“Just in case,” Priest said.
“In case of what?” My shoulders tensed, and Jared pulled me closer. My body fit into the space underneath his arm perfectly. “Did you find something else in the journals?”
“Priest, what’s your malfunction?” Lukas shot him a warning look. “She’s been locked up in that place for weeks.
“Sorry.” Priest frowned and pushed his bangs under his gray hoodie. “We didn’t find out anything new. But even if the Shift is useless, someone in the Legion probably designed it. I can’t stand the idea of some kid finding it in the rubble a few months from now.”
“He just wants to take it apart and see how it works,” Alara said. She was stretched out in the third row.
“It’s a badass piece of mechanical engineering,” Priest said. “Of course I wanna take it apart.”
I settled back into the space under Jared’s arm, relieved. Priest was just being Priest. “So what have you guys been doing since…” I didn’t want to bring up the night at the penitentiary or Darien Shears or the razor wire. “Since we got separated?”
Jared squeezed my shoulder. “Looking for you.”
“I have no idea what they were doing before I started helping them,” Elle said, her hands gesturing wildly. “But we’ve been doing all kinds of stuff for the last four days. Searching for birth certificates and death certificates, making lists of all the towns with crazy weather, making charts of demon trails.”
“She means patterns,” Lukas said.
“Exactly.” Elle nodded and launched ahead. “And Alara totally lied to a Priest about needing him to bless a bucket of holy water so her sick dog could drink it.”
“You’ll be thanking me if we run into any more vengeance spirits,” Alara said.
“How many are we talking about?” I turned to Jared, without realizing how close his face was to mine.
His blue eyes flickered down to my lips for a second. “Just a few vengeance spirits before we picked up Elle. Nothing Andras-level.”
Like the mirror in my dorm room?
I couldn’t tell them yet. Jared had already been stabbed with a piece of glass because he was worrying about me instead of himself. If he found out about the mirror, he’d be even more distracted.
“I’ve been tracking patterns in violence and crime that might be related to Andras,” Lukas said. “All of the mass murders have taken place between—”
“West Virginia and Pennsylvania,” I finished for him. I pictured the walls in my dorm room, wishing I could show them to him. “I was watching things, too. If we get a few maps at the gas station, I can recreate some of them.”
“Okay.” Lukas gave me a strange look.
Priest looked at me and shook his head. “The things I could build with a memory like yours.”
Lukas ignored him, his eyes catching mine in the mirror. “That’s also the area where all the girls disappeared.”
At the mention of the missing girls, I looked away. They were the last topic I wanted to discuss.
“You know, they all kinda look like—” Priest began.
“I know.” I cut him off.
“We don’t have to talk about it right now.” Alara leaned over the seat and silenced Priest with a look. “There’s a truck stop in a mile.” She pointed to the sign at the next mile marker.
“Thank god,” Elle said, tousling her dark red waves with her fingers. “I’. in serious need of a serious caffeine fix.”
“Where is Faith Waters now?” I asked, stirring a cup of burnt coffee. I wasn’t ready to call her my aunt.
Lukas shoved a handful of onion rings in his mouth, washing them down with his second strawberry milkshake. The truck stop was empty for the most part, and the waitress seemed relieved every time he added something else to his order.
He shrugged. “We don’t know. She doesn’t have a bank account or any credit cards, not even a driver’s license. No cyber footprint.”
Priest pulled one of the headphones away from his ear. “Which means she’s probably the person we’re looking for.”
“Then how are we going to find her?” I asked.
Everyone except Elle—who was busy flirting with a guy sitting at the counter—stared at me as if I already knew the answer.
Lukas flicked a balled up napkin at Elle. “Think you can concentrate on what’s going on over here?”
“I’m capable of doing two things at once, thank you very much,” she muttered under her breath, without compromising her perfect smile for a second.
Lukas took his silver coin out of his jacket pocket and flipped it between his fingers. “If we want to find your aunt, your dad is the logical place to start.”
At the mention of my father, Elle whipped around in my direction. She was the only person who knew the truth about what happened the day he left—how he saw me watching him through the kitchen window, and still drove away. I never told my mom. The note my dad left her had said enough: All I ever wanted for us—and for Kennedy—was a normal life. I think we both know that’s impossible.
I picked at the fries plate in front of me. “I don’t know anything about him. He took off when I was little. End of story.”
“Okay. What do you remember from before he left?” Lukas asked.
“She said she doesn’t know anything about him.” Elle flashed him a warning look.