Awaken

curved double staircase I knew so well. “Does anyone know where John keeps the keys to the doors at the top of those stairs?”

For the first time in a long time, I saw Mr. Liu smile. “No,” he said. “But I know where there’s an ax.”

10

The infernal hurricane that never rests

Hurtles the spirits onward in its rapine;

Whirling them round, and smiting, it molests them.

DANTE ALIGHIERI, Inferno, Canto V

It will never work.”

I was at the dining table, filling my tote bag with things I thought I’d need for my journey, trying to ignore Mr. Graves.

“It won’t bring him back,” Mr. Graves continued in a low voice, so the others wouldn’t overhear. “And even if it would, the captain would never want you to risk your own life in order to save his.”

“Then I guess it’s a good thing he isn’t around to watch,” I whispered. Raising my voice, I said to my cousin Alex, “Give me that book.”

“You think A History of the Isle of Bones is what’s caused the imbalance that’s making this place implode?” Alex read off the title in a sarcastic voice as he handed the book over. “Yeah, Pierce, I’m sure that’s probably it.”

“Things were fine around here before it showed up,” I said tersely as I put the book in my bag.

“In that case,” Alex said, “you better take me along, too.”

“The whole reason they brought you here is because everyone back in Isla Huesos was trying kill you,” Kayla pointed out. “Remember?”

“Actually,” Mr. Graves said, “they succeeded in killing him.” Lowering his voice again, he whispered to me, “Just as the Furies succeeded in killing the captain. Which was always their ultimate goal. Now that they’ve succeeded, I can’t imagine they’ll continue to attack us. So you see, Miss Oliviera, there’s no point in your embarking on this scheme of yours —”

“Really? What are we going to feed these people?” I asked. “How are we going to get them to their final destinations? Are we simply going to wait for the Fates to come back? Or are we going to make our own luck, like my father always said a truly successful person does?”

Mr. Graves shook his head. “I highly doubt your father would go along with this if he knew what you were up to.”

“Well, then it’s a good thing he doesn’t know.”

“Not everyone back in Isla Huesos was trying to kill me,” Alex declared. “Only Seth Rector and his cronies. Which goes to show that I was onto something. If I wasn’t close to finding evidence implicating them instead of my father in Jade’s murder, why would they have killed me?”

“Because you found their stash,” Kayla reminded him. “Drug dealers tend not to like that.”

“That’s why Pierce has got to take me with her,” Alex said. “I can explain that to the police.”

“I thought you said the police are all in Seth Rector’s father’s pocket.” Kayla was sitting on top of the dining room table, swinging her legs beneath the long skirt of her purple gown.

“Maybe not all of them.” I paused as I dropped my mobile phone into my tote bag, thinking back to the assembly they’d had my first day of school. “Police Chief Santos seemed really determined to keep Coffin Night from happening.”

“Maybe because he wants to keep people out of the cemetery, the hub of Seth Rector’s drug empire,” Alex said. “The chief is probably getting kickbacks.”

“Or maybe,” Kayla said, “you watch way too much television.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Kayla,” Alex said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Did your dad spend most of your life in jail for a nonviolent crime he was probably tricked into committing by Seth Rector’s father, or was that my dad?”

“Jesus,” Reed said from the chair at the dining table where he’d been quietly sitting. “What kind of town do you people live in, anyway? Coffin Night? Drugs?” He looked at Chloe, huddled in a chair opposite his. “Did you know about any of this stuff?”

She shook her head, her eyes wide. “I’m homeschooled.”

“I agree with that young man,” Mr. Graves said, his head turned in the direction from which he’d heard Reed’s voice. “This has all gone too far. I understand that Miss Oliviera is anxious to get revenge for the captain’s tragic death —”

Or find Thanatos, I thought but didn’t add aloud. If he exists.

“— but the welfare of these people has to be our highest priority at the moment. And the sad truth of the matter is now that they’ve killed the captain, the Furies are no doubt gone for good —”

Thunder rumbled overhead. But it was only because of the growing storm outside, not John being witty, since when I glanced sharply towards the bed, I saw that John was still gone. As it had grown darker outside — not to mention colder and wetter — it had been thundering more often.

We’d also allowed more of the souls of the dead inside. I noticed a few of them start in alarm at the ominous sound.

My spirits lower than ever, I decided I didn’t want to argue anymore with Mr. Graves. I didn’t want to talk anymore. My eyes were hot and tired from all the crying I’d done, and my throat hurt, despite the amount of tea Mrs. Engle had foisted upon me to soothe the ache.

I feared nothing would ever soothe the ache, however. Especially since I’d come to the slow realization that, with John gone, so was the bond between us. Why was I even doing any of this? I was free to go back to my old life, before I’d ever known anything about magic diamond pendants, death deities, and the realm of the dead.

So there was nothing to keep me from picking up my bag, stepping back into my own world, and leaving all these people and their problems and complaints behind.

Yet for some reason, here I was still standing in the Underworld, arguing with old Mr. Graves like someone who still had a stake in this game.

“Look,” I said to the ship surgeon. “Remember what you said? Our responsibility must always be to do what’s best for the living. Right? Which means we need to get the dead to their final destinations before they start piling up down here. Otherwise, next thing we know, they’ll be overflowing into the streets of Isla Huesos, and we’ll have —”

Mr. Graves looked pained. “Pestilence.” He almost spat the word.

“Exactly. But if I can find a couple of boats and figure out a way to get them here, and maybe find this Thanatos guy, too — if he exists — and get him to let go of John … and while I’m at it, prove who killed Alex, and my counselor, Jade … well, you said it yourself: I’ve got to try. It’s my responsibility.”

“And how,” Mr. Graves asked, his sightless eyes wide, “do you plan on doing any one of those things?”

“I haven’t the slightest idea,” I said flatly. “I’ll just have to figure it out as I go along.”

“That,” Mr. Graves said, “is hardly reassuring.”

Even if I did flee to my mother’s house, the next time I saw my grandmother, I’d remember what she’d done. She’d never be punished for it.

I couldn’t live with that. Not that it would make any difference. Without John, my life would be as bleak and meaningless as one of those boring black-and-white movies they were always showing at the cinema art house back in Connecticut.

But innocent people, like my counselor, Jade, would still have been murdered, and someone needed to pay for that. And the people here in the Underworld still needed my help. I couldn’t abandon them, no matter how hopeless I felt. They were my responsibility now, the way they used to be John’s. They were the choice I’d made that night in his bed when he’d asked if I understood the consequences of what we were doing. I’d thought he’d