Ominous (2 page)

“Where?”

“Back to campus,” she said impatiently. “Personally, I don’t feel like wasting any more of my time up here.”

“You’re not gonna take this with you?” I asked, gesturing at the book.

She rolled her eyes and popped one hip. “Do I
look
like Sabrina the Teenage Witch?”

I clucked my tongue. “No, but your grandmother … our grandmother …,” I said hesitantly. I’d only just found out that Noelle and I were half sisters—that her dad was my biological father—and the words weren’t exactly rolling off my tongue. “She wanted us to find it. Maybe there’s more to it than you think. Maybe there’s … I don’t know … something in there she wants us to read.”

“Fine then.” She slid the book off the podium and started for the stairs. “Happy now?”

“Ecstatic,” I said sarcastically.

I followed her up the winding stairs toward the deserted chaplain’s office above, a sparsely decorated room that hadn’t been used for dozens of years. Noelle muttered something under her breath, clearly annoyed, but as we closed the bookcase door behind us, my heart pounded with curiosity and longing. I wanted to know what was in that book—to know what it had to do with Elizabeth Williams.

Noelle yanked open the office door, and we both heard a tentative creak coming from inside the chapel. We froze and I grabbed her forearm. That had sounded a lot like a footstep. It was after midnight. Why would anyone be up here? Noelle looked over her shoulder at me, eyes wide, and I attempted to swallow.

“Hello?” she called out.

There was no answer. Outside, the wind whistled through the bare branches of the forest.

“Is someone out there?” I shouted. All I could see was a darkened sliver of the chapel that contained a random pillow on the floor where someone had left it after the last BLS meeting, a folded blanket, half the preacher’s pulpit, and an empty LUNA Bar wrapper.

Another creak. I gasped. Noelle set her jaw and stepped out into the chapel, dragging me with her.

“No!” I blurted out, terrified.

“Come on,” Noelle said, letting out a sigh. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

She walked purposefully down the center aisle, me scurrying along with her. The wind forced squeals and cracks and groans from
the ancient wood walls. I didn’t breathe again until we were outside the chapel, gasping in the crisp winter air, and the door had slammed behind us.

“I swear I’m going to kill that old crone,” Noelle said, jamming her wool hat down over her brow.

“Let’s just get back to campus,” I said, eyeing the book. “And don’t drop that, okay? There’s snow and mud everywhere.”

Noelle rolled her eyes and hugged the book to her chest. “I’ll guard it with my life,” she said mockingly.

Another loud creak sounded from inside the chapel, and I jumped.

“Race ya?” I said.

“Okay,” she replied.

And we both took off, half speed walking, half jogging through the forest, trying to make ourselves believe there was nothing to fear.

The following morning, I took the stairs to Noelle’s single in Pemberly Hall. My eyes were puffy and at half-mast—I hadn’t slept at all. I’d spent the entire night thinking about my mom and dad, Noelle’s father, our grandmother, Elizabeth Williams, and that crazy book—and wondering why I couldn’t just worry about normal things. Like my grades. The SATs. My college applications. Those were the things every other junior in the country was worrying about. I couldn’t help but wish I’d never left Croton, Pennsylvania.

I knocked on her door. It took Noelle a moment to answer, and when she did, she grabbed my arm and pulled me inside.

“Wait. Reed just got here,” she said into her iPhone. “I’m putting you on speaker.”

Noelle placed the flat cell phone atop her dresser and stepped back. She wore a gray wool skirt that came halfway down her calves, paired with heeled black boots and a black ballet-neck sweater. Her dark
brown hair was pulled back from her face on the sides, and her makeup was impeccably done, complete with fully lined eyes and lavender eye shadow.

Apparently
she
had slept. I pulled my navy cotton cardigan tighter around my wrinkled long-sleeved T-shirt and stifled a yawn.

“Girls?” Mrs. Lange’s voice came through the speaker loud and clear. “Girls, are you there?”

