Meg Cabot - Awaken

“I’m shocked you ever have trouble finding anything,” Frank commented sarcastically, peeling away an Island Queen napkin that had become stuck to the bottom of his boot. “It’s so tidy in here. What’s this?”

Kayla snatched the ruby-colored bra he’d dug out from behind his back. “You should know, you’re the one who got it off me,” she said.

Alex, seated behind them, hooted. Now that he was safely out of the cemetery, he seemed to be in a better mood.

“Shut up, Cabrero,” Kayla said, chucking the bra at him. Alex laughingly deflected it as Kayla checked her reflection in the light-up compact mirror she’d fished from the side panel of her door. “Oh, great, my eyeliner is running. I look like a drowned hoochie mama.”

“You look fine,” I said. “Can we please go before someone sees us?”

“Who’s going to see us?” Kayla reached for a spare makeup bag she also kept in the side panel. “It’s pitch-black on this street.”

It was true. All up and down the narrow streets along the cemetery, the windows of every quaintly painted beach cottage were dark, even though, according to Alex’s watch, it was now only a little after eleven o’clock at night.

“For all we know,” Kayla went on as she carefully repainted the black lines around her eyes, “there isn’t a single soul left alive in this town except for us. Well, and the cops who gave me these tickets.”

“Thanks, Kayla.” It was Alex’s turn to sound sarcastic. “That’s a really pleasant thought. Some of us have family members we’re worried about, you know.”

“I’m sure your dad is fine, Alex,” I said as comfortingly as I could. “The power is out in this part of town, is all.”

“And you’re not the only one with family,” Kayla reminded him as she painted. “I’m worried about my mom. Well, not really, because she’s required to be on duty at the hospital for as long as this storm lasts, and the hospital was built to withstand category-five hurricane-force winds. But she’s probably freaked I haven’t called. Which reminds me, do you think if there’s any Furies around they’ll find us if I turn on the AC and charge my phone? Because my battery is dead and the windows are too fogged up for me to see out of to drive. Could you all breathe less?”

She switched on the engine, and a second later, a powerful blast of lukewarm air was blowing at Alex and me from the front seat. Kayla immediately pulled her phone from the bodice of her dress and plugged it into the charger on her console. “Okay, Pierce,” she asked, “where are we going?”

“Richard Smith’s house,” I said at the same time Alex said, “My house.”

Alex glared at me. “Who’s Richard Smith?”

“He’s the cemetery sexton. Remember, you met him at school the day we had that assembly about Coffin Night. He’s an old friend of Grandpa’s. I think he might be able to help us figure out where the Fates went, and if there really is a Thanatos —”

Alex’s expression, in the dim glow from Kayla’s dashboard, was twisted with outrage. “Pierce, my dad probably thinks I’m dead —”

“You are dead, mate,” Frank said. “To everyone who ever mattered to you, anyway. Get used to it.”

“But I’m not dead,” Alex said. “I’m an NDE, like Pierce. And the last thing I want to do right now is go visit some old friend of Grandpa’s —”

“Alex, Mr. Smith is the only person I can think of who might know of a way to help your dad and all those people we left behind in the Underworld —”

“Meaning your boyfriend,” Alex interrupted, with a scowl.

I prickled. “I didn’t say that.”

“But it’s obvious he’s your biggest priority,” Alex snapped. “ Thanatos? That was practically the first word out of your mouth. And you never even mentioned going to see your mom. Ever since you met him, he’s all you care about. The rest of us were worried sick the whole time you were gone, but you didn’t care. Now he’s dead, but he and his world are still all you’re worried about.”

“Oh, my God, Alex,” I said. “That isn’t true. I worried about you and Uncle Chris and my mom and dad the entire time I was gone.”

Frank tilted the rearview mirror so he could see Alex.

“It’s true, mate,” he said. “First time I ever met her, you were all she talked about, how she had to go back and fetch you out of that coffin. Nearly drove the captain mad.”

I gave Frank a disapproving look in the mirror to show him that I didn’t need his help. When I looked back at Alex, I could see that his expression remained defiant, but his eyes had a sheen to them, reflecting the light … or maybe some unshed tears.

“I did worry a lot about you,” I said to Alex. “And your dad, too. But if we don’t fix what’s happening in the Underworld, your dad’s problems aren’t going to matter, nor is anyone else’s who lives in Isla Huesos, because Isla Huesos itself isn’t going to be around for much longer.”

Then it occurred to me. Alex’s eyes were reflecting the light .

What light? All the streetlamps were out, and the dashboard console was glowing green.

“Someone’s coming,” I said, glancing away from Alex and down at the diamond at the end of my necklace. Sure enough, it was no longer the comforting purple it always was in Kayla’s presence but a deep black.

“What’s that?” Kayla asked, pointing.

Through the streams of rain battering the windshield, I could see a single white arc of light swinging along the sidewalk.

“A lantern,” Frank said.

“No,” I said, my skin growing cold, and not because of my damp clothes or because Kayla had the AC set so high. “It’s a flashlight.”

“A flashlight?” Kayla echoed in disbelief. “Who’d be out in weather like this?”

“No one we want to run into,” I said. “Start driving.”

“Where?” Kayla asked, beginning to back out from her parking space.

“Anywhere,” I said, reaching into my bag, at the same time that Alex said, “Except my house.”

Whoever was holding the flashlight noticed the lights on Kayla’s car and began to approach at a more rapid clip. I heard a male voice shouting. It was impossible to distinguish exactly what he said with all the wind and rain. But his voice sounded disturbingly familiar.

“Faster, Kayla,” I said tensely.

“I’m trying,” Kayla said. “But I was never good at parallel parking.”

“For Christ’s sake,” Frank said. “You should have let me drive —”

“You weren’t even born in this century,” Kayla snapped.

“He’s crossing the street,” Alex said as the shadowy figure loomed closer.

Suddenly the man was in front of the car, seemingly half blown there by the wind. The headlights from Kayla’s car threw his features into strong definition. I couldn’t help giving a gasp.

“Do you know him?” Frank asked, glancing back at me.

“From a long time ago,” I said, my voice barely audible above the pounding of the rain on the roof of the car and the rhythmic tempo of the windshield wipers. “But … it can’t be him. There’s no way he’d be here. There’s no way he’d —”

Though he couldn’t possibly have been able to see me through the windshield — especially with me in the backseat and the glare of the high beams in his face — it seemed to me as if our gazes locked. I could have sworn a little smile of triumph played upon his face.

“Pierce.” Now there was no way to mistake what he was saying. He raised his flashlight and pointed the beam directly at me, through the windshield. “Come out of the car, and I won’t have to hurt the others.”