Page 10

CHAPTER

TEN

Theo pulled up right in front of his house.

Progress , Kade thought. He decided to test his luck and open the passenger door. Theo gave him a hard look.

“I think it’s time to let me in the front,” Kade announced into the car. “Your mom knows. Aaron found out ages ago. Felicity knows and she’s been shutting down rumors left and right. But even the fact that she’s gotta do that means the secret’s out, baby! We’re friends .”

“That’s not the secret,” Theo said. His voice sounded strange. “That’s what you’re wearing?”

Kade looked down. He’d paired a fun, trashy skirt with fishnet tights, a crop top that said DEVOUR in blood red, and knee-high boots. They were all different shades of black, and very tight.

“These are my party clothes.” Kade wiggled his brows—darkened even further with eyebrow pencil—then jingled his silver skull earrings, the only part of his outfit that wasn’t dark.

“I’ve seen you at parties,” Theo mumbled, eyes on the dark road ahead. “Those are not your party clothes.”

Kade waved at Theo’s jeans and button-down shirt. “What are YOU wearing?”

Theo glared. “I look great! You look like you’re going to a Halloween party.”

Kade ran a tongue over his lipsticky lips. “Thank you. Do I have front seat privileges or not?”

Theo jerked his head at the backseat.

Kade groaned and climbed in, pressing his face down into his stockings. They were much more fun when he was hyping himself up in his room. Now he felt stupid. Especially with Theo avoiding looking at him like that.

Theo pulled into the street.

“Lights,” Kade reminded him.

“Goddammit,” Theo said distractedly, and slammed them on. “Sorry. Shit. That's so dangerous, I gotta stop doing that.”

Kade glanced at him, trying to gauge how he was doing. No visible numbness, but he was obviously agitated. Much more agitated than he would’ve been if he’d spent the day shooting the shit with Kade.

“What did you do today?” Kade asked, making sure to keep his voice cool and casual, like he didn’t care at all. The way his aunt did when she was worried about him. When Kade was younger he tended to blow up in her face if she dared let it show that she was concerned about her kid doing a series of very concerning things.

“Hunted,” Theo replied. “Scoped out the funeral home.”

“Anyone steal your dad’s corpse?”

“Not today.”

Kade clicked his tongue. “Another successful day for The Lamb And The Knife!”

Theo was turning a corner, so he couldn’t stare at him. But he gave it his best shot. “ What ?”

“Oh.” Kade examined his nails, squinting through the dim light at the wonky polish. He’d done a rush job, the black polish drying over his cuticles and overlapping onto the skin.

“The ritual wants you to sacrifice me, right,” he continued, muffled as he chewed a shard of nail polish off his finger. “It’s like our band name. If we had a band. Do you not like it?”

“ No ,” Theo burst out. “God, Kade.”

“Fine, I won’t give you the matching shirt.”

“Don’t make us shirts about the ritual that wants me to kill you!”

“Yours says knife ,” Kade said, and grinned at the angry look Theo shot him. “You’re such a party pooper. Onwards!”

“ Onwards ,” Theo muttered mockingly, turning the steering wheel with more force than necessary, sending Kade sliding into the window. Kade giggled, smile fading even as he did so. If he couldn’t be a comfort, he at least wanted to be a distraction. Theo seemed like the kind of guy who would take anger over grief. Most days, so did Kade. He just wished he could make Theo understand how much that anger calcified over time, turning hard and unyielding over all the actual problems you were using the anger to distract yourself from.

As if Theo would listen to that. Kade sure hadn’t when his aunt tried to tell him. He had to learn it the hard way, and so did Theo. No matter how much Kade wished he could save him from it.

Theo dropped him a block away from the party.

“See you there,” he said, and peeled off.

It took Kade five minutes to get to Felicity’s house. She lived near the woods in one of the oldest houses in town. Or, she used to. Then her mom remodeled the entire place when she was in grade school. It was a whole ship-of-Theseus situation: was it still the same house if every plank had been replaced? Kade made a mental note to ask Theo about it.

The front hall was dark and crowded and even more minimalist than Theo’s house. Why were rich people so boring , Kade wondered as he pushed through his drunk classmates. If he had this kind of money, he’d have all kinds of crazy shit. Not gray ceilings and polished white tiles and washed-out beachscapes on the walls .

He scanned the crowd. Half for Theo, half for the drinks table. He’d go for whichever he found first.

“Hey,” Theo said behind him.

Kade swore and turned. Of course Theo would find him instantly. Kade imagined his heartbeat slamming louder than the music, louder than the chatter, drawing Theo toward him.

