Cursed

“Are you mad at me?” I hadn’t wanted to say that.

He stared straight ahead. “Is that why you wanted to talk to me?”

Okay. His voice sounded different—maybe even cold—but no big deal. “No, that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Then what?”

My brain sort of emptied that moment. Hayden stopped walking, turned and faced me. His arms were folded across his chest and he waited. Waited for me to say whatever I wanted to say so… so he could leave. Well, this wasn’t going as planned. Not that I had a plan.

“Did you go have lunch with Phoebe?” I stalled.

Hayden nodded.

A hollow feeling opened up in my chest. Stupid, but all I could think was that he never took me to lunch. Not when we were out of school.

“Ember?”

I swallowed. “I wanted to talk about what I told you in the cabin.”

“The thing about your parents knowing about Olivia’s gift?” He stared above my head.

“Yes. I’ve been thinking about it. A lot actually, and I know what I heard.” I saw the moment he decided he didn’t want to talk about this. It was in his eyes—they went all dark. I plunged ahead. “These things have to be connected. You believe someone caused the accident to get to Olivia. Now, someone is sticking stuff in my locker. Like… like they want me to leave or something.”

“There’s no way of knowing if those two things are related.”

“You can’t be serious! You know the two things are connected.”

“What are you getting at, Ember? That my family is not only behind cutting up dead animals and leaving them in your locker, but also caused your car accident?”

“Yes.”

He sighed and shook his head. “Look, I know that you don’t trust them. I get that. Really, I do, but I know my family. I know them. They wouldn’t do something like that, because they aren’t horrible people. And what was done to your family—to you—was horrible.”

“Then can you tell me who else to blame?” I practically yelled. “You said it yourself, Hayden. My parents wouldn’t know who to go to.”

“That doesn’t mean it was my family.”

“Oh. So the fact that you broke into my home, kidnapped us, and brought us here isn’t at all suspicious to you? That no one was interested in Olivia until Aunt Liz sensed me? Bullshit.”

“Ember.”

“No.” I pushed a hand through my hair wildly. I knew my curls had to be standing up every which way, but I didn’t care. “The note on that toy car—‘dead things should stay dead?’ And then again on the noose—”

Hayden’s eyes narrowed. “What noose?”

Whoops. I took a step back. “That’s not important. What’s important is how anyone else in the world could know about that.”

“I’ve thought about this,” he said after several long moments of silence. “It’s not like I’ve ignored the obvious, but I can’t—I won’t— believe my family had anything to do with it. I’m sorry, Ember, but instead of spending time obsessing over how evil my family is, we could be figuring who really is behind this.”

“Oh. Is that what you’ve been doing? Working to prove your family’s innocence? Well, good luck with that.”

The scent of something burning surrounded me, and Hayden’s lips thinned and now his eyes were all black. I knew I’d struck low. “Are you done yet?”

“No.”

“I am.” Then he was walking away.

“Hayden!” I yelled, feeling the sting of tears in my eyes.

He stopped, but didn’t turn around.

My heart leapt into my throat. “Do you regret what happened in the cabin?”

I didn’t have to explain it any better than that. By the way he stiffened, he knew I was talking about his admission and how we had clung to each other, desperately wanting more.

“No. That’s not what I regret,” he said.

And then he was gone and I stood there, staring at the place he’d been—alone with the cold knowledge that things had altered between us and I had no idea where it left me.

* * *

Things just kind of sucked after that.

Hayden’s and my drives to school were tense, and they usually ended with us arguing by the time we pulled into the school parking lot. I spent my mornings stewing over how adamantly he refused to believe his family had anything to do with what’d happened. They were all saints and angels in his book.

Even though I knew I needed to stop pushing it with him, I couldn’t. I needed him—needed someone—to believe me. It wasn’t like I’d imagined these things. It all seemed obvious to me, but they were his family. On a daily basis, I basically accused the people he trusted and loved most of murder.

I didn’t even know why we bothered eating lunch together, because we argued then, too, but by Wednesday, Phoebe and Gabe joined us. It was almost like they’d sensed their presence had been needed. Either that, or Hayden had asked them to.

Phoebe struggled with lunch. Even I could see that. So I did try to cut back on my frustration when she was around. I don’t know why I bothered. It didn’t make her any nicer to me and it sure as hell didn’t help things with Hayden. Our lunches usually ended with Hayden whisking off a pale, shaken Phoebe.

We tried practicing Monday night in the cabin, but that had ended in a spectacular disaster. Somehow a ceramic pot had crashed to the floor. We didn’t attempt anything Tuesday or Wednesday night.

