Perfect Lies

  “I agree.”

  “No, I mean, my father cannot get her. Absolutely cannot. Under no circumstances. She would destroy everything, Fia. We’d be ruined.”

  I walk in tight circles, needing to move, needing to run, needing needing but never getting. “I know. I know.”

  “What are we going to do?”

  “It’ll be fine. I’ll tell him Sadie is a dead end, a Seer of so little talent she isn’t worth the hassle of taking. I’ll tell him Lerner already ditched her.”

  “Mae knows what she can do.”

  I kick a mailbox post, one two three four times. “I’ll talk to her. She’ll do what I ask.”

  “She isn’t on our side.”

  “She’s on my side. She’s my friend.”

  “Fia, her job is to monitor you!”

  “What? No. My job is to monitor her!”

  His voice goes soft, gentle. “She’s doing exactly what my father wanted me to do. He keeps me busy and away from you, while she takes all your free time, goes out with you, listens to you. She got past your defenses. She’s working for him. He never doubted her. He doubted you.”

  No. No no no no. I couldn’t be this wrong, not about someone. If I am this wrong about Pixie, what about James? “You did the same thing, you did everything he asked you to. Are you telling me you didn’t really like me? Don’t really love me?”

  “Of course I love you!”

  “Then why couldn’t she? Why is it so impossible that she’d be loyal to me, really be my friend?” I hang my head, ashamed of the hot tears sliding down my cheeks. She’s my friend. She is. I know she is. I would know if she weren’t. Wouldn’t I?

  “That’s not what I’m saying.”

  “It is. And you’re right. No one who could hear my thoughts would want to be around me. Not even you.” She must hate me, she has to hate me. She’s one of them.

  “Shh. Stop. I know you, Fia, and I love you.” His voice is fierce, and fierce James is my biggest comfort. “All I’m saying is, you have to be sure she won’t tell. Are you sure?”

  I wipe my face, miserable and alone. So very alone. All I have is James. He’s the only one I can trust. “What did you find in North Dakota?” I ask, stalling.

  His voice is dark and strained. “Another complication. I’ll tell you later when you’re free to think. You decide what to do about the Sadie situation. Fast. And then call me. Do not talk to my father or anyone from Keane until you’ve called me.”

  “Okay.”

  “And don’t kill Mae yet,” he says casually, like it’s an afterthought. “We can only get away with that so many times.”

  “I—” The line is dead. I turn back toward where I left Pixie, the “yet” echoing in my skull.

  I am not lost, I never get lost, my sense of direction is perfect, but oh, I am so very very lost. I drift back toward the sidewalk where I left Pixie. She’s sitting, legs tucked under her chin. She doesn’t look up as I sit next to her.

  I don’t know what to think. Not for myself and not for her.

  “We can’t take her back with us,” I say.

  “All right.”

  “We have to lie about why.”

  “All right.”

  “Really? Just like that?”

  She pushes her sunglasses on top of her bleached hair and looks at me. Her eyes are dark, rich brown. It’s the first time I’ve actually noticed their color behind all the eye makeup. They’re pretty. I like them.

  “Just like that,” she says. “I trust your decision.”

  I hang my head and laugh. “Why?”

  “Because when we were on a sidewalk ringed with men holding guns, you only thought about getting me out safe. I don’t trust you to take care of yourself, but I trust you to take care of me. And I trust you to take care of her.” She jerks her head in the direction of Sadie’s house.

  “What if all this is me taking care of me?” I whisper.

  “You wouldn’t even begin to know how.” She stands and holds a hand out to help me.

  I take it.

  I hope James is wrong. But I don’t know. I don’t know how to feel a friendship. I only ever had Annie, and what we have is so much more than friendship. Is this how friends feel, this give-and-take, this sharp fear tempered with hope?

  “Let’s call for a pickup at that café. It’s too freaking green out here.” Pixie glares at the spiky grass and abundant, bright flowers around us like they are personally offensive, then replaces her sunglasses as a shield against nature.

  I take a step to follow her but

  There is something

  Something big

  Something very very big very very wrong so wrong—

  I turn in time to see a large white van with no windows pull into Sadie’s driveway. Two men get out and walk straight up the front porch and into the house without knocking.

