Chapter Twenty-Five
Saturday morning. Prom. I woke with a churning stomach and a pounding head. Over the past forty-eight hours I’d drafted no less than ten separate texts to Kaydon explaining that I’d changed my mind about attending prom. But I always chickened out before hitting send. I’d shared my concerns with Devon, who attributed my nerves to what may or may not happen at the after-party. Basically, she thought I was worried that Kaydon expected me to sleep with him since that was what people did after prom. That prospect hadn’t crossed my mind until she suggested it.
As a special treat, Mom made last-minute appointments for Devon, Elizabeth, Mandy, and me at a salon on Main Street. When Elizabeth picked me up, Devon and Mandy were already in the car. They were all talking excitedly, passing around pictures they’d torn from magazines to give to the hairdressers. I hated that I couldn’t muster any enthusiasm. No matter how hard I tried, the nagging sensation of impending doom wouldn’t go away.
The Waverunner was as upscale as it got in Westwood, and they served us sparkling cider while we had our hair teased, sprayed, twisted, and curled into submission. Mandy smiled through the entire ordeal, so much so I wondered if her cheeks hurt. Elizabeth gushed about Cooper and how he’d taken a picture of her dress to the flower shop to make sure the corsage he ordered matched her dress perfectly. I sat back in the chair and listened to my friends as they made bets on who would win prom king and queen. Devon pretended like her chances of being queen were low, even though all four of us knew she had it in the bag.
“I’m going to run down to the tailor and pick up my dress,” Devon said.
Having considerably shorter hair than Elizabeth and me, the hairdresser had managed to weave baby’s breath through Devon’s spiral curls in the time it took my hairdresser just to pile mine into a ponytail – the curling process had yet to begin.
“If you wait like ten more minutes, I’ll come,” Mandy volunteered. The upside-down French braid that Mandy had chosen was complete; all that was left for her hairdresser to do was curl and spray the ends.
Devon waved her hand dismissively. “That’s okay. If I go now, I can be back by the time all three of you are finished. We need to get back to Eel’s ASAP so we can get started on our makeup.”
“We have time,” I spoke up. “Wait for one of us to go with you.” I didn’t like the idea of Devon being alone. Maybe I was being paranoid, but something told me that I needed to stay close to her today.
“I’m a big girl, Eel,” Devon laughed. “I don’t need a chaperone.” With that she was gone before I could voice a second protest.
“Is she okay? She seems a little down,” Mandy said once Devon was gone.
“Totally. Devon’s happy going stag,” I replied.
“I feel badly for her. She’s going to be queen, and it looks sort of bad that she doesn’t have a date,” Elizabeth interjected.
“Don’t let her hear you say that,” I warned. Devon would hate the idea of anyone pitying her. “Besides, if she wanted a date, she would have one.”
Forty-five minutes later, my hair was piled into a loose bun with a handful of strategically placed curls framing my face. Claire, the same woman who cut and styled my mother’s hair, had used copious bobby pins with tiny white roses on the ends to hold my hair in place. She’d also used the entire can of Aquanet, ensuring that I’d have to shampoo my hair at least three times the following day before it had any hope of moving again. There was probably a hole in the ozone larger than that giant ball of yarn in Minnesota hovering over the salon.
“What’s taking Dev so long?” Elizabeth asked, checking the time on her cell phone. We’d just finished paying our respective bills. She made a face when she realized how much time had passed since Devon left for the tailor. “Maybe her dress isn’t ready?”
“I’ll call her.” Just when I finally fished my cell from my purse, the bells over the front door jingled and Devon walked in. The smile on her lips rivaled the Cheshire cat’s and her big blue eyes twinkled.
“There you are,” I said, relieved. We were running short on time now – the boys were supposed to be at my house no later than four so we could take pictures before the limo arrived at five. “Dress turn out okay?”
“Better than okay. It turned out amazing.” Devon’s tone had this dreamlike quality to it, which was completely out of character for my best friend. Elizabeth and I exchanged glances.
“What took so long then?” Elizabeth asked.
Devon’s expression turned coy. She shrugged nonchalantly. “I didn’t realize I’d been gone that long. Guess time really does fly when you’re having a good time.”
I looked from Elizabeth to Mandy, seeking confirmation that they too thought Devon was acting strangely. Both girls appeared just as confused as I felt.
