Playing with Fire (3 page)

“Why so worried?” She tapped her long, oval nails on the arm of the chair.

I told her everything. My conversation with Mason. My suspicions about Mrs. Randazzo.

Then I hesitated. I wiggled my phone partway from the pocket of my jean shorts. I glanced quickly at the screen. No messages. Lily was being strangely quiet. She texted all the time just to say hey. Not today.

My stomach twisted tighter.

Lady Azura narrowed her brown eyes. She hated when I looked at my phone during a conversation. She said it was incredibly rude. “Finish telling me what's
really bothering you. I sense there is more.”

“I think I should tell Lily, if her mom hasn't beaten me to it.”

“If Beth Randazzo has exposed your secret, then we'll deal with it.” Lady Azura held my gaze. “But I have known Beth since she was a girl. Beth is thoughtful. I doubt she would impulsively do anything to cause you and Lily to be upset.”

“You don't know that.”

“True. If she has, we'll pick up the pieces. But if she hasn't told Lily, it's too soon for you to take that step.”

“How can you say that?”

“I can say that because I am like you. I know. It's only been a year since you found me and we started working together. We've barely begun. You need more confidence in your abilities.”

“What does that have to do with Lily knowing?”

“There are consequences to such a big reveal. You are too young to deal with them.”

“You're wrong. Lily and I are both mature. We can handle it.”

Lady Azura's gaze drifted to the ceiling. She twisted her arthritic hands in her lap. “Fear and disbelief bring
on negativity. For years, I was labeled as crazy, because my reality did not fit with what others perceived. My sixth-grade teacher, Miss Lauria, was my favorite, most-trusted teacher. Every day I'd help her do crosswords in the school yard during lunch. We had private jokes, and she put my desk right in front of hers.

“One day I saw an intense aura about her. Dark and harmful. I confided in her. From that day on, she would no longer eat with me. She froze me out completely, refusing to call on me and moving me to the back of the classroom. I had trusted her and was devastated. I didn't understand how hurtful fear can make people.”

“That won't happen with Lily.”

“Are you sure?”

I remembered back to elementary school in California and the mean girls who called me “Ghost Girl.” They'd whisper it as I walked through the halls. I'd hidden my abilities ever since. But Lily wasn't like those girls or Lady Azura's teacher. She wouldn't care or be scared.

Not at all.

I was pretty sure.

Almost positive.

Kind of.

“Your silence should give you pause.” Lady Azura walked to the glass shelves lining the side wall. She surveyed the colorful crystals and gemstones displayed on the middle shelf. She was a big believer in the guiding energies of crystals.

She lifted a small, copper-colored crystal and brought it to me. “This is aragonite. It brings out acceptance and understanding and confidence.”

She knew exactly what I needed. Acceptance from Lily. Confidence. Lots of it.

I lifted the chain from my neck. I wore all the crystals she'd given me on a necklace. Each one had a different power, and Lady Azura always seemed to give them to me at just the right time. Sometimes I couldn't figure out why she was giving me a particular one, but I had figured out a while ago that she always knew what I needed, often before I did. I threaded the reddish-brown aragonite next to my clear quartz bead and refastened the clasp. The necklace rested against my collarbone, and I could feel the slight pressure of the extra weight.

“Hi, there. What's going on?”“

I turned to stare at my dad standing inside the fortune-telling room. He never came in here. Never. Fortune-telling, bringing back the dead, and all the other stuff that didn't have simple explanations made him uneasy.

“Where's Beth?” Lady Azura asked.

“Gone.” He pulled one of the wooden chairs away from the table and perched awkwardly on it, watching me silently.

I squirmed under his gaze.

“Mrs. Randazzo got quite a surprise earlier today. She shared it with Lily and then . . . ”

My face paled under my summer tan.

Lily knows
.

Lily knows and now she's not talking to me
.

“She came right over to share it with me.” Dad leaned forward.

“She should've let me tell Lily,” I blurted. “It wasn't how it was planned.”

“You know about it?”

“Yeah.” I gulped. “I figured it out when she showed up.”

