Twenty Palaces (35 page)

I wiped my eyes dry. My hands were shaking and my stomach was in knots. That kid had no one to mourn for him except me, and I didn't have that much longer in this world, either. Something had to be done for him. I didn't know what it was, but as I wiped at my eyes again, I knew there had to be something.

I heard footsteps behind me. "Don't get maudlin," Annalise said.

I told her what she could do with herself.

"Enough with this weepy Girl Scout routine. Drink this." She shoved a water bottle into my hands.

I rinsed my mouth and spat. As long as I did what she told me to do, she wasn't allowed to kill me. I did it again. "Thanks."

"Don't thank me," she said. "I just didn't want you to stink up the van with your puke breath."

We walked toward the van. I wondered how many dead kids Annalise had seen. Maybe the number was so high they barely registered anymore.

I climbed behind the wheel and buckled in. Annalise never wore her seat belt. She had other, less mundane protections.

"When the boy burned, he turned into something," I said. "It was, like, gray maggots or something, and they started burrowing into the ground. What were they?"

"Start the van."

"Why weren't my hands damaged by the flames? I don't have tattoos over my fingers. Why wasn't I hurt like Douglas?"

She didn't answer.

"What was that wave I felt? I know you felt it, too. It was like something pushed against my mind." The words coming out of my mouth sounded ridiculous, but Annalise had just seen me crying like a baby. It's not like I had any pride left. "And I felt this twinge on my chest--"

"Start the van," she interrupted.

I did. Once we hit the road, Annalise took a cell phone from the glove compartment. She hit speed dial. After a few seconds, she said: "It's Annalise." She told the person at the other end of the line Douglas's name, address, and license number. "Check him out," she said. "And I'm still waiting for a current report." She snapped the phone shut without waiting for a response.

At least I wasn't the only one she was rude to.

I focused on the road. The long, slow descent into an overcast northwest night was well under way. I turned on the headlights just in time to light up a sign that said Hammer Bay 22 miles. This time, Annalise didn't protest. Aside from the rumble of the van, it was quiet. Suddenly, I didn't like the quiet.

"Who did you call?" She didn't answer. "Your mom?"

She shot a deadly look at me. Oops. Sore spot.

"Why didn't you kill Douglas?" I asked. "Isn't that our job? To kill people who have magic?"

Her response was irritated and defensive. "The Bentons didn't have magic. Were they carrying a spell book? Had they cast a spell on themselves? Were they hiding a predator?"

"Guess not."

"Someone cast a spell on them. That's who we want. Those people were no threat. They're victims."

I didn't say, That's what I thought, too. I didn't think the word meant the same thing to her as it did to me.

We were silent for a couple of minutes. I kept seeing the boy's face as the flames erupted around it. I kept hearing him say it didn't hurt. I needed to keep talking, or I was going to start weeping again.

"Why are we going to Hammer Bay?" I asked. "Not for Douglas. What's going on there?" She didn't answer again. "Come on," I persisted. "We're supposed to be doing this job and I don't know anything about it. Tell me what's going on. Or don't you know? Flames that don't hurt. Boys that turn into maggots. People who forget their dead kids. Something that pushed against our minds." She was silent. "Aren't you going to explain any of this?"

"No reason to."

"Why not?"

"Because you'll be dead very, very soon."

We drove the rest of the way in silence.

We passed over the crest of a hill, and the Pacific Ocean suddenly appeared below us. Then I saw the town of Hammer Bay. We drove down the hill, straight toward the heart of it.

End of sample chapter