Of Breakable Things (8 page)

“Yeah. In there.” Gabe twirled a scepter in his hand before using it to point to the store beneath the balcony, where Kaleb held court. Jonas appeared in the crowd and stood with his hands on his hips, staring coldly at the line of noisy celebrants. “Always a scowl on his face,” Gabe said.

“Actually, I thought he seemed different this afternoon.”

“Did he? Hmm. Maybe that’s the mask he was wearing today. Who really knows what’s going on underneath that façade?”

“He seems pretty happy to me.”

“Ha! Have you ever known Jonas to be happy?”

It was a legitimate argument. And now, no, Jonas didn’t seem happy at all. “You’re worried about him,” she noted.

“I always worry about him. He’s so quick tempered. So offended by us. I’m trying to fix that.”

What else was new? Jonas had always been the resentful one. He always tried to make the most noise while complaining that he was never heard. Maybe she’d imagined his cheerfulness earlier.

Kaleb, on the other hand, had confiscated a set of drum sticks and was putting on a show, grinning widely in Alex’s direction. The girls directly in front of Alex practically fell over themselves. They huddled together, whispering excitedly, until one of them peeked back over her shoulder. The girl must have said something to her friends, because one by one, they each turned to sneak a peek at Alex and Gabe.

“Some things don’t change,” Alex said. The Lasalles seemed to be just as regal here as they had been in Parrish. But one member of the royal court was still missing. She peeked sideways at Gabe. “Or maybe they do. What happened to Chase?”

“I know you’re probably anxious to know about him, but I don’t know much about the situation.” Gabe rubbed his forehead. “Kaleb was with Chase this morning, but he’s kept quiet about it all day. I don’t think he understood Chase’s actions until a few minutes ago. Our baby brother hasn’t been himself since we arrived here. He’s wanted nothing to do with us or this place. He’s done everything he can to get himself kicked out. Sweet charming little Chase, the juvenile delinquent. After the last time, I thought we’d gotten through to him. He promised he wouldn’t do it again.”

“Do what again?”

“Break the rules. Newburies can’t leave the campus unsupervised.”

“Why not?”

“This isn’t summer camp, Alex.”

“It isn’t prison, either.”

Gabe shook his head. “Newburies don’t know anything about the world out there anymore. It would be like sending a nine-year-old loose in the world. How long do you think he would last?”

“Okay. Then why would Chase want to leave?” she asked.

“Until today,” Gabe said with a sigh, “the only thing Chase has wanted since he died was not here.”

When Chase appeared to Liv Frank after his death, she felt relieved. She’d hoped he would show up on her doorstep sooner rather than later. But she’d been told that the young spirits, the ones who still stunk of fresh earth, rarely got out much. All spirits wanted something or they wouldn’t have stuck around. Many of the ones she spoke with didn’t have a clue what they were looking for, but Chase would surely be searching for Alex. She took one look at his heartbroken face, and she knew he’d already found what was left of her.

As a child, Liv Frank thought the people she saw were invisible friends. It was entertaining at first. She thought she was special, because the other kids with imaginary friends only had one, and she had dozens! The invisible people were nice to her. They didn’t call her fat like the kids at school. Sometimes they would even give her answers to a test or help her win a board game. But eventually, their presence became a nuisance. They never left her alone. They would show up in her bedroom or in the bathroom. They would scare her. Liv began to ignore the faces that others couldn’t see, the ones that belonged to the dead. After a while, the faces turned into mere shadows. They became irrelevant, and for the most part she led a normal life.

Until Chase died. After the accident, Liv had visited Alex frequently, but each time, she felt more and more helpless. So Liv wouldn’t force her to do anything. If Alex was staring at the wall, she’d sit and stare with her. Sometimes she’d tell her stories, or sing, or stuff food in her chubby cheeks to try to make Alex laugh. Her friend barely responded. Sometimes Alex would be in a panic. She’d cover her ears or pull at her hair or scream. Those were the moments when Liv was afraid of what Alex might do to herself. That frightened part of her must have been willing to let Chase in. He showed up one night, sitting, waiting, and saying he was breaking the rules but didn’t care. He fed Liv the words that Alex needed to hear, because he could no longer say them to her himself.

