When they got back, they found Jared kneeling before Holly. Kami raised her eyebrows at the sight: Holly was pretty popular with guys, but in Kami’s experience they seldom literally threw themselves at her feet. They all looked down at Jared’s bowed blond head and saw he was gathering up the shards of crystal and fragments of bone in his hands, and his hands were shimmering with magic.
The air in their headquarters seemed thin suddenly, like being up on a high mountain. The Lynburns were gone, Kami thought. But not anymore.
The crystal sparkled like sun hitting snow, while the bone glowed ivory as if discovered by candlelight at night.
Jared looked up. “I can’t fix it,” he said. The corner of his mouth came up in a tired, crooked half smile. “No surprise that I’m better at breaking things than mending them. I’m sorry. I’ll buy you a new one.”
“Okay,” said Holly. “I like bright colors. Maybe red or orange.”
Jared’s eyebrow lifted. “Okay.” He stood, crystal and bone falling from his open hands. He was one of those boys who made you think about how very differently guys were shaped from girls. And now he could do magic. Kami could not blame Holly for stepping back.
“Nicola Prendergast?” Holly wanted to know, her voice very soft.
Jared flinched. “I didn’t kill her. My aunt Lillian says we’re going to find out who did.”
He looked at Kami, and then at Angela, who nodded. Holly took a deep breath.
“What is Angela’s secret?” she asked.
Kami recognized the look on Jared’s face, intent and withdrawn. She’d seen the same expression on her own face a hundred times. She was grateful to him for speaking quietly, as if he didn’t want to invade Angela’s privacy, though Jared and Kami had so little real privacy of their own.
He said: “Angela’s never kissed anybody.”
Holly laughed. “What? But of course Angie’s—”
Angela, standing still beside Kami, glared at Jared. Her cheeks were burning red in her pale face. Holly shut her mou
th.
“What a coincidence,” Jared said calmly. “Me neither.”
Kami could not help a startled exhale.
Jared looked mildly surprised. “You knew that,” he said to her.
“I know,” Kami said. “I just hadn’t—I guess I hadn’t put it together.”
Holly looked as if she did not care much about kissing revelations, no matter how shocking. She looked like she was concentrating on not having a panic attack. “Okay,” she said, exhaling. “So the stories are true. Magic really does exist, someone magic is killing people, and Kami’s imaginary friend is real too.”
“There’s something happening in the woods, as well,” Kami said. She gave Holly a beseeching glance. “There are creatures in there. Creatures from stories. Ash called it ‘waking the woods.’ ”
Angela was vibrating with indignation at the world. Holly seemed as if she was about to cry. And Kami did not know how to deal with any of it: she had thought her friends would want to know the truth, that they would want to help her.
“Have you, uh …” Holly pushed her hands back through her hair. “Have you seen a unicorn in the woods?”
“I imagine that’s next,” Jared muttered.
“Right,” said Holly. “Well. If the unicorn is pink, about two feet tall, with a sparkly mane, we’ll know my imaginary friend is real too.”
Kami blinked and then burst out laughing. She felt the pleased relief spreading from Jared to her and knew without looking that he was smiling too. She kept her eyes on Angela, and a few moments later, Angela smiled reluctantly as well.
“We did lose touch when I was seven,” Holly admitted. “But Princess Zelda and I really had something back in the day.”
“If we see Princess Zelda,” Kami said, “I’ll be sure to tell her to call you.”
Kami seized a few minutes before class with Angela and Holly later, repairing to the bathroom to try to make some plans.
“We can’t really go to the ladies’ room anymore,” Angela remarked.