Incubus (29 page)

the wildflower enthusiasts). Apparently, they usually flower in September, but someone had spotted a

late-flowering bush out here just two days ago.

“It’s much better if the ingredients are fresh,” Seth said, rereading the notes he’d taken from his

mother’s journal.

“Yeah, but the ritual’s still over a week away,” I pointed out. “They’re not exactly going to be

fresh at that point.”

“We’re drying them,” Seth said, distracted. “It just helps to control the final outcome if we’ve got

fresh flowers to start with. Something about us killing the blooms ourselves, rather than simply

finding dried flowers on the bush.”

I glanced at him out of the corner of my eye, but he wasn’t paying attention. “You sound pretty

excited.”

Seth looked up from his notes. “Yeah, aren’t you? This means you get to become human, be with

Lucas. I know that’s what you want.” Seth gave me a watery smile.

I turned back to the road, thinking for a moment in silence. “It’s amazing.”

“What’s that?” Seth asked.

“When I met you, you didn’t even believe Lilitu were real.”

“Huh.” Seth chewed on his lip for a minute in silence. “A lot has changed since then.”

“Yeah.” I risked another glance at him, worried.

“Mile marker 63,” Seth said, straightening. “Pull off on this access road.”

I followed his directions, and in about 10 minutes we were parking off the side of a dirt road.

“It’s supposed to be over here,” Seth said, shielding his eyes from the sun to look out over the

flora of the high desert foothills.

“There,” I said, pointing. A bush, maybe seven feet tall, sat nestled at the base of a bolder,

crowned with bright yellow flowers.

“That’s the one,” Seth said.

We picked our way through the scrub brush, prairie grass, and cacti until we came to the bush.

“We want only the most perfect flowers,” Seth breathed. He snapped off a small yellow blossom.

It looked like a trumpet, opening up into five delicate petals at the end. “Like this one.”

“How many do we need?”

“Enough to grind the dried flowers down into a cup or more of powder.”

“So... how many?”

“A lot,” Seth said. He handed me an empty canvas grocery bag. “We should probably fill a couple

of these.

I took the bag with a sick, twisting feeling. “We’re not going to make it back for afternoon classes,

are we?”

“I’m in the hospital, remember?” Seth shot me a roguish grin. “And my good friend, Braedyn, is

keeping me company. You should probably call Lucas. We don’t want him freaking your dad out

again.”

“Right,” I said. But I hesitated before reaching for my phone. This was very different from just not

telling Lucas what was up. This was deliberately misleading him. And I wasn’t sure if it was

something I wanted to do. But Seth was right, if he called my dad or Hale, things would get very

complicated, very fast. I fished my phone out of my pocket and dialed Lucas’s number.

Seth saw the movement and walked a little ways off, giving me some privacy.

Lucas picked up on the third ring. “You’re not at lunch,” he said. It wasn’t an accusation, just a

statement.

“No.”

“Is it Seth?” he asked.

“Yeah, it is,” I answered, glancing back at the skinny boy happily snapping yellow blossoms off

the plant behind me. “I’m with him right now.”

“Oh, man,” Lucas said. “I heard about what happened. Is he going to be okay?”

“I think so.”

“How about you? I heard about that other thing, too. You really went after Amber?”

“What? No!” For a moment, anger chased away my guilt. “She totally framed me. Who told you I

attacked her?”

“Royal and Cassie,” Lucas said, sounding confused. “They said they saw the whole thing.”

“Why would I attack Amber?” I asked. “I’d just be making her life easier if I got kicked out of

school.”

“Right.” But Lucas didn’t sound convinced. “So, are you going to stay at the hospital for the rest of

the day?”

“Um,” I took a deep breath, every part of me fighting the lie. “I think I’m going to stay with Seth

as long as he needs me.”

“You’re a good friend,” Lucas said, with real warmth in his voice. “I’ll ask Royal for a ride home.

Maybe he’ll actually let me drive this time.”

“Thanks,” I said, desperate to end this call, “I should probably get back to Seth.”

“Okay. Tell him hi from me? We’re all thinking about him.”

“Yeah.”

I hung up, taking a moment to settle my racing heart.
You didn’t technically lie to him,
I told

myself. And then another thought surfaced.
Great. Now I’m lying to myself.

Seth and I finished our harvest a little before school got out. I drove us home, then Seth and I

smuggled the bags of Chamisa blossoms into his room. He’d already set up a drying station in his

closet, but it’d take several more hours to hang all the blossoms up so they’d dry evenly.

“You should probably go to practice,” Seth said. “Keep up the routine.”

“You don’t need help with this stuff?” I asked.

“I’ve got it.” Seth shrugged. “I’m actually looking forward to the solitude.”

I studied his face for a long moment, then nodded. “Okay. You know where to find me if you need

anything.”

It felt good to throw myself into practice after the afternoon’s deception. The physical workout felt

like a penance. I fought hard, focused only on the next attack, the next defense.

