Priest stepped between them. “We’ve been training for years, and Kennedy only found out about all this a few days ago. There’s a learning curve.”
“Look at her.” Alara said it like an accusation. “She belongs at a football game with a plastic cup in her hand.”
Lukas walked over and squeezed her shoulder gently. “It was an accident.”
Alara shrugged him off, and they stared at each other until they seemed to arrive at a silent agreement. But she still didn’t say a word as we walked toward the gate that stood between us and the hill leading up to the estate or when we stepped over the broken chain snaking through the dirt like another line I shouldn’t cross.
I watched the four of them climb the hill ahead of me. How many mistakes would they forgive?
How many more would I make?
Lukas slowed his pace until I fell in step next to him. I kept my eyes trained on the ground.
“Don’t worry about Alara. You’ll be swapping weapons in a few days.”
A smile tugged at the corners of my lips.
He dipped his head trying to get me to look at him. “Is that a smile?”
I flashed him a real one.
The crumbling stone house came into view, an empty shell left to rot in the middle of nowhere. “Creepy, huh?” he said.
“And the house with the psychotic kid and her broken doll wasn’t?”
“True. But something about this place feels wrong,” he said.
Alara stood at the top of the rise. “That’s because people were murdered here.”
The stone well waited in the distance, looking more like an illustration from a fairy tale than the scene of two vicious killings.
“I’ll check it out,” Jared said, but Lukas was already walking past him.
“I’ve got it.”
Lukas crossed the dead grass, and I held my breath as he leaned over the edge of the well. He circled the well, waving an EMF detector around the chipped stones. “I’ve got nothing.”
We crowded around the opening. The stones spiraled into the black water below. I imagined falling in and trying to grab the slick rocks to climb back up. It would be impossible, especially if you were a little boy.
“Where would your grandmother hide the disk?” Jared asked.
I swallowed hard, anticipating her answer.
“Knowing her?” Alara stared into the well. “Down there.”
“Why would your families hide the pieces in such dangerous places if they knew you guys would have to find them eventually?” I asked.
“Not necessarily.” Priest dropped a rock in the well and waited for it to hit the bottom. “Maybe they planned to go back for the pieces themselves. Or they were going to prepare us, but never got the chance. I doubt they all expected to die on the same day.”
It made sense.
Alara unpacked her gear. “If they made it easy for us, it would be easy for Andras, too. He controls a lot of spirits.”
“Okay,” Jared said. “So who’s going in?”
“Are you insane?” Even if you ignored the fact that two people had died in there already, the well was a death trap. It looked like it got progressively wider toward the bottom, but the mouth was barely the width of my shoulders. And there was no telling what was lurking under the water. Bones, for one thing.
“You think Priest’s grandfather randomly wrote the name of this place in a doll with the disk inside?” Jared took off his jacket and tossed it on the grass.
Alara rolled her eyes. “You’ll never fit in there. It’s too narrow at the top.”
“I’ll go.” Priest tied the nylon rope around his waist.
Jared yanked it loose. “Forget it.”
“Why? Because I’m not as strong or fast as the rest of the superheroes?” Priest’s huge headphones were still hanging around his neck, which didn’t help his case.
“No one said that.” Lukas reached out to put his hand on Priest’s shoulder, but he jerked away.
“You don’t have to.” Priest’s expression hardened. “How many times have I stayed behind? And when I do come, I always go with Jared so he can babysit me.”
“That’s because you’re valuable,” Lukas said. “We can’t afford to lose you.”
“We’re all valuable. But you guys think I’m a kid who can’t take care of himself.” There was a hopelessness in Priest’s voice that I’d never heard before.
Alara pulled her hair into a ponytail. “I’ll do it.”
Lukas sighed. “You’re claustrophobic. You’ll have a panic attack and pass out before you make it halfway down.”
She leaned over the edge of the well again. “I don’t have a choice. I’m the only one besides Priest and Kennedy who can fit through the opening.”
My skin went cold. I didn’t want to climb in that hole—a reeking pit of dark water where two people had died.
Jared bent down to grab his jacket. “Screw it. Let’s get out of here. We’ll figure out something else.”
“You’re going to walk away without the disk instead of letting me try?” Priest’s shoulders sagged.
“I’ll go,” I offered halfheartedly.
Alara rolled her eyes. “Nice try. You look like you’re going to puke.”
Lukas studied me for a second like he was considering the possibility, and Priest lost it. “Are you seriously thinking about letting her go instead of me? She just learned how to use an EMF.”
“Fine.” Jared tossed Priest the rope. “But you’d better do exactly what I tell you.”
“I’ll do exactly what you tell me,
Lukas tied the other end of the rope around his own waist, and Jared grabbed the section between his brother and the edge of the well.
Alara handed Priest a long cold-iron rod. “After this, you need to invent a gun that works underwater.”
“I’ll get right on it.” Priest swung his other leg over the side and slid down the moldy stones.
He was almost at the bottom when he looked up and smiled, just as a gnarled hand broke through the surface.
19. DARK WATER
The hand reached up from beneath the rancid water and grabbed Priest’s leg. His eyes widened in terror as the hand jerked his body off the wall. He let out one strangled scream before the water swallowed him.
A terrifying reality hit me.
Priest’s head burst through the black surface for a second. He thrashed desperately, only to disappear again.
“We have to do something!” I shouted.
Jared threw his leg over the side and tried to force his body into the narrow opening. But his shoulders were too wide.
Alara grabbed the back of his shirt and dragged him out. “Move or I can’t take a shot.”
She fired liquid-salt rounds into the well, but they didn’t have any effect.
Priest pushed up through the churning water again, with a bony arm locked around his throat. A woman’s bruised and bloated face rose from the waves, filthy well water running down her cheeks like black tears. Her neck was broken, her head hanging unnaturally to one side.
“Get out of our well.” Her raspy voice echoed against the stones.
“Millicent.” Alara leaned over the edge. “I know what happened to your son. I know what they did.”
