Page 27
Calista drops her hand from Wayne.
“Hey, Verne,” Wayne says.
Verne’s attention shifts past them to me. “Who’s your visitor, Calista?”
She sighs like she’s exhausted by the very idea of me. “This is Zaiya. Zaiya, this is Verne.”
His smile wavers as he looks me over. “Can I help you find anything today?”
“We’re looking for clothes,” Calista says, walking off without glancing his way.
“Got some new pieces for the ladies in yesterday.” Verne directs his attention to Wayne. “Nothing in your size, I’m afraid.”
I follow after Calista when she looks back at me expectantly.
We wander between racks of clothing while fluorescent lights drain the color from everything around us. Dust floats in the stale air. When I check behind me, Verne hasn’t stopped watching or smiling. The attention is more eerie than welcoming. I shift behind a wooden support beam, though his attention follows me.
“When did you move here?” I ask, brushing my fingers over the sleeve of a faded blue dress.
“Last year,” she says. “My family took over for the minister who left. His daughter killed herself.” Her casual voice makes tragedy seem like background noise here.
She looks at Wayne and smirks. “I thought it would suck, but then I found him. He’s literally the only good thing about this place. Well, not the only good thing. There’s Ophidia, but other than that? Literally nothing.”
“What’s Ophidia?”
Her grin sharpens. “A club at the top of The Cirrus Hotel. Pure sex. It’s actually crazy that it’s in a town like this, but whatever. I guess it gives all the freaks somewhere to go and fuck their brains out.”
Heat rises in my cheeks. I’ve read about clubs like that in books, where people touched each other without shame. But that was fantasy. Knowing it’s a real place makes my stomach tighten in a strange ache.
I pretend to examine the blouse in front of me, but the name Ophidia makes me pause.
My fingers slide beneath the neckline of my shirt and brush the medallion. I shouldn’t ask, but I don’t have anywhere else to turn.
“Do you guys know anything about the Serpents?” I ask.
Calista freezes mid-motion, her eyes narrowing. “What do you know about them?”
“Nothing,” I admit. “I’m supposed to find them.”
She looks at me warily, as though I’ve accidentally spoken a secret in the wrong place.
Then her mouth twists into a smirk as she drapes another top over Wayne’s arm. “Of course the virgin was sent to them.”
Wayne lowers his voice. “You gotta be careful who you ask.” He checks the counter where Verne still watches us with the same placid smile. “They kinda run this town.”
“Oh, come on. The only thing they run is Ophidia.” Calista shoves hangers across the rack. “They lure girls there to fuck them. It’s basically a sex cult.”
A small frown pulls at my mouth. That can’t be right. My brother wouldn’t send me to a sex cult for help. Whatever secrets he kept from me, I can’t imagine him tangled up in something so ugly.
But doubt slips in anyway.
“Are you sure?” I pull the medallion from under my shirt. It swings from the chain, glinting under the harsh lights. “Does this have anything to do with them?”
Calista gasps and grabs it from my fingers, tugging the chain tight around my neck as she drags it closer.
“I knew a girl who got one of these back in May,” she says. Then she looks to Wayne for confirmation. “Daisy?”
“Dahlia.” His eyes dart again to the man sitting behind the counter.