“We’re right here, Grandmother,” Noelle said, placing her hands on her hips.

“Reed?”

Noelle knocked me with her elbow.

“I’m here,” I croaked.

“Good. Noelle is a bit … out of sorts this morning,” Mrs. Lange said, sounding displeased. “Perhaps you can help me calm her down.”

“Calm me down?” Noelle blurted. “Like that’s gonna happen. You sent us out into the snow in the middle of the night to find the quote-unquote
key to our future
and what do we find? A book about witchcraft.” She went over to her bed and yanked the thick tome out from under a tangle of bedsheets and silk pajamas, holding it up as if her grandmother could see it. “Is that what you’re trying to tell us, Gram? Really? That you think we’re witches? I’m sorry, but you’re either senile or really,
really
bored.”

I took the book from Noelle with two hands, tired of watching her fling it around like an old paperback novel. This book had once belonged to Elizabeth Williams and was therefore a precious relic to me—whether or not the content was ridiculous.

“Seriously, Grandmother, have you ever thought about taking up mah-jongg?” Noelle continued without pause. “I hear it really helps keep your faculties in order.”

“Noelle,” I scolded under my breath.

She widened her eyes at me. “
What
?”

Through the speaker, I heard Mrs. Lange take a deep, patient breath. “Girls today are so skeptical and jaded. But you two—you have no idea the power you could wield.”

Noelle rolled her eyes.

“So …?” I said slowly, hugging the book to my chest. “Are you saying that
you’ve
actually done witchcraft?”

“No,” she admitted. Noelle threw up her hands and turned away. She’d been back at school for almost two weeks and her Louis Vuitton rolling case was still open on the floor. She picked it up and turned it over, dumping its entire contents out on her gold and burgundy throw rug. “No one at Billings has practiced in a long time,” Mrs. Lange continued. “But the two of you … Girls, you have no idea how powerful you could be, now that you’re together.”

I felt an odd chill go through me, and I looked over at Noelle. She was sorting through a pile of balled-up sweaters, crumpled socks, and tangled necklaces, her fingers shaking slightly.

“You have a unique opportunity here,” Mrs. Lange continued, oblivious to Noelle’s silent tantrum. “You might be able to fix certain things, set right the unpleasant … situation that has arisen at Easton.”

Noelle stood up straight, her arms falling down at her sides, one
hand clutching an Hermès scarf, the other the gold chain strap on a Gucci purse. We looked at one another, and I knew we were thinking the same thing: The woman
was
senile. But then I saw a flash of movement behind Noelle, a blur of color against the stark white snow outside. Stepping over the pile of clothes at my feet, I carefully walked to the frost-laced window and peered out. There, across the quad at the decimated site of the former Billings House—our former home—was a group of people in long wool coats. I recognized the perfect posture of Headmaster Hathaway and the jet-black curls of Demetria Rosewell, one of the more powerful Billings alums. They walked carefully around the jagged stone outline that was the footprint of the demolished building, along with a pair of men who pointed and jotted notes on clipboards and bent their heads together in the bright sunshine.

I felt a familiar hollowing-out sensation in my gut. “What’s that about?” I whispered to Noelle.

“I don’t know,” Noelle replied, coming up behind me.

Chilling words, coming from her, since normally she knew everything. Although lately, my know-it-all friend had dropped the ball more than once. The idea of her not always being in charge was going to take some getting used to. I turned and looked at the phone.

“Mrs. Lange?”

“Yes, Reed.”

“Do you mean …” I kept one eye on the group out the window, their feet sinking into the snow. “Do you mean that we might be able to bring Billings back?”

For the first time that morning, Noelle looked intrigued.

“Now you’re thinking, Reed.”

There was a glimmer of pride in her voice, and I felt it in my chest. I’d made my grandmother proud. Weird. Noelle and I looked at each other, then out the window. Mrs. Rosewell was shaking hands with Mr. Hathaway, nodding in a satisfied way. The sunlight glinted off Mr. Hathaway’s wide smile. There was something foreboding about it. Like someone was making a deal with the devil, but I wasn’t sure which side was good and which was evil. All I knew was that I didn’t like it.