“Right, because the tailor is the happening place to be today,” I said sardonically.
The sarcasm was wasted on Devon.
“Don’t be ridiculous, Endora Lee.” Devon gave me an exaggerated eye roll. “Bryson was the good time, not the tailor.”
“Who’s Bryson?” I asked slowly. There was something seriously off about Devon. Her behavior was so out of character that I wondered if she’d hit her head. And had she really just called me by my full first name? She never used my full first name.
“Bryson Daniels. He’s friends with Abby Reynolds and Kilbi Arnold. You’ve met him.” Abby and Kilbi were juniors and both girls were on the lacrosse team, but I wasn’t familiar with any of their friends outside of the other girls on the team. “Anyway, I ran into him on the way back from the tailor and we got to talking. One thing led to another and I invited him to be my date tonight.”
Devon squealed when she said the last part. Actually squealed. I hadn’t seen her so excited since the salesgirl at Victoria’s Secret told her she’d graduated from an A-cup to a B-cup.
“Oh my god! That is so awesome!” Now Elizabeth was squealing excitedly too. “This is so great. Is he coming to dinner with us?”
Devon’s face fell. “No. He has to watch his little brother until his parents get home from the Orioles game. He’s meeting up with us at the country club.”
“Well, we can’t wait to check him out,” Mandy said.
Speak for yourself, I thought. Something about this situation put my teeth on edge. Between Devon’s giddiness, and the half-dazed, half-lovestruck expression she wore, my guard was up. Apparently I was the only one, though. Neither Elizabeth nor Mandy seemed concerned. In fact, both girls were grilling Devon about Bryson Daniels. What did he look like? How old was he? Did she think he’d have time to buy her a corsage?
Relax; be happy for her, I ordered myself. Clearly Devon was happy, and as her best friend, I should be supportive.
“I’m very excited for you,” I told Devon, linking my arm through hers and mustering a smile for her benefit. “But if we don’t get back to my house soon, we are all going to be going to prom sans makeup. And considering we just paid a small fortune to have our hair done, we’d look pretty silly with extravagant ’dos and bare faces.”
Devon threw her head back and laughed.
“You’re right. We don’t want to disappoint our dates!” She said it without a hint of sarcasm and now actually looked like she was worried that Bryson might be disappointed if she were less than perfect. My smile faltered and my insides squirmed. Whoever this Bryson Daniels was, I disliked him already.
****
“Okay, now just the girls,” Mrs. Holloway said.
My living room was standing-room only. In addition to Elizabeth, Mandy, Devon, me, and our dates – minus the Bryson Daniels character – Cooper’s friend, Jared Cato, and Anna Beth Walters, the JV lacrosse captain, were arranged in front of the fire place posing for one picture after another. Since Anna Beth was only a sophomore and didn’t know many seniors besides Jared, I’d suggested they share our limo.
The other four girls and I lined up with Elizabeth in the middle since she was the tallest, the rest of us filling in around her. Next, Mrs. Holloway arranged the four boys according to height. We took serious pictures, silly pictures, pictures of each individual couple, pictures of Devon and me, Elizabeth and me, Mandy and me, Anna Beth and me, Devon and Elizabeth, Devon and Mandy, and so on and so forth until my jaw muscles ached from all of the smiling.
I’d been worried about my mother being rude to Kaydon after catching him in my room the other night. Thankfully, she was on her best behavior and only asked him a handful of perfunctory questions instead of interrogating him as I’d feared she would.
“You are absolutely beautiful, Endora,” Mom told me as she hugged me goodbye. “Have fun tonight, and please call on your way to the sports complex.”
The school-sanctioned after-party was being held at the indoor sports complex on the outskirts of Westwood. My friends and I weren’t actually going to that party – we were going to Elizabeth’s – but Mom was paranoid about me becoming a statistic, and had only agreed to let me stay out if I agreed to go to the adequately chaperoned, school-sponsored after-party.
“I will,” I promised her. At least, I would call on the way to Elizabeth’s.
“Kaydon, it was nice to see you again.” She offered Kaydon her hand and he shook it, managing to meet her eyes for the first time all evening.
