Steadfast(25)

Everything was a blur after that. Kendall screamed, and Mateo grabbed his phone to dial 9-1-1, and Cole began crying. Although Nadia swept him into her arms, she never took her eyes away from Riley Bender. The panic in her eyes, the gruesome smell of death, the burns that dark, tarry stuff left on the table: All of it was just like what had happened to Mrs. Purdhy, who was still in a coma at the hospital.

And if this was the same thing that had happened to Mrs. Purdhy, that meant . . .

Nadia turned to see Elizabeth standing in the doorway of La Catrina. Even as everyone else ran around in a panic, Elizabeth walked slowly through the crowd, weaving her way through the onlookers. Mateo didn’t see her—he was on his knees trying to talk to Riley while her family held her head upright so she wouldn’t choke. But it seemed to Nadia like he ought to feel Elizabeth approaching, like a chill in the air or a tremor of the earth. Cold snaked through the place behind her, around her.

“Hi, Nadia,” Elizabeth said as though nothing were going on. “Hi there, Mr. Caldani.” Her father’s face went very red, for some reason.

“What are you doing?” Nadia whispered. “Why are you doing this?”

Of course Elizabeth didn’t answer. She only stooped beside the Benders’ table, right by a smoldering puddle of the black liquid. Once again she dipped her fingers into it and painted it onto her upper arm, ignoring the searing of her own flesh. Nobody around her noticed that, or thought it was odd. As always, her magic protected her from unwelcome attention—while she was choking Riley Bender from the inside out.

Riley slumped over into the booth, unconscious. Her family’s wailing was drowned out only by the sound of ambulance sirens approaching. Elizabeth rose to her feet, and there was nothing for Nadia to do but hold on to Cole and watch her go.





9


MATEO WANTED TO ASK NADIA WHAT HAD JUST HAPPENED, but right now it was more important to keep between his father and the outraged Bender family.

“What the hell are you serving in this place?” Mr. Bender demanded. “My little girl’s on the way to the hospital right now because of you!”

“Stay calm, my friend. Stay calm.” Dad was handling the situation pretty well, in Mateo’s opinion, but it didn’t matter. Mr. Bender had lost it.

“You put, what, chemicals in the food? What?”

“Daddy, please!” Tears were streaming down Kendall’s face. “Riley didn’t eat anything. The same thing happened to our teacher at school. It’s some kind of disease.” Nobody else seemed to hear her.

“Somebody is responsible for this!” Mr. Bender yelled. It was just possible to see the panic behind his anger, but it wouldn’t matter what he was feeling if he broke Dad’s face.

“Tony, come on.” Kendall’s grandmother started pulling at Mr. Bender’s arm. “We have to go to the hospital. The ambulance is going to leave any second.” That finally seemed to get through to him, and he turned. Mateo sighed in relief; his father did the same.

Then Nadia put one hand on his shoulder. She must have just handed Cole off to her dad. “Mateo, did you see—”

The golden light behind her. The column behind her so like a tree. The fall of her hair, the expression on her face. He’d seen it before.

Mateo yanked Nadia down to the floor mere instants before Mr. Bender’s fist slammed into the column—just behind where her face had been. The paint cracked, creating a spiderweb around the brand-new dent.

“Hey, hey!” Now Mr. Caldani was furious, too. “What are you doing? That’s my daughter!”

“I—I thought—I was going for that other kid, the one who brought her the food—” Kendall’s father pulled his hand back; he’d struck the column hard enough to cut open his knuckles. If Nadia had still been standing there, she’d have suffered a black eye and a broken nose at the least, maybe even a concussion. He remembered the wet crack of bone he’d heard in his dreams and shuddered. Mateo leaned his head against her shoulder for a moment, grateful to have kept her safe. At least the curse was worth something.

“Daddy, Riley never ate anything!” Kendall wailed. “Why won’t you ever listen to me?”

Mr. Bender looked like he was in shock. Dad put one arm around Mr. Bender’s shoulders. “Listen to me, my friend. You’re not yourself. Your child’s sick. Let’s go look after her, okay? She needs you now.”

It worked. Mr. Bender finally went to the door, surrounded by his family, though he still seemed to be in a daze.

“Whoa.” Nadia slowly rose to her feet, and Mateo rose with her. “How did you know he was going to do that? Oh, wait. Was it one of your dreams?”

“Yeah. I didn’t understand it until just now.” He ran one hand through his hair. This was—not good. At all. “Did Elizabeth do this?”

“She was here. You didn’t see her, but I did.”

“Why? Why go after Kendall’s sister?”

“I still don’t know.” Nadia looked so lost, so sad, that Mateo wanted to take her into his arms.

But then her father was there, still irate at the man who had nearly hurt her, and her baby brother was sobbing. Mateo’s dad came up behind him. “We’re going to have to comp drinks and appetizers for every table,” he muttered, “just to make up for the disturbance, and if people start believing she actually ate something here that did this to her?”