As if things weren’t bad enough, I found spoiled chunks of hamburger meat in my locker Thursday morning. I started crying right then and there in the hallway, like a babbling idiot. Hayden had already disappeared, and I had to knock the globs of meat off my books and salvage what I could. My copy of Catcher in the Rye was ruined and my math book smelled like decayed butt. I had to tell someone, because it needed to be cleaned up.

I spent first half of the morning in the girls’ bathroom by the gym. No one ever used it except the smokers. It smelled, but not as bad as my locker did. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d cried that hard, and it wasn’t till the beginning of third before I got up enough courage to find a janitor.

I found Mr. Theo instead.

“Ember, why weren’t you—are you okay?”

“Yes. No.” I wiped under my eyes with the sleeves of my hoodie. “I need to find a janitor.”

His brows furrowed and his glasses slipped, and I thought of Adam, and then I started crying again. After that, I ended up in the principal’s office. It was like a snowball rolling down a hill. Things just spiraled out of control from that point.

Principal Hawkes seemed like a nice lady, and Mr. Theo had been right. She didn’t tolerate bullying of any kind, and when he told her about the other things in my locker, she called the guardian listed on my paperwork.

Jonathan Cromwell.

A couple of kids lingered in the admin offices, trying to find out why I was in the office. I ignored them, because I had bigger problems. Mr. Theo left during that time, and I really wanted him to stay through this, considering how he’d started it by telling the principal.

Cromwell showed up less than twenty minutes later. I’d stopped crying by then. I’d also stopped talking and started mentally berating myself.

He wore a business suit, his dark hair neatly in place and a tight smile on his face. He didn’t look at me. I had no idea what they’d told him. “Principal Hawkes, how have you been?”

They exchanged pleasantries while I squirmed in my seat. I was very close to hyperventilating when the principal finally closed the office door and laid it all out on the table in a clipped, purely professional way: the rabbit, the dolls, the toy car, and everything in-between. I stared at her desk while they talked. Near her computer was a tiny coin, much like the one I had in my pocket. It couldn’t be the same one, because I doubted Mr. Theo handed out lucky coins like candy.

I forgot about the coin the moment she stopped talking.

Only then did Cromwell look at me. I couldn’t help it; I shrank back in my seat. “How long has this been going on?”

I didn’t answer.

“Apparently since the first day she started,” Principal Hawkes answered. “Mayor Cromwell, I want to ensure you that PHS doesn’t tolerate this kind of behavior. Nor have we ever, in the history of my career, had anything like this.”

I felt his stare on me while he talked. “This is the first I’ve heard of this. I am… extremely disappointed that Ember didn’t confide in me. Principal Hawkes, what are you doing to ensure this will stop?”

“She states that no one has been bothering her, so that gives us very little to go on. Although, I am not entirely inclined to believe her since this is the first time any of this has been brought to our attention.”

I looked up then. That wasn’t true. I’d told Mr. Theo and he’d told her. She had to have figured out that he knew, but then the next thing she said sealed my fate. I was a goner. No doubt about it.

“I don’t mean this as any offense to you, Mayor Cromwell. As you know, I voted for you and you still have my vote,” she continued. “But I am inclined to believe that this issue started even before she stepped foot in this school.”

Cromwell stiffened beside me. “I’m not sure I’m following you.”

She cleared her throat and nervously worked at the button on her suit. “How have her interactions been with the other…. children living in your home? Are there any problems you may be aware of? It could be that—” She stopped talking. She stopped moving. Actually, I think she stopped breathing.

Holy crap.

Then I noticed that Cromwell was standing. “Nothing has happened in my house.”

“Nothing,” Principal Hawkes murmured.

“None of my children are involved in this,” he continued, his voice surprisingly soothing. I found myself leaning toward him, listening. “In fact, you will forget we ever had this conversation.”

Principal Hawkes nodded.

“Ember left her lunch in her locker. It spoiled. She panicked.” I snapped out of it. “What?”

Cromwell ignored me, solely focused on her. “Nothing has happened. Ember is just sick. She will go home today. If anyone else brings this up, you will tell them it’s being handled. And you will contact me if anyone comes to you about this.”

“Yes. Of course. Yes.” Principal Hawkes blinked. Then she looked at me, a fond, almost patronizing smile on her face. “Miss McWilliams, I do hope you feel better. And please remember to not leave your lunch in your locker anymore.”

My jaw hit the floor.

Cromwell wrapped things up after that, and then we were walking out of the school and getting in his Porsche. My heart raced and palms sweated. I was screwed. And I needed to get out of here.

“I want—want to stay in school today. I have a test this afternoon,” I told him.

He spared me a glance. “You can make up the test.”