The salt round hit the toddler’s mom right between the eyes. Her head snapped back, and her feet slid out from under her.
Alara kept firing round after round, but my eyes were glued to the girl lying in the snow—the one she had shot. The one who was sitting up now.
“Look.”
A white mark was branded in the center of the mother’s forehead, between her glassy, black eyes.
Andras’ seal.
“Get out of the way.” Priest dropped onto his stomach, lining the Punisher up in front of him.
Alara grabbed Elle, and dove to the side. Bear ran after them, circling the spot where they lay huddled in the snow. Elle had stopped screaming, her frightened expression replaced by a thousand-yard stare.
Priest unleashed the crowd control weapon on my aunt’s possessed neighbors, hitting them with a hailstorm of non-lethal ammo that sent them flying. But after a few moments, each one rose with Andras’ seal branded on their forehead.
Lukas barreled though the kitchen door. “We need to move.”
I waited for a glimpse of Jared’s green army jacket, but it never came. “Where’s Jared?”
“I thought he was ahead of me.” Lukas reloaded and turned to go back inside, when the door flew open.
Jared stumbled onto the porch, sweaty and gasping.
Lukas grabbed his brother’s arm. “Where were you?”
Priest discharged another round of rapid fire, drowning out their voices. Not to be outdone, Jared and Lukas raised their own weapons, sending liquid salt rounds rocketing at the few people still standing.
People.
Somewhere trapped inside those zombies, they were still people. Weren’t they?
“Run!” Priest shouted.
Alara dragged Elle to her feet, and Bear took off in front of them, paving the way through the ash-covered snow.
Jared gunned the engine, and the Jeep slid across the ice and onto the road.
I leaned back against the seat and shoved my frozen hands into my coat. My fingers brushed against a scrap of paper. I reached over to stuff it in the seat pocket, already overflowing with Priest’s candy wrappers, but it wasn’t trash.
The tight square of paper was folded too carefully, like the notes Elle and I used to pass each other during class. As I unfolded it, lines of messy script revealed themselves. My mind cataloged every curve, including the ones that were almost illegible.
Jared glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “What are you reading?”
“I think it’s a note from my aunt.”
Priest took off his headphones and hooked them around his neck. “What does it say?”
“It’s really messy, but I think it says, ‘A story buried. A shoelace tarried. A King Jane page—”
Priest leaned closer and pointed at the word. “It’s James. Like the Bible.”
“Right.” I held up the note so everyone could see it.
A story buried.
A shoelace tarried.
A King James page.
A halfpenny wage.
While these remain trifles at best,
Something more precious in the stone is at rest.
Between 39 and 133
“What does it say at the bottom?” Elle asked.
“May the black dove always carry you,” I squinted at the messy writing. “And the angle—no, that’s probably angel—guide you.”
“I hope there’s a translation somewhere,” Elle said.
“It’s a riddle. A story buried…” Alara leaned closer.
Priest studied the page. “A shoelace tarried. A King James page. A halfpenny wage. They’re all things from the taxidermy museum. John Hancock’s shoelace. The page from Samuel Adams’ Bible—”
“It was Paul Revere’s bible,” Jared said.
“Okay, Paul Revere’s bible, and Samuel Adams’ penny. Maybe we need to go back to the museum and get all that stuff.”
It didn’t make sense. If we led the demon to Faith’s house, there was no way to predict how long he’d been following us—something a suspicious person like my aunt would know. “Faith wouldn’t send us back there. She was too paranoid.”
“I don’t think we need the actual items.” Lukas spun his silver coin between his fingers, still working it out. “Priest, what do those three things have in common?”
“A shoelace, an old Bible page, and a halfpenny?” Priest shrugged. “Is it a trick question?”
“Not the items themselves,” Lukas said.
“They all belonged to patriots,” I offered.
“And Freemasons,” Alara added.
“Three Revolutionary War patriots who were all members of the Sons of Liberty,” Jared glanced at us in the rearview mirror. “Guess I learned more from the Philadelphia public school system than I thought.”
“What about the next part?” Alara asked. “Something more precious in the stone is at rest.”
“Based on Faith’s trusting personality,” Lukas said. “I’m guessing she hid something, and she wants Kennedy to find it.”
“Why does everything have to be a poem or a riddle?” Elle rubbed her face, looking exhausted. “Couldn’t she just tell us whatever crazy thing we’re supposed to do?”
“Writing things down is dangerous,” Lukas said. “Vengeance spirits, demons, and if Faith was right, the Illuminati, can use the information to find us.” He exchanged a glance with his brother, but no one else seemed to notice.
Alara stretched her legs across the third row, leaving room for Bear. “So where do we start?”
“Places related to Sam Adams, John Hancock, and Paul Revere.” Lukas took out his cell phone. “The Sons of Liberty held their meetings at the Old South Meeting House. It’s also the place where Sam Adams planned the Boston Tea Party. And it looks like they were all buried in the same cemetery in Boston. ”
Recognition flickered in Priest’s eyes. “Granary Burying Ground.”
“Graveyards are definitely full of stones,” I said.
Priest grinned. “We need to check it out.”
Alara threw her arm over her eyes and sighed. “Of course we do.”
14. BRICK AND MORTAR
I want to see John Hancock’s grave before we leave,” Elle said, stomping through the mu
d-streaked slush of Granary Burying Ground.
“You did enough sightseeing on the way here,” Alara snapped, zipping her jacket to ward off the snowfall.
Boston was only an hour and a half from my aunt’s house, but sitting in traffic because the streets were blocked off for a bike race had added another forty-five minutes to the trip. After walking for over an hour in the rain because we had to park so far away, Alara’s mood had gone downhill fast. She stayed on the main path, even though it meant braving the icy pavement. She didn’t want to risk stepping on one of the overgrown plots.
According to the map of the cemetery, there were less than three thousand tombs and markers, but closer to ten thousand bodies buried here.
Jared glanced at a tour guide dressed in Revolutionary War period costume. “I think we might be on the wrong track. I can’t picture Faith hiding anything here. This place seems like it gets a lot of traffic.”
He was right. It was the second tour guide we’d seen in fifteen minutes.
Bear trotted alongside Alara. “So whose grave are we looking for?”
“Samuel Adams was the only one of the three who was a Freemason and a member of the Illuminati,” Priest said. “I’m betting on him.”
Elle stopped walking. “Then it’s gonna be a pretty quick search.”
A stone mound, with an oxidized plaque on the front, jutted out of the snow ahead of us. Two tiny American flags flanked the sides. Someone had left three stuffed bears in front of the marker, each one dressed Revolutionary War garb and carrying a tiny drum.
HERE LIES BURIED
SAMUEL ADAMS
SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
GOVERNOR OF THIS COMMONWEALTH
A LEADER OF MEN
AND AN ARDENT PATRIOT
BORN 1722 DIED 1803
Elle looked down at the grave marker that barely reached her knees. “It’s kind of small.”