Ask Me (29 page)

Will stopped. Was it enough? Then, far away we both heard the thin wailing sound of a siren. They were coming. They
were
. Will’s eyes grew wide, and this time he was the one pulling me toward his car. “Are they truly dead, and is there anything here that will tie either of us to the scene?” he asked, the words tumbling out of him. He hesitated, waiting for my answer as he pulled the passenger’s side door open for me.

I felt the true answer rising in me, but I pushed back. I would not let it come out. No. Not this time. My hand shook in his, but hopefully he would take the struggle as the one that normally came when I was asked of death.

“Yes,” I spit out, the word a nail in my stomach, “and no to the last.” Perhaps it didn’t have that prophetic ring to it,
but it was all I could manage. Each word felt like a spike. My knees shook, and I fell into his car. But I had done it. The truth rattled inside my throat, wanting to claw its way out, but I kept my lips pressed tight as I buckled the seat belt. Enough. It would be enough. It had to be. The police were still too far away. Alex and Delilah wouldn’t be safe until the police were here.

He slammed the door and ran around to the driver’s side and climbed in. “They’ll be coming from town,” he said, talking more to himself than to me. “I’ll head towards Route Sixty and then we can go around the lake and cut through the old Anderson farm.”

He sped through the gate and turned left. He didn’t even notice when he drove past my car moments later.

A vial of something and a syringe rattled in the cup holder next to me. It must be the horse tranquilizer. Was there still some in the needle?

“Shit, shit, shit,”
said Will. “This is cutting it way too close.” He reached over and squeezed my hand and then went back to the wheel. I let my hand drop down near the cup holder. “We’re going to get away though, aren’t we?” he asked me.

Another answer clawed at me from the inside, like a beast wanting to burrow its way out. My fingernails dug into the door handle. “Clean away,” I said through gritted teeth. I wasn’t even sure what the true answer was, though it burned in my throat. My insides felt like they were on fire. That was two now, two lies from the mouth that would only speak the truth. How many questions had it taken Serin before she died? How many truths could I deny?

He was driving fast, faster than anyone should on these back roads, still slick with rain. And I found myself posing questions nobody would ever hear, with answers I’d never understand, even if they somehow came to me. How fast had he been going when he’d run that man over? Why had he even done that? Why any of it?

“What now?” I asked him, my voice shaking with the strain of the truths I held within me.

“I’ll get you home,” he said. “Wait, how did you get to the lake?”

“A horse brought me,” I said and almost laughed. “The Colt. I drove.” It felt so good to let the answer come, but the pressure inside me had not let up. The truths I had denied wanted out.

Will glanced at me and then at the rearview mirror. “Crap. Will they find it?”

“No,” I said quickly. Maybe they would, maybe they wouldn’t. Perhaps the lie wasn’t too far from the truth. I did not explode.

“Good,” said Will. He let out a laugh then, bright and full of joy and completely out of place in the darkness rushing by us. “You see,” he said, pounding the steering wheel. “You see what we can do together!”

All I could think was:
Alex and Delilah are safe
. The sirens behind us had surely found them by now. They would be okay. I shifted in my seat and reached a finger toward the syringe. Will took a corner, and it wobbled around the rim of the cup holder. Close, so close.

“Honestly,” said Will, “I have to admit that I’m kind of glad you showed up. I wasn’t sure it would work, but
something had to be done tonight. I couldn’t chance waiting. I couldn’t let the police talk to you in the morning. No one else can know what you can do.” He grabbed my hand, the one reaching for the syringe, and gave it another squeeze. Not close enough.

Gran had been right. She’d always told me not to tell anyone. To be careful. To know who to trust. I had been so, so wrong.

Will let go of my hand as we came to the turnoff. The syringe wobbled back around as he turned. I grabbed it and held it between the palm of my hand and the side of my leg. Had he seen? No. He was checking the mirror again.

Two demon lies fought inside me now. The truth did indeed hurt when it was denied. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold it in without breaking.

“You know, Will,” I said, “I just realized that there’s something I never told you about my … my gift.”

“Oh?” he said, his eyes still on the mirror looking for flashing red and blue lights that weren’t there. Yet.

