Speed of Light (7 page)

Tens picked up a gun and moved toward the door. “Were you followed?”

“I don’t know where Mini is. I had a dream.” I puffed and tried to catch my breath. “I don’t know. I heard steps.”
An army chased me
.

Tens stepped away from the door and opened it farther. “Mini’s coming.”

Meridian pointed and I turned. Racing along the path toward the cottage was Mini, her long hair trailing behind her like wisps of moonlight. She sped past us into the house and leapt up on the kitchen table to sprawl. Her sides worked like a bellows as if she’d run a million miles to catch up to me.

“I didn’t know where else to go,” I whispered as Meridian pulled me into her arms. My Wildcat Creek felt too far.

“It’s okay. It’s okay.” Meridian tried to soothe me, but I couldn’t relax.

Nothing’s okay
.

Tens popped the tab of a soda and handed me an icy can. Without checking, I knew it was grape, which always tasted better than water and seemed as necessary to us. I sipped, then gulped the sugary fizz.

“Where’s Tony?” Tens asked.

“Downtown at the shelter.” I straightened, away from Meridian’s arms. It was too tempting to let her hug me.

Tens swore and I felt the need to defend Tony. “He doesn’t know about the nightmares. I don’t need a babysitter.”

“This has happened before?” Meridian asked, her expression concerned and confused.

I nodded. I could almost hear her thinking that I should have told them sooner.
They want me to tell them everything
. They didn’t understand that Kirian and Nicole were my only confidantes. And now I had neither. Easier to say nothing than risk saying too much.

“These dreams, are they always the same? Do they change?” Tens knelt down on the floor with us.

Mini meowed and rubbed her head along my shins.

I shook my head. I didn’t want to think about them. About Kirian’s death. Of the look in Ms. Asura’s eyes as she fled into the forest. The calculation in her voice yesterday.
Cunning. Rage. Revenge
.

“I’ll let Tony know where you are.” Tens moved away quickly, flipping on more lights. He picked up his cell phone.

“Do you want to talk about it? It might help?” Meridian pressed, leaning into me.

“No.” I dropped the empty soda can and wrapped my arms around my middle.

Meridian paused. “Juliet? What happened to your foot? Where are your shoes?” She gasped.

I saw bloody footprints on the porch, and my foot was smeared with drying red. “Sorry.”

Tens brought out a first-aid kit. He started wiping the jagged wound with a wet cloth. “We should go to the hospital. This might need stitches.”

I stiffened. “No hospital.”

He nodded. “I’ll do my best, but this is going to sting.”

Meridian reached for my hand and pressed her fingers tightly into mine. “Want to hear a story about a potential Fenestra Rumi found in Indiana’s history?” She held eye contact.

She is trying. So hard
.

Anything
. I nodded. I didn’t tell them the pain felt like a release. A relaxation of sorts. A reminder of who I was and where I came from. Mini draped across my lap as if trying to accept a part of my burden.

Meridian shifted so she blocked the view of Tens and my foot. “There once was a woman named Polly Barnett who owned a farm on the western side of Indianapolis. She had a daughter who disappeared the night before her
sixteenth birthday. The town searched but nothing was found. People speculated she ran off with a beau. Others say she headed east to pursue her dream of being famous. Although personally, it was around 1854, so it’s not like there were reality shows or Broadway, so I don’t buy this explanation.”

I smiled on cue, knowing Meridian was trying to change my focus and leaven the mood.

“Anyway, no one knows what happened to her daughter, but Polly took to the dirt roads and fields of central and southern Indiana. She walked them, calling for her daughter, asking people if they’d seen her. She walked the rest of her life, searching—fifty-four thousand miles.” Meridian paused. “That’s a lot of walking.”

I nodded. “She’s a Fenestra?”

“We think so because at some point a black cat walked beside her. And when people would get her to stop and rest, to eat or cool off, all Polly could talk about was windows and light and an evil darkness that took her daughter. I guess it didn’t take much of this talk to get people to stay the hell away from her. Eventually, only a few people would leave food out for her, but they all watched her walk the roads thinking she was possessed or broken by grief.”

Intrigued, I asked, “What happened?”