At the end of our normal training session, Lucas sat down and Gretchen and Matthew ringed me

for another round of two-on-one. While I wasn’t great at anticipating both attacks simultaneously,

there was one moment when I was blocking Gretchen’s frontal attack that I almost
sensed
Matthew

behind me. Instinctively I dropped, dodging the blow before it landed. In the next breath, I swept out

my leg, catching Matthew behind the knees and knocking his legs out from under him.

“Nice work, Braedyn,” Hale called from the stairs. He was grinning. “I can’t think of a better way

to end a session.”

“I think we’re starting to see some progress,” Gretchen said, offering a hand to help Matthew up

off the floor mat.

“Thanks.” I flashed them a brief smile, then picked up my water, draining it. My muscles felt hot,

but loose, relaxed. Except for the tender spots—reminders of what happens when I don’t move fast

enough to block a punch—I felt remarkably good.

Until Lucas cornered me.

“Is everything all right?” He kept his voice low and neutral, to avoid drawing the attention of Hale

and Gretchen, talking a few yards away.

“Yeah, why?” I tried to make my voice nonchalant.

Lucas gave me a strange look. “You don’t normally train like your life depended on beating the

crap out of my sister-in-law.”

“What?” I glanced over at Gretchen and saw her rubbing at her shoulder, wincing. “I didn’t mean

to hurt her.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of what I mean,” Lucas said. “It was like your mind was a thousand miles away,

and all that was left was this robot-girl hammering out punches.” Lucas dropped his voice even lower.

“Is it Seth?”

“No,” I said, not thinking.

“But something’s bugging you.” Lucas scrutinized me shrewdly.

“Lucas.” I faced him full on. “Do you trust me?”

Lucas glanced at Hale for the briefest moment before answering. “Of course I do.”

“Then
trust
me.”

He gave me a smile, and shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry. My radar must be off or something.”

I blotted my face with a towel, hiding the guilt I was afraid I couldn’t conceal if Lucas was staring

into my eyes. When I pulled the towel away, Lucas was drinking his water.

“I should probably get back to my place,” I said. “Fiedler’s on my case about my grades and I’ve

got a quiz in English tomorrow.”

“Right. See you at dinner?”

“See you.” I left the basement, hurrying up the stairs. When I got home, Seth was sitting on the

foot of our staircase, waiting for me.

“I found the last two ingredients on our shopping list,” he said.

“Careful,” I murmured. We couldn’t afford to get careless, and just blurt things out.

“No one’s home,” Seth said, shrugging my caution off. “Come on. We can make it there and back

before dinner.”

“No,” I said, more firmly than I’d intended. Seth looked at me, startled.

“Is something wrong?” He seemed to shrink into himself. He made me think of an abused puppy,

expecting another kick.

“Sorry,” I relented. “Sorry. What did you find?”

“The tinctures,” Seth said. “I found an herbalist who’s totally anal about her preparations. She’s

got several varieties of tincture of rose hips, including the dog rose, and she’s got the juniper one we

need, too.”

“Can we go tomorrow instead?” I asked. “It’s just, we’re supposed to be here, so if Dad gets home

and we’re gone—”

“Sure. I totally get it.” Seth folded up his ingredients list and shoved it into his pocket.

“Did you finish hanging the blossoms to dry?”

“I did, indeed,” Seth said. “So what do you want to do now?”

“Believe it or not,” I smiled weakly. “Study.”

We were both bent over our textbooks when Dad came home that night. He didn’t say anything,

but I could tell he was pleased. I shoved down the wave of rising guilt. He thought we were playing by

the rules; he didn’t know the truth. He didn’t know we’d spent the day collecting ingredients for the

ritual instead of going to class. But with less than two weeks to go before winter solstice, I had to

prioritize—and that meant the ritual came first.

The next day was Friday. I couldn’t afford to skip another lunch, not with Lucas obviously watching

me. But I had a study period right before physics, and if we drove fast, Seth and I could make it to the

herbalist’s and back before I missed any class time at all.

Sneaking off campus was becoming uncomfortably easy. I met Seth by my car and we pulled out

of the campus parking lot, no one the wiser.

We drove straight to the little shop tucked into the outskirts of Old Town.

An old-fashioned brass bell hanging over the door tinkled merrily as Seth and I entered the

cramped shop. It was a tiny room, and very crowded. The walls were lined with narrow shelves, and

two more freestanding shelves took a big bite out of the available floor space. We had to walk single

file down the aisles.

“Hello? May I help you?” I turned as a plump woman looked up from a table at the back of the

shop. Her face was weathered with lines born of too much sun-exposure, but her eyes were kind. She

wore a loose cotton shirt died indigo and her dark brown hair was pulled up in a comfortably messy

bun.

“We’re here for a couple of tinctures,” I said.

“I called in the order yesterday,” Seth added. “Seth Linwood?”

“Oh dear,” the woman said, looking at us kindly. “I—thought you were a bit older.”

Seth and I glanced at each other, confused.

“My tinctures are alcoholic in nature,” she explained. “I can’t sell them to minors.”

“We’re not going to drink them,” I said.

“I’m sorry, it’s just—” she pointed to a sign that read,
We do not sell alcohol to minors.
“I’m

afraid I can’t make any exceptions. I don’t relish the idea of going to prison.”

“But—” I started.