“Yes,” I said. “It goes away. I should be losing mine any day now and then I’ll be free.” I grasped the syringe in my hand. I was shaking, but I wasn’t sure if it was from the pain inside me or the truth that was still fighting to get out.

The car swerved a bit as he turned to me. “What—” he started to say, the shock and horror of a dying dream in his eyes.

“But I’ll be free of you
now,”
I said and jabbed the needle in his leg, pressing the plunger down. There had been a little left in. Maybe it would be enough.

His question changed. “Why?” he asked. “Why?” And then the car swerved hard to the left and the trees were in front of us, their dark branches seeming to reach out to embrace us as we crashed into them.

There would be no answer to his question.

I awoke empty. It took me a moment to find my way to where I was. My mouth tasted of ashes and dust. I opened my eyes to a world of white and steel. Where was I?

“Aria. You’re awake.” Alex’s voice rumbled through my body, echoing in the empty space where my heart should have been. I turned my head, and there he was, sitting in a chair next to my bed. The hospital. I was in the hospital. He stood and took my hand. “Everything’s okay. You’re safe now.”

“Delilah?” I asked. My voice didn’t sound like my own. It was thin and weak. My throat ached as I swallowed.

“She’s okay. She’s in a room down the hall. The exhaust and everything hit her harder than me because she’s so much smaller, but she’s going to be fine. She told me to go get her as soon as you woke up.”

I didn’t want to know about Will. I wasn’t going to ask. But he told me anyway.

“Will broke his leg, but he’s fine other than that. He’s down the hall, too. They’ve got a guard on him.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Delilah and I both told the police what he did to us, but it wasn’t even necessary. He told them himself.” Alex looked down, shaking his head. “About Jade and Shelley, too. I heard one of the police talking about it. They said he was practically bragging about what he’d done.”

I made to sit up and Alex helped me, plumping up the pillows behind me.

“And me?” I asked. I had no casts on, so I must not have broken anything. My head ached, but inside I felt cold and empty. Hollow.

“A concussion, that’s it. I could go get your grandparents, if you want. They just stepped out for a minute to talk to the police.”

“No,” I said. I wasn’t ready to talk to Gran or Granddad.

He was silent, waiting.

“I’m sorry,” I said finally and rushed through the rest before he could stop me, “for thinking you were the one and for not believing in you.” For believing in Will instead.

“I’m sorry, too,” he said. “For hurting your arm. I saw the bruises while you were sleeping. And I’m really sorry for making you feel afraid. It makes me sick to think I did that.” He took a deep breath. “The truth isn’t always easy to see,” he added, “even if you know what it is.”

“Yeah,” I said. I knew that better than anyone.

“Delilah told me what you are. I mean, what you can do.”

I didn’t say anything. I just waited for it.

“Is
everything going to be okay?”

The answer flowed through me, from the inside out. “
Yes,”
I said, and there was a world in that one simple word. I didn’t know how or why, but I felt lighter for it. Everything was going to be okay. The empty space inside me was filling up, maybe with hope. It was going to be okay.

“Okay,” he said again. Solid. “Wait. I lied. I’ve got one more.”

I looked at him, really looked at him. He wasn’t judging me. Waiting. I nodded, and he nodded back.

“What happens now?” he asked, taking my hand again. His fingers were rough, where Will’s had been smooth, but warm, so warm, and the right kind of warm. No one had to ask me. I knew. Alex had never lied to me.

I waited for the answer to come like it always did, but instead there was only me. Just me. “Everything,” I said, feeling light as air. “Absolutely anything.” And I knew it was the truth. Maybe the truest answer I had ever given.

With much thanks and love to …

My husband, who continues to support my writing even when it means scribbling something down at 3
A
.
M
. … and my son, Max, the most wonderful distraction ever. And I can’t forget C. J. Redwine for helping name Aria … not to mention talking me off of writerly ledges, along with MG Buehrlen, Myra McEntire, and Tracey Mathias. Also to Delilah Dawson for letting me borrow her name and my old friend Alex LaFrantz for the same.

And, of course, thanks to my lovely agent, Susanna Einstein, and the equally awesome (but definitely more scruffy) Dan Ehrenhaft, my editor. You guys rock.