“She can come too.” Naomi checked her reflection in the glass cabinet. “She could use some girl time, and let’s face it, she’s not getting any more of that from Emily.” She frowned. “I still don’t understand what happened that night.”

  I waved a hand. “I can’t even get into it right now.”

  “Fine then. Come on. You, me, Mara, a bucket of popcorn, and a hot, shirtless actor on the big screen. Sounds like the perfect formula to me. And I’m better at math than you are, so you have no say.”

  Laughing took energy I didn’t have, but I managed a small one. “Fine.”

  I hauled myself upstairs to change out of sweatpants, only because Naomi threatened to try out a new hair style on me if I didn’t, and stopped by Mara’s room on the way down. Pausing outside her door, I pressed my ear against the wood and braced myself for what I might hear. Scratching noises. Nothing else. Holding my breath, I turned the knob and pushed the door open, anticipating the worst. Mara sat at her desk, doing homework. My breath came out in a huff as relief surged through me.

  “Hey, Mara. Naomi’s here and we thought you’d like to join us for a movie.”

  She put her pencil down and slowly turned in her chair to face me. Her voice was soft when she spoke. “Sure. Sounds good.” She didn’t seem enthusiastic about the idea. Then again, Mara wasn’t enthusiastic about much of anything these days.

  We got stuck going to a horror movie, due to how small our movie theater was. Naomi had heard good things about it, so we resigned ourselves to the movie, buying refreshments and finding decent seats.

  Once the movie started, I told myself I was crazy for agreeing to the film. The main character was a possessed teenager at a summer camp. Within the first ten minutes she’d already offed five of her friends. Naomi, being Naomi, laughed inappropriately whenever someone lost a body part, but I found myself sinking lower in my seat with every blood-curdling scream. When I glanced at Mara, her face was completely blank.

  The second the credits started to roll, I jumped from my seat and ushered our threesome out of the theater.

  “Wait, wait.” Naomi pulled her hand back. “I want to know that actor’s name. He was so hot. Even with his head missing. Those abs!”

  I let go of her hand, but continued to push Mara out into the lobby. My main purpose was to get out of the darkness and into the safety of the light. Once we got past the concession stand, Mara froze. I ran into her, and Naomi, sprinting to catch up with us, ran into me. Rubbing my nose, I looked past Mara to find out why she had stopped.

  Emily Broding and Luke Stedman stared back, traces of shame on their faces as Luke slowly lowered his arm from Emily’s shoulder. Instinctively, I put my hands on Mara’s arms. Not that I could stop her from doing anything, or that she needed her arms to use her powers, but I at least felt like I was trying.

  “H-hi.”

  When Emily said it, I finally realized why she had been avoiding Mara. It wasn’t anger. It was fear.

  “Real nice, Emily,” Naomi said from behind me. Mara remained silent.

  “Which, um, movie did you guys see?” Emily’s voice wavered. It was odd to see her acting like this, and even more so that she wasn’t making an obnoxious crack about me. Luke’s eyes were trained on the ground.

  “How long has this really been going on?” Mara asked, shrugging free from my hold. I stepped beside her, readying myself to react. The problem was, I had no idea what to expect.

  “I swear it was after you broke up.” Emily clung to her nachos and soda, holding them in front of her like the world’s worst shield.

  “Really? Because I was thinking back. The party you went to, where you made out with each other behind my back?” Mara looked pointedly at Luke. “It was Katie’s party, the one I couldn’t go to. And Luke and I were still together then.”

  “I … I …” Emily pried a finger from her soda cup and moved a hair away from her face.

  “You lied to me.”

  Mara’s eyes narrowed. Her hands clenched.

  That look had yet to mean something good was about to happen. My heart began to race. I glanced up. Above Emily’s head, the lobby’s hanging lights shook and swayed.

  “I didn’t,” Emily protested. “I swear.”

  I looked back to Mara. She shook her head, her arms stiff and her breathing more deliberate. Focusing on the swaying lights, I willed them to still. I didn’t know if I had it in me to match Mara’s power, but I had to try.

