Luminosity (Gravity Series #3) (The Gravity Series) (13 page)

“Madison’s feeding me some inside information,” I said.

“Just be careful she doesn’t poison you,” Alex warned. “She has a habit of being toxic.”

###

“Maybe I shouldn’t ask him, after all. If he gets too suspicious and tries to stop me, then what do I do?”

It was after lunch and I was crouched in the back stairwell at Hawthorne, arguing with the Hellcat mascot painted on the wall. His angry maw was twisted open in a snarl, sharp claws ready to shred the losing team. At least he listened without offering unwanted advice.

“I have to go back, I have no other choice. If I keep having these dreams, it’s going to drive me nuts.”

Henry was supposed to be joining me any minute. I figured the stairwell was better than the spooky, burned out hallway. I’d slipped out of study hall without too much trouble.

The door creaked open and I flinched. Henry breezed in, looking even more attractive than usual in a dark sweater and pants. I refused to be distracted by his looks, however, or my unstable chemistry. He headed down the stairs towards me, taking them two at a time.

“I’m starting to run out of excuses for getting out of class,” he said with a grin, and gave me a quick kiss. “You’re going to have to help me brainstorm.”

“Having a good day?” I asked, stalling.

“So far, so good. About to get better, I have a feeling.”

He grinned at me again and leaned in for another kiss, but I pulled back, not wanting him to think that’s all we were there for. A look of confusion crossed his face.

I was too nervous all of a sudden to actually smile. He tilted his head to one side and furrowed his brow. “What’s going on?” he asked in a soft, concerned voice.

“I’m losing my mind,” I mumbled.

“What’s wrong? Is this because of your dad? I’m really sorry that he left….”

“No, it’s not that. I don’t want you to think I’m buttering you up. I need to ask you a favor.” I shut my eyes, gathering my resolve. “I want to know if you can help me get back into Dexter.”

He assessed me for a moment, his dark eyes flashing angrily. “Why?”

“My grandmother’s necklace.” At least it was true. “My mother’s going crazy now that she knows I’ve lost it.”

“Why now? You lost it over a year ago. I’d forgotten about it.” He dropped down on the stairs and pressed his chin into the knees of his jeans. He’d smoothed his features back out into a careful, emotionless mask, like he was trying to keep his anger under control.

I shrugged, not coming up with an answer on the spot. “You know Claire; she wants what she wants.”

“No, Ariel,” he said firmly. His dark eyes were trained on me, his expression serious.

“But—”

“Ariel, we can’t,” he pleaded. “It’s not worth the risk. My father is jealously guarding the keys now. He won’t let anyone but his top people there, and he’s expressly forbidden me from going within a mile of the place because he said it’s dangerous. No doubt it is.”

“Or he has other reasons,” I said, budding anger rising in me, too. I fought the urge to grit my teeth together.

“Be that as it may, I still don’t want to piss him off. He even put cameras up on the fence to spot intruders. I don’t know who his security team is; he might have a guard watching it all time.”

“He really is paranoid, isn’t he?” I asked, biting my lip. “Has he still been hitting you?”

Henry shook his head. “Not in a while. Not since he shot Warwick, actually.”

“Do you know that your dad and my mom had a thing together back in the day?” I asked him. The idea of it was still too crazy for me to wrap my head around.

He looked as shocked as I felt. “That’s wild. You mean, like back in the day? How did you find out about that?”

“I heard it during one of my parents shouting matches. The one that broke them up.”

“I’m really, really sorry, Ariel. You don’t know how much I mean that. But I’m sure your mom will understand you not having the necklace.”

“I could be in and out in ten minutes…”

Standing, he grabbed my hands to steady me and brought them to his lips, locking eyes with me. “Ariel. We can’t go back. I don’t want to invite his wrath. For a while there, he was pretty rough. He has enough baggage against me.”

Guilt pinched at me; I didn’t want Henry to get hurt.

“Why is he so protective of Dexter?” I asked, resting my head on his shoulder. “Doesn’t that strike you as… off?”

“Of course it does,” Henry said. “He even paid the city not to condemn it.”

“How do you know that?”

“I heard him talking over the phone. He didn’t even try to hide it; he doesn’t have to. Even the mayor is in his pocket. I’m almost positive he knew about what happened to your friend underneath the shed. Just tell me you won’t go back there.”

“I won’t go back there,” I said.

He pulled me into his arms and hugged me tightly. “You know I would go if I didn’t think it was dangerous. If you want, I’ll help you look for a new necklace at the antique store to replace the old one.”

I heard a noise below, like a door pulling shut. I glanced over the side of the stairwell.

“Did you hear that?” I asked.

“No, I didn’t hear anything.”

I frowned, but dismissed the sound as my own mounting paranoia.

We didn’t have much time together before the bell, so we parted ways. On the way back to class, I thought about his words. I knew he meant it completely when he said it was dangerous and that I shouldn’t go. But the relentless, unyielding tug inside me told me it didn’t matter. As much as I hated it, I would have to lie to him. I couldn’t ignore Dexter’s pull. Even though I hadn’t used the word promise, it felt like that was exactly what I was about to break.

###

I told myself that I would be endlessly careful and take every precaution so that nothing would fall back on Henry. There was no turning back now.

The necklace had been a gift to me from my mother and had belonged to my psychic grandmother, Eleanor. I’d lost it during our seance. I’d passed out, having what everyone else thought was a seizure. What it truly was I couldn’t remember.

My Aunt Corinne, who was book smart about spirits but had no real ability, told me that the necklace might be a powerful tool in spirit communication. But I didn’t really get why or what it did.

Jenna and I carefully made our way down Sanitorium Road towards the orphanage. I’d already parked my car in a hidden driveway. As we got closer, I picked up a small armload of hefty rocks. The cameras had to go first.

