The old man nodded and then suddenly tilted his head. “By the way, Gabriel. I meant to ask you something when you got back.”

  He left Gabriel alone for a minute, heading into the parlor. He didn’t go far and picked up a notebook off of one of the barricade dressers.

  He brought it back and showed it to Gabriel. “I’d like to know where you found this.”

  At first, he didn’t really see the book clearly and was wondering what it was from. He could barely identify it, not with Mr. Sorenson waving it around in his hands.

  Gabriel tilted his head, trying to get a good look at it. “A notebook?” He was confused because he hadn’t looked at any notebook since they’d been there.

  “Don’t play dumb,” he said, and he rolled the notebook a bit to pop him on the head, although gently. “I’m not mad. I just want to know where you found it.”

  It wasn’t until he unrolled the notebook that Gabriel noted and recognized the flower etched into the corner, the doodles. His jaw slacked. “Where did that come from?”

  “I found it on the floor next to your bags,” he said. “I went into the bedroom after you two left this morning. I was looking for the extra blankets and it was on the floor. Did you read it?”

  “Read it?” Gabriel asked, confused. “I didn’t even know it was here.”

  “It wasn’t there yesterday,” the old man said.

  “I don’t know how it would be,” Gabriel said. “Last I saw it, it was at a friend of mine’s house.” He was pretty sure Dr. Green had been hanging on to it.

  Did Sang have it with her?

  The old man raised a brow, and his lips moved for a second as if he was trying to formulate words that weren’t coming to him. Eventually he said, “Why would it be there?”

  “That’s my notebook, isn’t it?” Gabriel asked. “I mean, I could be wrong but my name’s on the inside cover still, right?”

  Brian opened the notebook, reading the inside script. “Oh,” he said shortly. “Sorry, Gabriel. You see... I had a daughter, and she had notebooks like this. Used to buy them by the dozen for her. I thought you dug one up from somewhere.” He held on to it though and turned a few pages. His tone became softer, and his gaze distant. “A lot like this... Haven’t seen them in years.”

  There were notebooks somewhere. Gabriel struggled to find the right words to get him to continue talking. “Didn’t know you had a daughter.”

  The old man slowly passed Gabriel the notebook. “She could have gone to art school.”

  And at that, instead of saying any more, he turned to the parlor and closed the door behind him, almost on Chica trailing behind but she wiggled in at the last second.

  The silence thickened where Gabriel was sitting.

  There were notebooks. Somewhere in the house...

  He had to find them. All of them.

  ♥♥♥

  Gabriel stood in the cold on the front porch, waiting for a sign of Luke to appear. He wouldn’t be attempting to drive up the gravel lane to the farmhouse. Even if it were at night, and the old man was very much asleep. Sang was, too. However, they had to be dead silent this time. Chica would alert them if there was any sound at all.

  Gabriel wouldn’t sleep tonight. Even knowing they were being watched by someone for the evening to keep an eye out for trouble, he still wanted to remain awake and be on the lookout.

  Suddenly from the woods, a shadow, darker than the other shadows around it, moved.

  Gabriel readied himself. It was likely Luke, but just in case...

  He only had to wait a few moments before he spotted Luke waving to him from the edge of the house.

  Gabriel jumped off the porch, landing on the ground. He rushed over to where Luke was standing, closer to the workshop.

  Luke, wearing a black sweatshirt and pants, with a black beanie hat, shivered where he stood. “I don’t have a black coat,” he said in a harsh whisper, shivering. His breath coming out in visible puffs of air.

  “Then let’s do this quick,” Gabriel said. “Do you want to go in the main door, the one further away from the stairs?”

  “Let’s not risk getting the dog’s attention,” Luke said. He pointed to the rear kitchen. “See here? It’s an easy climb.”

  The kitchen section jetted out on its own away from the main house, giving them a perfect way up and into Sang’s mom’s old room.

  Climbing the side of the house was easy enough, until Luke was trying to help Gabriel up the side by hanging on to his arm.

