“You mean this sweatshirt?” Mara handed it to Officer Nesmith. There was no blood. It appeared to be brand-new, but I doubted there were any stores in town selling Georgetown sweatshirts.

  Officer Nesmith studied the shirt, looking for clues, no doubt. He glanced at Officer Iturro. “Do you mind if we take this to have it examined?”

  Mara shrugged. “Sure, go ahead.”

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “Uh-huh.” She offered a small smile.

  “Any more questions?” Dad asked.

  “I think that’s all for now.” Officer Iturro stood. “Thank you for your time. We’ll be in touch.” She reached out and shook Dad’s hand.

  “I’ll show you out,” Dad said.

  I smiled meekly as they left the living room. Once they were outside, I stood, grabbed Mara’s hand, and raced for the stairs. I pulled her into my room, signaling for her to keep quiet, then slid my bedroom window open. We crouched beside it, where we could hear the conversation taking place outside.

  “Yes, very tragic,” Officer Nesmith said.

  “How did she die?” Dad asked.

  “You know I can’t divulge that information, Jim.”

  “Come on, Chuck. We go way back.”

  “Sorry, Jim. All I can tell you is she drowned.”

  “Oh, man. That’s terrible. But, you know, it could have been an accident. Mara told me Emily was epileptic.”

  “Yes, she was. But that doesn’t explain the blood on the diving board,” Officer Nesmith said.

  “Chuck!” Officer Iturro’s voice was harsh.

  I watched Mara’s face closely. Saw her swallow hard. I glanced at my bandaged finger.

  Officer Nesmith sighed. “Dammit. I’ve said too much. Do me a favor and keep that between us?”

  “Of course,” Dad said. “But, Chuck. You can’t think my girls had anything to do with it.”

  “We can’t rule anyone out, Jim.”

  “Well, if my girls say they were at the movies, I stand behind them one hundred percent.”

  For a moment, no one talked.

  “We’d better head out,” Officer Iturro said.

  “Okay, good luck with the investigation,” Dad said. “Poor girl. And the Brodings, man. Worst thing in the world for a parent to lose a child.”

  “Yeah,” Officer Nesmith said. “Damn shame. Thanks, Jim. I’ll see ya.”

  Once their squad car pulled away, I stepped away from the window and looked at Mara. Blood trickled down her earlobe. I grabbed a box of tissues from my nightstand and handed it to her. Her hand rose slowly to take it from me, as if she was having difficulty moving.

  “Your ear is bleeding.”

  As soon as she grabbed the tissue, she collapsed into me. I clutched at her arms and tried to hold her up, but she was too heavy. Finally managing to prop her up, I dragged her to my bed. She fell into it, tears cascading down her face.

  It was the magic. It was hurting her to use it. Or maybe it was the intensity of the magic. I had a whole new list of questions to ask Lilura. The problem was, I’d already quit.

  I took the tissue, which was still clasped in Mara’s hand, and wiped her ear. When she looked at me, her eyes said many things at once. Thank you for lying, and what have I done, and I can’t believe my ex-best friend is dead. Mara wasn’t a monster. She was haunted by one, controlled by one, but I knew deep down inside she was the same, good-hearted Mara I grew up with. She just needed some help keeping the evil out. I reached out, no longer afraid, and gathered her in my arms, grateful when she hugged me back.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Word of Emily’s death flooded the school like a tsunami. Kelly and Nicole actually came to school in sweats, so I knew they were devastated. I felt sort of bad for them. The principal declared it a half-day, and when I reached my locker after my last class, Naomi was waiting for me. She dropped her books and threw her arms around me, squeezing so hard it was difficult to breathe.

  “Oh God, Zadie.”

  I didn’t question it, and I definitely didn’t remind her she wasn’t speaking to me. Just dropped my bag and hugged her back.