  “Mara, calm down,” I whispered, my eyes still on the lights. Little by little, the swaying stopped.

  Mara shot me an annoyed look, then smirked and cast her eyes back to Emily. Emily scratched at her cheek. Her neck twitched. Then she chewed her bottom lip, as if it itched. Her face reddened. Small blotches appeared on her arms and hands. She dropped her soda and nachos and began frantically scratching at her neck. A purplish rash spread like a moving flame across her face, and Emily shrieked.

  “What’s going on?” Luke stepped back, probably afraid to touch her.

  “Whoa,” Naomi said. “That’s nasty.”

  “It burns!” Emily’s fingernails pulled on every bit of exposed skin she could reach. “Make it stop! It burns!”

  “Mara!” I pulled her back, away from Emily and Luke.

  People started gathering around us. Mara kept staring at her victim, but I pulled on her until I finally got her outside. Through the windows, I spotted a movie theater employee trying to help Emily, pulling her toward the restrooms. He was young and looked completely freaked out.

  “What just happened?” Naomi asked as I hooked my arm through Mara’s and steered her toward the car.

  “I don’t know,” I lied. “Maybe she’s allergic to nacho cheese or something.”

  “Did you see her rash? That was freaky.” Naomi shuddered. “And totally gross.”

  I locked eyes with Mara, but her gaze went right through me. My mind flashed back to all the other times she had used her powers, that same empty stare pinpointing beyond me. A slow, irritating chill crept up my spine.

  “It’s sort of like karma though, isn’t it?” Naomi said as we all piled into her car. “You know, for going behind Mara’s back like that. I totally thought you were going to scratch her eyes out or something, Mar. Kind of impressed that you kept yourself together.”

  I kept my eyes on the road. Mara wasn’t keeping herself together at all. She was getting really dangerous. It was going to take some major speed reading and extra training at Lilura’s to get this situation under control. I felt exhausted just thinking about it.

  After Naomi dropped us off, Mara acted more like her old self. At the top of the stairs, I grabbed her arm. I was terrified, but I had to say something.

  “Mara?”

  She turned, her expression blank. It occurred to me this was not a conversation I should have with my back to the open staircase. I stepped around her and stood firmly in front of the wall.

  “You can’t keep doing this. You’re hurting people.” Possibly even killing them. I didn’t dare mention Dr. Klein. “You have to fight whatever it is inside you that’s making you do these things.”

  My senses were on full alert, ready for Mara to act out, maybe attack me. I was able to stop her attempt to crush Emily in the lobby, but if the Reaper was helping her, if the Reaper really wanted her to overpower me, I didn’t know what my chances were. I had to say something. This had to end. And after all the research I’d done at Lilura’s so far, I was no closer to finding out how.

  To my amazement, her face fell, and she nodded. She bit her lip and sucked in a ragged breath. “I know,” she whispered.

  And just like that, I wanted to hold her. I wanted to hug her tight, to tell her we could fix this and everything was going to be all right, but I was so tired of lying. And I was still afraid of pushing her limits.

  “I’m going to take a bath and go to bed.” Though her voice was small and timid, Mara sounded more like herself than she had since the accident. A small wave of relief fluttered through me. “Goodnight, Zadie.”

  “Night.” I offered a small smile, hardly daring to hope that things might change for the better.

  I buried myself under my covers and read for the next hour, losing myself to a world that had nothing to do with mythical creatures or revenge or killing. Unfortunately, there was romance in the book, and that made me think of Gavin. I set the book down and stared at the spine for a while, wondering if he was thinking of me. Or maybe he’d already forgotten about me, whatever feelings he had for me long gone.

  I reached for my bedside table light, about to turn it off, when a strange shape moving across the floor caught my eye. I sat straight up in bed, eyes narrowing at the growing shape. Water. A small flood making its way under my door. I bolted out of bed and tore open the door, my socks soaked through within seconds.

