Dust and Roses: Book Two of the Dust Trilogy (13 page)

I pushed past Mrs. Whitelock. She didn’t bother
stopping me. Flinging open Fletcher’s bedroom door, I found him sitting at his
desk playing a game on his computer.

I slammed the door behind me, my eyes
filling with tears before I could stop them. “You’ve been lying to me this
whole time. The whole time you’ve known me. You knew you were my Gemini.”

Fletcher turned slowly in his desk chair.
“It doesn’t matter.” The way he said it infuriated me—like it was no big deal.
The expression on his face looked almost like relief.

“It doesn’t mat—” I dropped to my knees
because they would no longer hold me up. “What do you mean it doesn’t matter?
Fletcher, you’re dying and that matters. It matters more than anything!”

He shrugged. “Fate made its choice. It
chose you. I’m glad it did. Let the cards fall where they’re supposed to. It’s
only fair.”

None of this was fair. I didn’t care about
fate and cards falling where they may. I couldn’t believe he was acting as if
this were nothing. I searched for any excuse for it not to be true—waiting for
him to tell me that I was crazy and had it all wrong. “Your birthday’s in July.
Mine is in October.” Geminis are born on the same day.

“That’s a lie. I was born the day before
Halloween, just like you.”

I pressed my back against his bed, banging
my head on my knees. After a few moments, I felt light-headed. The weird
feelings I got around Fletcher I had mistaken for love, for my crush on him,
but my senses had been telling me that I was his Gemini. My skin tingling,
heart fluttering, rapid breathing, the smell he gave off, had all been signs.
“How long have you known?”

“I knew before we officially met. I passed
you one day in the hallway at school. You were drinking from the water
fountain. That’s when I felt it.”

I couldn’t believe he had kept this from
me all this time. What other secrets was he hiding?

Fletcher sat beside me. “I didn’t mean for
us to become friends, but as soon as we had, I knew I could never do it. I knew
that if the curse had been cast, I couldn’t kill you. I would never hurt you,
Arden. Ever. Not even to save myself.”

I believed him. I didn’t think he would
ever harm me, and I knew he would always put me before himself, but that didn’t
solve our problem. “But you’re dying, Fletcher. I’m not just going to sit here
and watch it happen.”

He gave me a lopsided grin. “You don’t
have a choice. That’s the way things work.”

I took his hand and squeezed it. “Then
we’ll make it work a different way. Fletch, I promise. We’re going to find a
way to stop this stupid curse.”

Fletcher was out of school again on
Monday. I had the crushing feeling he would never come back, at least not until
we were able to stop the Gemini Curse. I couldn’t concentrate on school or
anything else but that. I would die before I let myself suck the life out of
Fletcher.

I came across Lacey in the girl’s bathroom
between third and fourth periods. Surprisingly, she was alone without her bees
buzzing around her. She stood in front of the mirror brushing her hair. I
paused before going into a stall, waiting for her to call me Dust, or to tell
me how hideous my dress was, or something. Our eyes met for a second then she
went back to her hair.

“What? You don’t have anything bitchy to
say?” I asked. Not that I missed Lacey’s taunts, but she had obviously been
avoiding me and I wanted to know why.

She stared at me wide-eyed in the mirror.
For a moment she looked afraid, then she scowled. “I’d just prefer not to talk
to you, period, that’s all.” She tossed her brush into her Chanel bag and headed
for the door. “I can’t be late for Mr. Christy’s class again.”

“I heard about what you saw at the
carnival. Or what you
think
you saw.”

Lacey froze with her hand on the door,
then she walked over to me, so close we were almost nose to nose. I could smell
her cherry lip gloss. “What do you mean, what I think I saw? As I recall, you
were standing right there. You and your weirdo boyfriend. You saw what
happened. You saw those men get killed.”

I stared her dead in the eye. I couldn’t
believe there was a time when I had been intimidated by this girl. “I saw an ox
come out of the woods and trample them to death. Yes. It was horrible.”

She narrowed her green eyes at me, backing
away. “Liar. You saw what the rest of us saw, the only difference was that we
were scared shitless. You and Fletcher stood there watching like it was
something you saw every day. You didn’t look afraid at all. We were trapped on
that ride. We couldn’t go anywhere. But you two, why didn’t you run like
everyone else? Why weren’t you afraid, Arden?”

“It was just an ox,” I said in barely a
whisper.

Lacey moved toward the door again,
flipping her blond tresses over her shoulder. “Something is wrong with you. I
can’t quite put my finger on what it is, but it’s something. You were the last
person seen with Bailey before she vanished. Fletcher warned Ms. Melcher before
she disappeared. How did he know something was going to happen to her? Now
monsters are popping up and you act like it’s nothing. Maybe you’re an alien or
something. God knows you act like one.”