While he’d found my embarrassment the other night funny, his cheeks had turned red every time my mother looked at him tonight. Apparently, he wasn’t accustomed to being caught in his girlfriend’s bedroom by her mother. I found this endearing and was secretly relieved that it wasn’t a common occurrence for him. In some ways I knew him better than anyone else in my life. But I knew nothing about his dating history; with all of the bizarre stuff surrounding us, the topic had never come up. I was willing to bet he had a lot more experience than I did, though.
“You too, Mrs. Andrews,” he responded.
After hugging each of the Holloways, the Byrds, and Helen, we finally piled into the white limo and were off to dinner at the Rustic Tavern.
The limo came stocked with sodas, bottled water, assorted juices, and bags of pretzels and chips. Of course, Cooper and Jared each had a flask tucked inside their jackets, and Elizabeth had nabbed several bottles of champagne from her mother’s mini-bar.
“Let’s get this party started!” Cooper declared, uncorking a bottle of Dom.
The cork shot across the limo, narrowly missing Mandy and Matthew, who were cuddled on one of the bench seats. Cooper poured the overpriced bubbly into plastic cups and passed one to each of us.
“To the best night of our lives!” Elizabeth declared, raising her glass in toast.
“To my gorgeous date,” Kaydon said in a low voice, tapping his cup against mine.
I blushed at his compliment. “To my incredibly dapper-looking date,” I said.
During dinner I kept my attention focused on Devon. She’d been extremely quiet, both at my house and in the limo. The lavender gown she wore had thin spaghetti straps, and she kept fiddling with them nervously. Every five minutes she dug a silver compact from her evening bag and checked her makeup, frequently reapplying lip gloss. When I suggested that she relax, she nearly bit my head off.
“I don’t want to disappoint Bryson,” she snapped after I told her she looked amazing and that fact hadn’t changed since the last time she checked.
“Who is Bryson?” Kaydon whispered.
“This guy she met on Main Street. She was so enamored with him that she asked him to be her date tonight.”
“You don’t know him?”
I shook my head. “Nope. She says he’s friends with some of the junior girls from the team, but I’ve never met him.”
Kaydon studied Devon with newfound interest. He squinted his eyes in concentration as if looking for something not immediately apparent, his expression pensive. When he noticed me watching him, he offered me a lopsided grin.
“You’re worried about her aren’t you?”
“That obvious?”
“Devon can take care of herself, Endora.” Kaydon’s voice was low, gentle. “You’re a good friend to worry, though.” He ran his forefinger over the back of my hand, sending a pleasant tingling sensation crawling up my arm and warming my entire body.
“Would you two lovebirds please stop whispering sweet nothings to each other?” Cooper teased. “Kaydon, dude, you’re making me look bad. First you get Eel a bigger corsage than I got Liz and now you spend dinner staring into her eyes. I can’t compete, man.”
Elizabeth leaned over and kissed Cooper’s clean-shaven cheek. “There’s no competition, Coop. You already got me.”
All the champagne, combined with Elizabeth’s love of romance, made her particularly over-the-top this evening. Ordinarily this was something Devon and I teased her about. But when I tried to catch Devon’s eye to share a grin, she wouldn’t look at me. Instead she was staring at Elizabeth and, if I didn’t know better, I would have said that her blue eyes flamed green with envy.
A receiving line that included Principal Beam, Mrs. Randolf (our class advisor), Vice Principal Lovejoy, and several members of the PTA, greeted us at the entrance to Turf Valley Country Club. I hadn’t partaken in any more libations since the first glass of champagne, but Elizabeth and Cooper had long since crossed the line that separated sobriety and inebriation. Elizabeth teetered on her heels, and Cooper giggled every time she stumbled on the hem of her dress. Kaydon artfully steered the two of them around the adults while the rest of us distracted them.
The ballroom was gorgeous, decorated with blue and white balloons and streamers. A large dance floor was in the center of the room, surrounded by round tables covered in pressed linens and centerpieces with floating blue and white tea lights. Carving stations staffed by waiters in white tuxedo jackets lined one wall. And bartenders mixing non-alcoholic beverages were situated along the other.
“Should we grab a table?” Mandy asked.
She and Matthew, who had barely spoken to anyone besides each other all evening, were holding hands and standing so close together they sort of resembled conjoined twins. Mandy wore an expression of complete adoration, which was mirrored on Matthew’s face. I’d never seen my friend so comfortable or happy. I liked it.
“Sounds good,” I agreed.