  “Ooof,” Luke wheezed out as Gabriel eventually hauled himself up. “How much do you weigh now?”

  “You calling me fat?” Gabriel hissed at him.

  “No, you’re crazy taller now. Your bone density must have gone up, too. You’re going to have to learn to run and jump like I do.”

  No one could jump like Luke could. Gabriel used what strength he had to haul himself up most of the way.

  They eased their way to the window. Luke tested it, but it was open.

  It sucked they had to sneak in like this. They had to spend some time looking for Sang’s information, if there was any, without the old man knowing. And this might be the only way for some areas.

  Especially if at some point they had to leave. Better to do it sooner than later.

  And if they found the notebooks? Gabriel really hoped they weren’t in the parlor with the old man and he forgot which drawer they were in. That room would need searching and who knew when they’d actually manage to get him out of the house to do it.

  The upstairs bedroom still had bees all over the floor. They hadn’t had a chance to clear them out. Luckily, they had boots on this time.

  Luke gazed through the darkness. From this point on, they couldn’t talk. Luke did a hand signal, silently asking Gabriel where to go first.

  Gabriel motioned for him to check the closet on the far side of the room. Gabriel would finish checking the wardrobes. If he was caught, at least Gabriel had been allowed in the house. He could barricade the door a bit to let Luke escape and then face any questions on his own.

  It didn’t take too long. Using low lights and moving quietly, Gabriel opened boxes, peering in.

  Mementos, cards, little pieces of paper, old miniature toys. There were a few pictures, mostly of Sang’s mom at varying ages, and of her brother. And a few of Brian. There were some of a woman that Gabriel assumed was Sang’s grandmother they hadn’t met yet.

  Nothing noting Sang specifically.

  In fact, there seemed to be no pictures at all of her mother being pregnant.

  There weren’t that many boxes. He’d guessed it had been enough years that some stuff had been let go, or they were with Sang’s grandmother.

  Gabriel tried to move quickly, but didn’t want to leave behind anything, so going through all the little notes became difficult. They were mostly notes from classmates or little drawings or old kept papers from school. Nothing about Sang, and that’s all they were here for.

  In the second wardrobe, Gabriel managed to find a couple of old school notebooks too, but nothing like the one that her grandfather got confused about.

  It should be obvious they weren’t in here. The old man seemed to want them but he’d asked Gabriel where he found it. Like he didn’t know where they were located in the house.

  It was highly likely they were with her grandmother. Or they were lost in another place in the house. Gabriel hoped to find them to show to Sang before finally giving them back to her grandfather.

  He figured she’d want to see them at least. He’d love to see the look on her face when he gave Sang those lost notebooks. She might cry a little, but she’d want to see them.

  It kind of warmed his heart thinking she was hanging on to one of Gabriel’s notebooks. Maybe Dr. Green was right. She wasn’t going to laugh at him for his old song lyrics or seeing his art. She never did before.

  Gabriel was just shutting the door of the wardrobe when he felt something immediately behind him, and jumped in place, muttering curses.

  Luke clamped a hand down on his mouth. He didn’t scold him, just gave him a wary look in the dark.

  Luke always was able to sneak up on Gabriel.

  It was time for the next room. Gabriel had kept a couple of pictures of Sang’s mom in his pocket to share with her, and they’d come back up eventually. There were enough that Gabriel could bring a couple down.

  The locked room, however, proved pointless. Even after they broke into the room as quietly as possible, slowly opening the squeaky, and eventually eased their footing onto a length of carpet above the parlor where the dog could likely hear them, it was so prudent for them to stay silent.

  Still, despite all the effort, there was not much left in the locked room, save the safe inside an empty closet, and a bedframe with no mattress. The rest had been cleared out.

  The old man didn’t use the rooms, so they probably cleaned those out for him. Any furniture or things there might have been left, Gabriel wondered if he’d pulled it all into the parlor.