Liv hadn’t seen Chase since Alex was taken away. Was he angry at her because she’d failed? Alex had been committed to that loony psychological rehab center. A lot of good that did, because she died a short time later. And now Liv was alone with her thoughts, her guilt, and her ghosts. Literally.

Somehow, when she allowed Chase into her mind, the others found their way back in, too. This time, she didn’t fight it, because quite frankly, she was lonely. But a part of her also hoped one day Alex would wander in with the others.

She might finally know that her friends were okay. That Alex and Chase had found each other. Maybe sometimes happy endings had to wait for a different lifetime.

***

Alex hurried to keep up with the Lasalles, who rushed through the crowds of spirits. Laughing, Kaleb led the group through a small alleyway between two buildings.

“Will we be late?” Gabe asked, flinging his mask like a Frisbee into the crowd.

“Nah,” Kaleb said. He turned to Alex. “Newburies have curfew. One of many restrictions around here. They like to keep tabs on us.”

Alex frowned. First confinement and now curfew. “Why would they need to do that?”

“Ask Chase,” Jonas said loudly. His comment immediately sobered the group.

The ferocity of Kaleb’s glare sliced through the night air. “I guess we won’t have to worry about that anymore, huh?”

“Speaking of,” Alex interjected, “do you know exactly where he is now?”

“No,” Kaleb said, “but I’m sure
she
does.”

A young woman with somber eyes and Shirley Temple curls was stationed in the entryway of Brigitta, talking to a distraught Ellington.

“What are you doing out here, Romey?” Gabe asked.

Her eyebrows lifted all the way up to her thick bangs. “You were almost late.”

“Almost.” Kaleb grinned, opening his arms toward the other kids still loitering around the courtyard. “It’s a holiday. There are plenty of newburies still out and about.”

“Other newburies typically follow the rules.”

“A little trouble is good for the soul.” Kaleb leaned closer to her. “I bet you were the life of the party in your day. Did you get a chance to enjoy the masque at all?” His face creased in concern. “I’ll volunteer to take over your duties for a few hours.”

Kaleb’s charm was like an anvil on a house of cards, and Alex saw Ellington roll his eyes. He stepped between Alex and the Lasalles and placed a hand on the woman’s back. “Alex, this is Caren Throme, the Brigitta director.”

“Call me Romey.” The woman squinted at Alex in the darkness. “I’m so very sorry about earlier. I—” Romey caught a glimpse of Alex’s face and gasped loudly enough to breathe shock into the air. Pings of blue light danced around her face like sparks.

“Uncanny, isn’t it?” Ellington asked her. “The resemblance?”

Romey continued to gawk. Resemblance? Had this woman known her mother too? Alex felt a heat of childish rage rising inside her. Why did everyone else in the world get to know Erin Ash besides her? It was hardly fair.

Ellington ducked when a large piece of debris whizzed past them. Several spirits were using the demolished bench to play catch or dodge ball.

“It’s lovely to finally meet you,” the woman managed to choke out. She extended her hand towards Alex. “Again, I apologize. This has been the most unusual of days, I must say. Though I’m very glad you’ve found familiar faces.”

Alex wondered how this stranger would know her familiarity with the boys, but she noticed Ellington ducking his head guiltily. “I always give her as much background as I can before she receives a newly buried spirit.”

Alex cringed as a slab of granite slammed into a boy beside them. It made a loud
whooshing
sound like the air being punched from a pillow. It hammered the boy into the ground with a force that would have easily knocked out anyone who was actually living. But the boy jumped back to his feet, and Kaleb chuckled appreciatively. “Good one,” he said.

“Why don’t those kids have curfew?” Alex whispered to Gabe.

“They do. They’ve been dead longer though, so their curfew isn’t so early.”

“What happened here?” Romey asked, wagging a finger at the mess in the courtyard.

Jonas stuck a thumb in Alex’s direction. “She did it.”

“
She
did?”