We found a table near the dance floor and set our stuff down on the chairs. After Jared shed his jacket and Anna Beth ditched her shawl, they joined the throng of students gyrating to the music the DJ was playing. Cooper and Elizabeth followed suit, both relying on the other to stand up straight.
“Care to dance?” Kaydon asked, giving me a mock bow.
I giggled stupidly and wrinkled my nose. “I’m not very coordinated.”
Kaydon pulled out a chair for me to sit. “Don’t be modest, Endora. I’ve seen you play lacrosse; you’re incredibly coordinated.”
I shrugged. Truthfully, I wasn’t a horrible dancer, but I was still worried about Devon. The nagging sensation that there was something wrong with my best friend wouldn’t go away. I glanced across the table to where she sat, checking her phone.
“Why don’t you grab us something to drink? Then I promise we can dance.” I grinned up at him, but he wasn’t fooled.
He leaned down and kissed my cheek, his lips administering a tiny shock that made me shiver. “She’s fine,” he whispered in my ear. “I’ll go get drinks, but then I’m holding you to that promise about dancing.”
I waited until Kaydon was out of earshot.
“When is Bryson going to be here?” I called to Devon across the table.
She looked up from her phone and beamed. The sound of her date’s name caused her entire face to light up and that dreamy expression to cloud her eyes. She opened her mouth as if to respond, but the display on her cell drew her attention once again. Her smile widened.
“He’s here!” Devon exclaimed, and jumped to her feet like a jack-in-the-box. “Be back in a minute.”
“Dev, wait.” My words fell on deaf ears; Devon was already hurrying towards the entrance.
Kaydon is right, I told myself. Devon is capable of taking care of herself. Besides, the fact she was excited about any guy who wasn’t Rick should make me jump for joy.
The song ended; the DJ came over the microphone and announced that he would be taking a ten-minute break, but to enjoy the sounds of Barry Manilow. I wasn’t sure if he really thought teenagers liked the 1970s crooner or if he thought playing elevator music was funny.
“Where’s Dev?” Elizabeth asked, claiming the chair next to mine.
“Bryson finally arrived. She went out front to meet him.” I rolled my eyes.
“Only Devon would meet a guy in the morning and manage to convince him to be her date to prom that night,” Cooper laughed.
Kaydon returned and handed me a Shirley Temple complete with two cherries and a cocktail straw.
“Thanks,” I said, accepting the drink.
Kaydon took the seat on my other side and sipped his own faux cocktail. My friends continued to talk around me, but my attention was on the door. I wanted to see Devon the moment she walked in. Maybe I’d seen too many Lifetime movies, but images of Devon being dragged into a car kicking and screaming kept playing in my mind.
“Ladies and gentlemen, Principal Beam has just informed me that we will be announcing your Westwood High king and queen in the next hour. Polls will close shortly, though, so make sure to cast your votes,” the DJ announced over the microphone. “For now, let’s get this dance floor filled back up!”
A Bruno Mars song started to play. Elizabeth clapped her hands and declared, “I love this song,” before dragging Cooper back to the dance floor.
“Time to make good on that promise,” Kaydon leaned close and whispered in my ear.
I smiled and took his hand, and together we joined my classmates. Next to us, Cooper and Elizabeth were doing a poor impression of ballroom dancing. When Cooper dipped Elizabeth backward, her long hair swept the ground. There was something oddly familiar about the scene. A feeling of déjà vu swept over me, making my stomach queasy and my head spin.
“Have I told you how amazing you look tonight?” Kaydon murmured, pressing his cheek to my forehead.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. He’d told me several times already, and each time the words had thrilled me. But now, the effect was different. Instead of heat rushing to my cheeks, the temperature in the room seemed to drop.
“Thanks,” I replied in a hollow voice.
While we moved in time to the music, I continued to watch the entrance like a hawk. The ominous, foreboding sensation intensified. I knew any moment Devon would walk through the front door and she wouldn’t be alone. Bryson Daniels would be with her, with frosted blonde hair that made him look like a boy band member from the 90s and all. Whether Bryson actually was friends with Abby and Kilbi, I had no idea. But I had met him before; he’d been at my birthday party. The dreams were coming back to me, one detail at a time.
