“Thanks.” I knotted the cord around my neck, wishing I could think of something more meaningful to say.
Within minutes she was asleep.
I stared into the darkness. A sliver of light crept from underneath the bathroom door. I thought about all the ways Jared could hurt me.
How much pain could I withstand before I finally broke?
21. SUNSHINE
In the morning, we stopped at 7-Eleven for coffee and batteries. Alara gave each of us five dollars in an attempt to ration our funds. Priest headed straight for the candy aisle and cleaned out the stock of watermelon sours. He had moved on to chips by the time I made it over there.
Candy wasn’t really my thing. But when I was little, my dad used to bring chocolate bars home from work.
The red wrapper was permanently stamped in my mind, like so many other images I couldn’t erase. I wanted one of those stupid candy bars more than anything right now.
I was still deciding if a stomach full of chocolate was a good idea at nine in the morning, when I noticed the guy behind the register staring. His eyes darted from the small TV on the counter and back to me, as my black and white yearbook photo flashed across the screen.
Jared walked down the aisle toward me, his back to the cashier. I didn’t move, my eyes fixed on the racks.
Another step and Jared’s body blocked the guy’s view.
“The guy behind the counter recognized me. Keep walking,” I whispered, careful not to turn in Jared’s direction. “I’ll meet you behind the school we passed on the way here.”
The cashier didn’t take his eyes off me.
Jared walked by and stopped in front of the coffee machine at the end of the aisle, where Lukas and Priest were filling up Styrofoam cups. Jared said something, and they all laughed and elbowed each other. When Alara heard Jared laughing, she snapped to attention and zeroed in on him like he had flashed the Bat Signal.
The cashier picked up the phone.
Lukas shoved his brother and the cups slipped out of their hands, coffee splattering onto the floor.
“What are you doing back there?” The guy was off his stool and halfway down the aisle, the phone receiver still lying on the counter.
“I’m really sorry.” Lukas grabbed a bunch of napkins from a nearby dispenser. “We’ll clean it up.”
“And you’re gonna pay for those,” I heard him say as the door closed behind me.
I ducked behind the 7-Eleven and followed the main road back to the elementary school, careful to stay off the shoulder in case the cashier decided to call the police. Behind the school, I huddled on a bench listening for sirens.
If the cashier did call, would the police tell my aunt I was okay?
Even though I didn’t like her, she had offered to take me in after my mom died, and I owed her something for that—at least a message to let her know I wasn’t lying in a ditch. I had considered calling more than once, but if the police believed someone had kidnapped me, her phone would definitely be tapped.
A disposable cell phone might throw off the police, but I wasn’t sure about a demon. That thought had stopped me from calling Elle again. Vengeance spirits had already followed me to the warehouse, and I wasn’t willing to make any more mistakes.
The sirens never came, just boots crunching across the dry leaves. “Kennedy?”
“Over here.”
Jared scanned the playground until he saw me, and his tense expression broke into a rare smile. “That was way too close.”
“No argument here.” I glanced behind him. “Where is everyone?”
“In the van. I thought four of us wandering around might look suspicious.” He sat down on the other end of the bench. “How did you know that guy in the store recognized you?”
“He was watching TV, and I saw my picture on the screen.”
Jared leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and looked back at me. I wanted to reach out and touch the scar above his eye—to ask him how he got it.
“Maybe you should stay in the van next time,” he said. “I don’t know if I can pull off another performance like that.”
“You were pretty convincing. I think you missed your calling.”
His smile faded and silence stretched between us.
“I’m sorry,” he said finally.
“For what?”
“I know you probably wish you weren’t part of this.” He sounded so lonely. I fought the urge to put my arms around him and breathe in the smell of salt and copper that clung to Jared even when he was only bleeding on the inside.
I wanted to tell him how lonely I was—how badly I needed someone. I wanted to tell him that and so much more. But I couldn’t find the words, or I wouldn’t let myself.
“That’s not true.”
Jared bit his lip. “Come on. You had a life—school, friends, probably a boyfriend—something better than this.”
Was that really what he thought? That I walked away from the perfect life?
“If I had a boyfriend, I would’ve called him by now. I don’t abandon the people I care about.”
“I didn’t mean—”
“And if by better, you mean losing my mom and packing up my whole life to move to a boarding school I’d never seen…” My voice wavered. “Then, yeah, I guess it was better.”
Jared’s face softened, opening up in a way that was beautiful and scary at the same time. He slid his hand slowly across the bench to the place where mine rested between us. My breath caught as he laced our fingers together.
Jared squeezed my hand and my heart jumped. “Kennedy, I wish—”
The chain-link fence rattled on the other side of the yard as Lukas hopped over it.
I pulled my hand away, leaving Jared’s on the bench. But I could still feel it as if I had never let go.
Sunshine didn’t live up to its name. The guys went into town to see what they could find out. Alara and I stayed behind and pored over the journals, searching for any information related to dybbuk boxes.
She turned to a page in hers with an elaborate symbol drawn on it—a circle with a heptagram in the center. Words in an unfamiliar language were written inside and around the circumference. It was the same symbol someone had drawn on the floor of the warehouse.
“What’s that?”
“The Grand Pentacle from
