Sisters of Misery (30 page)

“Girls, now that Cordelia has appeased the elements, it is time for us to do the same,” Kate ordered.

Maddie looked at the other girls quizzically. This had never been part of the ceremony. Were they all going to spend the night on the island?

Kate walked over to Darcy and placed the bucket of ocean water in front of her. “You are Water.” Kate reached down into the bucket, and Darcy cringed, bracing herself for whatever Kate had planned. With a soaked hand, she anointed Darcy as if with holy water.

“Hannah, you are Air.” Kate whispered something into Hannah’s ear. She looked at Kate and nodded.

“Bridget, you are Fire.” She whispered something to Bridget and handed her a long, slender piece of driftwood.

“And Maddie, you are Earth.” She walked over to Maddie with a large, sharp stone. Maddie shook when she saw the stone, preparing herself for another blow, but relaxed when Kate simply slipped it into her hand.

Behind the flames, Cordelia’s eyes grew wide.

Kate smiled. “Let the
second
part of our Sisterhood ceremony begin.”

She yelled out, “AIR!”

Hannah quickly tore Cordelia’s jacket off her, leaving her exposed to the elements with just a thin peasant blouse on, and threw it high up into the air so that it was carried off into the night by the gusty island wind.

Kate then yelled, “FIRE and WATER!”

Bridget set her stick into the bonfire in front of Cordelia until it caught and then raised it in front of Cordelia’s face. Cordelia shook in horror and started screaming. Darcy hoisted up the bucket of water and stood next to Bridget. Maddie watched, confused, but couldn’t make herself move from the spot. It was happening so quickly and methodically, it seemed almost choreographed.

Bridget brought the flame closer and closer to Cordelia, and suddenly, the blouse and part of her hair caught on fire. She began shrieking and crying, but before the flames licked her skin, Darcy doused them with the bucket of water.

Maddie watched helplessly as Cordelia shivered uncontrollably from fear as much as the frigid water and whipping winds. Then suddenly, it was her turn.

“Earth!” Kate shouted. Maddie looked down at her hand and realized that she’d been gripping the heavy stone so hard that it had almost pierced the skin.

Everyone looked at Maddie expectantly. In a moment of pure disgust and horror, Maddie realized what Kate wanted her to do. She was supposed to hurl the stone at Cordelia.

“NO!” she shouted, backing away from them, crying. “No no no no no no.”

Kate flew over to her side. “Maddie, the ceremony won’t end until you finish it.”

“I won’t,” Maddie cried. “I can’t!”

“Maddie, you can do this the easy way or the hard way. Don’t be a coward! Why are you protecting her? You know you hate her just as much as we do, or else you wouldn’t be here. Do it! NOW! DO WHAT THOU WILT!” She spat her hot words into Maddie’s face, their breath mixing in the cold darkness. “If you don’t do it, you are gone, you are nothing. You and your pathetic mother will have no place in Hawthorne.”

Maddie looked at Kate. Her pale blue eyes appeared almost red, demonic in the reflection of the fire as she waited for Maddie to respond.

“Then I guess we’ll just have to let Cordelia go. I know that Mr. Campbell is probably expecting her. Tell me, it must be hard to have such a beautiful cousin, such a perfectly beautiful face. Flawless, really. You know, if she stays here, you’ll start being referred to as ‘the ugly one.’ That will be hard for you, won’t it?”

Maddie looked past Kate at Cordelia. Despite the brutal night, she still looked beautiful, haunted. Rage pulsed through Maddie, though she wasn’t sure where to direct it.

“Maddie,” Kate hissed. “You
do
know that we can start this entire night over and
you
can be the guest of honor. All I have to do is say the word, and you can take your cousin’s place. Is that what you want?” Maddie continued to avoid her gaze, then Kate suddenly lowered her voice to a growl. “Cordelia even suggested it to me on our way out here. She knew that she was the one who was going to end up on the island, and she practically begged me to pick you. ‘Pick Maddie,’ she said. ‘She doesn’t even like you girls. And she hates you especially, Kate.’ Now, is that the type of slut that you are willing to sacrifice everything for?”

Maddie walked toward Cordelia. Her cousin’s eyes widened in confusion and fear. She would throw the stone at her cousin, and that would be the end of it. She knew Kate was lying, but she just wanted all of it to be over. To put the night behind them. Cordelia would be a part of the Sisters of Misery, and they would go on like none of this had ever happened.

Maddie looked at Cordelia’s shoulder and knew if she aimed it there, it wouldn’t hurt as much, even though she knew that Kate wanted her to hit Cordelia squarely in the face. Maddie drew back her arm and threw the rock at Cordelia’s shoulder as hard as she could. But as soon as the stone left her hand, Maddie could see—almost in slow motion—Cordelia cringe and turn her head in the direction of the stone. Before Maddie could yell out for her to move, it smashed into Cordelia’s forehead, and she slumped forward, blood flowing from the gash.

Kate yelled in mock surprise. “What the
hell
did you do, Maddie?”

Maddie backed up as the other girls looked at her with a mixture of awe and disgust.