  “Pixie,” I say, but I don’t wait for her to respond, I sprint. Wrong wrong wrong wrong, I have to get there first, I have to stop them.

  I’m five houses away. The driver rolls down his window and meets my eyes. I know him. How do I know him?

  Sandy blond with the gun! The one who worked with Lerner!

  Someone slams into me from behind, tackling me to the sidewalk. I roll, pulling my attacker with me and pinning the person to the ground, my forearm against a throat. Pixie’s throat. Why?

  “Stop!” she gasps. “Stop! You have to stop! He’s thinking about Annie! If you take Sadie, they’ll hurt her. He knows I can hear him, he’s telling me what he’ll do to her, it’s . . . oh please please stop.” She sobs, and I lean back, watching as the two men who went inside walk out with Sadie, holding her elbows. She doesn’t fight them, but hangs her head as though she’s being marched to the gallows.

  Sandy blond with the gun smiles at me, tips his head.

  “I’ll kill you,” I scream, and I mean it, I do, I will kill him I will I will I will.

  He laughs. Closes the door. Backs out of the driveway and drives right past us, because he can, and I can’t do a thing to stop him.

  ANNIE

  Four Weeks Before

  COLE LETS OUT A LONG, LOW STRING OF SWEARWORDS. “There’s a Bentley parked in front of her house. They’re already here, it has to be them.”

  My stomach sinks. They’re right there, right inside. That monster, James, and Eden—whom I miss so much it hurts. Why is she still working with them?

  I snap. “Wait! What time is it? Sarah, look up where her school is! In the vision, she got home after James and Eden were already there. Then Fia came a few minutes after Sadie walked in. So it was James and Eden, then Sadie, then Fia.”

  “Adam needs to stop texting me,” she mutters. He was desperate to come when he found out it involved Fia, but Rafael agreed it was best for just the three of us to make this trip. “Okay, go two blocks east and pull over. The high school gets out in five minutes, and she’s close enough she’ll probably walk. This will put us right in her way, unless she goes a strange route home.”

  Cole parks and we get out of the car. I tell them again what Sadie is wearing, though we’ve gone over the vision so much we all know every detail.

  I lean against a wall, my cane in the car so we don’t draw attention in case there are any other Keane employees out and about. Eden is right down the street. James is right down the street.

  And Fia is here, somewhere.

  I wish we could abandon Sadie and kidnap Fia instead.

  “Sadie?” Sarah says, and I stand up straight.

  “Yeah?” The girl sounds wary.

  Sarah actually starts crying. “We did it. We found you first. I didn’t think we would.”

  “I need to go home.”

  “You can’t,” I say. “There are people there. Bad people.” Eden isn’t bad. Fia isn’t bad. She’s not, she’s not. “They want to take you to a private school. They’ll say it’s to help you, but they want to take advantage of you, use you for your abilities.”

  “
What abilities?” Her voice is cautious, with an edge of fear.

  “Do you see things? Things that haven’t happened yet? Or maybe you can feel what other people feel. Or know what they’re thinking without them telling you.”

  I can hear her breathing getting faster and uneven. “I—no. No. I can’t. No. I have to go home. My mom wouldn’t send me to the school. They invited me already, and we said no.”

  “She’s going to sign the papers, Sadie. I’ve already seen it. I went to the school. Please believe me that you want to stay as far away from it as you can.”

  “She said—my mom said—no, I’ll go tell her.” I feel the air shift as she walks by me and I am so desperate to keep her here, away from that house, that I reach out for her. If she goes home, if she meets Fia, we have lost our chance forever, I know it. I put my arm out too high, though, and my hand brushes her neck, her hair tangling in my fingers.

  “Sadie, wait, please—”

  She stumbles, then something bangs on the car hood next to us.

  “Sadie? Are you okay?” Sarah asks.

  “She’s having a seizure.” Cole grunts, then I hear the car door opening.

  “What are you doing?” I ask, my hands fluttering uselessly in the empty space in front of me.

