Ethereal

  “So I guess something happens to me.” She puts her fingers in her mouth and starts chewing her nails.

  “Oh you shouldn’t do that it’s a hotbed of germs, plus guys hate it.” Wait a minute why am I giving her advice on guys? She’s dating my hot boyfriend as we speak.

  “Stop. I’m probably dead anyway. What did you come for?”

  I take that back, slight bitch.

  “I didn’t come for anything. This is my room now, and I just found out about this, this…” I wave my hands around. “Whatever you call it.”

  “Oh.” She takes it better than I thought. “So you don’t know how to use it.”

  “Time travel? Are you…” I squint my eyes at her.

  “I’m an angel.” She nods. “And it’s no coincidence you’re in my room. I bet you have my friends, my…” She lets the thought dangle not wanting to complete it. “Not that it’s important. Look, you wouldn’t be here unless you wanted something. What is it?” She snaps.

  I shake my head incredulously. Then a light goes off in my brain. I dig into my pocket and pull out the pendant.

  “I want this.”

  “You bitch!” She snatches it back.

  “I wasn’t trying to steal it. You flushed the toilet, and I needed to get back up here and plus…” I bite down on my bottom lip.

  “Plus what?” Her lips blacken unnaturally.

  “Plus…” I close my eyes a second. I really pray I’m not going to regret this. “Logan is searching for it.”

  Her head picks up a notch as though she just noticed me, as though everything I had said before was blather and now I had finally said the one thing she wanted to hear, or was afraid to.

  “Well I’m not giving it to you.” She presses it against her chest. “How do I know you’re going to give it to him?”

  “I swear.” I cross my heart and hold out my fingers.

  “I’ll hold onto it, thank you very much.”

  “Keep it in your diary.” It speeds out of me. I can’t believe this—it was my freaking stupid idea.

  “My diary? Who puts jewelry in their diary? What am I suppose to do? Notch out a hole like some common criminal?” She looks at me incredulous.

  “Yes!” I touch my nose and point at her simultaneously. “And when you do that, be sure and put your diary in this room.”

  She shakes her head vigorously.

  “Why?”

  “Brielle knows all about this room. I don’t want her reading it. And I don’t want you or anybody else reading it either.” She pulls back and inspects me.

  “Michelle will. She’s the one who’s going to end up with it if you don’t hide it up here where no one will find it. She’ll give it to Logan and he’ll read it too.” I’m not making any promises. I might read it. I will read it.

  Her head shoots back an inch with surprise.

  “Logan can’t read it.”

  “Personally, I don’t understand why you just don’t burn the darn thing, and leave the pendant on the floor.”

  A choking sound gets locked in her throat. She clutches softly at her neck and tears well up in her eyes.

  “It’s all that will be left of me. All my thoughts, all my dreams—ideas, a detailed list of people I hate.” She ticks her head to the side and shrugs. “No.” It comes out firm. “I can’t destroy it, but you have to swear to me you won’t read a word or I will come back and I will haunt you, and you will wish very badly that we never had this conversation.” Her finger sticks in my chest matching the intensity of the pins in my back.

  “Done.”

  She inhales sharply before bringing her hands to her hips. Reaching behind her she plucks at the smallest turquoise butterfly nestled in a bed of red makeshift flowers and plucks at it until a tiny door opens. Its pitch black in there, looks like it’s flocked or lined with felt. A few books and a small box lie stacked on top of one another causing me to look away quickly, because I don’t want to snoop. Plus, I can always snoop later when she’s not around.

  “It’ll be in here. I’ll put the pendant in the diary, and remember you can’t read a word.”

  “OK. So how do I get back?” I rub my sweaty palms down over my jeans.

  “Easy. I’ll send you.” A manufactured grin spreads wide across her face. She makes a fist and pulls back. I see it coming, and I still don’t believe she going to hit me, then…

  Chapter Forty-One

  Mine

  My eyes flutter open and I think I’m in bed, but the mattress is hard as a rock and I remember exactly where I am as I sit straight up.

