Lux (The Nocte Trilogy, #3)(14)
I see terrible
Terrible
Things.
Finn stares at me dubiously.
“Are you sure?”
I pause.
Then I grudgingly pull the two colorful pills out of my pocket.
He glares at me. “Take them. Right now or I’m telling mom.”
When I don’t rush to do it, he adds, “Or I’ll tell Grandmother.”
That threat bears weight, and he knows it. I hurry to get a drink of water, and I swallow the pills while he watches.
“You know better, Calla,” he chides me, sounding more like a parent than a brother.
I nod. Because I do.
“They taste bad,” I offer by way of explanation.
“That’s no excuse.”
“What isn’t?”
Our mother breezes into the library, red-headed and beautiful, slim and glamorous. If I’m lucky, I’ll look just like her some day.
“Nothing,” I hurry and tell her.
She seems suspicious, but she’s in too much of a hurry to ask again.
“Have you seen Adair?” she asks us both. “Your uncle is looking for him.”
We both shake our heads, but Finn is the only one telling the truth. I’d rather die than tell that monster where Dare is.
“What does uncle Dickie want with Dare?” I ask her as she turns to leave.
She pauses, her face drawn and tight. “It’s grown-up stuff, Calla Lily. Don’t fret about it.”
But of course I do.
Because every time Uncle Richard finds Dare, I hear screaming.
And even though you’d think that was the worst part, it’s not.
The worst part is when the screaming stops.
Because silence hides an abundance of sins.
That’s what my mom says.
And she’s always right.
At least, that’s what my dad says.
At dinner, I mention my dad.
“I miss him,” I tell my mom. “Why doesn’t he ever come with us in the summers?”
She sighs and pats my hand before picking up her shrimp fork.
“He does, Calla. You know that. He’ll be here for the last couple of weeks, just like he always is.”
“But why do we come here every year?” I ask again, and I feel stupid, but it’s a good question. Every summer, year after year. Dad has to stay home in Oregon to work, but we get to come here because mom’s family is rich.
“Because Whitley is also our home, and we have to,” my mom says tiredly. “And because of the Savage name, you have opportunities. The best doctors, the best of everything. But we have to spend summers here to get that. You already know all of this, Calla. I have to make sacrifices for you, Calla. Just appreciate that.”
I do.
I do appreciate that. I don’t understand it, but I appreciate it.
What I don’t want to tell her is that sometimes, what I know blends with what I don’t. It twists and turns and bends, turning into shapes that I can’t recognize. Facts blend with dreams, and dreams blend with memories, and then reality isn’t real.
I always feel too silly to ask anyone but Finn what is real and what is not.
They’d think I’m crazy.
I’m not.
Dare kicks me lightly beneath the table and I glance at him quickly.
He grins, his familiar, ornery grin and I love it. Because it always seems like he’s daring me when he smiles.
Daring me to…what?
He leans over.
“I’m going to the garden tonight after dark. Wanna come?”
I hesitate.
It’s dark out there. And the moors. And at night, they growl.
Dare notices my hesitation.
“Are you scared?” he whispers mockingly.
No, of course not. I shake my head. Accusing someone of being scared is the worst insult possible, I think.
He smiles again.
“Then sneak out and meet me at midnight. You know Finn will be surrounding himself with his Latin books. I know you won’t want to join that.”
No, of course I don’t. Latin annoys me, but Finn has developed a fascination for it, and spends every free second studying it.
“You know you want to,” Dare adds.
“Fine,” I agree, trying to sound grudging, but chills run up and down my arms in anticipation, because what does he want to do out there in the dark?
He’s so… rebellious. It’s hard to say.
True to my word, I sneak out of my bedroom and slip out of the house at midnight. I run as fast as I can down the paths because I swear there’s something chasing me.
Something dark,
Something scary.
But when I glance over my shoulder,
There’s never anything there.
I burst through the garden gates, and Dare is already here.
He smiles, and his teeth are pearls in the night.
“Hey,” he greets me casually, like it’s not midnight and we’re not breaking rules.
“You’re not supposed to leave the house,” I remind him.
He shrugs. Because he’s Dare and he’s a rule-breaker. “So?”
It’s a challenge and I don’t address it. Mainly because I don’t have a good answer.
I don’t know why he’s not supposed to leave the house. It’s never made any sense to me. It’s not fair. But then again, Uncle Richard has never been fair to Dare.