  And there was no chance of getting in there. No chance to get into the safe tonight, either.

  They didn’t speak until they were back on the ground outside.

  Gabriel hissed into a bitter wind that kicked up. It was so cold and gloomy now in the late-night hours. “That whole thing was kind of pointless. Sorry.”

  Luke reached up to adjust the beanie down over his ears. “What do you mean pointless? We eliminated two whole rooms to search. We can’t crack the safe just yet, but now I have a model number. I can come back and do it quickly if you can get grandpa out of the house.”

  Gabriel reluctantly agreed. At least they’d made sure there wasn’t anything prudent to take. A few rooms down. They’d have to check the kitchen, the parlor, and the safe when possible. “You have to go to her Grandfather Linus’s tonight?”

  “Yeah,” Luke said. He popped Gabriel on the shoulder once with the flat of his palm. “Cheer up. One house nearly finished, just four to go.”

  “Four?” Gabriel asked.

  “Yeah,” he said. He lifted his hand to count on his fingers. “Finish up here, Linus’s house, her stepmom’s parent’s. Just in case. They’re probably a piece of work. Can’t wait for that one. And then her grandmother. You’ll need to go see her, and I’ll have to scope out the house for that one.” He squinted. “Maybe her uncle’s house. Maybe. We’ll have to get ourselves invited over to see.”

  Luke waved to Gabriel as he ran off toward the tree line.

  The whole night felt like a bust, still. All that effort, no real information, and no notebooks.

  They had to be somewhere. Sang’s grandfather didn’t simply make that up.

  But he must have thought they were still in the house if he figured Gabriel found one.

  So where were they?

  Before he could go back inside though, the sound of crackling leaves and small branches met his ears, and then footsteps across icy grass-blades.

  Gabriel turned, seeing another dark shadow. He grasped for the cell phone in his pocket, ready to run.

  “It’s just me,” North’s voice came to him, though he couldn’t spot exactly where he was standing in the dark.

  Gabriel sensed a prickling shiver trace up his spine, a little relieved it was someone he knew, but a little worried.

  He’d yelled at North. Since he’d had time to calm down, he felt really guilty about it.

  North motioned with a hand to have Gabriel follow him.

  North led the way, and Gabriel followed. They skirted around the black fence, away from the house, and down the hill a little toward the barn. They stopped behind it. The old structure gave them good coverage just in case anyone came by. The field stretched out behind them. Stars were glittering. It was a little hard to see still, but they kept any light off anyway.

  North turned abruptly enough that Gabriel nearly planted his face into him.

  North struck him, short and quick, in the gut. Hard enough that Gabriel bent forward, grasping at the spot and stepping back.

  Before he could back up too far, North grabbed him by the coat he was wearing, which happened to be North’s own coat. He brought Gabriel close so that he was breathing against his face. “That’s for earlier.”

  Gabriel coughed shortly once. “Right. I deserve that.”

  “I only stepped away because I was about to do it then and there. But her grandfather would have noticed.” He released Gabriel with a shove. “And fuck you for thinking I’d ever leave her.”

  Gabriel staggered. He knew this. He’d just been stressed, angry and crazed with the idea of what all this meant for them now. Once he’d calmed down enough, he realized the truth. He just got too caught up in other things to get back to North to apologize. “Sorry,” he said. Gabriel huffed out a breath. The pain was fleeting. The spot on his stomach was just sore now. “Mr. Blackbourne was right. He knew.”

  North barked at him, “What does that mean?”

  “He knew this was a big deal. That we were at risk of staying if we left. I don’t know why he pushed us to get up here.”

  North crossed his arms over his chest. “Was it going to make a difference if he waited? And apparently, he made the right choice. We got here just in time. But now that we’re here...” He grumbled a little under his breath before he continued. “I don’t know how we’re going to do this. It all went to shit fast. She should have never gone in as Samantha.”

  “Don’t know if I could have stopped her,” Gabriel said. “Not that I want to.”

