“What are you talking about? They took everyone they caught today.”
“No they didn’t. They only took the pro-magic side protestors, and those were all Clann outcasts except for Dad. Trust me. I knew everyone there on the pro-magic side.”
He grabbed my shoulders, his eyes intense as they searched mine. “Wait. Are you telling me you are not an outcast or descendant?”
"Of course I'm not."
"Don't lie to me, Tarah. Not me!"
The fact that he thought I could lie to him stung. I swallowed down the hurt. “I’m telling you the truth. Nobody in my family is from the Clann or has any magical abilities.” Not for lack of trying, though. How many training sessions had I sat through, trying like crazy to make something—anything—happen?
Hayden froze for a long second. Then he turned towards the truck and braced a hand against the hood. “Let me get this straight. You don't have any special abilities. Your parents are normal too. And yet you’re constantly trying to defend the Clann people in class. And now you want to break them all out of an internment camp?” His voice rose steadily with every word he spoke.
“Well, someone has to stand up for them. If not us—”
“Damn it, Tarah! Everyone thinks you’re an outcast!” He whirled around to face me again, his eyes blazing as his voice hit a full pitched yell. “You could be arrested at any time for some of the stuff you’ve said. And now you want to stage a prison break? Don’t you get it? It’s not a game! You shouldn’t be involved at all.”
“Oh I guess I should be at home on the nice, safe couch in my nice, safe world instead. Just like my mother,” I spat out. “Watching while the whole friggin' world goes to crap around us and she tells us all we’re nuts and in need of therapy for even believing in magic in the first place!”
He stared at me, eyes rounded with some emotion I couldn’t read. Anger was definitely still in there, but there were more emotions than that churning inside him now. Shock? Fear?
He took a slow step towards me, then another, closing the distance between us until he could reach out and tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. The unexpected sweetness of the gesture sent my fury draining right out of me. “You probably are nuts.”
But then one corner of his mouth hitched up, and I knew he was going to do it. He was going to help.
I took a deep breath then let it out. “Yeah, well, you keep tagging along with me. Which makes you just as crazy.”
“And I guess if I don't help you with this prison break idea of yours…”
“I'll do it with my friends. With or without you.” I shrugged. “I have to, Hayden. Not just for my dad, but for all those people in the camp. They’re humans too. I don’t doubt you and your dad could get my dad released. But I couldn't live with myself if I didn't at least try to get everyone else out too.”
He sighed. “Fine. I'll drive. You call your friends. Tell them to meet us in an hour in the woods behind my house, about two hundred yards in.”
I saw what he was thinking. The Shepherds’ backyard was huge, the woods behind them dense and on the outskirts of town but still within the city limits. That made the area off limits to hunters, even the ones who might be tempted by the current deer season to hunt illegally at night. Plus, a highway ran along the west side of the woods, making for a good side entrance and exit. Hopefully if anyone saw people going into or out of the woods, they would think hunters were camping out back there.
While he drove us back towards Tyler, I started making calls, ending the last one as Hayden parked in his driveway. Right behind Kyle’s banana yellow Jeep. I shot Hayden a surprised look.
He shrugged. “Maybe he saw me at the protest.”
“Didn’t you go together?”
He shook his head. “I never got the group messages. Had my phone turned off.”
“Then why—”
“We should go. You ready?”
“Hang on. Just gotta send one last email.” Taking a deep breath, my thumb paused over the Send button. Please let this be a good idea. Then I tapped the button and sent the video to my entire email list, including several pro magic groups and newsletters I was a member of.
By tomorrow morning, I knew everyone on that list would pass on a copy of the internment camp video I’d recorded to everyone they knew. By the time the government realized what was in the video, thousands if not millions of people would have already seen it. No matter what happened tonight, at least the world would know the truth.
Leaving my backpack behind, I stuffed my phone into my jacket pocket then jumped out of the truck. We jogged around the house and across the backyard. Hayden held my hand along the way, probably to keep me from tripping over anything. It had been a few years since I’d last seen his backyard. They could have added all kinds of things out here to catch my feet in the dark…patio furniture, fountains, evil little ceramic garden gnomes. I told myself it was because we were moving so fast that my pulse had taken off like crazy, and not the feel of those long, strong fingers laced with mine.
At the edge of the woods, Hayden froze, and it was then that I remembered what these woods might mean to him now.
Once, they had been our playground, our private realm of innocent childish fantasy and fun. But that was a long time ago. Since then, these woods had also become a place full of dark secrets where his brother and so many others had died. There was no telling what horrible memories or ghosts these woods held for Hayden now.
I squeezed his hand, a silent reminder that I was here and he wasn’t alone.
He looked down at our joined hands in silence. After a minute, he took a deep breath and we entered the woods together.
We walked as quickly as the branches and undergrowth allowed, the only sounds the crunching of our feet on dead, dried up pine needles and sticks and Hayden’s fast, harsh breathing.
A few minutes later, we saw thin beams of light cutting through the darkness up ahead. The remaining Tyler outcasts had come as promised.
Unfortunately, so had Gary.
“Tarah, I don't like this location,” he began. Then he spotted Hayden at my side. “What the—”
“He's on our side,” I said, my heart racing faster. Please don’t let Gary be his usual pain in the butt self. Not this time. We don’t have time for this!