When she saw that I’d noticed—which I had a feeling was her intent—her smile turned smug. “You don’t know what that is, do you?”
“I can’t really see it from here.”
“It’s one of the symbols carved into the cliff at the falls. No one knows where they came from or what they mean, but I think this one makes a pretty cool tat, don’t you?”
She didn’t give me a chance to respond.
“I had to sneak over to Greenville to get it. Mother would have a cow if she knew. Which is so hypocritical since she has one herself. But she thinks I’m too young and I think she’s too old.” She admired the ink for a moment longer before rezipping her boot.
I glanced in the mirror, startled to find Sidra staring back at me this time. What was she thinking? I wondered. And why had she tried to silence Ivy about the Ashers?
Ivy fell back against the seat. “Personally, I find the whole idea of hallowed ground laughable.”
It took me a moment to redirect my train of thought. “Why?”
“How can a place be sacred just because people died there or because some priest sprinkled a little holy water over it? If you’re really into spiritual places, you should go up to the falls.”
“I hear it’s really beautiful up there.”
“It’s more than beautiful. People say it’s a thin place.”
I turned in surprise. “A thin place?”
“Don’t tell me you don’t know what that is, either.”
She seemed to enjoy her superiority, so I allowed her to keep it. “Why don’t you tell me?”
She lowered her voice. “It’s where the living world and the dead world connect. It’s where…well, never mind. Anyway, people used to go up there because they hoped to catch a glimpse of heaven. Now they stay away because they’re afraid of—” She broke off and turned to glance at Sidra in the backseat. I watched the girl in the mirror and saw her shake her head.
“They’re afraid of what?” I pressed.
“Nothing. Speak of the devil,” Ivy muttered as she sat up in the seat.
I followed her gaze to Thane Asher’s car parked at the curb. He was hunkered in front of the rear wheel well changing a flat tire, and my mind shot back to the library. I could still hear those animalistic moans in some back recess of my mind.
“We should stop,” Ivy said.
“I thought you said the Ashers were cursed.”
She slanted me a withering look as she lowered the window and called out to him. When he glanced over his shoulder, there was nothing I could do but pull up beside him and stop.
He rose and came over to the car, bending slightly to glance in the window. He wore a dark green shirt that deepened his eyes to moss and a brown leather jacket that had cracked and faded over the years. His car also showed signs of wear and tear that I hadn’t noticed on the ferry. Looking past the dazzle of metallic paint, I could see a dent here and there and the odd speck of rust.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hello,” I responded with a noncommittal smile.
Ivy gaped at him. I suspected she had a crush, which explained why she’d so easily tossed aside the notion of a curse. I could empathize. Hadn’t I done the same thing with Devlin? Thrown caution aside for passion? And Thane Asher did look ridiculously attractive in that leather jacket. Not darkly handsome like Devlin, of course, but there was something about him that I could appreciate. For one thing, he didn’t have ghosts hovering nearby. That was a definite plus. But then I reminded myself that I couldn’t know whether or not he was haunted until I saw him after twilight.
“Having car trouble?” Ivy drawled.
“A flat. Must have picked up a nail somewhere.”
“We thought you might need a ride.”
“Thanks, but I’ll have it changed in no time.”
Ivy tossed her hair over her shoulder and gazed up at him through those thick, curly lashes. “Are you sure you don’t need help with the lug nuts? They’re always so hard to get off.”
I didn’t know how she managed to pack so much sexual innuendo into two simple sentences, but she did.
Thane looked bemused…and wary. He glanced at his watch. “Shouldn’t you girls still be in school?” His tone was devoid of inflection, but I had a feeling the question was a conscious attempt to put Ivy in her place. A valiant effort, but one that seemed to sail right over the girl’s head as she twirled a dark strand of hair around one fingertip.
“We left early,” she said. “We had better things to do, right, Sid?” The two exchanged another glance, and Ivy grinned.
Thane’s gaze was on me, those green eyes gleaming with something dark. Something just for me. I didn’t know how to feel about that look. I was just as wary of him as he was of Ivy but for a very different reason. “And what part did you play in these shenanigans?”
“None at all. I’m just giving them a lift home.”
“Let’s hope the truant officer sees it your way,” he said ominously, but his eyes were still teasing. “How goes the cemetery restoration?”
“I’ve hardly begun. It’s only been one day.”
“Maybe I’ll drop by sometime. I haven’t been up there in years.”
Ivy’s grin faded, and she gave me a hard stare. She wasn’t the type of girl who would be comfortable sharing the spotlight, let alone relinquishing it to someone like me. “What is so fascinating about a bunch of old headstones?” she asked with an eye roll.
“It’s history,” Thane said. “How can you know who you are if you don’t know where you come from?”
How strange that his question should mirror the doubts and the uncertainties of my adoption that I’d pondered just last night. The insight made me uneasy.
I put a hand on the gearshift. “We should let you get back to that tire.”
His eyes lingered as he nodded. “You ladies take care.”
He stepped away from the curb, and as I drove off, I refused to look in the mirror. But I had a feeling he was staring after us. I was almost certain of it.
Ivy whirled. “How do you know Thane Asher?”
“I don’t really know him. We met yesterday on the ferry.”
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
I shrugged. “There was no reason to.”
She folded her arms. “I wouldn’t go getting any ideas if I were you. Thane would never choose someone like you.”
“Someone like me?”
“An outsider,” she said with disdain.
“I guess it’s lucky I’m not here to socialize, then. I just want to finish my job and go home.”
“You should do that. Go home, I mean.”
The whole conversation was starting to make me feel very uncomfortable. I couldn’t wait to drop them off and drive back to the Covey house. Although at that moment, I would have liked nothing more than to heed Ivy’s advice and head home to Charleston.
Something was seriously amiss in this town. I’d felt it the moment I crossed Bell Lake. The shadows seemed deeper, the nights longer, the secrets older. Even the wind felt different here. And I couldn’t forget the repugnant man in the cemetery who had mimicked my worst fears or the ghost who had somehow let me sense her confusion.
According to Ivy, Asher Falls was located near a thin place. Could that explain the bizarre nature of the town and the people who inhabited it? Maybe there was hyper supernatural activity in the area. I’d have to ask Dr. Shaw next time I went home. He ran the Charleston Institute for Parapsychology Studies and usually had answers for all my questions, whether or not they were the ones I wanted.
With an effort, I turned my attention back to the road. As we passed a gray stone building shrouded in vines, I noticed several girls dressed in the same uniform as Ivy and Sidra ambling out a side door.
“Is that your school?” I asked.
“Oh, damn!” Ivy slid down in her seat. “Hurry and get past before someone sees us. We’re supposed to be home sick.”
“Both of you?”
“There’s a bug going around. They were sending kids home all day. We left after lunch.”
“Pretending to be sick?”
“It’s easy enough to fake illness when the school nurse is half-blind.” She laughed at her own cleverness.