side road and ended up ru
I leaped over a deep pothole; a second later, Lydia screamed, and I looked back to see her on the ground, holding her ankle. She climbed to her feet and ran toward me with a dragging, unbalanced stride.
One of the doors to a store had glass windowpanes; I scooped up a chunk of asphalt and busted it through the glass, clearing enough room to slip my hand through and unlock the door.
I was closing it behind me when Lydia hurled herself at it, knocking me backward into the room. The book went flying from my hands. Lydia tumbled inside right after me.
While she flailed, I picked up the book and ran for the front of the store.
But the front door was bolted. And outside of that was a locked metal gate. i was trapped.
I glanced around the place I’d chosen to escape to: a beauty parlor. In the front window was a neon sign—the name of the salon. Glancing at one of the mirrors, I read: JUST TEASING.
No Just Teasing, Elspeth had said.
For a moment, the air got heavy around me.
Something horrible was going to happen here. Elspeth had done her best to warn us, but we’d totally ignored her.
Lydia was having trouble getting to her feet—her ankle seemed to be causing her a lot of pain. She hauled herself off the floor and limped toward me. “Aw, what’s the matter?” she asked. “Did you forget you’re in the ghetto, Alexis? We have bars on our windows here.”