“C’mon, Laura. You can play the peacekeeper and turn the sweetness right back on her.” Shanda stomped down the hall, claws bared, the twins on her heels. Her shouts drifted down the hall, mixed with muffled voices.
What if Bryan’s brilliant plan didn’t work? I crumpled into a ball in the chair, head in my hands. “How did tonight get so twisted? I don’t even understand what’s going on.”
Brooke scooted a chair up next to me, shooting Bryan a sidelong glare. “Okay if I tell her?”
He barely glanced up from his phone. “Be my guest.”
“This wasn’t just some practical joke or even cyber-bullying.” Her clammy hands clutched mine, forcing me to look at her. “Since Monica’s a Nexis member, she’s trying to send a message. If anyone else with the right knowledge saw this picture, you could be in danger.”
Slowly, my head bobbed up, then down like a robot. “It does kind of look like I’m having a vision. That could be bad.”
Bryan’s fingers stilled. “It’s more than that. This was a threat. Straight from Nexis.”
“I don’t understand.” I glanced from Bryan back to Brooke, who dipped her head at him.
He punched some keys and set the phone in my hand. “They’re comparing you to St. Lucia. Remember what the priest said? She was the Seer of her time.”
My eyes caught a glimpse of the photo on the screen and I did a double take. “Yep, that’s what she looks like all right. First in the Nexis book, then the priest’s. Now my vision.”
Brooke’s jaw dropped. “You saw a vision of her? How scary.”
“Now you see why I hate this so-called gift.” Her little hand patted mine. Small comfort.
Bryan crouched down next to me. “Wait. If St. Lucia is in the Nexis book, then there has to be a reason. I doubt they’d put her in there just to pat themselves on the back. No, they’re definitely planning something. And it’s time we go on the offensive again.”
Brooke rubbed her palms together with a fiery gleam that stoked her pupils. “I’ve been waiting for this. We can’t let that stupid church incident keep us from playing the game.”
“It’s not a game.” I snapped my head toward her. Had Bryan’s younger sister really just relished something dangerous? Sounded more like something Shanda would say, not Brooke. “What did you mean ‘planning something?’ What’re they going to do, gouge out my eyes?”
Bryan gripped my hand and held on tight. “No way, not if I can help it.”
Questions hammered my tongue, about Nexis, about us, but my voice box was frozen. Silent.
Footsteps pattered down the hall as Lenny raced in, hoisting up a thumb drive like a victory flag. “Got it. There shouldn’t be any more copies of it online either. Shanda zapped them with her mad hacker skills.”
“Way to go.” Laura high-fived her brother. “Score one for the good guys.”
“What did I miss?” He stole a bottle of water from the fridge and chugged it. After five gulps, he crumpled it up and tossed it in the trash can next to me.
“We’re going to find a way to get the upper hand.” Bryan stood up fast, leaving a wake of cold. “This time I want to get one step ahead of them. Once we figure out their plan, we can beat them at their own game.”
“Just what we need, a little diabolical thinking.” Lenny fist-bumped him. “Does that mean we’re going on a stake out?”
“Not quite.” Bryan lowered his tone, hunkering down over my chair. The others crowded around me in a Guardian huddle. “No, I’m talking about beating them at their own game.”
He crouched down next to me as a foreign expression washed over his face. Those eyes drilled into me with a focus I recognized, but not from him, from Will. The specimen-under-a-magnifying-glass stare. “Don’t breathe a word of this to anyone. Got it?”
All heads bobbed, all except mine. “I couldn’t tell anyone if I wanted to.” Because I didn’t know what was going on, but I bit those words back.
“That’s the spirit.” Laura pumped her tiny fist into the air. Sometimes she had so much of her brother in her.
“Wait, not even Shanda?”
He shook his head, gaze set on me. “Not even Shanda.”
I narrowed my eyes at that smug stare, as if he could control me so easily. How could he be so tender one minute, so cold the next? This push-pull tug of war was starting to wear me thin.
More footsteps clamored down the hall, and I dropped his icy gaze. The huddle broke apart as quickly as it had congealed, leaving me on my own again.
Shanda flung herself through the doorway. Only she could stomp so loudly in bare feet. “That felt really good. Did we get it?”
“We got it.” Lenny waved the evidence above his head. “This calls for a celebration.”
“How about a Shanda scoot?” I watched as she turned to her closet, a huge, triumphant smile on her face. If only I could tell her everything. But of course, Bryan was right. The less she knew, the better.
Chapter 21
The overcast November day circled me, filling me with its cold, damp sorrow. Even the low clouds taunted me with random droplets as I crossed the quad, ready to open the floodgates on me. I double-timed it up the concrete steps to Trenton Hall.
As soon as I ducked inside, it felt like every eye stared my way. Students whispered back and forth, giggling and murmuring things like, “Crazy girl. What is she, possessed or something?”
“Here comes the weirdo.”
“Was she having a psychotic break or what?”
“Someone needs to lock her up.”
How could I be reliving this nightmare again? It felt like the nightmare of my last semester at Alton High all over again. Different state, different school, same rumors.
I curled deeper into my raincoat and focused on each stomp of my boots on the marble tile. Stares burned