Lady Azura made a sympathetic
tsk-tsk
sound. This was bad. We both knew it.

“How is that possible?” Dad scratched his beard stubble. “Who told you about the lake?”

“What lake?”

“The lake the big hotel is on.”

“What's a lake got to do with Lily?” Dad was usually very straightforward, but suddenly I couldn't follow him.

“Beth Randazzo came over to invite you to join them on vacation,” he explained.

“Vacation at a hotel with Lily?” I asked.

“So you don't know?”

“Obviously not,” Lady Azura replied with a smirk.

“Beth's sister, Angela, is a travel writer for
InTravel
magazine,” Dad said.

“I know Aunt Angela,” I said. Of course I did. She was Lily's favorite aunt, and she spent so much time at the house that I'd heard Lily's dad joke about charging her rent.

“Angela was assigned to write an article about a historic hotel on Lake Hoby in the Adirondack Mountains of New York, but it turns out that she didn't
understand the assignment fully until today.”

“What's the assignment?” Lady Azura asked.

“The magazine wants her to go undercover. They don't want the hotel to know that she's testing their claim of being the most teen-friendly hotel in the area. They want her to appear to be an ordinary guest vacationing with her teen kids, but she has no teens.”

I smiled. I guessed where this was going. “I'm thirteen and so is Lily.”

“Bingo! Angela wants to bring you and Lily, along with Lily's mom, to the hotel. She's going to put you to work, trying out all the activities.”

I gave a loud
whoop!
Stellamar is probably more fun than most towns in the summer. It's on the beach, the ocean is warm, and the boardwalk is filled with games and rides. But if you do something over and over, even if it is playing skee-ball or jumping waves, the magic wears off. It was almost the end of the summer, and I was ready to leave the Jersey shore for a new adventure in the mountains.

“I take it that means you want to go,” Dad teased. “Mrs. Randazzo came to clear it with me before Lily told you.”

“And that's all she had to talk about?”

“What else is there?”

I glanced at Lady Azura and shrugged. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

Lady Azura gave a satisfied nod, and the wrinkles along the corners of her lips deepened as she gave a slight smile. She was happy that Lily didn't know. I was happy for a different reason. I wanted to be the one to tell her. It was my secret to share when I chose to share it.

“Something's buzzing out there.” Dad leaned his head toward the hall.

“Oh, my muffins!” Lady Azura scurried toward the kitchen. She didn't move very fast. She had arthritis in her hips and couldn't climb the steep stairs to the second and third floors where Dad and I lived in the old Victorian house we shared. “I hope they don't burn. Delilah will be so disappointed.”

Relief flooded over me. I needed a break from this house and all its supernatural energy.

I glanced down at the screen of my phone. Texts poured in from Lily. Her mom must've told her the trip was a go.

WE GET 2 SHARE A ROOM!! U & ME 2GETHER ON VACA!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!
I texted back.

Then it dawned on me. The two of us together in a hotel room. Away from everyone in Stellamar. Best friends swimming during the day and sharing secrets at night in the dark. What better place to tell her?

“Are you sure you want to go?” Dad asked. “You don't have to leave—”

“Are you kidding? I can't wait!”

“Oh, well, yeah, I can see that.” Dad's face fell. “I guess I haven't been that fun, working all the time. It's just that, kiddo, we've never been apart. You know?”

Dad was right. Since I was born and Mom died giving birth to me, it'd always been just the two of us. We were a pair, a team, the “dynamic duo,” Dad called us. We didn't go on a lot of vacations, but when we did, it'd always been together.

Until now.

I felt bad. “Will you be okay? It's only for five days, right?”

“Right.” He brightened. “I'm being silly. It's supposed to be the kid who doesn't want to leave the parent, not the other way around.”

“We can ease into it,” I suggested. “Practice this week like we did when I didn't want to go to preschool. Remember how we'd do pretend drop-offs at the school the week before?”

“Ah, you're good to me, kiddo, but I'm going have to rip the Band-Aid off quickly. There's no time for practicing.”

“Really? When am I going?”

“Your vacation starts tomorrow.”