  The passage door is open. I look down and I see my chair and recognize my clothes and hear the shower water running. I’m so emotional I feel like sobbing.

  The tiny turquoise butterfly catches my attention. I gently pull the knob like I saw Chloe do and the door pops right open. It’s there. A fat book with bloated pages sits on top of the wooden jewelry box along with the same stack of books as I saw earlier. I hold the book to my chest and close the door to the secret compartment.

  Out in my room, safe on my bed, I keep it curled to my chest for a good long while as silent tears stream their way down my cheek. What must she have thought when I left? Did knowing she was going to die take the fight out of her? What if I told her she was going to be tortured? Or that they would bury her body in a shallow grave at the bottom of Devil’s Peak? Would it have made a difference? Or what if she knew I was in love with her boyfriend? I wonder if she thought I was pretty?

  OK, that last thought was completely uncalled for. I wipe the tears from my eyes and start in on the diary. It opens to the dead middle and there’s something wrong. I shag the book out over my bed. She glued the pages along the periphery of the entire text. The only way I’d be able to read this is if I had an X-Acto knife—very clever.

  A small portion near the bottom is taped up and I can feel the pendant underneath. I tear it out from the thin veil of wrapping and caress it in between my fingers. Heavy— the stone is soft as butter. I bring it up to my lips and rub it over them until I can feel it, even when it’s not there. It’s beautiful. It must mean something though. What kind of value could it have that Logan is willing to move heaven and earth to get it? Just because it was his grandmother’s? I don’t think so. I get the feeling it’s something more.

  ***

  I have to go to cheer practice. I have to.

  I love that there is one thing in my life that neither my mother nor Tad can give me grief over.

  Michelle, Emily and Lexy are fashionably late, so I hightail it over to the football field and flag down Logan.

  He comes over pulling off his helmet, beads of sweat dripping down the sides of his face. He squints into a smile and leans in to kiss me.

  Logan Oliver is hot—literally and physically.

  “Something spectacular happened last night.” OK, that was a little more dramatic than I intended, but still.

  “You found another room?” He teases.

  “No. Is there one?”

  He runs his fingers through the back of my hair. “No.” He whispers with a little laugh. “Actually I don’t have any idea. What was so spectacular?”

  “Time travel!” I beam up at him.

  The coach whistles over to Logan.

  “I gotta go. Don’t ever joke like that, Kay? If you come in contact with someone, it could change things.” He leans in and kisses me briefly. “You could hasten someone’s death if you’re not careful.”

  I watch as he runs back to the field.

  I don’t know if I killed her, but I’m sure I took the fight out of her.

  ***

  I wait until mom and Tad go to bed. I place the dresser back over my door, and turn on the shower. I climb into the butterfly room and arrange the four pillows I’ve dragged up here. Clutching at Chloe’s diary, I try my hardest to fall asleep. It’s funny how sleep doesn’t come when you want it—how it wants to hang out far too long when you no longer need it.

  I
can feel the passage of time. My lids flutter as I struggle to open them. I take in a deep breath of stifling air and sit up. The cover is back over the opening! I’m back.

  I open the door to the passage extra careful not to scare her into having a heart attack or inspire her to throw a ninja star at me or something equally stupid, but deadly.

  I can’t make out any noise, so I take a second to convince myself that I can hear. My ears fill with the sound of rushing water, then stabilize. I hop down and move to the edge of the closet. I see her out there with her ear-buds in, threading a pencil through her fingers.

  Same day. I think.

  She picks up her cell and plucks out an ear-bud.

  The diary in my hand starts to shiver. It warms beneath my fingers then evaporates into nothing.

  I did it. Chloe will never know I was here, and she can fight for her life. But what if she survives? I’ll be somewhere else. I might even still be on Paragon. Surely there’s another cursed house that no one wants to touch with a ten-foot pole that Tad can get at cost, right? But what if there’s not, and I never see Logan again?

