Beautiful Creatures(59)

The knot that was building in the pit of my stomach tightened. I was angry at Amma, angrier than I’d ever been at her in my whole life, but I still loved her. She was the one who had left letters from the Tooth Fairy under my pillow, bandaged every scraped knee, thrown me thousands of pitches when I wanted to try out for Little League. And since my mom died and my dad checked out, Amma was the only one who looked out for me, who cared or even noticed if I skipped school or lost a game. I wanted to believe she had an explanation for all of this.

“You just don’t understand her. She thinks she’s… ”

“What? Protecting you? Like my uncle is trying to protect me? Did you ever consider that maybe they’re both trying to protect us from the same thing… me?”

“Why do you always go there?”

She walked away from me, like she would take off if she could. “Where else is there to go? That’s what this is about. They’re afraid I’ll hurt you or someone else.”

“You’re wrong. This is about the locket. There’s something they don’t want us to know.” I dug around in my pocket, searching for the familiar shape underneath the handkerchief. After last night, there was no way I was letting it out of my sight. I was sure Amma was going to look for it today, and if she found it we’d never see it again. I laid it on the hood of the car. “We need to find out what happens next.”

“Now?”

“Why not?”

“You don’t even know if it’ll work.”

I started to unwrap it. “There’s only one way to find out.”

I grabbed her hand, even as she tried to yank it away. I touched the smooth metal— The morning light turned brighter and brighter until it was all I could see. I felt the familiar rush that had taken me back a hundred and fifty years. Then a jolt. I opened my eyes. But instead of the muddy field and flames in the distance, all I saw was the shadow of the water tower and the hearse. The locket hadn’t shown us anything.

“Did you feel that? It started, and then it cut off.”

She nodded, pushing me away. “I think I’m carsick, or whatever kind of sick you’d call it.”

“Are you blocking it?”

“What are you talking about? I’m not doing anything.”

“Swear? You aren’t using your Caster powers, or something?”

“No, I’m too busy trying to deflect your Power of Stupidity. But I don’t think I’m strong enough.”

It didn’t make sense, just pulling us in and then kicking us out of the vision like that. What was different? Lena reached over, folding the handkerchief over the locket. The dirty leather bracelet Amma had given Macon caught my eye.

“Take that thing off.” I looped my finger under the string, lifting the bracelet and her arm to eye level.

“Ethan, it’s for protection. You said Amma makes these kinds of things all the time.”

“I don’t think so.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying, maybe that thing is the reason the locket doesn’t work.”

“It doesn’t work all the time, you know that.”

“But it was starting to, and something stopped it.”

She shook her head, wild curls brushing her shoulder. “Do you honestly believe that?”

“Prove me wrong. Take it off.”

She looked at me like I was crazy, but she was thinking about it. I could tell.

“If I’m wrong, you can put it back on.”

She hesitated for a second, then gave me her arm so I could untie it. I loosened the knot and put the charm in my pocket. I reached for the locket, and she put her hand on mine.

I closed my hand around it, and we spun out into nothing— The rain began almost immediately. Hard rain, a downpour. Like the sky just opened up. Ivy had always said the rain was God’s tears. Today Genevieve believed it. It was only a few feet, but Genevieve couldn’t get there fast enough. She knelt down next to Ethan and cradled his head in her hands. His breathing was ragged. He was alive.

“No, no, not that boy, too. You take too much away. Too much. Not this boy, too.” Ivy’s voice reached a fever pitch and she started to pray.

“Ivy, get help. I need water and whiskey and somethin’ to remove the bullet.”

Genevieve pressed the wadded material from her skirt into the hole Ethan’s chest had filled just a few moments before.

“I love you. And I would’ve married you, no matter what your family thought,” he whispered.

“Don’t say that, Ethan Carter Wate. Don’t you say that like you’re going to die. You’re gonna be just fine. Just fine,” she repeated, trying to convince herself as much as him.

Genevieve closed her eyes and concentrated. Flowers blooming. Newborn babies crying. The sun rising.

Birth, not death.

She pictured the images in her mind, willing it to be so. The images ran in a loop over and over in her mind.

Birth, not death.

Ethan choked. She opened her eyes, and their eyes met. For an instant, time seemed to stop. Then, Ethan’s eyes closed, and his head rolled to one side.

Genevieve closed her eyes again, visualizing the images. It had to be a mistake. He couldn’t be dead.

She had summoned her power. She had done it a million times before, moving objects in her mother’s kitchen to play tricks on Ivy, healing baby birds that had fallen from their nests.