Sweet Reckoning (The Sweet Trilogy, #3)(12)

I was tired of bouncing around to different hotels every day, hanging out in their gross bars sipping Cokes so that if whisperers came I could jump into action. I was only eighteen, but I had a fake ID to buy alcohol if necessary. I was bored, lonely, and impatient, waiting for Dad to give me the thumbs-up to leave for Virginia Tech.

I was surprised to see Ginger’s number calling me that afternoon as I sat in my hotel room, reading about a swoony alien guy. Books were about the only thing that could distract my anxious mind.

“Is she with you?” Ginger asked, sounding frantic. “She” was obviously Marna.

“No.”

“Shite! She snuck off when we got stateside.”

I set down my book and sat up. “Are you here?”

“No. I’m in Newark, the armpit of the bleedin’ world. Will you find out if she’s with your friend and call me straight away?”

“Okay.”

We hung up, and I called Jay. It rang so many times I thought voice mail would pick up, but then he answered.

“What’s up?”

“Is Marna with you?” I asked.

“Um . . .” He got quiet.

“That’s a yes.” I sighed. This was not good.

I heard Marna say in the background, “Argh! Just tell my sister I’ll be back in time for our morning flight!”

“She just wanted to know where you were,” I said.

“Well, she’s suffocating me. I don’t have to answer to her.”

“Dude,” Jay said. “How can you two hear each other when the phone’s at my ear?”

We both got quiet.

“I’ll tell her she’s okay,” I said, and then hung up.

Ginger answered immediately and I told her, “She’s fine. She’s working here tonight, but she’ll be back in time for your flight in the morning.”

“Ugh!” Ginger screamed into the phone, and disconnected.

Four hours later I was sitting on a stool in a bar, playing a game on my phone and ignoring the stares from two men when Ginger called again.

“We need to meet so you can take me to them,” she said. “This has to stop.”


“You’re here? I don’t think this is a good—”

“Just meet me.” She sounded desperate.

We met in front of the superstore in Cartersville. We both stepped out of our cars into the humidity, searching the skies and crossing our arms.

“Take me to her,” Ginger demanded.

I hesitated.

“I think Marna needs to get this out of her system,” I told her. “I’m worried that the more you try to stop her, the more she’ll cling to him.”

She appeared to be barely containing her anger. “I swear, Anna. I’ll chain her up if I have to, but she is not staying another night with him. I won’t let her endanger herself for some stupid human boy.”

I took a deep breath. These were touchy circumstances. If whisperers caught Marna hooking up with a boy, just for fun and not for the purpose of making him cheat, her father would have her killed. Worse yet, the Dukes would probably make a spectacle of her death as a lesson to the other Neph about the importance of working.

“If I take you to her, will you promise to try and stay calm?”

Ginger gave me a tight smile. “I’ll be calm.”

I so did not believe that, but while I couldn’t tell her how to deal with her sister, I could tell her how to deal with my best friend.

“I can’t have you yelling at Jay. He doesn’t understand.”

“Fine.”

“All right. Let’s go.”

I took us to Jay’s house and texted him from the gravel driveway to let him know we were there. I didn’t want to walk in on anything.

Ginger followed me in, wearing a face of stone.

Jay opened his bedroom door as we came down the hall. He wore jeans and was pulling a shirt over his head. I opened my senses to feel the anxious confusion in his gray aura.

“What’s going on?” he asked, looking back and forth between us.

“It’s hard to explain, Jay,” I said.

His guardian angel stood close, protective as ever.

Ginger never stopped moving, so Jay stepped out of her way and we all went into his room. Marna sat on the bed with one of Jay’s pillows on her lap. Something about her seemed . . . off. I couldn’t put my finger on it. I searched the room, wondering where the strange vibe was coming from.

Jay walked over and stood next to Marna, who gave her sister a defiant stare as Ginger’s sharp eyes went from Marna to Jay, and back to Marna.

Oh man. She did not look happy. The twins could sense romantic bonds between people—everything from attraction to love and marriage. Was that what was happening to me? I’d never sensed bonds between people before, but I couldn’t place the awareness I was experiencing.

“I’m sorry,” Jay said. “But I don’t see what the big deal is. We’re both adults. We’re just . . . hanging out.”

“Just hanging out?” Ginger asked sweetly. “Not falling in love?”

My heart kicked with surprise. Was that what she saw between them? But . . . he’d just been in a relationship with Veronica! I felt light-headed. This was so like Jay to let his heart be snatched up by another so quickly.