  “You think I care what kind of car you drive? You could ride a bike and I wouldn’t care.” She purrs into the phone. “Get white.”

  Logan’s right there on the other line. Maybe while she’s in the bathroom I can call him back and give him my number?

  I express my disappointment in one quick breath.

  “Tell him to get black, silver’s way too close.”

  Get on with it.

  “I can’t. I have practice. But I’ll take a rain check. If I make tryouts I’ll let you buy me something nice.” She laughs again. “And if you make varsity, I’ll buy you something nice.” She laughs “Me? I’m partial to jewels. Family jewels.”

  Yes we know.

  She walks passed me, and heads into the bathroom. I speed over and start dragging the chair back. The pendant catches my eye again. It’s so pretty. Unique.

  I look over my shoulder at the open mouth of the closet. People misplace things all the time. And Logan will thank me for it, plus no more Michelle.

  I snake it off the dresser and stuff it into my jeans.

  The toilet flushes.

  I make a beeline to the butterfly room. I believe if I don’t fall asleep Chloe will come in and beat me. I can sleep. I can…

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Yours

  It worked! I hug all four of my pillows at once then hop back down to my bedroom. I pluck the pendant out of my pocket and kiss it with squeal of delight.

  This time I didn’t speak to Chloe, so she’ll have no clue what her future holds. A thick feeling of guilt coats me from the inside. I should have warned her. I should find out where this horrible thing happens, and help her circumvent it.

  I should also go back to my old life in L.A. and tell my old self all about this cool guy named Logan, and how I have to force my mother to buy a house on Paragon…except one tiny detail, I don’t know how to get anywhere. And the simple fact I’m back in my own bedroom means that returning the diary and staying out of Chloe’s life, still yielded the same deadly results.

  The pendant warms in my hand. At least I can give it back to Logan, and it’s good-bye Michelle.

  I pick my cell up off my desk and flop on my bed.

  I have something you want ~S

  Less than ten seconds later.

  Are you in the mood to give it away?

  What? No! But yes!!! ~S

  He’ll never guess in a million years I have the pendant. I’ll just tell him I found it in the secret compartment in the butterfly room.

  Can you come over? ~S

  Sorry.

  Why not ~S

  It takes a little longer than I like for him to get back to me.

  I’m with M. @ the movies. She’s in the bathroom and I SWEAR this ends tonight.

  I don’t text him back.

  ***

  Later, in my angry dreams, I think I see Michelle. She laughs at me while waving Logan’s sweater like a flag.

  Something soft and wet trails my neck and I struggle to wake up, trying to shoo the dog away. Then I remember with perfect clarity we don’t have a dog and I shoot out of bed like a pistol.

  It’s Logan holding his hands up in the surrender position. He’s got a remorseful grin on his face and something rectangular tucked under his arm. He plucks it out and holds up the diary victoriously.

  “You got it!” I say far too loud. I slap my hand over my mouth, and motion for Logan to help me move the dresser against my door.

  Once we finish, he passes me the diary.

  “You read it?” I whisper.

  “Not yet.”

  It’s still bound with glue. Each page is petrified together, you can’t read it or add another entry—that means Michelle didn’t read it either.

  I exhale hard. A lump forms in my throat. I know she’s been gone almost a year, but I saw her. I was just with her, twice this week.

  I pluck the pendent out of my pocket and go to hide it in the palm of my hand, but the rough corner of it pricks me.

  “Ouch!” The pendent ejects out of my hand and dances across the floor.

  “You found it.” There’s a note of exceptional wonder in his voice. He picks it up off the floor and holds it out like an exotic specimen. “Where’d you find it?” He doesn’t take his eyes off it.

  “I didn’t.” I meant to say, the butterfly room. I bring my fingers up over my lips.

