Betrayal - By Lee Nichols Page 0,46

Then when Lukas and Natalie headed off for a run together, I worked with the Rake all afternoon. At least with him I could insist on hooking my new iPhone to the stereo, even though he hated every single song except for a couple by Outkast. Go figure.

I couldn’t beat him with a dagger—not without using my powers—but I’d come pretty close a couple of times. When he finally sheathed his sword and vanished, my arms ached and my shirt was damp with sweat. But for the first time in weeks, I didn’t feel completely spent after a spar. Maybe I was getting stronger.

I showered and threw on some clothes and knocked on the study door to talk to Simon, but he was buried in a book, as usual. Celeste was busy tidying, and Anatole was in a rage over seitan—some kind of meat substitute. I couldn’t find Nicholas anywhere, to play video games or marbles.

So I dragged my laptop up to Bennett’s room in the attic. I hadn’t been up there in a while and it made me miss him all the more. Just the way the room looked was so him. Sort of casual, but classic, with its antique bed and dresser, childhood books and old video games. Though I wanted to snoop through his stuff, I knew he wouldn’t like it, so instead I plopped onto his bed and stared up at the A-frame ceiling with its exposed beams.

I considered researching the amulet. Or Neos’s final resting spot. Or trying to contact my parents again. Or checking into the mythology of the sirens. I still needed to figure out how I was going to tune her out.

Instead, I read a graphic novel I found in the bookcase. About twenty seconds after I finished and turned on my laptop, Natalie burst into the room.

“Do you even know how to knock?” I asked, embarrassed to be caught in Bennett’s room.

“Why bother? It’s not like you’re ever doing anything interesting. Get dressed.”

I eyed her. She was wearing black matchstick jeans, knee-high leather boots, and a magenta sweater that fell off one shoulder.

“Isn’t your shoulder cold?”

“My shoulder is cold,” she said, “but I am hot. C’mon, get dressed.”

“Why, where are you going? Emphasis on the ‘you.’ ”

“We,” Lukas said, stepping inside, “are going to a party.” He was dressed in his usual T-shirt and jeans. Not that he didn’t make them look good.

“I dunno,” I said, fiddling with my laptop, as Lukas eyed the room. He’d probably never been up here.

“C’mon,” he said. “Get out of your black hole.”

“It’s comfy in here.”

“Simon says”—Natalie gave the words a little spin—“we can’t go without you.”

“You mean he trusts me?” I said.

“Yeah. That’s how un-fun you are.”

I frowned. Considering me their chaperone was kind of insulting.

Natalie tossed a black miniskirt and tights at me. “Put this on.”

“Fine,” I said, shutting my laptop.

Lukas dutifully left the room, and I slipped out of pajama bottoms and into my tights and skirt. Natalie handed me a black long-sleeved T-shirt with red exposed seams.

“Not too much black?” I asked.

“Not for you,” she said. I wasn’t sure she meant because of my blond hair and fair skin or my personality. Better not to ask.

I took one last lingering look at Bennett’s room, wishing he were here to go with us. Then I descended the stairs and shut out the light.

We took the Yaris. I drove, and Natalie gave directions across town to the strip of coast, almost like a causeway, that led to the Neck, the beyond-rich part of town.

“It’s on the Neck?” I asked, worried we’d run into Harry and Sara, who both lived over there.

“No,” she answered. “Turn here.”

I took a right into a beach parking lot. There was a chain across the entrance, but someone had knocked over the wooden post it was attached to, leaving the chain on the ground. The Yaris rattled over the metal links.

“Are you sure this is right?” I asked, parking among a scattering of cars. “Whose party is it?”

“Anna from my Chemistry class,” Natalie said. “She said they’d be over by the bluffs.”

Outside, a chill sea breeze whipped at us, and I immediately regretted wearing my tights and peacoat instead of my jeans and down jacket. “Why didn’t you tell me we were going to be outside?”

“Because you would’ve worn ratty jeans and that gray sweater. What’s the point of a party if you’re not going to look cute?”

I glared at Lukas in his jeans, big winter coat, and fleece