“Lacey—”

“Save it, okay. Something is wrong with
this town. My family and I are moving away this summer.”

I clapped my hands. “Great!”

She looked like she wanted to shove me (she’d
done it before) but she thought better of it. “I tried to warn Imani about you,
but she wouldn’t listen. She’ll learn, I suppose. I don’t know what’s wrong
with you, but stay away from me.”

The bell rang and then she was gone. What
exactly had she told Imani?

Imani and I met by the trophy case after
school. She was talking a mile a minute about Ms. Melcher and the events of the
carnival, but I couldn’t focus on that. I had to go to the lair and find out
about stopping the curse. There had to be a way, and if there was, the Takers
probably knew about it.

I paused on the front steps of the school.

Imani stopped talking mid-sentence.
“What’s wrong?”

“Uh, I just remembered. I have to go see Mr.
Oliver about extra help in math. It’s going to take a while so you go ahead.”

She looked a little unsure but she nodded.
“Okay. I’ll call you later.” She skipped down the steps and then headed in the
direction of her house.

Instead of going back into the school, I
crept around the side of the main building and raced to the janitor’s closet
hoping, to not be seen. The track team was already running laps, but they were
far away and probably paying me no attention. Being practically invisible at my
school had its advantages. I waded through, accidentally kicking a bucket,
wetting my boots and the hem of my dress with murky water. I pushed the back
wall. It slid open and I walked inside.

Making my way down the hall, I ran into
Cadence and Wes coming out of the control room. As expected, neither one of
them looked happy to see me.

“Hey, guys. We need to talk.”

Cadence cocked her bird head to one side.
“Do we now?” Cadence had to give me a hard time about everything. It was fun
for her. “Wes, let’s just drop everything so we can—”

Cadence stopped talking and she and Wes
stared at something over my shoulder. I turned to see what had caught their
attention and my breath caught in my throat.

Imani stood several feet away gaping at us
with her mouth open.

“Imani, what—” I began.

She shook her head. “What the hell is
this? You weren’t making that story up. A monster’s lair under the school . . .
you were telling the truth.”

“What?” Cadence demanded, stepping beside
me. “You told her about us? You told her where we live?”

“What are you doing down here?” I asked
Imani. There weren’t too many things I could think of that were worse than her
being in the lair.

Her gaze darted back and forth between
Cadence and Wes. “You had been acting weird all day so when you told me you
were staying after school for math help, I was suspicious. I mean, you aced
your math test just last Friday. I saw you go into the janitor’s closet and
when you never came out, I wanted to know what you were up to.”

Fletcher was right. She was too nosey for
her own good.

“Hollis!” Wes bellowed.

I turned back to Imani. She stood with her
arms stiff, close to her sides, blinking rapidly. I could only imagine the
thoughts running through her mind. Why did she have to come down here? Now we
were both screwed. “Imani, you have to leave. You have to pretend that none of
this ever happened.”

Hollis stepped out of his bedroom
brandishing a sword. I gulped but then I remembered he liked to play with them
just for fun.

“What’s up?” He narrowed his eyes when he
saw Imani. “What is this?”

“Arden’s doing, of course. She told her
friend about us,” Cadence tattled.

I stepped in front of Imani, suddenly
feeling dizzy. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. She won’t tell anybody.”

Hollis stepped menacingly toward us,
holding the sword in front of him. “You’re right. She’s not going to tell
anybody. You shouldn’t have told her, Arden, now your friend’s going to die
because of you.”

I turned and pushed Imani toward the exit.
“Run! Get out of here!”

She hesitated a little, but just as she
started to move, Wes grabbed her and pinned her arms behind her back. Imani
struggled to break free of his grasp, but he was obviously much stronger than
her.

“Please, let her go. She won’t say
anything.”

Imani found her voice despite her panicked
breathing. “I won’t. I promise, I won’t say a word.”

“Yeah, right,” Wes said into her ear.
“What Human would see something like this and not tell anyone?”

Cadence poked the side of my face with her
beak while one of her bird eyes focused on Imani. “You think we’re going to
trust her? We can’t even trust
you
. You went against the code.”

I had been stupid to do that, but Imani
shouldn’t have to pay the price for it. She shouldn’t have to die for being nosey.

“Hold her up,” Hollis ordered Wes as he
brought the sword back.

“Stop it!” I shouted. The hallways rattled
with my anger. The walls shook because of me. My emotion had caused that.

