“Three days,” I repeated as gently as I could.
Alice’s eyes went glassy again, but this time with panic. “Three days?” she whispered. “But that means, oh.”
She slapped a hand over her mouth, then doubled over, elbows on the table. The napkin dropped to the floor, a mangled wreck.
Henry tightened his grip on her shoulder. “Alice, you’re okay. We’ve got you. You’re here now.”
She took a few breaths, fighting for control.
Alice finally raised her head. “I don’t care what happened to me,” she said, and her voice didn’t shake this time. “We need to find her. Grandma’s still out there. I know it.”
Beth nodded like a member of the Loyalty Olympics. “If she’s out there, we’ll find her.”
Daniel stood up and started clearing dishes, one hand on his hip. “If she’s in the woods, we’ll need to move fast. Whatever did this,” he gestured at Alice, at the cabin, at the whole disaster we were living, “might come back.”
I felt the weird electric pull of the karma magic in my chest. That sense of cosmic debt, like the world owed Alice something, and it was using me to pay up.
I reached for Alice’s hand, squeezed it, and said what I already believed, “We are going to find her.”
Henry touched her hair, smoothing it back, then started making a list aloud. “Water. Trail mix. Bandages. Rain jackets. Maps.”
Beth got up and started hunting through the cupboards, tossing granola bars into a pile on the counter. Daniel filled water bottles and lined them up.
I fished out a battered first aid kit from above the fridge and checked what was inside. Gauze, tape, the world’s tiniest bottle of iodine, band-aids sporting cartoon bears.
Alice watched, brow furrowed, but didn’t object when Henry dug through the tiny closet and produced a jacket thick enough for a trip to Antarctica. He helped her into it, fussing over her hood and zipper like the overbearing fiancé of the year.
Under the table, Alice balled her fists to stop the shivering. She looked like a lost kid at Disneyland, but when she stood, she did it with her chin up and her jaw set.
I got her some gloves, jammed her hands inside, and zipped the jacket tight.
By the time we were ready, the kitchen looked like an REI store had exploded in it. Three water bottles per person, a backpack of snacks, and enough flashlights to blind a small army. Henry even found a whistle and looped it around Alice’s neck, “just in case.”
Beth checked the compass one more time and slipped it into her pocket. Daniel was sniffing Alice’s grandmother’s pillow, getting her scent the best he could, even though we’d mostly be depending on Alice’s powers. I stuffed the first aid kit and a roll of duct tape into my bag, because nothing said “prepared” like a roll of duct tape.
At the door, the sun sprayed golden lines across the floor, banding us all in stripes of nervous optimism. It was way too early for bravery, but sometimes you had to fake it.
Daniel opened the door and paused, one hand braced on the frame. “Ready?” he asked.
Nobody answered.
We just piled out onto the porch, Alice tucked between Henry and me, Beth leading the way with the compass steady, and her jaw squared off at the trees.
The woods glittered with dew and menace. Every branch held its own secrets, but we were coming for them anyway.
This was family business now.
And God help whatever got in our way.
NINETEEN
Emma
I once read about women who could find water with a willow stick and never believed it. If you’d asked me whether some people have a built-in radar for trouble, I’d have said yes, but the stick thing was out of my realm. Following Daniel through that part of the woods made me reconsider. He led with his chin, broad shoulders hunched like he expected a punch in the face from the scenery itself, and yet he kept going, deeper, faster, off-trail.
My thighs ached by the second mile, and I had begun to suspect that Beth was either too winded to complain or too scared to speak. The air had gone soft and heavy, each breath a little harder to catch. Trees grew closer together, thick pines and poplar with lichen as big as palms. Daniel’s boots thudded in rhythm with my pulse. Beth’s huffing kept time behind me, while Alice, whose little legs should’ve lagged, practically jogged at Daniel’s side.
“This is weird. Isn’t this weird?” Beth finally croaked.
