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"Sinister," I repeated, a smile touching the corners of my mouth. "V—"
"You promised not to laugh," Vanessa reminded me sharply.
I bit my lip. "Right," I said. "Go on."
She put on her blinker and made a left turn onto a main street. There were small shops lining both sides, and pedestrians meandered along the sidewalks, buying groceries and smoking cigarettes on benches. Many of the buildings were painted white, and the sunlight reflecting off of them was so bright it hurt my eyes.
"Well," Vanessa continued, "there's no documentation of it that we've found so far, but it wasn't abandoned, exactly. More like everyone in Kulmeira—like, every last person—vanished. Gone. Poof." She snapped her fingers.
"Okay," I said. "But if there's no evidence, then how—"
"I talk to people," Vanessa said, shrugging. She slowed to a stop to allow an elderly couple to jaywalk across the middle of the road. "Unlike Blanton or anyone else on this dig."
"And here I thought you were only here to ogle the grad students," I said.
One side of her mouth curled up. "I mean," she said, a little of her usual humor creeping back into her voice, "I'm not just talking to them."
I knew Vanessa was a little occult-oriented, but we had never talked in depth about it before, and I didn't want to risk saying the wrong thing. And although I didn't believe in curses or hexes or anything Vanessa was implying, Ona's words echoed ominously in my mind. "So what do they say?" I asked. "Between ogles, that is."
The little smile disappeared. "They say the dig site is—" She furrowed her brow. "Noladets. Cursed."
Oh, come on, I wanted to say, but bit my lip instead and stared out the window. We had entered what looked like the college campus—the buildings were brick now, instead of pure white stucco, and there were fewer cars parked along the side streets.
"And that's not all," Vanessa continued. "Weird stuff happens out there. Remember I told you about last summer, when we found all those jars near the fort?"
"Yes," I said slowly.
"Something broke them," Vanessa said. She smacked the steering wheel emphatically. "All of them. Shattered all over the floor."
I frowned. "Wasn't that the morning after an earthquake?"
"They were in drawers," Vanessa said. We had pulled into the parking lot of what appeared to be a dormitory, and she turned the car off and pointed at me with the key. "I saw them. They were put away, in padding, and in the morning they were all over the floor in pieces."
"Okay, okay." I leaned away from her jabbing gestures. "Not in the face, V."
"And," she continued, "Raheem broke his leg."
I raised an eyebrow. "He sprained his ankle.”
"Whatever." Vanessa grabbed her purse. "The point is, obviously your plane lady knew about it too. So what I'm saying is we have to be careful." She opened the door and got out.
"How exactly do we accomplish that?" I asked, heading for the trunk to retrieve my suitcases. "We can't exactly leave sacred ground undisturbed, or whatever it is they say to do in horror movies."
"I'm not saying we don't disturb it," Vanessa said, reaching for my backpack and slinging it over her shoulder. "I'm just saying we disturb it, you know, respectfully."
"No mysterious vanishings so far this summer, though," I said, letting a little humor enter my tone.
She gave me a look. "Not yet."
"Well, I have to mysteriously vanish my plane funk," I said, following her into the building. "Let me get a shower before you tell me any more."
Under the shower's clarifying spray, I thought about Vanessa's story. She liked dramatic embellishment, and honestly, I would have disregarded her words entirely had it not been for Ona.
"For protection," Ona had said, twisting her ruby ring.
Despite the heat of the water, I broke out in goosebumps. It was ridiculous, of course. Jewelry didn't protect anyone from anything, unless it was brass knuckles or something. Still…
I shook off the thought as I dried myself off.