A much faster song replaced the Bruno Mars love ballad and Kaydon released me, quickly picking up the new rhythm. I remained where I was, gold heels rooted to the ground. Just as I’d known they would be, Devon and Bryson were holding hands as they entered the ballroom.
“Endora, what’s wrong?” Kaydon asked, grabbing my hand and attempting to get me to dance with him. When I failed to respond, Kaydon followed my gaze. The grip on my fingers became painful almost instantly.
I turned, and looked up at him. His jaw was clenched tightly, causing small lines to appear around his mouth. His eyes were narrowed, and the small tingles running up my arm from his touch became jolts. My arm shook and my teeth chattered as if I’d been tasered.
“Kaydon.” I whimpered his name.
He released my hand quickly like I’d been the one to shock him and not the other way around. I cradled my arm over my chest, and waited for the aftershocks to die down.
“Do you know him?” I asked.
Kaydon shook his head but didn’t meet my gaze. He was lying.
“Who is he, Kaydon?”
No answer.
“Kaydon, please. Devon is my best friend. If she’s in danger, you need to tell me.”
He finally turned and met my gaze, green eyes giving away nothing. His face was now relaxed, expression neutral. The slight trembling of his fingers when he tucked a stray curl behind my ear was all that betrayed his true feelings. He was scared.
“She’s not in danger. Not exactly. That kid is a real jackass, though. I don’t know him, know him. But I’ve seen him around and I’ve heard the rumors. He has a reputation for sleeping with a girl and then never calling her again.”
I studied Kaydon, searching for some indication that he was lying. His face was a mask - a beautiful, unreadable mask.
“I see…” I said slowly. “I should warn her.” Not that Devon was going to take my advice, not with the way she became all googly-eyed when someone mentioned Bryson.
I weaved through my classmates, careful not to get the hem of my dress caught under anyone’s heels. Kaydon called my name, but I didn’t turn around. There was more to the story than he was telling me. I had no doubt that Bryson Daniels, if that was even his real name, had a playboy reputation. But that alone didn’t explain the anger or the fear Kaydon was hiding.
“Endora, wait.” His fingers stung as they closed around my wrist.
I spun to face him. The mask was still in place, but cracks were starting to appear.
“Who is he?” I demanded.
“Let me take care of this, please.” His green eyes were pleading now. “Go outside and wait for me. No matter what happens, do not come back inside and do not go anywhere with someone besides me.”
“Kaydon, what is going on?”
“I won’t let anything happen to her.” With that Kaydon was gone, leaving me staring after him.
I didn’t know what to do. Should I go after him? Should I trust him? I barely knew him. He’d said that some Egrgoroi were bad. Evil. Was Bryson one of the evil Egrgoroi? I tried to recall the one time we’d been in close physical proximity, the night of my birthday when he’d suggested that I jump off the cliff at Caswell Lake. The conflicting emotions that I felt around Kaydon and the two Egrgoroi boys in the mall weren’t present that night. What did that mean?
“Where’s Dev? They are going to announce king and queen soon.” Elizabeth was panting and her cheeks were flushed from dancing.
“Kaydon just went to find her,” I mumbled.
A shrill noise drowned out the music and my classmates’ voices. The lights blinked off, replaced by pulsing white emergency lights.
“If everyone could move to the nearest exit. Do not panic. Walk, do not run.” Principal Beam was barely audible over the continued blaring of the alarm.
Devon. Kaydon. Where were they? Between the darkness and my panicked classmates, I had no hope of finding either of them in the chaos. People swarmed around me, bumping me in their haste to run, not walk, to the exit. I stood frozen, unsure what to do.
Before he went after Devon, Kaydon had told me to go outside. Had he known this was going to happen? Did Bryson Daniels have something to do with this?
“Eel, come on,” Elizabeth shouted to be heard. Her hand was on my elbow, urging me forward. Cooper was on her other side, his bow tie wrapped around his forehead like Tarzan. Seeing him like that sparked a memory: fire.
“Fire,” I said aloud.
“Exactly. This place is on fire. That’s why we have to go outside,” Elizabeth said, exasperated by my refusal to move.
I closed my eyes, trying to hold on to the memory. This was important. I saw myself walking down a smoke-filled corridor, calling Devon’s name. She was trapped. She was going to die if I didn’t find her.
“Go. I have to find Devon,” I told Elizabeth, gently pushing her away.
