Spells for Forgetting(99)

“August!”

Somewhere, in the flood of racing thoughts, the sound of my name found me. It was ragged and broken.

Jake stilled, his eyes widening before he turned, looking back to the wall of darkness. Across the meadow, the house was still illuminated in Bernard’s headlights, but a figure moved toward us. Fast. No, two figures.

I didn’t see her until the clouds drifted and the moonlight touched her face.

Emery.





Fifty-Nine


    EMERY


“Shit.”

My dad’s voice was a grating whisper as the house on Wilke’s Pointe came into view. The windows were lit and Bernard Keller’s car was parked out front, its lights on.

The truck slowed as Dad hit the brake and Bernard appeared in the open doorway of the house, eyes wide as they shot into the darkness, toward the water. I followed his gaze, turning in my seat until I saw what he was looking at.

They were ink-black silhouettes against the night sky.

Jake. Beside him, August stood at the edge of the crumbling rock that abruptly dropped to the beach far below.

“Oh my God.” I breathed, reaching for the door handle. I slid out of the truck before it had even stopped. Then I was running.

“August!” I shouted, my throat burning. But the sound of my voice was swallowed by the wind.

My dad’s boots hit the earth behind me and I tore through the tall grass, the scream trapped in my throat.

“August!”

When I saw the glint of moonlight hit the gun in Jake’s hand, I gasped, slowing. August’s hands were in the air, the side of his face covered in blood. It soaked his shirt at the shoulder.

“What the hell are you doing?” I stared at my uncle in shock.

“You shouldn’t be here.” Another voice sounded and I turned to see Leoda standing behind me.

I looked between them, unable to put it together. None of this made sense. “What is this?”

My dad appeared at my side, the rifle tucked under his arm. But he didn’t look confused. He knew exactly what was going on.

“How could you bring her here?” Jake spat, his furious gaze fixed on his brother. My uncle stood like stone, fingers clamped tight on his gun.

“You both need to leave. Now,” Leoda said calmly. She took a step toward me, her silver hair dancing around her face in the wind. The angles of her usually rosy cheeks made her look like a skeleton.

I lifted a hand toward August. “Come on.”

But he didn’t move, looking to Jake.

“He’s not going anywhere.” Leoda watched me with glistening eyes.

Dad took a careful step forward. “We’re not leaving unless August is coming with us.”

“I can’t let you do that,” Jake answered.

“This isn’t like before, Jake.” My dad’s voice changed, the words slowing.

Something unspoken passed between them, and Jake hesitated. His eyes jumped back and forth between my dad and me before he lifted the gun, pointing it at August’s chest.

I shot forward, throwing myself in front of him, and Jake instantly froze, the gun tipping down.

“Get the fuck out of the way, Emery!” he shouted.

“Emery”—August’s unsteady voice was at my back—“move.”

I could hear my dad cocking the rifle in the dark, the sound of Leoda’s voice rising. But I didn’t take my eyes from Jake’s.

“Whatever is happening here, it doesn’t matter.” I shook my head. “Just let us leave.”

In the distance, a pair of headlights bounced in the trees and I watched as Bernard’s car disappeared.

“We don’t have time for this.” Footsteps moved toward me and Leoda suddenly appeared beside Jake. She reached up, wrenching the gun from his grasp. “If you can’t do it, I will.”

August’s hands took hold of my jacket and he shoved back, sending me stumbling into the grass. By the time I got back to my feet, Leoda had the gun trained on him again.

Behind her, my dad lifted his rifle higher. “You pull that trigger, and I pull mine.”

“You think I give a shit about dying?” Leoda scoffed. “I’m an old woman, Noah. I was born on this island to do one thing, and I’m going to do it.”

In the time it took me to draw another breath, the pieces clicked together.

The orchard.

The Salts.

Lily.

“We have the will!” I stammered, searching for the only thing I had to grab hold of. “A lawyer on the mainland has it.”

That made her pause. She looked from me to August.

“If anything happens to him, this will come out. All of it.”

I’d never seen Leoda the way I saw her now as she stood there in the dark—a hollow husk with icy blue eyes.

I’d always thought of her as a kind of grandmother. Everyone did. She’d brought most of us into the world, watched our first breaths of this life. Now I wondered if she’d watched any take their last, too.

“You left it open, didn’t you?” I said, realizing it.

Leoda’s eyes snapped up, finding mine.

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“The last time you saw Lily wasn’t at the graduation.” My own voice sounded unfamiliar in my ears.