Ellington lifted his hand to his mouth and began to bite his nails again.

“Wait,” Kaleb laughed. “That was
Alex
?” He turned to her with newfound admiration.

“What else can she do?” Romey whispered to Ellington, who responded with a shrug of his shoulders. “You left her here alone?”

“I was searching for you inside the hall. I was gone for maybe three minutes. I figured that once she was finally safe on campus, no one would know who she was. I didn’t think she’d be in any danger.”

They were speaking in low voices, which seemed silly to Alex because she and the Lasalles could hear every single word.

“Know who she was?” Jonas asked loudly. “What do you mean? It’s just Alex.”

Ellington ignored him, continuing the conversation with his voice still hushed. “I thought the campus would conceal her.”

“Concealment didn’t exactly work for her mother either, did it?” Romey murmured.

“Her mother was foolhardy.”

Romey bit her trembling lip and sniffed.

“What does this have to do with my mom?” Alex interjected.

“Nothing,” Ellington and Romey responded in unison.

Pieces of the bench were still flying around like a meteor shower. Gabe intercepted a large slab of stone. “Spirits have been talking about this all night. I can’t believe it was you, Al.”

“Therein lies the problem,” Ellington muttered, but the Lasalles weren’t listening. They were too busy trying to find something else to throw at her.

Kaleb tried to wrestle the piece of stone from Gabe. “We might have to experiment with this, Al.”

Gabe refused to give up the stone but instead tossed it at Alex. She halfheartedly swatted it to the ground with her hand, and he pouted. “Boo.”

“I can’t believe someone threw a whole bench at you. That’s brutal.” Kaleb flicked his chin in Jonas’s direction. “Was
he
standing next to you or something?”

Jonas placed his hands on his hips. “You act like
I’m
the bad seed.”

“Speaking of which”—Gabe redirected his attention to Romey—“do you have anything on Chase?”

Alex still didn’t understand how one word could have such an effect on her. As much as his name had pained her after his death, the reverie of possibility was now equally as powerful.

“And I’m not allowed to discuss anything about the events that occurred this morning, I’m afraid. Or the proceedings thereafter.”

“But he is still here,” Alex said. It was more of a statement than a question. His voice that she’d heard earlier—it wasn’t far. Her intuition felt even more accelerated than her new eyesight.

“I think Alex might make your life a little easier, Romey,” Gabe said quietly.

“So I’ve heard. Unfortunately, I’ve done a very poor job of making her feel at home today, which is why I opted to wait here so she could actually gain entrance to Brigitta Hall.” Romey hadn’t taken her eyes away from Alex. She gazed at her fondly, though a bit sadly. “You should be able to get in from now on. We’ll talk more tomorrow, yes? Good. Boys, can you show her to the seventh floor?”

“Seventh, huh? Interesting,” Kaleb remarked, and Alex wondered why.

Before she could ask, Ellington placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. “A word of caution. If I were you, I wouldn’t disclose any information about your mother.”

“I second that,” Romey added. “Oh—the Bonds weren’t with you guys, were they?”

Jonas snorted. “Of course not.”

“Did you see them tonight?” she asked with concern.

“Let me think. No.”

“Oh, bother,” she mumbled.

“They didn’t check in?” Ellington asked.

“They may have just wandered off again.” Romey twirled a finger around one of her tight ringlets in thought. “Or they may be tied to a tree somewhere. I’d better go find out.”

“I’ll go with you,” Ellington offered, following her into the darkness.

“Who are the Bonds?” Alex asked quietly. “And why would they be tied to a tree?”

Kaleb made a face. “Don’t worry about them.”

The doors to the Hall swung open, and Alex stepped inside. A creak escaped from the hinges, apologizing to her for being so unwelcoming earlier. Entrapped within the dark marble flooring, a blue fire waltzed and twirled beneath her feet. She lifted her gaze to avoid stumbling from its dizzying effect. Square columns lined the walls, stretching all the way up to the glass ceiling, with tiers of stone balconies twisting around each floor. The bottom level housed long tables and vacant chairs.