Cursed

it. The entire passenger side was untouched. They’d even gotten creative, drawing little red lines over the back, like thin rivers of blood. Scrawled across the side was a message. I got it loud and clear.

Dead things should stay dead.

Hayden reached around and picked it up. Fury rolled off him in heat waves.

“You gonna tell me now it’s not one of them?” I asked, my voice wavering.

His eyes flicked up, and I took a step back. “We need to tell my father.”

“No.” I snatched the car back.

“He’s not going to send you anywhere, Ember.” Hayden’s voice was barely a whisper. “He needs to know about this.”

“No.” I spun around and stalked over to the trashcan. Ignoring the curious stares from the kids lingering after class, I threw the model car into the bin. “Forget this.”

Hayden had already shut my locker door. Rage pulled his face into tight, hard lines. Without warning, the garbage can turned over. I jerked back as the sides of the plastic can groaned, then split. Trash went everywhere.

The kids left in the hallway shrieked. Someone yelled for a teacher. A few hooted. Spinning around, I grabbed Hayden’s arm and pulled him down the hallway.

“Whoops,” he murmured.

I shot him a wide-eyed look. “Whoops? Wow. I wouldn’t call ripping apart a garbage can in the school a ‘whoops’ moment.”

He pulled away, shrugging. “It happens.”

I didn’t say another word until we sat in the car. “I want to go to the house.”

The keys were clenched in his hands. I stole a quick glance at his face. He still hadn’t finished reining in his ability.

“Why won’t you let me tell my father, Ember?” he asked finally.

“I don’t trust him.”

His eyes widened. “You can’t honestly believe he had anything to do with this!”

I flipped around in the seat and faced him. “It’s not that. I don’t trust that he won’t send me away! I know he doesn’t want me here, Hayden. No one but you wants me here! All he needs is a reason to send me away.”

“Ember—”

“And yeah, I don’t trust him. No one else would know, Hayden.” I leaned away from him. “That car looked just like the real one. The damage done to it was like a perfect copy. So don’t tell me it can’t be one of them. Because, really, who else could it be?”

Hayden turned away, lips drawn.

“And who else would put a message like that on there?”

He shoved the keys into the ignition. “Even though I think it’s stupid—and it’s really stupid, Ember—I won’t tell anyone. But if it happens again, that’s it.”

I flopped back in my seat, fuming. The tension and anger in his car were palpable. We drove for a while in utter silence.

Half the time I didn’t want to be here, but I was here, and I wasn’t going anywhere. And it wasn’t even that I felt I didn’t deserve this—maybe I did, like some kind of penance I’d have to pay for coming back from the dead and for what happened to Dustin. I was unnatural and wrong. I could understand why someone wouldn’t want me here.

But Olivia was here, and that meant I stayed.

* * *

I didn’t want to go to the party after the toy Lexus incident, but Hayden had insisted. “You need to do something normal,” he had said after dinner. “Besides, I want you to go. With me.”

Those two little words pretty much sealed the deal. So I tried to force it all out of my head as I dug through my closet. I decided on a jean miniskirt and black opaque tights that actually went with my chunky sweater. I also found a pair of totally ugly sheepskin boots, but they’d keep my feet warm.

Getting my curls to not look like one giant frizz ball took a good forty minutes, especially since Olivia dumped half the bottle of curl revitalizer on her own head.

“Mine.” I snatched it from her and made a face.

Olivia sat on the edge of the bed, swinging her feet back and forth. “Why aren’t you dressed like Phoebe?”

Phoebe had left over an hour ago, wearing a killer black dress that seriously pushed the dress code with its neckline. And she’d looked good.

I returned to the bathroom mirror and puckered my lips. Olivia giggled from the bed. “She went to a dance.”

“Why didn’t you go to dance?”

“Dances are lame, Olivia.” I said, telling myself the same thing. Once I was satisfied with my curls, I tossed the bottle in a basket and twirled for Olivia.

She clapped a bit too enthusiastically. “You look pretty, Emmie.”

“Emmie does look pretty.”

The sound of Hayden’s voice brought me to an abrupt stop. He stood in the doorway, dressed in a dark pullover, loose-fitting jeans, and a black baseball cap. Wisps of brown curled out from the sides, adding a boyish charm.

He also had his hands planted behind his back.

“Hey,” I said.

Hayden gave me a lopsided smile before turning to Olivia. “Aunt Liz is baking cookies.”

Her eyes lit up like someone shoved a diamond in her face. “Cookies? Coca-chip?”

“Uh-huh, but isn’t it your bedtime?” asked Hayden. “You probably missed out on the chance.”

“Nooo.” She dragged the word out, eyes wide.

I shook my head, smiling. “So wrong.”

He grinned at me. “Maybe if you hurry, you’ll get to sample some before bed.”

Olivia leapt off the bed and hauled butt out of the room. Coca-chip cookies were far more important than her sister. Her departure left us alone… in my bedroom.

Nervously, I picked up the coin and put it in my pocket. “You better hope there are chocolate chip cookies down there, or you’ll hear screams in a minute.”

Hayden laughed. “There are cookies down there. I may do a lot of things, but I don’t lie to children.”

I wondered what he meant by that. “What’s behind your back?” He sat down on the bed. “Come here.”

“What?” I sat beside him, smoothing my hands over the denim skirt.

He moved. A pair of cable-knit gloves lay in his hands, heather gray—always a good color. “I swiped them from Phoebe’s room. It’s going to be cold out there. You’re going to need them. And they’ll keep your hands warmer than the ones you normally wear. I just want you to have fun,” he went on quietly, “and not have to worry about anything. You need to have fun tonight.”

My eyes felt weird, like something had gotten stuck in them. I blinked a couple of times and ignored the way my throat felt tight. “Thank you.”

Hayden nodded, not meeting my eyes. “Hold out your hands.”

“I can do…” His eyes did meet mine. He had that look. Sighing, I held out my hands.

A ghost of a smile appeared. Hayden carefully tugged a glove over my right hand. The tips of his fingers just grazed the skin around my wrists, but it felt like a thousand shocks of electricity. The left hand followed next, and his fingers grazed my skin once more. Fine shivers raced up my arms, then down everywhere else.

I couldn’t get over how reckless he was. Nobody in the house would even dare be so casual about accidentally touching my skin, not even Olivia.

Once he was done, his hands lingered a second or two before he dropped them. “Ready?”

I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

Liz already had Olivia in one of the living rooms with a plate of cookies and milk. I wondered how she thought she’d get her to sleep now. The girl was about to have a wicked sugar high.

Thank God I wouldn’t be here to experience it.