I smiled at the optimism. We were used to living day by day, but maybe after this, we could start talking about tomorrow.
“We really need to start talking,” I told him. There was so much lost time, and we’d taken after our parents, filling most of it with the unspoken. “For real.”
Ididn’t want to end up like Mom and Dad, letting the silence fill in gaps we were perfectly capable of filling.
His smile matched mine. “I agree.”
I rejoined the team, finding the grave deeper and the coffin pried open. Before us lay a brittle skeleton. I lifted the front of my shirt, coughing into it as the clouds of dust and dirt coated my nostrils.
“Jonah?” Rae climbed out of the grave, her pants stained and her unbuttoned shirt revealing a black camisole and sweat beading her chest.
“What now?” she asked her youngest member.
Jonah dug out a tiny notebook, trembling fingers flipped through the pages. As he turned, Nico poured salt around the grave. December did the same, meeting him in the middle to close the circle.
“Salt barrier so when we summon it to the original resting place, it’ll be trapped?—”
The wind picked up, pounding hard against our skin. The sky revealed no change in color, but the heavy fragrance of rain mixed in with the dirt and death.
“There’s activity back at the house,” December warned her cousin.
We all looked toward the house. The activity wouldn’t be apparent this far out without the motion-detecting lights. They flickered on and off as if a wire had short-circuited.
“He’s going to put up a fight.” Nico kneeled next to the grave, peering in.
My heart lurched, and I inched closer to Rae. Her expression didn’t change as she pulled out her phone, where she kept her notes.
“Keep going, Jonah,” she encouraged and typed a mile a minute on her screen.
He swallowed but continued, “Prep for burning with a starter and match.”
December had the starter and poured it into the grave. The wind picked up, some of it sending fluid back toward the stable.
The headlights of the truck flickered in tandem with what was happening back at the barn. Wilson looked just as surprised as we were, leaning over to shut off the engine. But even without the keys, the lights flickered.
“Everyone, take a breath.” Rae’s attention remained on her screen. “This is its last hurrah. It?—”
The truck’s lights blew. I covered my face, trying to shield it from flying glass and plastic.
The wind howled so hard that it felt like a storm was mere minutes away. One by one, they turned on flashlights, and as soon as some of the light hit me, December yelled, “He’s here!”
“Boo,” someone snickered in my ear. My stomach dipped as a hot breath fanned across the back of my neck. Nico tried to get closer to me, a gust of air knocking him back. I scrambled to his side, cradling the shoulder he hit on the way down. My palm was sticky and red when I pulled it away from him.
“Octavia?” Rae asked.
“I’m fine! He’s hurt?—”
“I’m good!” Nico pushed off the ground and grabbed my hand. “Inside the circle.”
He shone his light on the space where we’d just stood. Nothing but emptiness met us. But the grass lay flat, as if someone had stood in the same spot for days.
“Did you fucking see that?” Nico asked his team, his hand still around my wrist as he whipped his neck aroundon high alert. “It looked fully formed. I couldn’t see through it. This has a massive amount of power, Rae.”
“Stay in the circle,” she shouted over the blasting wind. Rae ran past us, saying something to my brother before closing the truck door and dumping salt around the vehicle.
“What do you mean?” My heart hammered as Nico shoved his hands through his hair. “Is this not typical?”
“This spirit, or whatever this thing is?—”
