Eerie (32 page)

Hailey stood speechless.

“Anyway,” he continued, dropping her hands, “I'm sorry I told the team I slept with you. I told them all the truth—that I lied about you. They told me I was an idiot. And I know I am.”

He leaned closer, searching her eyes.

“I'm sorry I was an ass. God, I'm so sorry I hurt you.

“You know, if I'd heard another guy say those things about you that I said about you, I would have sent his face home in a box.” Fin raised an open palm as he shrugged and shook his head.

Hailey opened her mouth to say something—she didn't know what, but before she could utter a syllable, Fin walked into his room and shut his door. And he took her puck with him.

As Hailey lay in bed that night, she called to her roommate. “Giselle,” she said softly. “Are you sleeping?”

“Yes,” her roommate droned, but she hadn't yet gone to the ceiling.

Hailey sat up. “Giselle, how do you know if someone loves you?”

“Did he give you the hockey puck?” Giselle was on her bed, talking into her pillow, and Hailey didn't know how Giselle knew about the hockey puck. Her super-banshee senses never ceased to amaze her.

“Um . . .no. He had it in his hand, but he didn't give it to me.”

“He loves you right now,” she said in a monotone.

“What? How do you know? What do you mean ‘right now'?”

“The hockey puck, dumbass.”

“Oh.” Hailey said nodding, and then she shook her head. “I don't understand.”

Giselle sat straight up and glared across the room at her. “He didn't give you the hockey puck, because he didn't want that idiotic trinket to undermine what he'd just said to you. His words were important to him. If he just wanted to get in your pants, he would've given you the hockey puck and said goodnight.”

Hailey's mouth fell open.

“Do you love him?”

“I . . .I don't know.”

“If you love him, go and ask for your hockey puck tomorrow. If you don't, then don't ever talk to him again.”

She rolled back into her pillow and added in a muffled voice, “I wouldn't talk to him again if I were you. His love won't last. All men are scum.”

That was Giselle's motto.

“I don't really care about the hockey puck,” said Hailey.

Giselle shot up again. “Neither does he,” she barked. “It's just a token—a metaphor incarnate . . .”

Hailey shrugged.

“Don't you see? The puck is in his hand. It might as well be his beating heart. You love him? You want him? Go and get the puck,” she yelled, and she threw an empty cup at Hailey's head then buried herself in her blankets again.

Hailey dodged the cup, which smacked the wall behind her.

“Thanks, Giselle,” she said as she snuggled into her bed. She had a lot of thinking to do.

“You do have a lot to think about,” came Giselle's muffled voice. “Start with why you're
really
angry with Pádraig. It's not because you feel humiliated, because you don't. I'm betting it's because he's not strong enough to stop Asher from ripping your soul out.”

Hailey pulled her covers to her chin.

Giselle made a fair point. If she wasn't so wrapped up with Asher and his insane jealousy, she'd be head over heels for Fin. Maybe she already was. For sure she wouldn't be mad at him, though.

Because she'd be dead.

Asher would never protect her from Cobon if she chose Fin. In fact, if Asher ever suspected that she was in love with Fin, he might even kill her himself. And she shuddered to think what he would do to Fin.

And Fin couldn't do a thing to stop him. He was no match for an Envoy.

“You know,” Hailey called out over her blankets, “if this whole ‘banshee' thing doesn't work out for you, you should consider a career in counseling. You have remarkable insight.”

Hailey sighed and closed her eyes. “But you should definitely stay away from motivational speaking,” she added, and as she drifted to sleep, she thought she heard Giselle giggle.

Chapter Thirty-Four

The White Forest

“It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.”

- Henry David Thoreau

For her term project, Giselle needed to collect at least five snow embers from the White Forest to brew her latest experimental batch of carnivorous splinter salve—a new balm, which would incinerate a flesh-eating splinter without damaging the surrounding tissue. Very proudly, she'd informed Hailey that Professor Starr was beside himself with excitement over it. It would bear the Indispensable name and no doubt be a big seller.

With their Indispensable Yeti Spray, Tree Repellant, and Magnoggles, the girls headed out fully prepared for any White Forest hazard they might encounter and fully hoping to catch the Northern Lights.

Hailey's nerves were on high alert as the snow-covered trail crunched under her feet. Stepping nervously under the White Forest Gate and reeking of Tree Repellant, she wielded her can of Yeti spray with her finger on the trigger.

