Page 95 of The Sister's Curse

She rubbed tears away from her eyes. “My dad would say it is—if he knew. But he…” Her shoulders shook. “It was his.”

Rage flashed through me.That piece of complete and utter shit.If he weren’t already dead, I’d want to kill him.

“I’m so, so sorry that no one protected you.” I felt wrathful and helpless.

She blinked away her tears. “But someone did. Viv did.”

Kara enfolded Leah in a hug. I sat beside her on the bed.

“He hurt a lot of girls. Not just me.”

“You’re safe now,” Kara murmured.

My blood boiled, and I struggled to keep my voice soft. “Leah, I know the other girls were with you at the Sumner house when Mason almost drowned.”

She stared at me. “You know?”

“I know about the coven. And I need to know what you know, to try to find Viv.”

“I haven’t heard from Viv. I hope nobody hurt her.” She clasped her hands before her in something like prayer.

“I hope so, too, but Viv’s enemies think she had something to do with what happened to Mason, Ross, your dad, and some of Ross’s relatives. So I need you to tell me.”

Leah stared down at her shoes. “The girls came over when I was watching Mason. It was a chance for us to get together without any adults. That’s what we do—we say we’re doing homework at someone else’s house, and we gather whoever’s free. Our parents think we’re out of trouble when we’re with our study pod. Since we’re not in school, we’ve got a lot of free time, so it sort of works for us.”

“Was Viv with you?”

“No. She had to work. Four other girls from the coven were,though. Viv told us what Jeff and the other guys did to her sister, and we thought it would help if we did a revenge spell at the house.”

“What did you do?”

“The girls came over around seven thirty. We went outside to burn some candles and ask for justice for Dana. One girl brought a skull she found in the woods.”

“I found a black cape in the yard. Did that belong to one of the girls?”

“No. We don’t dress up like trick-or-treaters. That’s stupid.” She scrunched her face up.

“So, you went outside, burned some candles…Then what?”

“We asked for justice for Dana. And justice for the rest of us.” Her eyes shone dark. “We asked for freedom.”

I exhaled. I wondered if that spell, fueled by the girls’ rage, was enough to awaken Dana, to pull the Rusalka up from the depths. “And then…?”

“They put the skull in the mailbox and they left. Mason woke up wanting a snack.” She shrugged. “He was playing with his action figures, and everything else happened as I told you.”

“You didn’t hurt Mason?”

She looked shocked, then wounded. “No. I would never.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “We asked for justice, not for…not for whatever this is.”

She dissolved into tears, as if something had broken open in her.

Kara held her. “I think that’s enough for today. Anna, could you please go into the kitchen to get us some more bags?”

I wasn’t going to be allowed to go further. I nodded and went to the kitchen. I found the bags underneath the kitchen sink, and then my gaze fell on a door. A door that had to lead to the basement.

I noticed that there was a lock on this side of the door. Gritting my teeth, I turned the knob and peered down the wooden steps.

I flipped a light switch, but nothing happened. The light bulbs must have been taken out. Eyes narrowed, I descended the stairs. I took my cell phone out, turned on the flashlight, and swept it before me.