“You have to come.”
The ballroom was quickly emptying of people, only to be replaced by smoke wafting in from a hallway to the right.
“Cooper,” I tried appealing to him instead. “Take her outside. I’ll be right behind you.”
“No,” Elizabeth protested. “I’m not leaving you.”
“Cooper,” I begged. There wasn’t time for this; I needed to get to Devon.
Cooper hesitated, waging some internal debate that I wasn’t privy to. He stared into my eyes. Whatever he saw – determination, resolve, desperation – made his decision for him. “Come on, Liz. Let’s go.”
Elizabeth’s protests faded as I ran towards the smoky corridor. My heels were slowing me down, so I took several seconds to kick them aside. I glanced over my shoulder and caught Cooper dragging Elizabeth through the entranceway. They were the last people to leave the ballroom.
The smoke was dense and stung my eyes. I used the skirt of my dress to cover my mouth and nose. Heat surged all around me, growing stronger and more uncomfortable the deeper I plunged into the corridor. The exposed skin of my arms felt like it was blistering, but the pain made me move faster.
“Devon!” I shouted, worried that the wailing fire alarms would prevent her from hearing my cries.
The gray-black cloud was so thick that I couldn’t see where I was going. A brief moment of panic made me falter. Was I going the right way? Sure, the smoke was coming from this direction. And as the saying goes, where there’s smoke there’s fire. But was I sure that Devon was trapped near the flashpoint?
In my dream she had been. Except in my dream, Kaydon, not Devon, was waiting for me at the end of this hallway. But he’d gone searching for her, so she had to be there too, right?
With newfound determination, I dropped to my hands and knees. The air close to the floor wasn’t as smoky, and I sucked in the relatively fresh air. My lungs burned from inhaling so much smoke - the dress had been a poor filter. But my own health seemed unimportant. This was Devon we were talking about. She was my best friend. My partner in crime. Had the roles been reversed, she wouldn’t have let a little smoke stand between us.
“Devon!” I shouted again.
A coughing fit overtook me, temporarily stalling my progress. But my efforts were rewarded when I began to hear banging coming from the direction I was moving. The sound was faint and only audible between the intermittent wails of the fire alarm. Still, it gave me hope – she was still alive.
Deciding that crawling was too slow, I got to my feet, crouching low, and continued towards the banging. The heat was almost unbearable. My face felt like it was melting. But finally, I reached a door. I knew it was there, not because I saw it, but because I ran into it. Headfirst. The collision caused me to fall backwards. Disoriented and not thinking straight, I blindly grabbed for the door handle, remembering too late that it would be hot. The metal seared my palm and I cried out, inhaling a great deal of smoke in the process.
I swore at my stupidity, then wrapped my uninjured hand in the skirt of my dress and tried the handle a second time. The damned door was locked. Of course. Oddly, this development wasn’t a surprise. In my dream the door had been locked as well. I knew what was coming next: an explosion. I took several steps backwards and curled into a ball, hands over my head, and waited. I wasn’t disappointed.
The wooden floor shook beneath me and I moaned Devon’s name, fearing the worst. The door is going to open now, I thought. And it did. Just like in my dream, Kaydon was framed in the doorway. His hair was a mess, blood ran down one side of his face, and the buttons of his shirt were ripped open.
This isn’t right, I thought. This wasn’t how the dream went. He shouldn’t have been hurt.
“Jesus, Endora. I told you to go outside!” He coughed, a deep raspy noise that made him groan, and hurried to my side. “Are you okay?”
Our faces were inches apart. Both his right eye and his lower lip were swollen. I touched his cheek with my fingers to make sure he was real. This definitely hadn’t happened in my dream. Where were the fire creatures?
“Can you walk? Are you hurt? We need to go.”
Kaydon’s grip was gentle but firm on my waist. He pulled me to my feet.
“Devon?” I said weakly.
“She’s fine. But we won’t be if we don’t go now.”
I refused to move. Could I trust him? I’d never actually seen her in my dream. I had no idea where she was supposed to be.
“Endora, please. I promise she is safe.”
“I hope she’s worth it,” a cold voice spoke from behind us.
Despite the blistering heat, my blood froze. I didn’t need to turn around to know it was Bryson. Kaydon didn’t give me a choice now. He picked me up, threw me over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, and started running. Laughter followed us, louder than the fire alarm. I wondered whether the noise was actually inside of my head.