“Relax, spaz,” Giselle said. “You'll scare away the snow embers.”

“I've got our six,” Hailey answered, walking backwards.

“Uh-oh,” Giselle muttered, and Hailey jumped out of her skin.

“What? Is it a man-eating tree?” She hugged Giselle's arm.

“Worse,” she said flatly. “It's Pádraig.”

“Ladies . . .” he said, bowing cordially as they approached him on the trail.

He carried a bulging military-sized backpack.

“What are you doing here?” Hailey said nervously.

“Feeding the animals.” He flashed his sardonic smile.

“Jaycen,” Giselle said to Hailey with a nudge.

“Oh.”

Hailey pushed some snow around with her boot. Not even talk of Jaycen could push the image of that stupid puck from her head. There was no way she could ask for it though. Not without sounding like a total loser, and Fin was leaving anyway.

“See you guys arou—”

“I want my puck.”

Hailey bit her lips together. Not the most eloquent way to ask, but at least the words were out.

Fin scrambled to open his bag, and Giselle smirked as she bent to gather the last of her snow embers.

“I've been carrying this with me everywhere,” he said as he produced a black object on bended knee.

“You really never gave anyone a puck before?” Hailey brushed her fingertips against it.
Oh, how she wanted that damn puck. But Asher will kill him—and me.

She pulled her hand back.

“I can't accept this.” Her heart plummeted into her stomach. “Asher's . . .” She frowned and puffed out a cloud of white breath. “I'm with Asher.”

Fin studied her right eye then her left, and he wrapped her hand around the puck.

“It's not a ring,” he said, standing. “It's just a hockey puck.”

As Hailey pressed the puck to her chest, Giselle pointed skyward.

“Hey lovebirds,” she called, pulling out her Magnoggles, “Northern Lights.”

Lifting her gaze, Hailey gasped.

The sky was . . .unreal.

“It's like God dunked a great feather into an ink well of pulsing iridescence and dragged it across the sky.” Hailey turned to Fin, eyes wide with excitement, and for the first time she noticed how bright his eyes were. Brown and bright and warm and . . .safe. She blinked a few times before shoving the puck in her coat pocket and pulling on her goggles.

While Fin oooh'ed and Giselle ahhh'ed, Hailey didn't see diddly-squat and huffed loudly.

“They're beautiful, but they don't look any different with these things at all.”

Shaking his head, Fin reached over and clicked a switch near her temple.

“It helps if you turn them on.”

“Whoa . . .” she breathed. “This is . . .it's a slow-motion, glowing electron cloud . . .and they're making shapes—is that a rose?”

Giselle answered nicely for a change. “They look different to everyone through Magnoggles. Some say you see what's in your heart . . .” Her voice trailed off.

Both Hailey and Fin turned to stare at the banshee.

“What?” Giselle spat. “I'm sure it's just bullshit.”

“What did you see?” Hailey asked her.

Giselle hesitated.

“Something I've never seen before,” she said simply.

“You see a rose?” said Fin to Hailey with a knowing grin.

“Yeah,” she answered. “But now it's . . .it kinda looks like . . .”

Fin
—it looked like Fin. Hailey turned away.

“What do you see?” she asked him.

“Heaven,” he answered without elaborating, and the three lay in the snow and marveled at the sky for nearly an hour before Hailey shivered.

“It's getting cold out here.” She stood when the wind picked up.

“It's not that cold,” Fin said.

“You have a layer of man-hair keeping you warm.”

“Then your legs should be nice and toasty,” he taunted.

“I'll have you know,” she said grabbing his arm and turning him to face her, “I actually shave . . .now that I have a razor . . .” She gave him a “so there” raise of the eyebrows, stuck her nose in the air, and pushed ahead of him on the trail.

“I'll never know,” he said to her back. “You're with Asher, remember?”

“Can you believe she wants to be with that monster?” he said to Giselle, and Hailey glanced over her shoulder.

Giselle shook her head. “Nobody wants to be with a monster,” she told him, “especially not a harbinger of death.”

“Aw . . .but you're not a harbinger of death . . . You're just a big, fat nothing,” he said sweetly, patting her gently on the head. “And someday, somebody just as pathetically ordinary is going to see that.” Fin used his best mother's voice and squeezed her cheek for good measure.