  I sloshed across the hall and pounded on the bathroom door. No answer. I tried the knob. It was locked. My finger grazed the small hole on the knob’s front. Racing back to my room, I searched for something to stick into the hole to jigger the lock open. Water pooled around my feet as I knocked down perfume bottles and my jewelry box. At last, I grabbed a bobby pin and dashed back to the bathroom door. I fumbled with the bobby pin until it stuck in the small opening properly, and I grunted as I finally threw the door open.

  Mara lay in the tub, her eyes vacant, as water slopped around her nose. The floor was a small lake, at least an inch of water covering it, and I floundered through it until I could turn off the tap.

  “Mara!” I shook her, which made her sink farther into the water. I grabbed her shoulders, using all my strength to pull her dead weight above the surface. I managed not to fall in, but I was soaked from head to toe by the time I got her out of the tub, her back pressed against the cabinet under the sink.

  She still didn’t react. I shook her, hard, until finally, she blinked at me. Her eyes were red-rimmed and shiny, although I didn’t think it was from the tub water. Had she been crying? Oh, God. Was she trying to kill herself? Or was this just another way to pay the Reaper?

  Before I could ask her, the lights flickered, and a shadow moved across the wall. For a second, when the lights went dim, I saw a face. Eyes—black and intense—glared at me from the mirror. My breath caught in my throat and I scrambled backward, almost tripping into the tub, but the face disappeared as fast as it had materialized. My heart felt like it would explode out of my chest. I clamped a hand over my ribs, my breath labored as I looked around me.

  Swallowing hard, I knelt down and pulled Mara into a sitting position. I held her to my chest and waited for my breathing to steady.

  It took a while to get Mara dried, dressed, and safely tucked into bed. I threw a bunch of towels on the floor to soak up the water from the floor. The last of my energy was used wringing the towels out in the tub. Finally the floor was as dry as I could get it, and I stripped off my wet clothes and slipped into an extra large t-shirt. I collapsed onto my bed, my body a mass of tight muscles and nerves, and tried with all I had left in me to stop the tears from rolling down my face.

  Chapter Nineteen

  I slept in Saturday morning and didn’t end up at Lilura’s house until late afternoon. My spirit felt completely drained. I just wanted to sleep and forget about all the Vila nonsense. My head throbbed. I had cried so much. There was no way I could summon up any magic when I was feeling this miserable.

  Chase stood at the bookcase, flipping through a book. He glanced at me, his mouth a straight line, then continued reading. Was he upset that I hadn’t come earlier? I knew we had a lot to do, but fatigue was winning out over motivation to train.

  When I sat down at Lilura’s table, the first thing that came out of my mouth was, “I don’t think I can do this anymore.”

  Lilura pursed her lips as she studied me. “What happened?”

  “Just … just everything! I lost my boyfriend, and my sister almost drowned herself last night. I’m failing most of my classes, people are getting hurt and dying everywhere, and I feel completely useless.”

  “We’re getting closer, Zadie. All these things are just obstacles. We’re getting closer to the goal.”

  “I don’t want to get to some stupid goal anymore. I feel like I’m the only one losing anything here. I do all the work and my life falls apart as a result. What the hell kind of strategy is that?” I stood up and threw my hands in the air. “I can’t do it anymore.”

  Lilura followed me to the front door. “You’re quitting?”

  “Yes, that’s exactly it. I quit!”

  Lilura rested her hands on her hips. “I knew you were idiotic, but I never pegged you for a quitter.”

  “Grandma,” Chase muttered.

  “What? She can’t handle a little hard work, wants everything handed to her and everyone doting on her needs. Fine! Go on then. Go run off and have your little dates and your deluded fantasy about everything working out on its own. I don’t need your laziness, and I don’t need your sass.”

  I groaned in frustration, turned, and charged out the door. I was surprised when a hand grabbed my wrist and whirled me around. I stood on the porch facing Chase, my breath labored and my skin hot.

  “Zadie, you can’t give up.”

  “But I am.”

  “No! You’ve got to give it another shot.” He stepped nearer, his face close to mine. “You can do this. I know you can.”

  “You don’t know that,” I shouted.

