She gave me that look she always did when I knew she wanted to hug me. “I’ll still be your friend, even in the city, you know? I’m like a leech; once I grab on, you can never get rid of me.”
“Did you just willingly call yourself a leech?”
“Yep,” she said, leaning into me. We stared up at the starry night for a long time before she added, “Everything’s going to work out, you know?”
I let out a long breath, forcing the tension to release from my shoulders. Goddess, it really, really didn’t feel like it. “I wish I could be as sure as you are.”
Iris considered me for a long moment, took a swig from the bottle, then passed it back to me. “Have you any proof it won’t?”
“What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. Do you have any proof that life won’t work itself out the way it should?”
“I . . . I guess not. But that doesn’t mean that good things are waiting for me.”
“As your wise older sister, I have to tell you that there are many versions of the future out there. And any number of them could be good or happy. You just have to decide which one you want the most.”
Her words played out before me: what my life might look like if I went to New York alone or with Gwen. What it might be like if I stayed in Maple Hollow for another year . . .
My stomach knotted, and I knew why.
One more year would lead to two, then another two for Gwen to finish her summer camp responsibilities. By then, it would betoo painful to ask her to leave with me, to tear her away from the family she would surely build inside the coven. I knew how hard it would be to leave because it was killing me to think about it. And the thought of leaving was just as painful as the thought of never leaving at all. To never unfurl my wings and fly solo, even for a short time. I couldn’t bear the thought, and I was starting to think there would be no ending this summer without my heart breaking.
26
Gwen
Dagmar sent us all back to our bunks to rest and celebrate our wins for the day: Ivy had beaten out everyone in Astrid’s gang in rock climbing, while Faith and Celeste would be taking up two spaces in the canoeing and 200-meter swim sections of the relay. I’d never had close enough friends to be proud of, and that fact hit me like a ton of bricks when we got back to our cabin.
Ivy retrieved a big bag of Reese’s Halloween-shaped designs from her trunk and dumped them on Celeste’s bedspread. “I was saving these for a special occasion!” Then, she unwrapped a misshapen white chocolate ghost and shoved the whole thing in her mouth.
Her eyes rolled back as she savored the confection. While the food at camp was much better than any high-school lunchroom I’d ever been in, the nutrition team was heavy on the fruits-for-dessert trend. The sweetest thing I’d had in weeks was a fresh fruit juice popsicle.
“I see your chocolate peanut butter medley and raise you Swedish Fish.” Celeste grabbed the second pillow from her bunk, and out tumbled hundreds of snack-sized bags of gummy fish.
“Woah.” Faith’s eyes went wide over the pile. “I’m not complaining, but I have a lot of questions.”
Celeste shrugged. “My mom said having snacks was a good way of making friends.”
“She was right,” I said, snatching up a package and realizing I’d been hearing the familiar crinkle in the middle of the night. “Now I know who to wake up if I need a midnight snack.”
“You mean before you sneak out?” She scrunched up her nose, and I clutched my metaphorical pearls.
“I donotsneak out!” I exaggerated the words but knew I was caught. “I just like to take nighttime strolls every once in a while.”
“Alone?” Faith squinted at me, and I felt a pang of guilt.
Ivy pointed a chocolate bat wing at Faith. “Don’t act like you haven’t snuck away for some fresh air in the moonlight.”
“I’m part vampire!” Faith’s shriek turned into a fit of giggles when Celeste threw a handful of candy at her. “Fine. Fine. There’s . . . a guy across the lake.”
My jaw dropped. And by the looks on Ivy and Celeste’s faces, they didn’t have a clue either. Our sweet, innocent, seminocturnal friend was living a double life right under our noses.
What were the odds?
Faith’s unusually pale face pinkened. “We’ve only talked. It’s nothing.”
While she didn’t look as undead as the other vampires I’d seen in movies, it was odd seeing her porcelain skin flush with color.