Instead of the ballroom being at the end of the hallway where I thought it was, there was another door. Kaydon used his hip to depress the bar and it opened. Cold air chilled my back and when Kaydon set me back on my feet, I greedily gulped it in. Kaydon fell to his knees, coughing and wheezing.
“Are you okay?” he asked between wheezes.
“Me?” I laughed dryly. “Are you okay?”
Tentatively, I touched his swollen eye. He winced but didn’t pull away.
“What happened in there?” I asked quietly.
Kaydon shook his head. “I’ll explain later. Right now, we need to get out of here.”
With a great deal of effort, Kaydon stood, clutching his ribs. Since his shirt was ripped, scratches on his chest were visible. I wanted to press him for details about what happened, but he was already on the move.
The grass was cold and damp beneath my feet. It felt so good, soothing my hot skin. I followed Kaydon around the back of the building. Apparently, we’d left through a back exit. My classmates were congregated in the parking lot. Fire engines lined the circular drive, looking out of place among the white and black limos. Firemen in yellow jumpsuits were hauling thick white hoses off of the trucks. Several police cruisers had also responded to the alarms, and uniformed officers were standing with Principal Beam off to one side.
“We can’t go up there,” Kaydon said. “The cops will want to question us.”
One look at Kaydon’s bruised and bloodied face told me he was right.
“I need to let my friends know I’m okay, though,” I said.
“You can call them later.”
“How are we going to get home?”
The country club was a twenty-minute drive from my house; we couldn’t walk. Kaydon was in no shape to walk anywhere. He needed medical attention.
“Cab,” Kaydon said. He reached in his pants pocket for his cell. “Damn.”
“What?”
“It’s broken.” He held up the phone so I could see the blank display.
I’d left my evening bag at the table, which meant we had no phone.
“There’s a gas station not far from here,” I suggested. “They probably have a pay phone.”
Despite my doubts about whether Kaydon could walk that far, he did so without complaint. Miraculously, the gas station did still have a working pay phone, and we used that and the Yellow Pages to call a cab. Next, I dialed Devon’s cell number.
It rang three times before her muffled voice answered. “Hello?” Sirens wailed in the background, making it hard to hear her. But the relief I felt at hearing her say that one word was indescribable.
“Devon.” My voice broke on her name.
“Eel?!” she shouted. “Is that you? Where are you?”
“I’m with Kaydon,” I said. “We’re safe.”
“He saved my life, Eel,” she sobbed. “Bryson is a monster. One minute we were making out, and the next he had me tied up. Fire shot from his hands. He was going to kill me.”
I closed my eyes and rested my forehead against the cold glass of the phone booth. How could I have let this happen? I’d known she was in danger. I should have trusted my gut, should have listened to the voices in my head telling me not to go to prom.
“He said that if I hadn’t meddled in things that weren’t my business then none of this would have happened.” Devon was still crying in my ear. “The fire was my fault. I’m so sorry.”
“No, no, sweetie. It’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong.” The fire was my fault. Bryson had only gone after Devon because of me. Even if the gods didn’t want her messing with Egrgoroi affairs, she’d only done it to help me.
A mechanical voice broke into our conversation, directing me to “Please deposit fifty cents to continue the phone call.”
“Dev, I have to go,” I said hurriedly. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I’ll call you—” A dial tone filled my ear. I replaced the receiver, fighting back my own tears.
After several deep, calming breaths, I regained a modicum of composure, took Kaydon’s wallet and went inside the convenience store to purchase first-aid supplies. The selection was subpar at best, but it would have to do.
Armed with bottled water, gauze, Neosporin, and peroxide, I sat on the curb beside Kaydon and silently began cleaning the cuts on his face.
“I haven’t been completely honest with you,” he said quietly, keeping his gaze straight forward.
I said nothing, but my hands shook as I dabbed peroxide on his temple. Kaydon winced but otherwise showed no sign that he was in pain.
“The lake was a coincidence. That much was true. And the first dream I had about you was about us meeting at Elizabeth’s party. But I wasn’t joking when I told you we were supposed to come here tonight together.”
My fingers stilled. I didn’t like where this was going. All the dreams about Kaydon flooded my mind at once. My heart started hammering against my ribs. He was the enemy. My original impression of him, the fear I’d felt at the lake, was correct. Kaydon was dangerous.
