Awaken

Bryce was distracted, however. “Hey,” he said, gazing at the sliding glass doors. “Maybe we should go with them. It’s getting kind of bad out there.”

Seth whirled on Bryce to demand, “Are you kidding me? Have you seen who’s with them?”

The DJ, who himself was on his way out, looked up in alarm at hearing Seth’s tone, and even a couple of the stoners raised their heads from the leather couches and blinked at him.

“Cabrero,” Seth shouted, when Bryce only looked at him blankly. “The file, you idiot! Get that file from Cabrero!”

Bryce shook his head, then turned his attention back towards the storm. “I’m sorry, dude,” he said. “It’s like what they were saying on the news. The bad side of the hurricane is starting to pass over, you know?”

Alex had hurried forward to open the front door for Frank and Kayla. Now, after the two of them had safely passed the stained-glass double dolphins, Alex turned to wave the file folder suggestively at Seth, along with both his middle fingers.

“Better luck killing me next time,” he called. “Oh, and great party, thanks.”

He disappeared into the storm, slamming the double doors behind him.

“You idiot,” Seth yelled, throwing an empty red party cup at Bryce. The floor was littered with them, everyone having dropped them where they stood as they’d fled the party. They lined the floor the way red poinciana blossoms lined John’s crypt, surrounding the cracked, empty coffin Farah and Serena had decorated.

“Hey, man. Not cool,” the DJ said disapprovingly to Seth. He threw on a rain poncho. “I’m out of here.”

“Can we get a ride?” Nicole asked, grabbing her sequined clutch. “I’m pretty sure my Audi’s not gonna start.”

“If you help carry my equipment,” the DJ said. He strode over to lift each of the remaining stoners from the couch by their shirt collars, like a shepherd tending to his flock. “Blue van parked over by the bulldozers. It’s a hike. My speakers get wet, you’re paying for them.”

Serena grabbed a turntable. “Bye, Seth,” she called over her shoulder. “Great party.” The gaze she sent in my direction — or, more accurately, John’s direction — indicated that she hadn’t actually thought it was such a great party at all. “See you later.”

“Yeah, bye,” Nicole said. She grabbed a box of cables and headed out the door, not seeming to care that her carefully straightened hair was about to be ruined.

“I’ll take the speakers,” Bryce said as he ambled forward. “You coming, Seth?”

Seth shot Bryce a look of pure contempt. “No, I’m not coming. I’m not going anywhere.”

“But … ” Bryce looked confused. “He said he’d give us a ride. And your truck’s underwater, bro.”

“I’m staying right here.” Seth was staring at John, who was staring right back at him, aquamarine-eyed gaze meeting gray-eyed gaze. “Until I’ve finished up my business.”

Bryce shrugged. “Okay, bro. But I don’t think Anton’s gonna wait.” He shuffled out the door.

“Really, Seth?” I couldn’t believe it. “I think your business with us is finished, for the time being.”

“Yeah? Well, I don’t think so. Who is your cousin going to give those papers to?”

“How am I supposed to know?” I asked. “I don’t even know what they say.”

“Doesn’t your mom work for the Isla Huesos Marine Institute?”

“How’d you know that?” I demanded, shocked.

“Because while this guy was allegedly kidnapping you,” Seth said, with a sneer in John’s direction, “my dad and I went to comfort your mom in her grief, and she told us.”

John took a threatening step towards Seth, but I put out a hand to stop him. I’d forgotten how Seth and his father had been inside my house.

“You weren’t comforting her,” I said. “You went there to get the coffin materials back.”

“If your cousin rats my family out,” Seth said, “all of you might find yourselves in coffins — real ones.”

“And you,” John said, taking a forceful step, one I was powerless to stop, “might find yourself thrown out of those windows over there.”

“John,” I said, grasping his arms with both hands. To Seth, I said, “If building this place is in violation of some kind of environmental regulation, I’m sure someone would have already noticed by now, don’t you think? Unless,” I added, my voice dripping with sarcasm, “your dad bribed a bunch of people to look the other way, which I can’t imagine he’d have done, because he’s always been such an upstanding, law-abiding citizen, hasn’t he?”

Only Seth, John, and I remained in the house. I don’t know who Seth was trying to impress when he said, “Reef Key has been in my family for years. My great-great-great — whatever — grandfather William Rector bought it from Isla Huesos County in 1845 when it was nothing but a sandbar covered in shrubs. No one else has ever given two shits about it. We should be able to do whatever we want with it.”

To John’s credit, he didn’t move a muscle. He didn’t show any indication at all that he’d known Seth’s great-great-great — whatever — grandfather William, nor that he had despised him for the thieving pirate he’d been, colluding with ship captains to wreck their own boats on purpose so that Rector could swoop in and “save” their cargo for one half its value. John’s own father hadn’t been much better, having been one of those captains willing to risk the lives of his crew for a percentage of the profit from that cargo.

“It appears to me,” John said with admirable calm, “that your family — and you in particular — does whatever it wants, regardless.”

“Damn right,” Seth said. “And we’ve gotten rich because of it. Maybe not Oliviera rich, but —”

Something struck one of the sliding glass doors overlooking the backyard. Not with enough force to break it, but hard enough to make a startlingly loud sound. I threw both arms in front of my face, and John quickly thrust me behind him, placing himself between me and the still rattling glass.

“Oh, crap,” Seth said with a shaky laugh. “That scared me. But look. It was just a bird.”

“A bird?”

Horrified, I lowered my arms and started for the windows, but not before John had a chance to grab and stop me.

“Not that bird,” he said. “Hope is safe.”

“How do you know?” I asked. “Was she with you?”

“No,” he said. “But trust me, she has enough sense not to be out in a storm like this.”

“Well, that bird didn’t,” I said. “Why would Hope? What if she’s trying to find me?”

“Hey, you should see this,” Seth said, from in front of the sliding glass doors, where he’d gone to look out over the balcony. “It’s some kind of black bird. There’s hundreds of them. They’re all over the place. They’re raining down from the sky. I’ve got to get a shot of this.” He dug into his jean pocket for his cell phone. “No one will ever believe it.”

“Seth,” I said anxiously. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

I knew he’d tried to kill my cousin. I knew he’d probably killed Jade. I knew he — or at least a death god who’d possessed him — had ordered my boyfriend to be killed by the Furies, then held him captive. He’d threatened to kill me, multiple times, and even threatened my mother. But I couldn’t stand there and watch him kill himself.

Seth laughed. “God, would you relax? I’m not stupid, all right? These doors are made from the same kind of glass they use in windshields, impact resistant.”

Remembering Chloe, and the tiny shards of glass she’d had embedded in her hair like diamonds from a tiara, I said, “Impact resistant doesn’t mean if something hits them hard enough they won’t shatter.”

Seth had his mobile out and was snapping away eagerly as, outside, the wind raged and ravens rained from the sky.

“Yeah, well,” he said. “You guys can run if you want, but I’m staying here. These babies can withstand gusts of up to two hundred miles per hour —”

Another raven struck one of the doors, almost as if it had hurled itself at it in an effort to get inside. No, to get at someone inside. Not Seth. It hadn’t chosen the sliding glass door nearest Seth. It had chosen the one nearest us.