Doors swung open. Creatures poked their
heads out or stepped into the hallway to get a look at what was going on. Imani
gasped.

Hollis could be reasoned with. I took a
step closer to him, although I was terrified of the sword. “Hollis. This isn’t
you. Remember the conversation we had? You’ve never killed anyone. Don’t start
now.”

He glanced at me for a moment. “No, I
haven’t killed anyone because I’ve never had to. Now, thanks to you, I do.”

He didn’t want to hurt Imani. I could hear
it in his voice. But the others were watching so he had to follow through.

I narrowed my eyes at the sword, focusing
all my energy on it like I had with the branch and Sheba. The familiar warmth
traveled up and down my body as my heart raced faster than it ever had. The
sword whipped out of Hollis’ hand and dangled above his head. He jumped, trying
to grab it, but it rose higher, out of his reach.

I imagined Cadence, Wes, and Hollis
falling backward. They did so, toppling onto each other. The sword still
hovered in the air. I pointed it down at them, prepared to make a creature
shish kabob. The three of them looked up at the sword wide-eyed. Having them at
my mercy was an amazing feeling.

“Any one of you moves and I’ll send that
sword clear through you.” The viciousness of my own words surprised me.

Still shielding Imani with my own body, I
backed up, keeping an eye on each creature.

“I smell Human,” said something that
looked like some type of demon. It’s dark-red leathery skin, long spiked tail,
and curved horns, made him look more sinister than he probably was.

Despite my threat, Wes was already up and
walking toward us. “That girl is a Human,” he told the demon, “and we can’t let
her leave.”

I didn’t want to hurt Wes but I would if I
had to.

My Grim cousins stood against a wall with their
scythes. I imagined their scythes floating in the air, and they moved in
obedience. The Grims looked up at their renegade scythes, but made no effort to
catch them. I focused on one scythe and brought it down toward the demon as it
moved toward us. If a wolf-looking creature hadn’t saved the demon by shoving
it to the ground, he would be headless.

I sent the other four scythes twirling
wildly in the air like pinwheels over the heads of the crowd. They crouched on
the ground, covering their heads. I took that opportunity to get myself and
Imani out of there and through the janitor’s closet. I had no idea what
happened to the scythes after that. I wasn’t sure how to make them stop if I
wanted them to.

Once we were out, Imani took off running,
but I was faster. I stopped her by grabbing the back of her shirt. “Imani, I
know that was all completely insane, but you can’t tell anyone. I mean it.”

For once, she was speechless. She yanked
away from me, shaking her head. “I don’t know what you are or how you did what
you just did, but stay away from me. I should have listened to Lacey.”

 She raced away and this time I let
her, because I couldn’t blame her. If I were her I would never speak to me
again.

One friend was terrified of me and the
other was dying.

It took me a moment to realize Hollis was
standing directly behind me. I turned to face him, expecting him to look angry,
but he didn’t. He stared down at me solemnly. “You know she has to die, right?
Friend or not, you know I have to kill her. Right now, before she has a chance
to tell anyone about us.”

I said nothing because I had no response
for that. I grabbed his arm as he moved forward. “Hollis, please. You can’t.
Let me talk to her. Imani’s not like most people. I promise you, she won’t say
a word if I can explain things to her.” At any moment Imani could be home
telling her mother every little detail. And her father, the police lieutenant,
he’d definitely want to check out his daughter’s story.

Hollis pulled away from me and kept
walking. I shoved him from behind. “You can’t. Hollis, please. I will do
anything you want.”

He stared at me as if searching my face
for something. “Fine,” he said finally. “I’ll spare her, but
only
if you
do something for me in return.”

A strong gust of wind kicked in just then,
almost knocking me over. I smoothed my hair down after it passed. “What?” I had
no idea what he could possibly need me to do.

Hollis frowned and looked at the ground.
“Don’t kill my father.”

“What?”

“Don’t kill my father.”

Why was he asking me that? I had no
intentions of killing Mr. Mason. Why did he think I did?

I stepped closer to him. “Don’t kill your
father?”

His eyes looked heavy with worry. “Wes
told me, you know Vetala can see the future and that’s what he saw. You killing
my father.”

I didn’t even know what to say to that
other than Wes had seen things wrong. I wasn’t going to kill Mr. Mason or
anyone. “Hollis—”

“I know you guys don’t see eye to eye and
he’s not the easiest person to get along with, but please, if push ever comes
to shove, don’t kill him.”

It was a simple request for something I
never planned on happening anyway. Especially considering what I was getting in
return—my friend’s life. “I won’t kill your father and you don’t kill Imani.”