“Hey,” Kade said. “What’s up?”

Theo shook his head. He was standing a weird distance away, turned so Kade couldn’t see his face.

Kade rolled his eyes. “Right. Sorry. Can’t be seen with Monster.”

Then he turned, pretending he was examining his bitten nails and not talking to the guy behind him.

“Looks like half the school showed up,” Kade reported, peering into the sea of familiar faces. “Except Aaron, of course. I assume Felicity’s single-again party explicitly excludes her ex?”

Theo was quiet. Kade was about to turn around and ask what was going on when Theo said, “Incoming.”

Before Kade could ask what he meant, Felicity barreled into him. She spun him to face Theo and hooked an arm around each of their shoulders.

“You made it,” she crowed. She gave Theo a shake. “Answer my texts next time, bitch.”

“I’ve been distracted,” Theo said, hunching so Felicity could reach him easier. Kade followed suit. He hadn’t realized how short Felicity was until now, teetering on her tiptoes to reach them. Her outfits, Kade was amused to realize, looked like a ghostly mirror of his own: a short white skirt and a pink crop top paired with dangly champagne glass earrings. Even her boots were similar, pale and cutting off right below her thigh. She stunk of schnapps and a specific brand of bruise cream that sent Kade right back to childhood, standing on a chair to examine his back in the bathroom mirror.

“I bet,” Felicity said in a stage whisper. She seemed torn whether she should be fun or sympathetic. She gave Kade a shake. “So glad you made it! I’ve been wanting to get to know you better.”

Theo snorted. “Not too well, I hope.”

“Ooooh,” she crooned, flicking Theo’s ear. “Don’t be jealous! You know I was always going for girls after things ended with Aaron. Kade’s safe from me. Probably. Are you even into girls?”

“A little. But mostly guys,” Kade said, feeling strangely squirmy as he admitted it. Nobody asked him this kind of thing. Especially not since he came into school wearing that glittery shirt with a word on it that got him suspended for a week.

“Same. Opposite with Theo, he’s more girls than guys.” Felicity did a little jig, hugely impeded by the tall boys she was hanging onto. “This is fun, we’re such a fun group! Let’s dance.”

“We’ll come find you later,” Theo told her.

Kade couldn’t help but be relieved when Theo plucked her arm off his shoulders. He was curious about Felicity, and he did want to get to know her better. He just didn’t know if that was a good idea. He always got the feeling that if he got too close, she’d pull him into a sickening orbit doomed to crash and burn.

Felicity groaned. “Come onnnn?—”

“Later,” Theo told her.

Felicity’s eyelashes fluttered. She’d painted them white, pale glitter dusting over her cheeks and her stark hair. For a moment she really did look like a ghost.

“Oh. Okay,” she said, surprisingly small. Then she grinned, some of that dangerous light coming back. “Hope you had fun ditching today! Don’t get too drunk, you can’t be hungover tomorrow morning for the…you know.”

She swooped in and hugged him with a strange tenderness, her grin faltering. For a moment Kade got a glimpse of a messed-up girl doing her best to comfort her grieving friend.

Then she leaned into Kade, white eyelashes brushing his cheek.

“Don’t steal anything from the drinks table,” she whispered.

“No promises,” Kade replied.

She vanished into the crowd. Kade wiped Felicity’s eye makeup from his cheek and turned to Theo.

“So,” he said.

That was as far as he got before someone bumped into Kade’s side, splashing beer over his boots. Kade turned around to glare .

Delilah Emmerson—student body president two years in a row who had promised better water fountains and never delivered—leered at him, her badly dyed hair flopping in her face.

“Oooh, Monster’s gonna eat me,” she said. Then she looked at Theo, mouth dropping open in shock, to find him also glaring.

“Oh. Sorry.” She peered at Theo’s jeans. “Did I get you?”

“Nope,” Theo cleared his throat and took a step away from Kade, trying to look casual.

Kade told the disappointment churning in his stomach to quit it.

“Hey Delilah,” Theo said as Delilah turned to leave. “You party with Felicity, right?”

Delilah gestured at the house party around them. “I mean…yeah?”

“A few months ago,” Theo said. “Liss says you dared her to break into Coach Cheech’s house.”

Delilah looked startled. She brought her cup up to her mouth, mumbling into it. “Not Coach Cheech’s anymore.” She glanced over at Kade, frowning when she saw him still standing there.

Theo stepped forward. “Did you do it? Did you dare her?”