Giselle shot him a sharp look then her face fell. “Trees,” she said grimly, and the forest jittered to life. “Let's get out of here before one of those things eats Hailey!”

“I thought you couldn't sense death coming,” said Hailey, who stood frozen on the path just ahead of them.

“You don't have to be a banshee to recognize a slobbering tree.” She and Fin raced to her side.

“Well, why did you say
my
name? Why shouldn't we get out of here before one of them eats Fin?”

“Old meat,” she said, grabbing Hailey's hand and yanking her out of the path of a small and very spry scrub spruce, which karate-somersaulted in front of them.

“Ankle biter!” Hailey called as another sapling appeared on the trail and took a snap at her foot. Giselle kicked it aside just as a low rumble shook the ground, which sent the man-eating trees scurrying away.

Hailey looked to Fin. “T-Rex?” she asked exasperated, and he threw a somber look at Giselle.

“This is not normal,” he said backing away from a menacing snarl that was growing louder, and Giselle bared her teeth.

“Yeti,” she growled, and Hailey grabbed up her Yeti spray, holding it out like a shield as the three pressed themselves together.

“Where's it coming from?” Hailey asked.

“There's more than one,” Giselle snarled.

The rumble stopped, and the White Forest fell dead silent.

“This isn't good,” said Fin with wide eyes. “Giselle, they've got us flanked. Wait for them to show themselves. When you see an out, take it. I'll distract them—you just get her out of here.”

Giselle nodded obediently, yanking all three of them out of the way when a giant cottonwood crashed down.

A blinding whirlwind of snow followed, and a gargantuan white blob thundered forth. Hailey blasted it with Yeti spray.

Unfazed, the Yeti made a swipe at them, and Hailey dove out of the way, still clutching her can of utter uselessness. She glared at the container then threw it at the monster's face.

That seemed to enrage the beast.

When it lunged at Hailey's head, Fin pushed her to the ground, taking a slap from the Yeti's giant paw, which batted him across the trail.

“Get her out of here!” he shouted.

Hailey rolled over in time to see the Yeti grab Fin up with both hands and tear him in half, throwing his torso one way and his legs another.

“No!” she shrieked.

Giselle pulled her to her feet. “Let's go!” she yelled, throwing Hailey over her shoulders.

She took off in a dead sprint.

The trees flew past in a snowy blur as Giselle hurdled over the downed cottonwood and galloped down the trail, holding Hailey tight.

“What about Fin?” Hailey cried as they came out of the White Forest.

Giselle dropped her on the ground and glared.

“What about him?”

“Giselle! He's still out there!”

“I doubt it,” she said emotionless. “The Yeti would have eaten him by now . . .and I don't think he'll heal from that,” she scoffed. Then she must have seen Hailey's look of horror. “You should be thankful,” she said crisply. “Now you don't have to decide who to love.”

“We can't just leave him out there!” Hailey yelled, pushing past her.

Giselle grabbed her arm and dragged her toward Eureka Hall.

“Yes,” she said sharply. “We can, and we will. If I let you run back out there like the idiot you are, those Yetis will snatch you up in an instant, and then Asher would blame me.”

Giselle kept a firm grip on her.

“Giselle, we have to help him!”

“Listen,” she said impatiently. “If by some miracle Pádraig survived, I'm sure in a month or two, he'll track down all his parts, wiggle them together, and once again grace us with his presence.”

“Really?” Hailey sobbed.

“I hope not. I can't stand him.”

Hailey spent all night clutching her hockey puck and blowing her nose.

A little after midnight, Giselle stirred. “Don't even think about it,” she grunted from the ceiling when Hailey reached for her shoes.

By morning, Hailey's face was swollen and blotchy. Her throat was raw and her stomach had tied itself shut. Robotically, and with her eyes a slit, she grabbed her shampoo and bathrobe and headed for the shower. For several minutes, she let the water pound over her face before she punched the faucet off and donned her robe.

When she emerged, a familiar Russian voice echoed down the hallway. Alexei, the goalie maybe?

“Yes, eets tonight at Cheenook,” he yelled over his shoulder as he headed for the stairs. “See you ullater!” he called as he left.

Hailey tiptoed down the hall, and when she reached the corner, she held her breath.