“I’ll find Lauren and Bea. Wanna come with me?” Krista offered.
“What about Tristan?” I asked.
“I’ll tell him when I get home,” she said with a shrug. “Unless you want to go do it.”
I glanced over my shoulder at the huge blue mansion on the bluff, where Tristan, who didn’t believe in me, lived under the same roof with the woman who could send me straight to Oblivion. My throat was suddenly dry.
“Actually, I think I’ll go home and check on my family,” I said.
“Okay, well, then, I’ll see you later?” Krista asked hopefully.
I blinked, confusion written all over my face.
“We’re baking cupcakes?” she reminded me, knitting and unknitting her fingers. “For the party? Two o’clock.”
“Right. Right. Sorry,” I said. “I’ll be there.”
“I’ll walk with you,” Fisher offered, putting his large hand on the small of my back. “I’m going that way anyway.”
“Okay.”
We left Krista, turning north up Main Street and headed for Freesia Lane. We’d only taken two steps when I saw something out of the corner of my eye—something that stopped my blood cold. Darcy.
She was standing near the fountain at the center of the park in her favorite sundress, glaring at me. Me and Fisher. The boy she was falling for had just put his arm around me.
“Darcy!” I called. But she just turned on her heel and disappeared over the crest of the hill.
Darcy wasn’t home. I’d gone back to the house, ready to explain, but she wasn’t there. And my dad was tapping away at his laptop, as always. Even with the sun shining brightly through the windows, the place felt desolate, and I spent the entire morning on edge, waiting to hear the door open downstairs. Anticipating the confrontation. But Darcy had never returned. Which meant she was seriously pissed.
She still wasn’t home when I left for Krista’s. As I cut across the park, I twisted my hands together in front of me, trying to ignore my mounting fear of going to the mayor’s house. Instead, I focused on Tristan and what I was going to say to him to get him to believe me about the usherings.
I understand why you’re scared, but I can’t accept t
his, I thought. Aaron doesn’t belong in the Shadowlands.
I shook my head, laughing tersely at myself as I passed the fountain. I’d only said the exact same thing a million times yesterday. Why would his response be any different? Maybe…
I understand why you’re scared, but there clearly is something wrong around here, I thought. Don’t you want to help us figure out what it is?
I bit my lip. That might work better, keeping Aaron out of it.
I was just squaring my shoulders and starting to psych myself up for this whole walking-into-the-lion’s-den thing when I saw them. Pete and Cori, straddling their dirt bikes not ten feet away, glaring at me.
My steps automatically slowed as frustration burbled up inside me. What? I wanted to yell. What’s your problem with me?
But then Officer Dorn and Chief Grantz strolled over to join them. And then Yoga Woman from the park. And the grocer. And two other people I didn’t recognize. I stopped in my tracks, adrenaline and fear surging through me. All that was missing was Nadia and her piercing black eyes.
Dorn leaned toward Grantz’s ear, and they both fixed their angry gazes on me. The others seemed to shift as one, as if primed for an attack.
Tristan’s voice echoed in my mind: Once angry people get together and are out for blood, they’re not satisfied until they get it.
I ducked my head and kept walking, faster and faster and faster, until I reached a sprint at the top of the hill. I had to get to Krista, to my friends. It wasn’t until I saw the weather vane creaking overhead that I froze, a new wave of terror crashing over me.
How stupid an idea was this, going to the mayor’s house right now? All night I’d been waiting for the ambush. What if it was waiting behind Tristan’s front door?
Suddenly, Krista walked around the side of the house, her face creased with concern. She was wearing a lavender sundress and her hair was pulled back at the sides. There was a streak of flour on her cheek and when she saw me, her eyes brightened.
“There you are!” she said, reaching for one of my hands with both of hers. “I was just about to go down to your house to check on you.”