* * * * *
“I’m sorry.”
Dorian’s words drag out, slow and heavy in the car. Tommy kills the engine.
I look up and blink away the blur that’s my private world. The windows of Betsy’s Kitchen come into focus. Tommy’s driven us back to town. I hiccup and breathe out, trying to ease the pain in my chest. “I don’t understand.”
Dorian leans forward and rubs his knees. “I don’t, either. None of it makes sense. I don’t know your uncle, but I don’t get why he’d do that if he’s just as upset about being turned as you are. Unless they’re forcing him.” He digs around the messy backseat. “Need a napkin? It’s the closest thing we have to tissues.”
“Thanks.”
Forcing him. Those two words are my life raft and I cling on. But the sea gets rough and throws me off. Uncle Cassius walked into that barn out of his own free will. He made no effort to free the man on the altar. He even watched the Deathwind claim another victim.
But he helped save Tommy.
The thought helps me grab on again, tighter this time. I swallow. “Tommy, are you—“
He turns so fast that I jump. His eyes are big. Tremors race up and down his hands. He grips the seat like the Deathwind’s behind him, trying to pull him away. “I’m not an Outbreaker, am I?” He looks between the two of us. “Please say that I’m not. Because I swear if I am, I’m going to go back there and—“
“You’re not,” I tell him. “You’d know if it got you. For one thing, you would have blacked out.”
He plops back down in his seat and searches up and down the street. “But what if they come this way? They’ll still try to turn me into one. If that thing or whatever can appear anywhere—“
“It won’t happen in public,” I say. I have to keep talking to distract my thoughts. “They want to keep it quiet. If people see some weird tornado force flying around town, they’ll leave. And it sounds like Madeline has to know where you are to send it at you.”
“Good point.” The relief in Tommy’s voice gushes out.
“We need to tell someone.” Dorian shoves open the door. “My aunt. Now.”
He’s right. It’s Tuesday. They’ll strike on Friday. Or earlier, now that they know their secret’s blown.
Uncle Cassius could tell them that I won’t keep my mouth shut about this. If he is siding with them.
It’s complicated.
I climb out of the car.
There’s no time to lose.
Inside the restaurant, Betsy’s pouring some water for a couple talking over finished bowls of soup. There’s no one else here. She meets our gazes and starts to smile. But she must read the expressions on our faces, because it drops off.
Dorian waves her over. He leans close. “Close up early. It’s an emergency.”
Betsy’s brown-and-black eyes widen. She rushes to the door as if rehearsing a drill and flips the sign to Closed. Her gaze searches us for any clues. “It’s not…what happened in Mobley, is it?”
Mobley. That must be their old town.
“No.” Dorian waves us all into a huddle. He speaks low. “It’s not the Outbreakers in danger this time.”
The couple wipes their faces on the other side of the room. The guy drops a few bills on the table. Chairs scrape and they go for the door. “Good night,” he says, flashing us a smile.
He has hazel eyes. He’s either human or a new Outbreaker. Probably human. In three days, these people could wake up with storm clouds swirling over their bed. I shudder.
Uncle Cassius would know what to say right now.
Uncle Cassius—
Betsy glances at me. “You’re what Dorian calls the new Outbreaker, right?” Her tone drips with suspicion. “Does this have to do with you?”
“No,” I snap, pulling up my chair. “I got dragged into this. I’m what’s going to happen to everybody in this town who’s human if we don’t find a way to stop Madeline and…and her group of followers.”
Uncle Cassius has joined them.
Betsy stares at me like a rabbit caught in the watch of a predator.
“Yeah,” I say, taking a breath. “Tommy here would be like me, too, if we hadn’t jumped on top of him. That force Dorian must have told you about can come out of that barn. Madeline—that’s the woman who’s in charge of it--wants to turn a hundred and twelve more people, and fast. That’s all of town. It’ll happen Friday night when they’re back from the fair. So if we don’t want everyone in town to get a crash course in Destruction 101, we had better come up with something.”
Betsy grabs the back of a chair. Shakes. “You’re not joking?”
“Nope.”
Tommy clears his throat. “If you want, me and Dorian can, you know, confirm the whole story. Take us into different rooms, and we’ll all tell you the same thing.”
Betsy lets go of the chair. She turns and searches every dark corner of the restaurant. Something hums from back in the kitchen. She swallows. “I’m calling a meeting. Then you, Allie, are going to tell them everything.”