“I don’t know. I can’t get a good look. Let’s just go back.”
“No.” I had to know who he was and what they were doing here.
“Adora …” Ivy pressed her entire body against my back to whisper in my ear, “there’s a reason they don’t want us to see whatever they’re about to do.”
“If you’re too scared, then just go back to my room. I’m staying.”
I heard Ivy’s footfalls descend. She’d left me to comfort Fable.
I waited until the silence stretched out and the voices came again. The slow seconds waiting at the top of the stairs with Momma’s pretty red dress puddled at my feet ticked by and by.
After they settled in the living room, I inched down the steps.
Slow, careful. Unheard and unseen.
The cool shadows at the bottom of the staircase hid me, and I stayed on the last step, craning my neck to see into the living room.
The women of Sacred Sea circled Momma, each holding a black candle and whispering an incantation I’d never heard before.
Momma sat in her rocking chair by the window, her long black hair curtaining her face. She seemed so small in her chair, and though her feet barely touched the floor, the chair rocked as she stared out into the midnight ocean. Hard and fast and with phantom ferocity. A pounding like a heartbeat. The chair rocked so hard that the floorboards came up beneath it.
Dad cupped his mouth, then moved his hand over his eyes.
He doesn’t want to see, I thought. Dad didn’t want to see, and neither did I. Still, despite the horrid sight before us, I couldn’t escape this spot. Much like Dad, I was trapped here. Unlike Dad, I couldn’t lift my arm to cover my eyes.
Mr. Pruitt stood beside Dad, squeezing his shoulder in a comforting way.
Ivy was gone. I had no one to squeeze mine.
I gripped a wooden spindle in my fist until my fingers lost their feeling, watching Momma’s chair beat the floor as the hushed incantation painted the room. The window burst open, a wind rushing in, but they didn’t stop. Momma rocked harder, the witches chanted louder, and the cold wind howled past my ears.
Seconds passed slowly, lulling and weaving into the night.
Then the women of Sacred Sea halted their spell, causing them all to take a step back at the same time, a force snatching them up by invisible puppet threads.
The boy standing before Momma in the middle of the circle turned his head and lookedrightat me. His hazel eyes glowed like lightning had struck them, and a dry gulp stuck in my throat.
Kane Pruitt, my mind echoed.
The boy there’d been whispers about. The one who’d been trapped inside the Pruitt house, having not stepped out until this night.
I palmed my mouth to quiet both my breathing and screaming.What did you do to her?I wanted to shout at him.What did you do to my momma?But all the words froze inside my head, building sharp ice sculptures of fear.
He flashed me a cynical smile.
One that was much crazier than Momma’s. By far.
Kane turned his back on me, and they left our home through the back door. Not a word. Not a word at all.
After Mr. Pruitt and Mrs. Cantini exchanged farewells, Dad poured a drink and sank into the tufted twill chaise beside the rocking chair.
For a while, he stared at Momma. Her rocks were rhythmic this time. A soft beating on the hardwood. Dad watched her through bloodshot eyes. He didn’t speak a word. He just stared until exhaustion stole him, and he snored into a slumber.
I waited a while, and when all was quiet, I stepped out of the shadows.
That was when the rocking chair came to a stop.
Momma’s head turned ninety degrees until her empty blue eyes pierced me, pinning me to the wall among the happy family photographs.
