Then I ran like hell for the main house.
Chapter 49
“I can’t feel her.”
Ava and I sat in a corner of the emergency room, which was blessedly empty. She’d insisted on taking me to the hospital.
“That doesn’t have to mean the worst.”
“I put her in this situation. Nothing can happen.” My voice broke, and I stared at a framed print of Monet’s water lilies on the wall until I regained control. Lilies. “It’s been three hours. The sun is coming up, her grandmother is home, and she’ll know Lily’s missing.”
“Are you sure you’ve told us everything?” Ava asked. “It’s going to be easier to find her if we know every detail, especially if you have to wait for X-rays and a cast and we have to go looking by ourselves.”
Ava looked toward the sliding double doors of the emergency entrance. Dune and Nate walked in, holding four cups of coffee.
“Fracture?” Nate asked, looking at my arm.
“Don’t know yet.”
I doubted Dune would ever forgive me for breaking into his room and stealing the Skroll. Even so, he asked, “Are you okay?”
“I can’t feel Lily. Has anyone heard from Emerson or Michael?”
Nate stared up at the red exit sign, blinking as if he was holding back tears. The fact that he was serious scared me as much as anything could.
“No,” Dune said. “Thomas has the cops on it. He freaked when Em didn’t come home last night.”
Almost everyone I loved was in danger, and I was in a hospital waiting for stitches and an X-ray.
“I don’t know who has Lily.” The possibility that it was Poe sent ice down my spine. Jack wasn’t any better. He’d keep her alive long enough to use her ability to find the one thing he wanted, and then he’d discard her. “I need to get out of here. My arm can wait.”
“Ballard?” A young, smiling nurse with pink scrubs, red hair, and white shoes called my name. She had a clipboard in her hands and a pen stuck in her bun.
“No,” Ava argued. “Your arm is all bendy. You can’t leave without seeing a doctor.”
“I’ll be fine. Let’s just go.” I stood up.
“Dude,” Nate said. “You’ll be useless if you don’t get that arm fixed. Trust us to look for Lily. We want her found, too.”
He waited for me to read him. Loyalty, fear, conviction. The same feelings came from Dune and Ava.
“Ballard?” The nurse had removed the pen from her hair and was now tapping it on her clipboard, looking at us pointedly, but still smiling.
“Thank you.” I could only whisper.
“Go,” Ava said. “You’ll know you the second we find anything.”
The nurse, Mary Ellen, forced me to put on a hospital gown, and then she started an IV.
“Seriously? At worst, I need an ACE bandage, not an IV. Why do I need a hospital gown?” It wasn’t wide enough for my shoulders, so no matter what I did, it wouldn’t close in the back. The nurse kept averting her eyes. “Can’t you just slap on a Band-Aid and send me on my way?”
“Don’t be so grumpy. Let us take care of you. The IV will keep you hydrated.” Mary Ellen slid the needle under my skin quickly and almost painlessly. “No eating or drinking. We need to keep your stomach clear, in case that’s a break, specifically a compound fracture, and requires surgery.”
“Surgery? I can’t have surgery. I don’t have time. I have to…” In that second, everything in the room softened around the edges. I forgot what I was mad about. “What did you just do?”
“I gave you a little something for the pain, and to calm you down. You’re rather… agitated.” She frowned and took a step back before leaving the room completely.
“Agitated? You haven’t seen agitated.” Panic couldn’t eclipse the meds rushing through my system. Drugs that strong could have the same numbing effect as alcohol. I wouldn’t be able to feel anyone’s emotions, not even my own.
Not Lily’s.
I struggled to sit up, to keep my eyes open, but the nurse must have given me enough of the painkiller to take down a horse.
I don’t know how, but that’s when the wall between Lily and me tumbled down.
I’d known we were connected, but the pain I felt now was so sharp I could’ve been in her skin. Every emotion was amplified. She was pissed off and scared and worried. The pissed-off part made me hopeful for one brief second, and then my muscles spasmed as if I’d been running for days. My stomach twisted in knots.
She wasn’t okay.
Fear. Desperation. Fear. Desperation.
I fought against both as I fell into a deep sleep.
Chapter 50
My eyes flew open.
Fear. Desperation.
Lily.
Her pain was coming from a clear direction, and it wasn’t just emotional.
The clock said 5:00. An hour before sunset. My left arm was wrapped in a half cast. I pulled the two IVs out of my hand and climbed out of bed. My legs were steady enough, and my headache had settled into a dull throb. My clothes were neatly folded inside a cabinet, and I put them on as quickly as possible, considering my injury. I couldn’t find my cell phone anywhere. Lily’s emotions were coming more steadily now, ripping me in half with anxiety.
I stuck my head out my door and looked to the right and the left, and then I took off for the stairs.
Once I made it to the street, I started running, holding my injured arm close to my chest. The hospital was only a few blocks from downtown proper. Barricades blocked all the through streets, and the sounds of music and laughter floated on the evening air.
I’d forgotten it was Halloween.
Deadline. The word took on a whole new meaning.
The crowd was thick with costumed ghosts and witches in pointy hats. Superheroes, villains, mummies, vampires, and werewolves filled the sidewalks and streets. The rush of emotions ranged from giddiness to disappointment, and combined with the remnants of my pain-med buzz, it all blocked out the clarity I’d felt coming from Lily ten minutes ago.
“Focus. Just focus.” I stopped to lean back against a tree and close my eyes. I recalled what it felt like when I kissed Lily, when I held her. It only made things worse. I’d be better served by remembering her fear, since that’s what she was feeling now. The night she saw her first rip, the one of the hanged man. And then the way she’d felt when we’d landed on the sidewalk after leaving Em and Mike behind.
I opened my eyes.
She was in the center of town.
I pushed my way through the crowd, trying to avoid the little kids. A pissed-off parent could hold me up, and I didn’t have any time to waste. I almost tripped over a little boy with white-blond hair. I reached out to put my hand on his head for balance, and hit a tree shoulder-first when he dissolved.
He’d saved me from entering into a full-blown rip.
I ran faster.
The main stage was set up right in front of the chamber of commerce, which meant the throng of people got even thicker as I got closer. I worked my way around to the far right side of the bandstand, finding an open stretch of ground in front of one huge speaker. Volunteers wearing bright orange pumpkin daze T-shirts walked in and out of the office building, carrying things like glow sticks and coolers of iced-down water bottles.
Lily was here, in the clock tower.
I felt her fear.
I couldn’t feel who was causing it.
Jack.
Chapter 51
I sneaked into the building behind a volunteer who was holding a tray of caramel apples, and immediately headed to the meeting area at the top of the clock tower, following Lily’s emotions. I flattened myself against the half wall that blocked the stairs and slid closer, listening. I could only see Jack.