Page 8 of Heart of Mischief

Now, she could feel the mantra working its power. Could feel her heart slowing down, her breath lengthening, the trembling in her hands starting to recede. She was okay. Her friends were okay. There was nothing in the forest trying to hurt them.

She exhaled in relief.

They were okay.

With that comforting thought in mind, she reached out and pushed aside a cluster of pine branches, ready to lead the way back to the old house…

Only for her eyes to land on two dead bodies splayed out on a bed of fallen leaves.

3

An unusual hush had fallenoverthe Silver Shores High cafeteria.

Normally, crinkling paper bags, loud greetings, and buzzing gossip formed a cheery symphony to which Charlie and her friends ate their ham-and-cheeses or PB&Js. But on that particular Monday…

On that particular Monday, two more students were missing.

No, not missing—flat outdead.

Maddie and Milo Morris. They didn’t grow up in Silver Shores; their family had moved from Detroit four years earlier.

Charlie remembered the Morrises’ first day so clearly. She was in seventh grade. Sophie and Lou were at her side. Nothing bad had ever happened to them. Nothing bad had ever happened in Silver Shores,period. Life was easy. Life was good.

Maddie was in Charlie’s grade, Milo in Mason’s. They were quiet, and at lunch, they chose a table at the back of the cafeteria and sat together, trading chips and Fruit Roll-Ups as if their food hadn’t come from the same house. Even as the weeks went on and they made their own friends, people to spend their weekends or the hours after school with, they never left that little table, choosing each other above everyone else.

Charlie had always found that remarkable. Enviable. After Sophie died, she used to look at the Morris siblings and feel bright-green jealousy.They would never drift apart if they lost oneof their family members, she thought.They would never lose each other.

Even then, she’d known Mason was slipping away.

When Charlie saw their bodies lying on the forest floor, it was as if the ground had turned to ice and split beneath her feet. Her body plunged into freezing-cold water. Her muscles seized tight. The air rushed from her lungs. Though she was standing on solid ground, suddenly it felt like she was frozen under the waves of Lake Michigan in January.

This is it, a voice had whispered in her ear.You knew this was coming. You knew things had been too calm, too safe.

Danger will follow you for the rest of your life.

“—a good idea. Right, Charlie?” Abigail asked.

Charlie blinked, looking over at her friends. “What was that?”

“Keep up, Charles.” Lou shot her a stern look. “Abigail was reminding the group that you agreed to buy me lunch today. And every day this week.”

Charlie frowned. “No, I didn’t.”

“Right, my bad,” Lou said. “You just said that you would buy me acookieevery day.”

At the sound ofcookie, Henry popped his head out of Charlie’s backpack and squeaked excitedly.

Charlie swatted at his red hat. “Get down,” she hissed. “We have to be careful.”

If any of the other students in the cafeteria were to look over, they would hopefully only see a girl swatting at a fly, not an adorable, bearded creature. Theoretically, the Seal was still in place, which meant that Henry remained invisible to everyone but Charlie and her friends.

But nothing was impenetrable. She’d seen it herself when a draugar had chased her through the school parking lot and was spotted by a little girl who couldn’t possibly have eaten an eyaerberry. So, she couldn’t be sure if Henry was still invisible to the restof the school; she didn’t know when the Seal might suddenly falter, giving everyone else a glimpse of the gnome in her backpack.

Speaking of Henry—

Charlie reached into her lunch bag and pulled out the vätte’s lunch: a tiny ham-and-cheese between saltines. She lowered it to the bottom of her bag, where Henry could gnaw at it without onlookers wondering how a cracker sandwich was disappearing into thin air.

Seeing his lunch, Henry squeaked with disdain, trying to cross his arms over his chest but failing because they were too short to even reach each other.