I took a shaky breath that hurt my lungs. “What exactly are you saying?”
“Please don’t make me spell it out, Endora.”
But I wanted him to spell it out because there were still a number of issues I was unclear on.
“If it counts for anything, I’d already made the decision not to go through with it when you invited me. My attraction to you is real. At first, I really thought I might be able to do it. But after the night at the lake, after I’d met you in person, there was no way.” He paused in his rambling and laughed humorlessly. “Guess I should have read the fine print on that Egrgoroi contract.”
“You were supposed to kill me,” I said. Surprisingly, my voice was calm. I even managed to continue administering to his wounds, using a little more peroxide than was necessary to disinfect the cuts, and more pressure than was necessary to apply the gauze.
The realization wasn’t as earth-shattering as it should have been. Then again, part of me had known since we met that he was dangerous. I’d chosen to ignore all the warning signs.
“Yes. You were my first real assignment. All the other premonitions I’ve had were small.”
“How do Bryson and Devon fit into this? He told her she shouldn’t have meddled in things that aren’t her business.”
Kaydon turned and met my eyes for the first time. There was so much sadness in them, so much pain. “Bryson is a type of Egrgoroi, a fire wrangler to be precise. He’s like the lake creature, though - no soul.”
“And he was also sent to kill me?”
“I think so,” Kaydon said. “He was in my dream. I didn’t know his name before you told it to me, though. But as soon as I saw him with Devon I recognized him. Up until that moment, I’d still thought there was a chance the dream wouldn’t come true.” His eyes began to water. He wiped away the tears with the back of his hand. “I knew what I was supposed to do, but there was no way I could go through with it. Not now after knowing you.” He cupped my cheek with his palm.
Closing my eyes, I leaned into his touch. His fingers were rough against my skin as they stroked my cheek.
“You were supposed to be evil,” he whispered. “But nothing so beautiful could be evil.”
I willed myself not to cry and asked Kaydon the one question I’d been too naïve to ask from the beginning, “Which god do you work for?”
A pit of dread formed in my stomach as I waited for his reply. If he thought I was supposed to be evil, then that meant he, not me, was one of the Blessed.
“King Kronos.”
My heart sank. That was what I’d been afraid of.
“What about Bryson?” I asked.
“Tartarus. Fire wranglers are exclusive to Tartarus.”
“If you work for King Kronos and Bryson works for Tartarus, who do I work for?” I opened my eyes and met his gaze.
“I’m not sure,” he replied sadly. “At first, I thought for sure you were part of Tartarus’s clan because of my premonitions. But since you died as an infant, I don’t understand how that is possible.”
While Kaydon might still not understand how all the puzzle pieces fit together, I suddenly realized I did. Well, at least how Dad thought they did. And if I were being truthful, Mom, too. Dad was trying to find a physical gate to the underworld. He was particularly interested in only one of the three judges: Minos, the Appeals Judge. There was only one reason I could think of to appeal my second life – if, at its ultimate conclusion, I was destined for Tartarus.
I still wasn’t convinced Samantha’s death was not my fault, but something my mother said came back to me. “I don’t think you were given a second chance at life.” She hadn’t flat out denied believing I was an Egrgoroi, only that I hadn’t been given the choice to come back. The more I thought about it, the more I agreed with her. I wasn’t given the choice; I wasn’t old enough to sign the contract. But Samantha was.
“What if I wasn’t the one Judged and Sentenced?” I asked Kaydon quietly.
“You had to have been,” he said, slowly shaking his head. “That’s the way it works.”
“Right, but I wasn’t the only one who died the day I was born, remember? What if they gave Aunt Sam the choice but there was some mix-up and I got sent back instead?”
“Maybe,” Kaydon said, sounding unconvinced.
“That would explain why both sides want me dead,” I reasoned. “I mean, no one wants a rogue Egrgoroi wandering around. For all I know I am getting messages from both sides and screwing up the battle of good versus evil.”
Kaydon laughed, but his eyes remained flat. “Well, you have definitely screwed up that fight.” Kaydon turned away again, staring off into the distance. “There’s something else.”
Great, I thought. Just when I thought the situation couldn’t get worse.
“All those people on that list your father had - Endora, they’re dead.”