The Price Guide to the Occult(22)

“They’re moving out fast,” Charlie called back. “They keep going at this rate, there won’t be anything left out here but anemones and barnacles.”

Gage swung out over the side of the boat and hauled it onto the beach by a soggy rope.

The driver of the Jeep considered Charlie’s words for a moment. “Any sharks?”

“Oh yeah, loads,” Gage said, “but they’re not preying on any of the others. They all just seem pretty fixated on getting the hell out of here.”

The Jeep driver turned to his passenger. “What do you think?”

The passenger shrugged, his back still to the shore, and spit some sunflower shells onto the rocks. “We could just ask the girl,” he finally said.

At that, Gage sneered. “What’s she going to tell us? I doubt she has a clue about what’s going on.”

The driver leaned against the Jeep, crossed his arms, and turned to Nor. “Well?” he asked her.

In an instant, all eyes were on Nor, but she was just as caught off guard as they were. She was “the girl”? “I — I don’t know!” Nor stuttered, but she did, sort of. Still, how did these strangers know to ask her why the animals were so spooked?

“No shit,” Gage said. “See, Pike? What did I tell you?”

“Why are you picking on her?” Savvy said, coming to Nor’s defense. “Go find a marine biologist and be an asshole to them, why don’t you?”

Gage gave Nor a knowing smirk before turning back to Pike. “Like I said.”

Why is this guy such an asshole? Nor thought. She glared at him, but no matter how long or how intensely she scowled, he refused to look at her. As badly as she wanted to shut him up for good, when she saw the look on Savvy’s face, she quickly decided against saying anything more. The fact that there were sea creatures all but running over one another in their haste to get away from the archipelago was alarming enough.

Pike shook his head. “Man, shut up, Gage.” He called to Charlie, still sitting in the boat: “We’ll meet you two back at the compound.”

Glowering, Gage splashed back into the water and launched himself over the side of the boat. The word Arcana had been carefully painted on the back of the wooden boat in gold swirling letters. The motor started with a rumble. Charlie squared her baseball hat, and the two Coldwaters took off, the small boat bouncing along the waves and disappearing into the dark.

“Just ignore him,” Pike said to Nor. “It’s common knowledge that our cousin is — well.” He turned to the passenger still spitting sunflower seeds into the sand. “What would you say he is, Sena Crowe?”

“He’s a dick.”

Pike laughed. “Exactly.” He swung back into the driver’s seat, and after a few false starts, the Jeep sputtered to life. “You should get back,” he called to Nor and her friends over the churning engine. “It is Halloween. Who knows what else is lurking out here in the dark.” And with that, the Jeep disappeared in another spray of sand and rocks.

Savvy spun toward Nor. “What the hell is that guy’s problem?”

Good question, Nor thought. They seemed to know more about her than she knew about them. Nor forced herself to shrug, hoping a mask of cool indifference would hide the tremor in her hands. She jammed them into the pockets of her sweater just in case. “No idea,” she said.

“Well, I’m pretty sure I hate him.” Savvy looked out at the water and shuddered. “Can we go? This is starting to give me the creeps.”

“I thought we liked things that give us the creeps,” Nor teased.

“Not this.”

“Maybe we should take the long way back,” Reed suggested, fingering the cuts on his face. “I’m not sure I’m up for more blood loss.”

Nor smiled, but she didn’t trust herself to say anything. The worrying change in the island’s wildlife — and how much the Coldwaters seemed to know about her — fluttered like a butterfly in the pit of her stomach. With everything that had happened tonight, she was afraid that if she opened her mouth that butterfly, all of her secrets, all the parts of herself she wanted to keep hidden — most especially from Reed — would come pouring out.

Reed took Nor’s hand, and she let him guide her down the beach while she tuned in to the faint cries in the water, of sea lions and a gray whale. Savvy was right. They did know something. There was something coming, something to fear. Nor wondered if the island’s residents should have been running away from Anathema Island, too.

Reed and Nor’s pace was far slower than that of Savvy and Grayson; soon, the two of them were alone, weaving their way silently along the shoreline. They reached a wide dirt road that led them up to Meandering Lane. On either side of them, beach grass glowed silver and ethereal in the moonlight. The grass moaned like a ghost in the wind — a hollow, grief-stricken sound. It chilled Nor to the bone.

The sound of voices carried over from the other side of the island. The lantern lights from the Witching Hour’s midnight tour of the cemetery moved across the black landscape like a constellation. What would happen if they actually succeeded in summoning the ghost of a Blackburn daughter? If Astrid, Judd’s mother, or Hester, the first daughter, appeared? Would they be able to tell Nor what was going on? Would they be able to protect them from whatever dark force the animals were so afraid of?