“What? Sure I did. Totally.” Delilah’s head bobbed wildly. She took another gulp of beer. “I think I see my friend over there, I should?—”

“You’re lying,” Theo said flatly .

Delilah shrank under his glare. “She said…she just needed a cover, in case…she said nobody would…”

She trailed off. Gave Kade another look. Then she stumbled back into the crowd, shouting for a friend that may or may not exist.

“Well,” Kade said to Theo, who was still standing away from him. “That’s not suspicious at all. Should we go find Felicity again?”

“No,” Theo said. His jaw flexed, glancing up at a nearby staircase.

Kade waited for Theo to tell him to split up and search for clues, Scooby-gang style. They’d get fewer weird looks that way.

“Follow me,” Theo said instead.

Theo led him up one of the multiple staircases in this boring minimalist house. Felicity’s room was on the third floor, which was empty except for a couple making out sloppily against the wall.

“I’m guessing this is it,” Kade said, pointing at the door with a swoopy metal F on it, so big it nearly cut into the doorknob.

Theo nodded. He glanced over at the couple—so entwined in each other that they would not have broken apart if a fire alarm went off—and then snuck in.

Kade followed.

Felicity’s room was luxurious, but only if you didn’t look too closely. The carpet was plush white but stained. The mirror was lined with lightbulbs like in the backstage of a theater, but several of them were dead. An old, grimy teddy bear sat in the tangled bedsheets of her giant bed. A heap of dirty sports clothes sat in the corner, expensive leggings and sports bras and bright pink knuckle wraps.

The biggest thing in the room was a poster, one of her latest gigs: Felicity posing in front of an electric car. She had a spray tan, which wasn’t really her style, and her shrewd eyes had been photoshopped to look bigger. But her expression was what Kade was used to seeing in the halls, smug and knowing.

Kade turned around. Theo was still in the doorway, staring with a surprised expression.

“Just realized I haven’t been in here for…” Theo frowned. “Over a year now. Huh.”

“Has it changed much?”

Theo shook his head.

Kade scanned the bookshelf. Most of the books looked like she’d bought them in middle school, all Baby-Sitters Club and horse books. Old-school DVDs, old coffee mugs, a half-popped sleeve of aspirin, a massive jar of mints, a bottle of vodka hidden behind a book.

Kade tucked the vodka into his jacket.

“Nothing that looks like Milly’s book in here,” Kade said. He pulled halfheartedly at the book that had been hiding the vodka. It was a frayed book of children’s poems. Nothing slid out to reveal a hidden room .

Kade sighed, starting to put the book back. Then he noticed something strange about the pages—they were irregular and jagged, like this was a scrapbook and not a poetry collection. He flipped it open. No children’s poems—it was a scrapbook. Felicity had torn the pages out and sewn new ones in covered with pasted-in magazine images. Cars, beaches, diamonds, lip gloss, a hundred girls in bikinis or trendy belts or long flowing dresses. Neat scribbles around the pictures: live fast die young leave a beautiful corpse , with hearts above the i ’s.

“You should dance with Felicity,” Kade said, flipping through the scrapbook. “If you want. Could be good to let loose.”

Theo didn’t respond, leafing through Felicity’s drawers so fast his hands blurred. Drawers snapped open and closed, Theo staring into them with increasing frustration.

“Hey,” Kade said. “Hello? Dancing?”

He wiggled his hips as he flipped another page. Then he stopped. The scrapbook pages were getting…dark. Less beaches and more blood, knives, loose teeth, a girl with her eyes cut out. Angry song lyrics scribbled so deep the paper ripped.

“You think I want to dance,” Theo said.

“I think it might be good to take a break in the vengeance quest,” Kade replied, flipping faster. The lyrics turned into nonsense, until it was just Felicity’s neat handwriting turned huge and feral: SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT .

“I’ve never seen you dance,” Theo said, heading over to the makeup table. “Bet you step on everyone’s toes.”

“Nope,” Kade said distractedly. “Can’t step on people’s toes if you’ve never danced with anyone.”

He turned another page. Something heavy and golden fell out of the scrapbook. Kade stooped to pick it up, heart plummeting. He held a necklace: a golden sun, old and dull. The same sun embossed on the cover of the book Milly was translating. The same sun Cheech had been wearing. The symbol of the hunters.

Theo started, “You’ve never?—?”

Then he cut off.

Kade turned to find him staring out the window, head cocked. Listening.

Kade wet his lips. “Theo?”

“I hear trouble,” Theo said. Then he ran out of the room, leaving Kade standing there holding the proof that not one, but both of Theo’s childhood friends were against him.