“One day, when she was an old lady, they found her dead, sleeping under a tree in the local cemetery. The black cat was right there with her until they buried her. Then the cat disappeared too. They put a stone on her grave with a cat on the top of it. We think we should
check it out. Rumi’s trying to find out exactly where her farm was. Because if there’s any truth to it, then there were Fenestra and Nocti battling in the state before the Civil War. Maybe there are more of us.”

I nodded. All the story made me think of was my mother.
Where is she buried? Why is she disfigured and wounded when I see her on the other side? What is her connection to Ms. Asura? Was she a Fenestra? Where’s my father? Is he even alive?
I gagged again over the knot in my throat.

“I need to know my mother’s story,” I whispered. “Do you think Nelli would let me help go through the DG papers? Maybe there’s a clue there?”

“I don’t see why not. I’m sure she’d love the help. But we don’t know for sure your mother was at DG, do we?”

I shook my head.
No, all we know is that she’s dead and stuck at the window
.

“We’ll keep looking. I promise. We’ll figure it out.” Meridian sounded so sure.

“Done.” Tens finished wrapping gauze and a bandage around my foot and ankle.

“Thanks,” I said.

“No problem. Why don’t you sleep with Meridian tonight? I’ll take the couch,” Tens suggested.

Jealousy bit my cheek. “Where’s my Protector?” The words slipped out before I could stop them. I didn’t want Tens; if anything, he was an annoying older brother. But I wanted my own person for the middle of the night. Meridian didn’t face waking up from nightmares five times a
night, alone. I slumped forward, dropping her hand and bending my leg back toward me.

Tens frowned. “I don’t know. I wish I did. I’m trying to remember everything I can that my grandfather told me.”

Meridian touched my back. “Auntie said not everyone has—”

“Do you smell that?” I asked. The sickly cloying perfume came in on the wind.

“What?” Meridian frowned.

Tens shook his head. “Meridian had a candle burning earlier.”

“Vanilla.” She nodded.

Nothing as nice as vanilla. I didn’t smell a candle. “I need to use the bathroom.”
You’re not good enough for a Protector. That’s what they’re not saying
. I couldn’t hear that I’d be alone. Alone for a lifetime? I simply couldn’t handle that tonight. Not with Kirian’s face hovering in my peripheral vision and my nose not working.
Even here I smell nothing edible
. Only that familiar perfume that stuck to everything in my past.

Meridian lifted her hand. “Okay, through there.”

They helped me to my feet and I limped over. I stopped at the door. “Thank you.” The words tasted of sawdust. I didn’t have words beyond
thank you
, which felt both awkward to say and inadequate. I wondered what my life would be like if they’d never found me.

“We know.” Meridian’s concern was blatant.

I tried to close the bathroom door, but Mini and
Custos barged in. I splashed water on my face and drank mouthfuls, trying to rehydrate my throat. Not even the grape soda had slaked my thirst. Tears dripped down my cheeks. I didn’t bother to check them. I merely crawled into the bathtub; I yanked a towel from the rack to use as a pillow. I left the lights on.
Nowhere is safe. She’s still watching. Waiting
.

Custos carefully climbed in and lay down half at my back and half on top of me. Her breath whispered along my neck. Her weight and warmth loosened my muscles. Mini positioned herself like she used to, under my chin and between my arms, as if she were a living teddy bear snuggling me to sleep.

Someone cracked the door. “Juliet?” Meridian whispered.

I pretended I was already sleeping. She turned on a night-light and crept back out, flicking off the main fixture.

I opened my eyes and stared at the ceiling, thinking about DG. About my task, my choices.
Are there more kids out there?
Anyone who escaped and made it out of her grasp? Can I shield those around me? No matter what I do, nothing good comes to people who spend time with me. My parents. The patients at DG. Kirian. No one and nothing.
I don’t know what to do
. “Tell me what to do,” I whispered against Mini’s throat, but she stayed silent.

I
watched Juliet and Tony pull away. Worry gnawed. She and I connected as Fenestra, but we kept missing each other’s hearts. “I don’t know what she needs,” I said to Tens.
She slept in the bathtub instead of with me. Does she not trust me, even in sleep?
It was hard not to take that rejection personally.

He shook his head. “She keeps everything so close I don’t know either. I wish her Protector would show up.” He smacked his fist on his palm.

