Page 71 of Lost

I needed to pretend to talk to him.

Especially now.

“Hey, so, remember the other day I told you about that weird burning in my chest? Well, surprise! Itwasn’ta heart attack. It’s something worse. It’s Other Kevin, over there in that Other World, wielding Old Magick.” I paused and rested my head against his tombstone. “Yeah, that’s bad. Really bad. And he’s been wielding it a lot.” I sighed. “Yeah, right? I know he’s gonna get himself into some deep bullpoopie. Why are little brothers always such a pain in the butt?”

“Zoey? Itisyou! I thought I saw your bug turn in here.”

I jumped at the voice and spun around on my butt to see my brother, Kevin, walking toward me.

“Sheesh, you scared the bejeezus outta me, Kevin. Like, make some noise next time.”

“How about you tell me when you’re gonna visit Heath’s grave next time and I’ll meet you here? I was just lucky that I was passing by when you pulled in.” Kevin looked at me and grinned. “It was luck! Get it?”

I smiled up at him. “I get it.” Then I patted the place beside me, and Kevin sat.

We didn’t say anything. We just sat. Since Other Kevin had left, I’d been talking to this Kevin—a lot. But mostly on the phone. First, because he has a super busy school schedule and it was hard for him to get away—especially without the step-loser, my mom’s awful husband, knowing that Kevin and I had reconnected.

The second reason was harder. Seeing Kevin, like right now, made me miss Other Kevin. I mean, I liked talking to this Kevin. He’d grown into a nice guy, and he’d actually traded in his video game obsession for a wrestling obsession, and he’d made the varsity squad at Broken Arrow this year, which was cool. But he wasn’t a vampire. He couldn’t understand me like Other Kevin could. It wasn’t his fault, but that didn’t make it any less true.

“Hey, don’t you ever find this creepy?” Kevin interrupted my thoughts with a shoulder bump.

“What? Sitting on his grave? Nah, Heath would love it,” I said.

“Well, that, andthat.” He pointed to the carving of fisherman Heath.

“Heath would love that too,” I said. “Do you not remember he had a sense of humor?”

“Sure. Do you not remember he’s dead?”

I jerked back as if Kevin had slapped me. “Of course, I remember. I was there. Losing him almost killed me. Why the hell would you ask me that?”

“Because of what Other Kevin told you.”

I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t say anything. This Kevin—this human brother of mine—couldn’t possibly understand about Old Magick. Nor would he understand about the dream I’d had, I was sure hadn’t been a dream, but a message from dead me. He’d think I was just making excuses if I told him what I’d decided—what I knew I had to do.

I’m not making excuses.

My brother—myotherbrother, needed help with Old Magick and help getting rid of Neferet. Neither of those things had anything to do with Other Heath Luck.

“Zoey, I’ll go with you. All you have to do is ask,” Kevin said into the silence that had settled between us.

My gaze snapped to his. “You can’t! I’m not alive in that world, so I can get away with sneaking over there, but you are—and you’re a rogue red vampyre who has become allied with the Resistance against Neferet and her armies. It’s not safe for you over there.”

“Z, according to what you’ve told me, it’s not safe foranyoneover there.”

I looked away from Kevin and my gaze found Heath’s smiling image again.

“I understand that,” I said.

“Do you really?” my brother asked as he cracked his knuckles and flexed his fingers—a sure sign he was stressed.

“You know I’m going, don’t you?” I answered my brother’s question with one of my own.

“Yep, I do. And, Z, if I know it, so do your friends.”

I felt a terrible chill of foreboding. “No! I haven’t said one word to any of them.”

“You haven’t said one word to me, either. I figured it out.”