The air smelled different. Clearer. Crisper. The saltiness and humidity of the shore had been replaced by pine sap and a cool breeze. I leaned my head out the car window, letting my hair flutter behind as I inhaled.

“How much longer?” Lily asked. She pushed the empty cheese-puff bag and candy wrappers from the backseat onto the floor. We'd been driving north for over four hours.

“Minutes,” Mrs. Randazzo said, glancing at the GPS screen. “We just need to follow the curve of the lake.”

Outside my window, a water-skier cut a wake through the deep blue waters of Lake Hoby.

“Okay, time for a quick recap,” Aunt Angela announced from the passenger seat. “Our story isn't too far from the truth. I'm taking my sister, my niece, and her friend on vacation. No one needs to know I'm
writing an article or the name of the magazine. We'll have fun, experience everything, and that's that.”

“Works for me,” Lily said, twirling her hair around her finger. Her mom and aunt had the same dark, shiny hair, but Angela had recently cut hers into a short, shaggy haircut that looked amazing on her. Lily had considered getting the same haircut for about a day but then decided she couldn't part with her long waves of hair. I'd probably never have the guts to get a haircut like that. I tugged at my own blond ponytail as if to make sure it was still there.

“Here's the lowdown on the hotel.” Angela propped her bare feet on the dashboard and crossed her tanned legs. Her toenails were painted pale pink, and she wore white shorts with a really pretty gauzy floral shirt. Piles of thin bangle bracelets jangled on each arm. Her outfit was so simple, but it looked great on her. Lily was like that too—she could make anything look fantastic. She must get it from her aunt. Lady Azura would probably call it “having real style.”

“The house was built in 1910 by the wealthy Helliman family as a summer retreat from the city. Mr. Helliman owned the biggest soap company in the
nation. Mega money, we're talking.”

Angela swiveled so she could better see Lily and me. “In 1924 a fire destroyed a large portion of the house. In the 1940s, the house was purchased by someone else and turned into a hotel named Helliman House. The hotel did well for years. This area has always been a big summer getaway spot. But the owner didn't keep things up, and the hotel got shabby. Really gross, I hear.”

“You're taking us to a run-down hotel?” Lily sounded horrified.

“Of course not!” Angela laughed and snapped her gum, a gesture that reminded me of Lily. “This other guy, Grant Himoff, bought Helliman House about five years ago. Got it for a steal, I hear. He did major renovations. Top-notch. He's trying to attract families with waterslides, boating, and game rooms.”

She trained her gaze on us. “The key is that this Mr. Himoff cannot know what I'm really up to. I'm trusting that you girls can keep a secret.”

Could I keep a secret? Bring it on! My list of secrets grew longer and longer every day.

“Up ahead!” Mrs. Randazzo called from the driver's seat.

Lily and I craned our necks, searching the few gaps in the sky-high pine trees that lined the winding road and cast the car in shadow.

Then a huge hotel appeared in a clearing before us.

White clapboard gleamed in the brilliant afternoon sun. Hunter-green shutters sandwiched the numerous windows running the enormous length of the three-story building. A large deck extended along the front. Dark-green Adirondack chairs were angled for the best views of the majestic mountains.

We drove up a circular drive. The front section of the hotel, though updated, was older, and the additions, which arched out from either side to form a horseshoe toward the back of the property, had been added more recently. Guests played croquet on the wide front lawn.

“Welcome to Helliman House!” Two cute college-age guys dressed in white polo shirts and white pants greeted us as we tumbled out of the car.

“Hello, hello!” Angela chirped, settling her oversize cat's-eye sunglasses over her eyes. “We're checking in. Staying for five glorious days!”

Even though it was for Angela's job, she and Lily's
mom were giddy about their getaway. They had left all the little kids with the dads.

The blond guy opened the trunk to take our bags and tipped his head in surprise. Lily, Mrs. Randazzo, and I had each packed a small duffel. Angela traveled with five large matching hot-pink leather bags. I couldn't guess what she was doing with all those clothes for five days in the mountains. That must come with the territory of being so stylish.