Page 46 of Soul of Shadow
By the end of the episode, the vätte was sound asleep, as if the gruesome episode had been little more than a soft lullaby. Instead of kicking him off the bed, as Charlie had originally planned, she drew the duvet up until it covered his tummy. Then she shut her eyes and drifted off to sleep, silently laughing at how much a magical creature loved Henry Cavill.
That night, Charlie dreamt of Sophie. They were in their childhood bedroom, playing a game they had played many times before: hide the rabbit. They had a purple rabbit, a stuffed animal they had fought over many times before. In the real version of this game, the twins took turns hiding the purple rabbit around their bedroom. The hider would then count down from thirty, and if the seeker couldn’t find it in that time, they had to do one of the hider’s chores for the day.
In this version of the game—the one happening in Charlie’s dream—the stakes were much higher. Sophie had hidden the purple rabbit, and if Charlie didn’t find it before her sister finished counting down from thirty, Sophie would die.
Sophie’s voice echoed in Charlie’s head as she panic-searched their bedroom. It was high and sweet, a sound she would recognize anywhere:
“Thirty, twenty-nine, twenty-eight, twenty-seven…”
Charlie tore through their dressers, frantically leafing through shirts and underwear like a robber in search of jewels.
“Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen…”
She sprinted over to their closet, diving to the bottom of thefloor, where they kept their many toys and stuffed animals stored in clear plastic boxes.
“Ten, nine—hurry…”
“I’m trying,” Charlie said, throwing stuffed animals over her shoulders. “I’m going as fast as I can!”
“Six, five, four…”
She made it to the last stuffed animal. The bottom of the box was empty. No purple rabbit.
“Three, two…”
Charlie whirled around, thinking she would grab her sister before anything bad could happen to her. But she nearly leapt backward, because Sophie was already there, her face right in Charlie’s. Her expression was twisted, desperate. She whispered, voice like a snake:
“Do not trust Elias Everhart.”
Then she disappeared, vanishing into the air like ash blown from a dead fire.
22
“Marcus Whittaker is off the table,” Lou said as she, Charlie, and Abigail walked down the hallway toward the cafeteria. “Apparently, he and Sheila Perkins made their relationship official last night.”
Last night.Charlie massaged her forehead, hoping it would rub away some of her sleeplessness. The dream with Sophie had felt like far more than a dream. It had felt like a warning, a message brought from the afterlife. She knew that was a ridiculous idea, but you know what else was a ridiculous idea? Goblins. Fairies. Wood wives. She was living in a brave new world, and she had no idea how far its rules could stretch.
“Dammit,” said Abigail. She flipped the pages of her binder until she found Marcus’s profile, then ripped it out. “Another one bites the dust.”
Charlie blinked down at her friend’s handiwork. A flurry of paper scraps indicated that Abigail had been periodically ripping out Instagram profiles as their owners became unavailable.
“Take this one out, too.” Lou reached down and tore out the page for Carrie Ramirez. “Molly asked her already.”
“God dammit,” Abigail muttered, flipping to the end of thebinder and making notes on a lined piece of paper that was already half filled with text. “That’s, like, half of the openly gay women at this school. Yet another perk of moving to Wonder Bread America.”
The gnome chose that moment to stick his head out the top of Charlie’s backpack and into her line of sight. Charlie nearly yelped with fright. She probably would have, but the little creature had been doing this all day. In math class. At her locker between classes. Even during gym, when she specifically instructed him to stay inside, she spotted him out on the track, his little hat waddling back and forth between the orange cones. No matter where she left him, he found her. He wouldn’t leave her alone.
“Can we talk about something other than this ridiculous date game?” Charlie asked loudly as the vätte climbed up onto her shoulder. To be honest, she couldn’t believe that her friends couldn’t see him; it was taking all of her effort to pretend he wasn’t there.
“Sure.” Lou crumpled up Carrie Ramirez’s page and tossed it into a trash can across the hall. “Let’s talk about how sketchy you’ve been acting lately.”
Charlie stiffened. “Hmm?”
“Oh, don’t try to play this off,” said Lou. “You look like you ran a marathon instead of sleeping last night.”
“Thanks,” Charlie muttered.
“I’m serious. And you’ve been evenmorespacey than usual the last few days, which I didn’t think was possible.” Lou was really getting warmed up now. She had clearly been holding back, but here it was, all spilling to the surface. “If something is going on with you, I’d really rather you just tell us. I mean, we’re your best friends, and—”