Noelle and I exchanged a glance. What if we
could
bring Billings back? Wouldn’t it be worth it to hear our grandmother out?

“No. No way.” Noelle shook her head and stepped away from the window, as if she was shaking herself out of a daydream. She tossed her things onto her bed. “We are
not
witches, Grandmother. This is not some CW summer series.”

“I don’t know what that means,” Mrs. Lange said.

“It means this conversation is over,” Noelle replied. She plucked the phone off the dresser and held it in front of her mouth. “I’ll call you later, Grandmother. We’re late for breakfast.” Then she ended the call before Mrs. Lange could protest.

“Well,” I said. “That was rude.”

“She’ll get over it,” Noelle replied, shoving the phone into the rust-colored Birkin bag she was currently using for her schoolwork. She turned and sat down on the mound of her comforter with a sigh. Her shoulders slumped slightly. “I’m sorry, Reed.” She looked up at me tentatively. “For everything. The whole faked-kidnapping thing
was her idea. She kept talking about birthright and us being sisters and how you needed to go through this test to prove that I mattered more to you than anything…. She said if you passed, then we’d have our reward. I thought it was just another one of her eccentric projects to pass the time and figured she was going to … I don’t know … give us the keys to some villa in Spain I’d never heard about so we could bond this summer.” She sighed again and her eyes fell on the book, which I still held clutched to my chest. “I never would have said yes to any of it if I knew she was batshit crazy.”

“It’s okay,” I said, releasing my grip slightly so I could look down at the worn cover. “I can see how she could be really … persuasive.”

A tingling sensation sprang to life in my chest and traveled down my arms and into my fingertips, making the book feel warm in my hands. I never would have said this to Noelle in a billion years, but there was this teeny-tiny part of me that wondered … what if Mrs. Lange
wasn’t
crazy? What if what she’d said was true and we could wield some kind of power? I’d seen some insane stuff since I’d started school at Easton last fall. Nothing supernatural, of course, but definitely crazy—things I never would have thought were possible even two years ago. What if this was possible too?

“Okay, forget this.”

Noelle plucked the book right out of my hands and tossed it back onto the mess of her bed. My fingers felt cold suddenly, and I tucked them under my arms.

“I say we concentrate on more important things,” she said, her brown eyes bright.

“Like what?” I said, trying not to look over her shoulder at the book.

“Things based in actual reality.” She reached for her black-and-white plaid coat and opened the door for me, but I hesitated. “What?” she asked impatiently.

“Do you mind if I take that?” I said, gesturing toward the book. “I mean, if you’re not going to look at it—”

“Seriously?” She walked to her bed, picked up the book, and held it out to me. “It smells like rotting garbage and mold.
Please
take it.”

I reached for the book, but she snatched it back toward her shoulder, giving me an appraising glance. “As long as you promise me you’re not going to try anything in it. Because I really don’t think I could be friends with someone who actually believes in this crap.”

I held her gaze. “I promise.”

Her eyes narrowed further, but after a long moment she handed the book over. I stuck it in my messenger bag and pulled the flap down over it.

“As I was
saying
,” Noelle said as we stepped out into the hallway. “I think we should talk about throwing you the most kick-ass seventeenth birthday party in the history of birthdays. You’re a Lange now. I’d say you’re well overdue.”

Instantly, my shoulder muscles coiled.

“I’m not a Lange.”

I tried to keep the irritation out of my voice, but it didn’t entirely work. The thing was, I barely even knew Noelle’s dad, and I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to. But I was certain that I didn’t feel like part of their family. I was a Brennan, and I always would be.

Noelle rolled her eyes as she started to close the door behind us. “Whatever. Daddy did call you, right? He said he left you a message.”