Styx perked up from her sleeping spot on my dad’s chair and barked in greeting.
“Holy crap, this has been the worst day ever.” Emma collapsed on the couch and threw her head back against the cushion. Then she winced and suddenly looked guilty. “Well, for me, anyway. I’m sure your dad had a really crappy yesterday.”
And his suffering had no doubt continued, which made me feel guilty for being in my own home, out of immediate danger and in no pain.
I went into the kitchen, and Styx followed when she realized I was headed for the fridge. “Are you okay?”
“Traumatized, but yeah.” Emma exhaled dramatically. “Half an hour in that place felt like an eternity. I don’t know how you made it a week.”
“Me, neither.” I opened the fridge and pulled out a plastic container of still-bloody venison.
“They thought I was Lydia.” She sat up and frowned at me from the living room. “I am Lydia. Except that I’m also Emily Cavanaugh. And Emma Marshall, at least a little. Asking me if I know who I am? Most complicated question in history.”
“Yeah. I’m not sure what we’re going to do about that.” I set the last hunk of meat in Styx’s dish, then dropped the bowl into the sink and washed my hands while Styx scarfed down her dinner. “The hospital knows you as Lydia, who just escaped from a locked mental ward. Again. But the school knows you as Emily Cavanaugh, the niece and legal ward of my father. Who can’t be contacted at the moment, due to the fact that he’s been taken hostage by a demon in another realm.”
“Speaking of—any news about your dad, and Harmony and Brendon?”
I dried my hands on the towel hanging from a drawer handle, then grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge. “No. But we’ll get them back, and when we do, hopefully a combination of my dad’s Influence and your brown eyes will be enough to convince people that you can’t possibly be Lydia. I mean, people’s eyes don’t just change color, right?”
“Blue to green, maybe. Or brown to hazel, depending on the light. But not blue to brown. That just doesn’t happen.” She looked relieved by her own conclusion.
I handed her a bottle, then sank onto the couch next to her, trying to ignore the visceral chomping sounds coming from the kitchen. “Plus, we have the paperwork Tod...procured. Together, that should be enough to firmly establish your new identity.” I hope. But I didn’t let her see my doubt. She obviously had plenty of her own. “So, what happened at school? Please tell me you were faking memory loss for the psych ward counselor.”
“No, that was real. I don’t know what happened, and I think that’s the scariest part of this.” She collapsed against the back of the couch again and blew hair off of her forehead. “Why don’t we ever have normal problems anymore?”
“I’ve been asking myself that for months.” I cracked the top on my water bottle, then scooted over to make room for Styx, who seemed determined to burrow into the few inches between us now that she was finished eating. “So, you fell asleep during third period and...?”
“And...I woke up in a bed in the E.R. My throat hurt like I’d been screaming and I had a headache, but other than that, I felt normal. Well, as normal as I’ve ever felt in this body. I’d been there for maybe five minutes when the nurse who came in to take my vitals recognized me. Well, she recognized Lydia. Then there was a whirlwind transfer to Lakeside—they actually pushed me across the parking lot in a wheelchair—and the next thing I knew, I was a confirmed mental patient.”
“We prefer to be called residents. Remember, ‘crazy’ is not a diagnosis.”
“Whatever.” She actually smiled, then twisted the lid from her own bottle. “Evidently the fact that Lydia never actually checked out the first time led to me being fast-tracked for admission today. That place is scary efficient.”
“Yeah. They’ll bend over backward to get you in, then they’ll move heaven and earth to keep you there.”
And for the first time, it occurred to me that Lakeside and the Netherworld weren’t so very different—given a chance, either one of them would steal your soul.
Chapter Nineteen
“That place was hell.” Em sipped from her water bottle. “It was like walking around in the opposite of a sensory deprivation chamber. I was in sensory overload. Like being assaulted by everything everyone there was feeling. It was crazy—pardon the expression. Those people are angry, and sad, and frustrated, and confused, and...lost.” She stroked Styx’s fur absently. “I can’t go back there, Kaylee. I can’t.”
“I know. You won’t. I’ll make sure of it.” Styx climbed into my lap, trying to make herself the center of my attention. My dog was a fascinating contradiction. She was fierce and deadly, with jaws that opened wider than I would have thought possible and could snap a human long bone in a single bite. But in the absence of danger, she was almost...cuddly.
Though I was surprised that she was comfortable enough to nap in a house full of—
I sat up, suddenly startled to realize what should have been obvious the moment we’d blinked into the house. “Where’re Sophie and Luca?”
Em frowned. “I don’t know. But I’d check your room before you panic. Look for a sequined headband around the doorknob.”
“Ew!” Yet I was off the couch in an instant and down the hall two seconds after that. But my room was empty, except for the furniture, including one unmade bed, which told me Nash and Sabine had slept curled up together on my twin mattress.
I pulled my phone from my pocket and started to autodial my cousin, suddenly glad I’d programmed her number into my phone, in spite of my general disinterest in speaking to her. But my battery was still dead.
“Em, I need your phone!” I called, plugging my own into the charger by my bed. Em brought me her cell, and I dialed Sophie’s number from memory. She answered on the second ring. “Yes?”
I was so relieved to hear her voice that I didn’t even yell at her for the rude greeting. “Where the hell are you? Is Luca with you?”
“I’m at home. And, yes, he’s here. Why? What’s up?”
“What’s up? There are forces of evil hunting us, Sophie. They may already have your dad. Do you think it’s too much to ask for a warning before you disappear next time?” I sank onto the edge of my bed, fervently hoping Nash and Sabine had only slept there. “You scared the crap out of me.”
Luca said something in the background, but all I could make out was “Nash.”
“Yeah,” Sophie said into my ear. “We texted Nash before we left. How is it my fault you two communicate like you both have bananas in your ears?”
“You...?” Nash hadn’t told me, which was no surprise, considering that I’d been communing with demons and he and Sabine had been dealing with Em’s...breakdown. Not to mention the fact that my phone was dead. “What are you doing there?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but I live here. All my clothes are here. My television is big enough to actually see from across the room, and my food isn’t full of sugar and carbs. My dad’s missing, Kaylee. Is it too much to ask that the rest of my life not be missing right now?”
I exhaled slowly, grasping for control of my temper. Reminding myself that she and I didn’t think about things the same way, and that I’d done my fair share of not checking in before I’d realized how badly I’d probably scared my father. Over and over.