“I’m telling you, there is an enormous sigil righthere.” I traced the outline of the circle. “Did you bring the picture?”
Ayaz dug out the torn page from Rebecca Nurse’s book and smoothed it against the stone. I compared the details. “Yeah, it’s like ninety percent identical to the one in the picture.”
“You’re not bullshitting?” Quinn’s eyes widened. “You really can see something on that wall?”
I rolled my eyes. “Dude, I don’t kid about cosmic deities.”
“She’s telling the truth,” a woman’s voice said from behind us. “I can see it, too.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I whirled around. The woman who’d saved my life jumped down from a rock ledge, landing in a crouched position. She stood up to her full height, hands on hips, that waterfall of midnight hair rippling over her shoulders.
“I thought I told you not to come back here,” she shook her head at me. “Instead you bring my brother and his two annoying friends.”
Ayaz.I whirled around to check on him. He’d frozen in place, his mouth hanging open. The book page fluttered from his hand. “Zehra?”
“My brother!” They fell into each others’ arms. Tears rolled down Ayaz’s cheeks as he held his sister’s face in his hands.
I stepped back, feeling like I was imposing on something private and precious. Trey fished the page out of a puddle, but the ink had already run. I leaned against Quinn, averting my eyes and waiting until the waterworks were over.
“Why did you come back?” Ayaz choked.
“I told you I would, you silly goose.” She tweaked his nose, and the pair of them burst into laughter.
“How are you alive? We found the boat broken up on the rocks…”
Zehra swatted him around the ear. “It’s all your fault. You never taught me how to row! It was so hard – no matter how much I tried I couldn’t get away from the rocks. The tide pulled me in and I managed to climb out before the boat broke up on the rocks. I swam to shore, ran through the forest, and made it into Arkham. I used that money you gave me to take a bus down to New York City, where I got myself a new name, new ID, new life.” She grinned. “I went to veterinary school.”
Ayaz laughed. “Mom and Dad said you weren’t allowed to be a vet. Last we talked, you were going to study business at Harvard.”
“Well, what Mom and Dad don’t know won’t get them murdered.” Zehra tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Besides, I’m a much better vet than I am a businesswoman.”
Ayaz seemed to be struggling for words. “Did you… how did… You didn’t tell Mom and Dad about me and the school, did you?”
“What do you think?” Zehra slapped him around the head. “Of course I did. I called them from New York with the whole story. They thought I was just making things up, telling one of my stories. Of course they didn’t believe you were a resurrected spirit trapped in a creepy school where they sacrifice students to an ancient god who wanted to eat my soul. They thought I was acting out, and called Vincent Bloomberg to see if he could return me to the school. That alerted him to the fact I was Ayaz’s sister, and so instead of truancy officers, he sent assassins after me. So I’ve been in hiding ever since.”
“My dad hasassassins?” Trey’s face looked pale.
“Oh yeah. Real nasty ones, too.” A wicked grin spread across Zehra’s face, which quickly turned into a wince as she tried to wriggle out of Ayaz’s suffocating embrace. “They shot at me, once, from a black car. It wasthrilling. I gave them the slip a few years ago, so I’ve just been traveling around, seeing a bit of the world, trying to find something that will bring you back from the not-so-dead.”
“How did you give trained assassins the slip?” Ayaz gazed at his sister with a mixture of awe and horror.
“Yeah. If my dad really was trying to kill you, he’d never give up without a body,” Trey added.
Zehra rolled her eyes. “Duh. I faked my own death.”
“What?” Ayaz looked so stricken, I burst out laughing. Zehra laughed too, and kissed his forehead.
“Don’t worry, dear brother. All I did was take a little vacation to the Philippines. I came back with a killer tan, a fake birth certificate, and a photo of my gravestone in a local cemetery. I feel bad about Mom and Dad finding out, but they did send me to this hellhole in the first place even after your death, so Allah can smite their asses for all I care. Plus, being dead has awesome benefits. I haven’t had to pay tax in ten years, and all my old friends back home posted super nice things on my Facebook wall.”
“Your sister is awesome,” I grinned, holding up my hand for Zehra to high five.
“She’sinsane,” Ayaz growled, wrapping his sister in another protective hug. “Don’t you two go being friends now. You’re a bad influence on each other.”
“Too late.” Zehra wrenched out of his grasp and threw her arm around me. I leaned against her shoulder and grinned.
I’d never had a girlfriend before. I hung out with a couple of the strippers at Mom’s club, but they didn’t have enough between their ears to be worth the effort. In this crazy place, I needed as many friends as I could get, and I wasn’t about to turn down a crazy Turkish chick who could teach me how to fake my own death. I hugged Zehra back.