  “Can you believe it?” Naomi released me and shook her head. “I mean, yeah, I didn’t like her. And she could be a total skank. And a boyfriend thief. And she totally lied about not getting a nose job. But I wouldn’t wish death on anyone. And then I thought, oh my God, here I am, not talking to my bestest friend, the one person I want to talk to and hang out with most in the world, and to think that someone our age can just, like, die? I couldn’t go on if something like that happened to you.” Her lashes sparkled with tears. She pulled a tissue out of her pocket and wiped her nose.

  “I know,” I said. “I would totally freak if that happened to you.” Two days without Naomi at my side had scraped away at my insides—I couldn’t imagine a lifetime.

  “I’m so sorry that I let your wanting-to-keep-personal-things-personal get in the way of our friendship. Besides, I know you’ll tell me. Eventually.”

  She was right. Someday I would tell her. Everything. “I promise I will. As soon as I’m ready.”

  “Just as long as that time isn’t when you’re handing me a wedding invitation from the future Mr. and Mrs. Chase Black.”

  She hugged me again, rocking slightly. I was so happy to have her back, I let her remark slide. Over her shoulder, I saw Gavin. Our eyes met and for a brief, wonderful second, I thought he might actually talk to me. My heart filled with hope, but then Danny put a hand on Gavin’s shoulder and they walked away.

  Naomi pulled back, catching the direction of my stare. She frowned. “You guys haven’t made up yet?”

  “No. I don’t think he cares enough to forgive me.”

  “Are you kidding me? He’s completely heartbroken.” Naomi hooked her arm through mine as we walked down the hall. “Or at least, he should be. He probably is. He even turned down a couple of girls who jumped at their chance when you two broke up.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah.”

  My heart warmed. Could he really be heartbroken over me? Though a tiny glimmer of hope sparked inside me, I found it hard to believe. As much as I wanted to go to Gavin and find out if he regretted our breakup, I had a more pressing matter.

  “Are you coming to the memorial assembly?” Naomi asked.

  I shook my head. “I … can’t.”

  “So are you going to tell me where you’re going?”

  I pursed my lips, tempted to tell her everything. But it would take too long to explain. “I have to go apologize to someone. Two someones, actually. And I swear I’ll tell you everything when I’ve got the time. It’s sort of a long story.”

  Naomi nodded. “Okay.” She waved goodbye to me and headed off to the auditorium. I sighed, happy to have my friend back, and stepped outside into the sun.

  A familiar face waited for me across the street from the school. Sable meowed when I reached down to stroke her head, prancing happily ahead of me on our path to Lilura’s. I took a deep breath and followed, my determination to make things right driving me all the way to the door.

  Chase answered the door on the fourth ring. It was hard to read his expression through the screen door, but I didn’t think he looked happy. Then again, I didn’t expect him to be.

  “Hi.” I cleared my throat. “I came to apologize.”

  “To me or to my grandmother?”

  “To both of you, actually.”

  He regarded me for a moment before he opened the door. Sable darted in before me, jumping up into my usual chair. She meowed at me and then raced into the kitchen. It was like she was reminding me where I was supposed to go, and that made me smile.

  I turned to Chase. “I was out of line when I yelled at you. You’re going out of your way to help me and my sister, and I wasn’t appreciative at all. I’m sorry.”

  Chase ran a hand through his hair. The skin under his eyes was dark. I wondered how much sleep he had lost.

  “Well, that’s a pretty pathetic apology. I mean, you could have brought cookies or something.”

  The corner of my mouth twitched. “Oh, right. I forgot the cookies.”

  He rewarded me with a smile.

  “Come to your senses?” Lilura stood in the kitchen doorway, hands on her hips.

  “Yes,” I said. “I was being an idiot.” I thought about it a moment, and then added, “And probably hormonal. But I’ve cleared my head, and I’m ready to train again.”

  Lilura sucked at one of her teeth with her tongue as she studied me. “Yes, well, you’re a damned teenager. I should have expected a tantrum. Come on, then.”

  She motioned to the table, and I settled into my familiar chair with a sigh. “I’m guessing you heard about Mara’s friend dying.”

  Lilura nodded. “Yes. Tragic.”