  North ripped off a hat he’d been wearing, which Gabriel hadn’t even seen and threw it at him. “How am I supposed to tell my fucking uncle that I’m suddenly going to be in Kentucky for who knows how long?”

  “I don’t know,” Gabriel said, getting as heated. They couldn’t yell, so it was all coming out as hushed, grumbling tones. “How am I supposed to fucking tell Pam I might be in Kentucky for who knows shit all when?”

  This was more like North. A back-and-forth argument, though they weren’t really arguing now. It was more them venting as they were working out issues.

  North stepped away from Gabriel, gazing out toward the open field, his hands on his hips, shaking his head. Eventually he said, “I don’t know if we’ll ever get out of here.”

  Gabriel sucked in a full breath of frosty air. He held it and released it in one long breath and the condensation looked like he was smoking for how thick and cloudy it was. It was so cold, the earrings became icy and his ears ached. “Not unless she tells them.”

  North didn’t turn around. He stood silently, staring off into the distance.

  What else was there to say? Even when she did tell her grandfather, he might want her to stay. Her grandmother and uncle might want contact at minimum.

  Her ghost bird status, unless she told them some reason to keep her a secret, was likely over.

  Their entire Academy careers... they were abandoning the school job if they stayed for so long. And most of them were so short on favors, it would throw their entire careers into question.

  Everything. Everything they’d worked hard for. One little decision, to come up here, changed it all.

  Was it better not to know?

  Gabriel bent over to scoop up the beanie North had been wearing that was still in the grass. He held it in his hands. “We’d lose Volto,” he said in a softer tone than before.

  North chuffed once. “There’s probably an out of the way farm, like this one, for sale somewhere.”

  “We don’t have to close on the townhouses,” Gabriel continued the line of thinking. “Spend the money here. Would be cheaper.”

  North shook his head, turning around to face Gabriel. “Kota might hate it. So another plus.”

  Gabriel smirked. Kota had been really looking forward to living in the city. He liked the bustle. He wouldn’t hate farm life, but he’d be a little disappointed. “Plenty of land for Mr. Blackbourne’s roses.”

  “I bet they need another doctor out here,” North said.

  “Is there a lake?” Gabriel said. “Silas would like that.”

  North’s shoulders lowered. “Doesn’t matter where we go. We’d all find something we liked.”

  It was true. It made the idea of splitting from Charleston easier.

  Even if it hurt.

  Sang was worth it.

  No Outside Force Is Strong Enough

  Sang

  Gabriel didn’t get back into the bedroom until super late and he immediately went to sleep. I didn’t know what kept him up. I waited, awake, staring at the darkness.

  For hours.

  Yet, I was the last one out of bed in the morning. We didn’t linger long. Grandfather stayed in his room, giving us a chance to wake up and dress and for North and Silas to return to start inspecting the chimneys while Gabriel and I took our turn to finish up checking out family. Luke, Nathan and Dr. Green were doing what they could to find the robbers by talking to the owner of the truck and then following up on any recent robberies that were in the area.

  I didn’t start a conversation about if we should stay or why or what we should do too much further into the future.

  I wanted to focus on the work we were doing today. Get some things off the to do list. Narrow things down. It kept me from dwelling.

  We first visited my stepmother’s parents. I didn’t have high hopes that they had any interest in me at all. This time, Gabriel went in to talk to them. I watched on video from the car with Victor.

  For this, Gabriel had taken the earrings out of his ears, and he wore a black beanie hat to cover the blond locks and look a bit less punk. The effect was strange to me. He didn’t look like himself at all. He wore black slacks and a white shirt and found one of the school uniform ties to complete the ensemble and look a little professional.

  It was a very short visit, starting with Gabriel pretending to be from a law agency on behalf of my stepmother to ask questions before finalizing the divorce and asking about kinships. They talked shortly about Marie.

  “Don’t they have a second daughter?” Gabriel asked. “Or am I thinking of someone else?”