  “You took it?” He looks puzzled. “You went back to return the diary, but kept the pendant?” His face drains of color.

  It becomes quickly apparent that I’ve somehow botched things again.

  “People lose things all the time.” I say.

  “Not things they need to eat, and breathe, and see.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “It’s a protective hedge.” He flips it in the air like a coin. A great look of sadness comes over him. “I wondered why she took it off. Why she put it in her diary of all places.”

  I swallow hard. Chloe must have remembered something from my first visit. Clearly I have no clue about time travel.

  “Here.” He opens my hand and places it gently down, stone side up. “Wear this. Don’t ever take this off. No Sector, or Fem, or Count can kill you. You’ll be impervious.” He gives a very careful kiss just above my left eyebrow.

  Then leaves.

  I head back to my bed staring—glaring at the pendant. So I’m the one who took her protective hedge away. I’m the one who turned her loose to an entire hoard of waiting evil. It was me all along.

  Logan didn’t take her diary. Why were the pages still glued if I undid the first visit? Unless all I did was return the diary. And I’m starting to think I should return the pendant too.

  I go over it six ways to Sunday, how I could possibly change things—help Chloe live—find my father, and do the same.

  I think of the woman hanging from the backdoor, the Fem and its horrid putrefied stench, the men in the wrong way lane, the fire. If I keep the pendant I can avoid an entire lifetime of grief. I could live without having to fear my death—captivity, which is worse than death, and then Gage would be right. I could glide into old age skydiving without a parachute every single day. Or I could do the right thing and give it back.

  Tears fill under my lids. I watch the world distort at their command—wobble to and fro—quiver as though it were afraid for its life.

  I know what I need to do.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Family

  Tad and mom decide since its Melissa’s birthday we should all go out to dinner. Melissa votes for the bowling alley, which Tad quickly rejects, and for that I’m thankful. The last thing I want is Tad and my mother near Logan. No thank you.

  The Mexican restaurant in downtown Paragon is your traditional villa knockoff with sombreros and colorful paper doilies strewn about on a laundry line. It’s dark inside and immediately I like it. It’s
the exact romantic, exotic environment I imagine Logan and I frequenting. Especially once school starts, since we’ll hardly see each other due to our nonexistent classes together. While I’m busy daydreaming about how handsome Logan would be illuminated by one of those small red candles, a pair of hands land flat on my shoulders.

  “Hey.” It comes in a quick hot whisper.

  I pivot around on my heels to find Logan nodding into me with a little more distance than I’m used to.

  Gage appears, then his aunt and uncle.

  “What are you doing here?” It takes everything in me not to lunge into a hug.

  “Hopefully we’ll be eating.” He tweaks his brows.

  “Skyla!” Logan’s aunt offers me her hand.

  Glancing over I see mom and Tad bearing down on me with loaded interest. So I introduce them.

  My mother is enthralled with Logan’s Aunt Emma.

  They jab on about textiles and textures, the rustic touch and other irrelevant things until the waitress calls out Melissa’s name.

  “Why don’t you join us?” My mother asks. It sounds so genuine, not obligatory like you would expect it to be.

  “Yes!” Emma beams back. We would love to, right Barron?” He’s decidedly less enthused, but agrees. I can see Tad sweating financial bullets already at the thought of paying for an additional four meals.

  Logan pulls me back by the elbow as everyone clears the waiting area.

  “Where’s your pendant?”

  “I…” I don’t really want to get into it.

  “You don’t have a chain, do you?” He gives a sly smile and produces a long silver strand from his pocket.

  “Excellent.” I take it from him nervously. “Wouldn’t it be funny if I secretly returned the pendant last night?” I force a giggle.

  “It would be very not funny. It couldn’t help her now. But you, you’ll be safe.”

  “You mean she’d still die?”

  “Of course. Once it’s ordained it doesn’t change. Besides, the odds of going back to the exact same place and time are phenomenal. I don’t think it could happen.”