  “And two weeks ago, Mara’s shrink died in a car accident. I think maybe—” I couldn’t even complete the sentence.

  Lilura exchanged a look with Chase, who joined us at the table. “There’s no way for us to know, but it does seem entirely too coincidental, if you ask me.”

  I nodded, thinking the same thing. “Okay, then let’s get some training done. If it’s the only thing I can do, then I’ll do it.”

  “All right,” Lilura said. “And if you do well, we’ll tell you about the knife.”

  My eyes widened, darting between Lilura and Chase. “You found the knife? Please, you’ve got to tell me.”

  “One hour of training.” Lilura thrust her pointer finger on the table. “Then we’ll tell you.”

  Excitement rushed through me. I had to hear about the knife. “All right. Let’s do this.”

  After conquering the feather and candles, I was faced with a small flowerpot full of soil, but no plant. Lilura told me to make a hole in the soil. No hands, of course. After fifteen minutes, I’d gouged a small indentation, about half an inch deep. Lilura then placed the glass of water in front of me. Desperate to find out about the knife, I managed to get small bubbles to appear in the water. It wasn’t the blue I was aiming for, but Lilura still took it as progress.

  “Okay, it’s been an hour.” My knees bounced uncontrollably. I folded my hands together as well as I could with the bandage over my finger, and waited for one of the Blacks to speak.

  Chase smiled and laid his hands on the table. His fingers looked incredibly long as he spread them out. “I called my brother in Brussels. He did some research. There were some archeological finds in Italy decades ago, and some of the relics discovered couldn’t be properly identified. A Canadian museum bought them at the end of last century and has them on display. There are pictures on the internet.”

  “And the knife is there?”

  “There is a knife there that fits the description I’ve read in several accounts,” he said carefully.

  “And what are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to go get it.” He leaned back in his chair and scratched one of his brows.

  I glanced at Lilura. “He’s going to steal it?”

  “Don’t get all judgmental,” she said. “You haven’t heard what you have to do yet.”

  Great. “What do I have to do?”

  The wrinkles in Lilura’s lips flattened out. I think it was supposed to be a smile. “In order to make sure the knife is powerful enough to destroy the Reaper—if this is indeed the Reaper’s knife—Chase will need to make a potion to treat the knife. A sort of marinade, if you will, to boost its power.”

  “Okay …”

  “Most of the items he needs I can obtain. I’ve already made some calls. Ordered various herbs from the internet and whatnot. But there’s one item I don’t have. Seeds from a very rare plant. Do you know the Henkley Falls Zoological and Botanical Gardens?”

  My shoulders dropped. “Let me guess. They have the plant.”

  Lilura expelled a lot of air as she stood up. She hobbled over to the bookshelf and pulled out a book. She flipped through the pages as she came back over, and presented me with a picture of the plant in question.

  “Dracunculus vulgaris, sometimes known as Dragon Arum, Voodoo Lily, Dragonwort, or Stink Lily.” Lilura left the book in front of me so I could study the picture and limped her way back over to her seat.

  The picture showed the plant in two different stages, as well as a diagram of the inside of the plant. I saw where the seeds nestled inside. The plant bore one large, dark purple leaf at its crown. A pointy-looking stalk extended at least half a foot up from the middle of the leaf, and was an even darker purple. The seeds were hidden in the chamber beneath the stalk, or spathe, as the book called it. It was the kind of plant that could be ugly and pretty at the same time.

  I narrowed my eyes at Lilura. “Can’t you just, like, summon one of these or something? Better yet, can’t you just summon the knife?”

  She looked at me like I was crazy.

  “It’s just that … Mara did something the other day. She pulled a sweatshirt from her book bag that I knew wasn’t in there. It was like she manifested it.”

  “Why would she manifest a sweatshirt?”

  “The police were at our house. Questioning us about Emily’s death. They brought up the sweatshirt. And even though I know I had burned it, she pulled it out of her bag.”

  “With the intent of being excused as a murder suspect?” Lilura asked.

  I shrugged and nodded.