  “I’m putting her in the car. We’re exposed here, and if she seizes for too long, we need to get to a hospital fast.”

  I wait, frozen, in the middle of the sidewalk. This is all a mess. It’s broken. We were supposed to convince her. I wanted to kidnap Fia, not Sadie. “What if she still wants to go home?”

  Sarah answers. “It’s not up to her anymore. Cole, take care of her. There’s one more piece we have to fix.” She grabs my arm, starts pulling me down the sidewalk.

  “Did you see something?” Cole shouts.

  “I saw everything,” Sarah says, an unfamiliar ragged edge to her voice, but it’s so quiet I’m sure Cole couldn’t hear her.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Fia shows up after Sadie, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, don’t you want to talk to her?”

  “Of course, but is that a good idea? She’s with James, and—”

  “Oh, I am very well aware that she’s with James. We’ll wait next to the house. She’ll know we’re there. Her perfect instincts will tell her something is wrong.”

  Sarah’s going too fast, and I stumble several times trying to keep up. After a few minutes she pushes me against a splintered wooden fence. I rub my arm where her fingers dug in so hard I can feel bruises.

  “Sarah, please tell me what’s going on.”

  Her footsteps continue in front of me, back and forth, pacing. I think she’s whispering to herself, but I can’t make out the words.

  And then she says, “Well hello, Fia. So nice of you to join us.”

  “Fia?” I stand up straight, holding out a trembling hand. Fia’s here. She’s right here.

  “What are you doing?” Fia hisses, and it feels like a slap in the face.

  “We’re saving Sadie.”

  “No, Annie, what are you doing here? You can’t be here! You’re dead, you have to be dead! I thought she’d be safe with you! What are you thinking, bringing her where you know Keane’s people are?”

  There’s a metallic click. Sarah’s voice sounds calmer than it has for the last few weeks. “You need to stop.”

  “You have the safety on,” Fia says. “If you’re going to point a gun at me, take the safety off first.”

  “You’re pointing a gun at her? Are you crazy?” I grab for where Sarah was, and then she’s behind me, her arm around my neck, the barrel of the gun against my temple.

  “You have to stop,” she says again.

  “I can’t,” Fia whispers, and she doesn’t sound scared. I’m scared. I’m so scared I can’t move. “I have to finish it or all this . . . everything is meaningless. Put the gun down.”

  “You think you’re the only one willing to go that far? If it means stopping you, I’ll do it. I’ll do anything.”

  “It’s not about Fia,” I say, swallowing and swallowing against the pressure at my throat. “It’s about Keane. Put the gun down, Sarah.”

  “Do you see Keane anywhere? Because I don’t! All I see is Fia, snatching girl after girl after girl before I can save them. Do you know what else I see? Broken girls floating lifeless in a river. So many. All the ones that fail him. I don’t see anything else, not anymore. Every vision, every time, dead girls. And she is helping him. She is making him so much stronger than he used to be. If I have to see one more body, one more pair of blank eyes—I won’t. I can’t. I know you, Fia. You’re not untouchable. You need Annie safe in order to function.” Her arm tightens, and the barrel digs into my skin. “Well, she’s not safe anymore.”

  “Please,” I whisper. How did I not see this coming? How could we not notice how unhinged Sarah had become?

  “I’ll give you a choice. Kneel on the ground and let me kill you, or I’ll kill Annie. Either one will finish this. You or Annie. It’s that simple.”

  “Nothing is simple,” Fia says, her voice dead.

  “THIS IS. Choose. Now. Or I’ll kill her.”

  “I’m sorry,” Fia whispers.

  I nearly jump out of my skin at the next voice. Eden. “Fia, where have you—What the hell? Annie?”

  “You can’t see Annie,” Fia says, dreamy and distracted. “You can’t know she’s alive. It’s all ruined. I have to fix it.”

  There’s a soft gasp behind me and the gun moves away from my temple, the arm around my neck loosens. Sarah leans heavily against my back.

  “No,” I shout, lunging forward to block Fia with my body, but she’s not there. Sarah falls to the ground behind me. “Fia? Fia, where are you?”