I frowned. “You know that might not happen. If they weren’t together when she opened fully …” I let it hang. I’d hoped and prayed, beseeching Auntie, the Creators.
Yet we’d been on our own during her birthday. I lifted up on tiptoe and kissed Tens lightly. His lips tasted of chocolate and peanut butter. He’d been with me for my change, and I wasn’t sure I’d have survived without him.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“For being here. For being you.” I smiled and traced his jaw as his face reddened. I’d learned he blushed with any mushy talk. Every time.
Like the tickling, I will exploit those points at every opportunity
.

He said huskily, “I know you want to make this easier for her. But there are years of abuse she’s trying to overcome, in addition to being a Fenestra.” Juliet was routinely beaten, bruised and bled at the hands of DG’s headmistress. The woman who worked with Ms. Asura and, though wholly human, lacked a soul.

I frowned. “Being angelic might be the least of her problems, you mean?”

He nodded agreement. “She won’t talk about Kirian’s betrayal or Nicole’s disappearance, will she?”

“No.” Kirian befriended her when she’d arrived at age six. Three years older, he’d left at sixteen to travel the world. Only we learned later, his allegiance was turned to the Nocti and everything she thought she’d known about his travels were lies. He’d been bait to get to Juliet by her sixteenth birthday. “She has to be overwhelmed. Even with Tony around.”

Tony met Roshana when she was pregnant with Juliet. He’d been an uncle, father, and grandfather figure for them both. Until the Nocti managed to track Roshana,
trick Tony, and kidnap Juliet. They’d been separated for a decade that Juliet didn’t remember well. Sadly, the fists and blood of Juliet’s DG years seemed easier for her to grasp than hugs and kisses from Tony and her mom.

Nelli’s car shrieked up the driveway to the cottage with reckless speed. The expression on her face had me swallowing past a lump in my throat.
Uh-oh
. “What’s wrong?” I asked, walking quickly toward her.

Nelli called out her window. “Grab whatever you need quickly. We might already be too late. Bales found bones north of here that could belong to one of the DG kids.”

The Nocti used Dunklebarger to raise kids who might be Fenestra until they were sixteen. On their sixteenth birthday the teens disappeared; we were still trying to account for all the missing. If they died, they were sacrificed to force Fenestras to turn Dark. I didn’t begin to hope that any were alive, well, and Light. We needed to collect their souls and remains—to bring justice and peace to the victims. Each encounter gave us more information on the Nocti and, we hoped, their future plans.

Tens grabbed a duffel bag from the van and folded into the backseat of Nelli’s compact. Custos ran to the car door and barked until he slid over and made room for her. I frowned and took the front next to Nelli. I swept my hair into a ponytail that danced between my shoulders.

Nelli drove the back roads at a clip that lost me immediately when we left Carmel proper. The open windows let the sun-warmed air fill the car with the pleasant scent of earth and fresh-cut grass.

“Who’s Bales?” Tens asked Nelli, the wind whipping his heavy black curtain of hair into his face.

He needs another haircut
.

Nelli’s hands tightened on the wheel but she never took her eyes from the road. “A friend.” She hesitated. “I think we’re dating. I’m not sure.” She shrugged. “We were in college together. He used to be a cop, then became a PI after he got shot two years ago. He doesn’t know anything about you. Just that I’m trying to solve a bunch of cold cases of missing kids. He’s been hunting up locations for me. He used to work homicide, so he knows what he’s looking for.”

“What did he find?” I asked.

“He called last night, said there was a report about finding skeletal remains and artifacts. He poked around today. Called in favors. Found out that the timeline might work for us to get there. We need to get in and out, without disturbing anything, before they remove the bones.”

We turned onto an old Indiana two-lane highway lined with grasses and copses of cottonwood and willow trees. To my right, a Cooper’s hawk pounced onto an unlucky rodent—its brown and white feathers blended in perfectly with the skeletal remains of last winter’s corn crop. Even though the calendar read May, the fields had been too wet, too cold, for planting yet. Many were filled with the mustard-yellow, tiny-faced goldenrod and broad swaths of white yarrows. Purple thistles poked up through the grasses. Red-winged blackbirds and goldfinches picked their way between the tops of vegetation and tree branches.