  “That’s a dangerous kind of magic,” Chase said. “Personal gain.”

  I thought about how Mara’s ear bled after she used her power. How she practically passed out with weakness. She knew how to make the magic work, but she obviously was unclear about the rules. Would she consider coming with me to Lilura’s to learn the proper use of her powers? It would certainly make it easier to keep an eye on her.

  Lilura rubbed at her forehead. “Personal gain or not, we can’t manifest the Reaper knife. It’s a magical item. Unattainable through Vila powers.”

  “Come on,” Chase said, getting to his feet.

  “What? Where are we going?”

  “I’m taking you to the botanical garden.”

  “But, wait. I’m not, um, ready to do this.”

  He smirked. “You’re not stealing it right now, during the day, with the public around watching. I’m just going to show you the place, where exactly the plant is, and how to get in after hours.”

  “You mean I’m going to be breaking into this place? W-when it’s closed?”

  “Don’t worry,” Lilura said. “Chase is very good at what he does. If you follow his plan, you won’t get caught.”

  “That’s comforting,” I mumbled.

  ***

  An hour later I was staring at the Voodoo Lily, wrinkling my nose. I didn’t wonder anymore why it was also named the Stink Lily. It had a pungent odor, like rotten meat.

  “What’s the plan again?”

  Chase explained everything to me for the fourteenth time, and then asked me, politely, to shut up.

  “Why can’t you do this again?” I asked.

  “I have to drive to Canada and steal a knife from a museum. A museum which has much tighter security than this place does. You want to trade?”

  I shook my head. “Why can’t we just take it now?”

  “There are two very good reasons. One is standing at six o’clock, the other at nine o’clock.”

  I blinked. “What?”

  He gestured with his head behind us and off to the side, where two security guards patrolled the footpaths. Past them, above the foliage, security cameras were mounted on the high glass walls.

  “Plus, that thing smells. You’d never get past the guards.”

  “I could just say you ate a bunch of burritos today,” I teased.

  Chase rolled his eyes. “Just stick to the plan. Friday night. And be careful. I’ll give you something to wrap it in, because it’s poisonous.”

  “This just keeps getting funner and funner, doesn’t it?”

  Chase suddenly put his arm around me. Before I could protest, he shushed me and flashed his focus to something behind me. Glancing over my shoulder, I spotted the guard walking past us. Chase smelled a lot better than the plant, so I took a big whiff while I could. Once the guard was gone, I squirmed out from Chase’s arm.

  “Sorry,” he said. “Just trying to be inconspicuous.”

  “You didn’t have to do that. Platonic friends go places like this together.”

  The corner of his mouth twitched. “Did it really bother you that much?”

  I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. If I was honest, it hadn’t really bothered me at all. Though, I kind of wished it did. “No, it’s just … come on, show me what else I need to know and let’s get out of here.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  It was Friday night and the house was dark. Dad was asleep, snoring loud enough that I could hear him from the front door. I crept outside and darted across the street, where Naomi was waiting in her car.

  “Are you going to tell me what this is about now?” she asked as I buckled up.

  “Not yet. First, drive.”

  Without another word, Naomi pulled away from the sidewalk and down the street. I hadn’t given her any information yet, but I’d promised to tell her everything if she’d do me this favor.

  “Get on the 105.” I pulled a pair of black gloves from my jacket pocket and put them on. Naomi glanced at them.

  “New gloves?”

  “Um, yeah. They’re from Chase. But it’s not what you think.”

  Naomi shook her head and focused on the road. “Honestly, I have no idea what to think anymore.”

  Forty-five minutes later, we pulled up to the gates of the Henkley Falls Zoological and Botanical Gardens. I stared at the enormous building while I tried to recall Chase’s instructions. My stomach cramped up and I felt nauseated. It was going to take a miracle to pull this off. Or maybe a little magic.

  “What are we doing at the zoo?”

  I let out a small laugh. If I were in her shoes, I’d be asking the same question and wondering about the sanity of my friend. “There’s something I need to get.”