  “You’re not trying hard enough. You can’t just let the Reaper win.” His voice was loud and brusque. His eyes roamed over my face. I felt them stop at my lips. Then he took a step back. “Maybe you just need a day off. To clear your head.”

  I shook my head and backed away. “What I need to clear my head of is you two. You’re the experts. Fix this problem without me. I’m going home, and I’m not coming back. If I can’t beat the Reaper, I can at least be with Mara and keep her from hurting herself, instead of leaving her to face this on her own.”

  As I rushed home, all the struggles from the past week, especially my break up with Gavin, replayed over and over in my head. I put my hands over my ears, trying to get the voices out. But it didn’t help.

  “Hello?” I called when I got home. Dad was supposed to be here, but his car wasn’t in the driveway. I suddenly panicked, knowing Mara must have been home alone. The living room was empty, but the kitchen light was on. “Mara?”

  I almost didn’t see her. The room was still, and I’d turned to head up the stairs. But something by the kitchen island caught my eye. Something that shouldn’t have been there. A shoe. Mara’s leg, sticking out from behind the counter. I circled the island to find out why she was sitting on the floor and came face to face with a large knife.

  Mara was in a tank top, running the serrated blade in a slow line near her shoulder. The cut ran just along the surface of her skin, blood oozing from the broken skin and staining her top. I gasped, and Mara looked up at me with a tear-streaked face.

  I dropped to my knees and grabbed her hand. “Mara!”

  “I have to.” She pulled away, stronger than I thought. “He wants the pain.”

  “Stop it! You don’t have to do this!”

  She twisted away from me, her eyes wild as she dug the knife into her shoulder. This time deeper. Lines of red ran down her arm. I grabbed her wrist and used all my might to separate the knife from her skin. She screamed, her teeth bared like some kind of untamed animal. My eyes darted around the room, searching for unusually dark shadows.

  I felt desperate, my voice pleading when I said, “Mara, I’m trying to help you.”

  “I need more time!”

  “Just let go of the knife!”

  “You don’t know what he wants from me! You have no idea!”

  Mara jumped to her feet, and I scrabbled to my feet to face her. I couldn’t let her out of this room. If she escaped outside, I might not find her before she did something awful to herself–something not even I could bring her back from. Her gaze flitted to the stairs, and I stepped in front of them. No way was she getting up there, either. If she locked herself in her room, who knew what damage she’d do.

  Her eyes narrowed, the pain and terror gone. Was the Reaper in control now?

  A small smirk was the only warning I got before a frying pan flew across the room and hit me on the side of the head. The force of impact knocked me to the ground. Dazed and holding my throbbing temple, I staggered to my feet and charged her. I had to get the knife. I grabbed for her arm, and she kicked me away. I caught her leg on the way down, pulling her off balance, but she caught herself on the counter. She reached out with her free hand; I whirled around—a kitchen chair swept across the room and smacked into me. I grunted as my elbow hit the floor.

  Mara ran for the door. Oh, no you don’t. My blood tingled, my bones buzzed, and quicker than I had ever willed anything to move before, I sent a bag of flour soaring from the kitchen counter toward Mara’s head. The bag burst, covering her face in white powder. I darted toward her, my hand reaching around the handle of the knife, but she turned and slammed me against the counter.

  There was a sickening thunk, and then a searing pain in my hand. No, not my hand. My finger. Now I was the one screaming. Mara took a step back, a look of horror in her eyes as she stared at my hand. I raised my hand in front of me and almost passed out. Blood poured from the stub where my pinky finger used to be.

  Mara dropped the knife. It clattered against the floor as she tore open the freezer and stuffed a bowl with ice. Without the slightest hesitation she plucked my bloody pinky off the floor and stuck it between the cubes.

  Her face was white, her eyes wide and unblinking. “Zadie … Zadie, I’m so …”

  Nauseated, I grabbed a towel from the counter and wrapped it around my hand. The cloth went from white to red in a matter of seconds. I moaned from the pain, everything momentarily going black before my eyes.

  Just then, the front door opened.