“Are you sure?”
She dismissed my protest with a wave of her slender hand. “The festival staff needs all the help they can get. We’re expecting a record number of visitors this year.”
“That whole dark tourism thing is really taking off,” I grumbled. “But won’t that leave you high and dry with Avery?” Kate’s husband held a demanding corporate job, she worked full-time at the chamber of commerce, and Avery’s preschool program had already let out for the summer.
“I was talking to Emmy Langford at the potluck last Sunday, and it turns out she’s looking for her first summer job,” Kate said. “I thought she could take two of your days each week. She doesn’t have her license yet, but Levi can drive her to and from our house. Grandma Maggie would be thrilled to hear you’re freed up to help with the festival.”
“That works for me,” I said. “It’ll be nice to add more to my résumé than ‘facilitated microwaving of dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets.’”
Kate laughed. “Perfect. I’ll let Emmy know that you’re—Levi Langford!” she cried, turning several heads in addition to his. “I don’t believe my eyes!”
Levi sidled over, endearingly bashful. Kate’s grandma and Levi’s late grandma were cousins, both granddaughters of Lillian Pickard. In a small town like ours, people didn’t try to keep track of the math beyond third cousins and simply “claimed kin.” Levi greeted Kate first and lifted Avery up in a forklift maneuver that earned a yelp of delight from her and accentuated his forearms. Then he turned to me. “Hey! Congratulations, Nat.”
“Thanks,” I replied. I expected something cleverer to follow that, but I drew a blank.
Bless Kate, a perfect stranger to awkward silences. “Tell me you’ll stop by Grandma Maggie’s soon,” she said to Levi. “She’s pleased as punch that you’re back in town. Are you doing lawns this summer?”
“Yes ma’am,” Levi answered.
“Good. She says you’re the only one who keeps the cuttings out of her garden beds.”
“Tell her I’ll swing by this week,” Levi said.
Kate winked at him and took Avery’s hand. “See you at the party, Nat,” she said, and left us alone.
Once again, divine intervention saved me from floundering. Grayson Scott sprinted over in a blur of golden-tan, gangly limbs and blond hair to wrap Levi in a bear hug. “What’s up, Natty Light?” he asked me.
“You’d think the mastermind behind the creepy talismans in my yard would have thought of a better nickname by now.”
“Talismans?” Grayson repeated the word like he was trying out a new SAT vocabulary term. Even allowing for sarcasm, mastermind might have been a stretch.
Bryce Hayward joined us, his thick-framed glasses fogged from the humidity. “What talismans?” he asked, removing the lenses to clean them on his tie.
I folded my arms. “Nice prank. Y’all are lucky my parents didn’t find them first.”
Grayson and Bryce shared a look, more confused than conspiratorial. “We haven’t done anything yet,” Bryce said. He replaced his glasses and regarded me with keen, serious brown eyes.
“Sure,” I said.
“No, really,” he insisted. “We were thinking of getting you back during the lake trip.”
Grayson whacked Bryce’s shoulder. “Dude! Now they know to expect it.”
“Sorry,” Bryce said, digging his phone out of his pocket. “But I found something creepy, too. Or my cat found it.” He showed me his screen and swiped through pictures of a translucent sachet filled with herbs and tied with twine. A dainty metal charm depicting the Malachian mark dangled from the knot. “I don’t know where he got it. Milo is an indoor cat.”
“So that was somewhere in your house,” I concluded.
Bryce frowned. “It’s creepier when you say it out loud. My mom wanted to tell the police, but I convinced her not to. Now I’m wondering if you and I both should.”
Levi stuffed his hands in his pockets, sighed restlessly, and mumbled something about saying hi to a former teacher before leaving us. That boy was weird about goodbyes.
“Are you still freaking out about that thing Milo found?” Vanessa Wallace appeared, hooked an arm around Bryce’s waist, and flashed a teasing smile up at her boyfriend. Just clearing five feet, she had to tilt her head back at nearly a right angle to look up at him.
“I’m not freaking out,” Bryce said. “We’re only talking about it because Nat found talismans with the mark at her house.”
Vanessa’s sable-black curls bounced as she shook her head. “You’re so gullible.” She gestured at me. “The track girls did it.”
I snorted. “I don’t have this good of a poker face.”
Vanessa shrugged. Like Levi and me, she was a descendant of one of the four original Pagans of the Pines—the great-great-granddaughter of Dorothy Hawkins. But it was different for her. Dorothy Hawkins had moved on with her life. She worked as a maid for the few local families willing to accept her help, married a quiet man, and distanced herself from Malachi. Johanna Mead had relocated and reportedly changed her name. Lillian had continued to live comfortably, pouring herself into her social life and community service, only jeopardizing her recovered reputation when she decided to spill everything onto the page.
Malachi, on the other hand, remained a puzzle. And for some reason, people looked to my family to solve her.
Judging by the carving on my grandmother’s floor, maybe they weren’t too far off the mark.
The mark. Vanessa was a talented artist, a well-known prodigy in San Solano. With such a careful hand, she could easily have engraved those perfectly identical talismans. But for what reason? She wasn’t interested in our petty prank wars. She had her own crew. She was friendly and easygoing, but we all knew she only hung out with the track team because of Bryce.
“Come on, we’re supposed to eat lunch with my fam,” Vanessa said, tugging Bryce along. Judging by her blasé expression, she wasn’t concerned about the cult fever.
“So, it really wasn’t you?” I asked Bryce and Grayson.
“I swear.” Bryce said as Vanessa herded him away.
“Swear to God,” Grayson added.
I didn’t want to be convinced. I didn’t want to see a kaleidoscope of dark possibilities or think about my family being in danger.
But I couldn’t help it. I believed them.
FIVE
Most of my graduation party guests were family friends from the Methodist church we attended. Judging by the cards and gifts amassing on the coffee table, the group was feeling generous.
Lindsey wouldn’t be able to escape her cousins, but the twins arrived just in time for fajitas. Abbie stealthily swapped her virgin margarita for a real one when my mom wasn’t looking.
Kate also came as promised, though Avery was teetering on the verge of her regularly scheduled meltdown. She would only tolerate her glasses for a few hours at a time, but the discomfort of her astigmatism and farsightedness made it frustrating for her and everyone within earshot.