“What are you doing?” she asked, watching me and wrinkling her nose. Her skin gave off luminescence in the dark, making her other-worldliness more obvious.

“Making this easier,” I told her.

The iron gate came into view and I slowed my steps. There were two cameras that I could see, oscillating on top of the fence. Red lights flashed like beacons in the dark.

I held the rocks in my hoodie with one arm, and I shut one eye to try and improve my weak aim. Jenna chuckled beside me. I chucked one of the rocks at the closest camera. The rock flew inches away from its intended target. Undaunted, I lobbed a few more rocks. Missed.

“You suck at this,” Jenna observed.

“Bite me,” I said, sweat breaking out on my face.

I moved a step closer and tried again. The last rock hit the camera square on, and it fell to the ground with a satisfying crash. I smiled.

“One down, one to go,” I muttered under my breath.

The second camera wasn’t as difficult. I hit it directly with the second rock I threw. I looked around for more cameras, but I didn’t see any sign of additional surveillance. I couldn’t be too sure, though, so I flipped my sweatshirt hood over my ponytail so I was as covered and shadowed as possible.

Jenna and I stood in front of the gate, staring up at Dexter. In real life, the orphanage was a sorry wreck, blackened with fire damage and soot at the top. Despite that, it still stood large and intimidating. I felt a surge of energy gazing upon it.

“I can’t stay away,” I said, mostly to myself.

Rubbing her arms like she was cold, Jenna swept her eyes around. She took a step forward. “Where is the shed?”

I looked at her in concern but didn’t let her see. I pointed through the gate’s bars to the left of the house. “The paper said it was destroyed by the fire. But it used to be over there. You don’t remember?”

“I was disoriented that night. I think I had something over my head.”

The large steel lock and chain to which Phillip’s key fit held the gate in place. I grabbed onto it, giving it a useless tug.

“Maybe this isn’t the best time to do this,” Jenna said. “After all, it’s nighttime, and no one else is here.…”

I looked over at my friend, who was shifting in her flip-flops. “Are you having second thoughts?”

“I didn’t realize how creepy this place was going to be,” Jenna admitted.

“It’s a haunted orphanage. What were you expecting, Disneyland?”

“That is the Haunted
Mansion
, and yes, actually. I didn’t think that a haunted place would scare me since I could be a character there,” Jenna snapped. “This is something different, Ariel, it’s like a force.”

She twirled towards me. “What if something happens to you?” There was anger in her voice, which just amped up my worry. “Did you tell anyone at all, anyone
alive
, that you were coming here?”

I shook my head.

“Henry had the right idea.” She thrust her pointer finger towards the building. “That roof looks like it’s ready to collapse!”

I thought about the birds dying, about the wall that Alyssa had spoken of when she couldn’t go into school. Then I thought about the dog sitting patiently on his paws, waiting for me to find the necklace. “I’ll be extremely careful and I’ll get in and out as fast as possible. I have my phone if I need to call for help. I will be okay.”

“You had better,” she said sternly. I hadn’t won her over completely, but she was relenting. “I don’t want you joining me in the afterlife; you’d make a lame ghost.”

“I’d make an awesome ghost and you know it.” I gestured to my all-black outfit beneath my red checkered coat. “I’m already in tune with my Goth roots.”

She rolled her eyes at me, but a phantom grin touched her lips. “How are you going to get in?”

“The same way I assume Warwick did,” I said, pointing up towards the starry sky. “By going up.”

Two horizontal bars ran the length of the fence, and I put my foot up on the bottom, testing its hold. When I was sure it would handle my weight, I hoisted myself up. It was a reach to get to the second bar, but I gripped it with my gloves and, gritting my teeth, yanked my body up to the top.

Looking down at the dark ground, I fought off a swirl of vertigo. I’d been a pretty renowned tree climber in our neighborhood, but it had been a while since I’d left the ground.

Don’t look down. Don’t look down.

I flipped myself over the fence in one movement. My coat caught on one of the spikes lining the fence’s top, and then I was sliding down and my shoes hit the ground. I wobbled a bit but remained standing.

I turned around, feeling a little proud and attempted to grin at Jenna. But her face had changed; she was staring through the bars at Dexter with a look of horror.

I glanced back at the building but couldn’t make out any change. It just seemed to sit there, an empty, ugly husk. The glass had burst out of the windows in the top two rows, and crisscrossed wooden boards had been nailed over the frames.

“What’s wrong?” I asked Jenna.

She shook her head. “I can’t go in there. I can’t go back in there ever again.”

Before I could ask her what was causing this sudden panic attack, she wrenched herself around and sprinted off down the road. I called her name, but she disappeared into the black air.

I was seriously reconsidering this trip. I hadn’t thought I would be all alone. I’d felt a sense of safety thinking Jenna would be by my side. I assessed whether I should vault back over the fence. It wouldn’t be too hard.

That’s when the dog began to bark.

CHAPTER 11

THE DARK INSIDE
was stifling as I cracked the front door. My flashlight didn’t help, and neither did the boarded-up windows. I slid in, leaving the heavy door cracked. Taking little, mincing steps towards the center, I squinted around.

I did not want to be here. My mind screamed at me to flee. This was my worst nightmare and I was walking right into it like a trap. I pulled out the phone—my back up plan. No service. It beeped as the battery warned of its imminent death. So much for keeping safe.

The hallway appeared vaguely like the one in my dream, but there was nothing nice about it. No furniture or possessions; just a few boxes that looked like they were from the haunted house a long time ago.

I passed down to the end of the hall and turned back over my shoulder. The door was still standing open, a gleaming rectangle of alluring light.