  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

  Eden is moaning something to God, over and over, but I don’t need God, I need Fia. I spin, trying to find her, then notice the back of my shirt is wet. I touch it, and my fingers come away slick with something thicker than water.

  “Sarah?” I ask, already knowing she won’t answer.

  Fia’s voice brings back nightmares of empty pill bottles. “I can’t do this again, I can’t, I can’t, no no no no, no no no no.”

  I hold out my hands, one covered in Sarah’s blood, the other clean. “Fia, come here. Come here. Let’s leave, right now. It’s okay. We’ll leave.”

  A door slams somewhere nearby and I wander in small circles trying to find my sister. I nearly trip on something, and bile rises in my throat as I realize it’s an arm. Sarah’s arm.

  “Fia,” James says, and I freeze.

  “She was going to kill Annie,” she says. “I had to. I—James, please, please, make it better, fix it, fix me, please please please.” Her breath hitches and a sob chokes out.

  I have my hands out in nothing but open space. She doesn’t come to me.

  “It’s going to be fine,” James says. “Go get in the car. I’ll be there in a minute. Everything is going to be fine.”

  I wait for her to disagree with him, to say something to me, anything, but she simply says, “Okay.”

  And then she’s gone.

  “You just couldn’t stay dead, could you, Annie?”

  “I—I didn’t know this would happen.” Fia left me. Again.

  “Of course you didn’t. When do you ever?” He sighs heavily. “Now what I am supposed to do with this?”

  I recoil in horror. “This is a girl named Sarah.” She was my friend. She would have killed me or Fia. I don’t know how to feel. I will never know how to feel again.

  Eden’s voice shakes. “Will someone please explain this to me? You were dead—I saw you, she killed you, I saw it. You were dead.” She pulls me to her and smashes me in a hug.

  James sounds annoyed. “You’ll never be able to keep this quiet in your head. This whole trip is a wash. Fine. Eden, congratulations, Fia killed you for double-crossing us and alerting Lerner so they got
to Sadie first. You can join Annie in death, and please for the love of all that is holy, stay away from us. I’m calling for a cleanup guy who won’t tell my father it’s the wrong body, and I suggest you both run. Now.”

  “Go to hell,” Eden spits, then takes my hand and pulls me down the sidewalk, away from the blood, away from the body, away from my sister, once again broken because of me.

  I didn’t even get to talk to her.

  I didn’t even get to touch her.

  And James will fill in the holes in her soul, drawing her even closer to him and further and further away from me.

  “There’s a car,” I manage to say after a couple of minutes. “Cole—I don’t know where he is.”

  “Brown hair, running down the sidewalk toward us, looks like he’s going to murder me?”

  “Annie? Annie!” Cole grabs me around the shoulders, twisting me away from Eden’s hand. “She said—Sadie woke up and said you were dead. She said Sarah was going to—I thought I’d be too late, I thought I’d lose you.” He pulls me close, holding me tighter than even Eden did. “Where’s Sarah?”

  “She’s gone,” I whisper. I have nothing else to say.

  FIA

  Twelve Hours Before

  “AND YOU’RE CERTAIN IT WAS THE LERNER GROUP who grabbed Sadie? And you couldn’t stop them?” the Feeler asks. She’s new. I don’t know her. I don’t care.

  I nod, channeling anger, which isn’t hard. I am angry. I am so angry I don’t know what to do with it. I wanted to help her, wanted to keep Sadie safe. I was going to keep her safe, but I couldn’t.

  I couldn’t fix it.

  I couldn’t do anything to change what happened.

  I don’t tell her why we couldn’t stop them. That they threatened to hurt Annie so we couldn’t save Sadie. Because Annie is dead, SHE IS DEAD WHY IS EVERYTHING SO COMPLICATED SHE IS DEAD.

  I frown, realizing the Feeler has been asking more questions. “Look. I recognized the guy. Sandy blond hair, face I want to smash. I fought him last spring when I was out on a hit, and then again when Lerner kidnapped me and I broke out. I don’t forget people I beat the crap out of.”

  “No, I would imagine you don’t.” I don’t know if her smile is amused or terrified, and I don’t care. I’m done.