“I did what you told me to do, Kate! You…you…I didn’t…I only…you—you said,” Maddie stammered incoherently.

Cordelia was bleeding heavily, and Darcy went over and put a towel over the angry gash on her forehead.

Kate said to the other girls, “I never said anything like that. God, Maddie, you really do have issues.”

She turned, afraid of what she did, afraid of what she was capable of, afraid that she had killed her own cousin. And then the night swallowed her up into its blackness. Maddie screamed loud, louder than the pounding surf, “NO!”

“No!!!” Waking suddenly, Maddie looked around, trying to get her bearings, desperately trying to catch her breath. Had all of this really happened? Maddie was the one who betrayed Cordelia? She was worse than everyone else because she was Cordelia’s sister. Lying there for a few moments, Maddie knew it wasn’t only a dream. Tears streamed down the sides of her face as the weight of what really happened that night finally hit her. Abigail hadn’t been responsible for the gash on Cordelia’s head. It was Maddie’s doing. Even if Cordelia hadn’t been told the truth about her real father, Maddie knew deep down that Cordelia would never return to Hawthorne, to a family that betrayed her at every turn. That is why Maddie had to find Cordelia on her own, and bring back her sister.

They had each hurt Cordelia in their own way—Abigail, with words; Rebecca, with lies; and Madeline, with jealousy and fear. Tess’s dreams of stones were true after all, and Maddie prayed that Tess never knew the horrible truth behind them, that she never connected her dreams with what happened out on Misery Island.

All of the pieces of the puzzle had finally come together. It was time for her to leave Hawthorne—only this time, it would be for good. It was, as they say in fairy tales, the end.

“C
rane, you’ve got mail,” the RA said, knocking at Maddie’s door, and slipped the letters underneath. She’d been sitting and staring at the blank screen of her computer. It blinked back at her, taunting, yearning for black characters to march across the screen like ants. Her first writing assignment was an article on dealing with the loss of loved one, as if the overwhelming emotions she had experienced recently could be tied up neatly in two thousand words or less.

Maddie leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes, and listened to the sounds and chattering that filled the dormitory. Suddenly, she heard something tumble onto the hardwood floor. She looked down and saw two onyx rune stones lying at her feet. This must have been the jacket I was wearing the day I left Hawthorne, she thought. She picked them off the floor, running her fingers over the etched letters. She clicked over to a Web browser page of Nordic rune markings and their meanings.

Maddie scanned down the page to the letter B. It meant Birkano, the symbol of the birch goddess. She suddenly had an image of Cordelia tied to the tree on Misery Island. The Sacred Birch in the grove on Misery. She continued to read, rebirth…new beginnings…renewal…freedom.

Her eyes then traveled down the page to the letter
M—Ehwal, the horse…travel…movement…forgiveness.

It couldn’t have been a coincidence that these stones somehow found their way to her just as she was embarking on an essay about the many tragedies she’d endured over the past year. Maddie believed they were a message from Tess. She smiled, realizing that if ever there was a way for spirits to communicate from beyond, then Tess would be the one to find it. It was the first time in many months that Maddie felt a sense of peace—the weight of her guilt was lifting off her each day, stone by stone by stone.

Maddie squeezed her eyes shut and tried to get a strong visual image of Cordelia. Not the girl tied to a tree, lifeless and broken—the person who haunted Maddie’s dreams—but the old Cordelia, the one who came to Hawthorne filled with light and happiness and a generous spirit. She had a half smile, and her eyes shone with amusement. Her red hair fell in thick tangles down her back. Maddie clung to these details, this clearly defined picture of Cordelia, because she feared she might never have it again.

Maddie’s eyes fluttered open, swelling with tears as she placed the rune stones next to her keyboard. This assignment will have to wait, she thought.

She got up and grabbed the mail that had been shoved under her door. Maddie smiled when she saw the return address on the first envelope. It was a letter from home.

Just as Rebecca had predicted, Kate tried to send evil out into the world, but it came back to her threefold.
Karma’s a bitch
.

Opening up the second letter, Maddie wondered if it was from Reed, who kept in touch as often as he could. Or maybe it was from Finn, gloating over the fact that he was able to stop Kate’s family from building the hotel, costing them millions. Maddie couldn’t believe how he had managed to single-handedly bring down the Endicott family. And it was all in Cordelia’s honor. She would be thrilled.

The letter was written in block letters, definitely a guy’s handwriting. It was similar to the letters she’d received before from Finn, but there was no signature. Was that intentional? The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end as she scanned the brief note. It read:

After reading it several times, trying to discern the handwriting and the tone of the message, Maddie folded the paper and put it into her pocket. She walked back over to the computer screen and scrolled down to the reversed meanings of the stones. Chills went down her spine when she read the reversed meaning:
Your desire to escape is thwarted by many problems, obstacles, and false starts. Expect disturbing family news, especially involving a sibling…

If Cordelia was alive, it would only be a matter of time until Maddie found her.

Or
, Maddie thought with a shudder,
she finds me
.