They really were off the grid, then. I wondered why.

“Um, Ali,” Kat began, claiming the chair at my right.

Uh-oh. “What?” I said, the bite I’d just taken settling like a lead ball. “What’s happened?”

They shared a look laden with dread.

“The boys were talking about some new ability you have,” Kat said, twisting her fingers together. “They said it’s, like, as un-cake-like as possible.”

To zombies, sure. “And?” I prompted, relaxing.

“Well,” Reeve said, picking up where Kat had left off, “when my dad heard about it, he paled. He fell into his chair, and I swear I thought he was going to vomit the dinner I’d spent an hour preparing.”

“And?” I asked. Getting answers from these two was worse than pulling teeth.

Kat nibbled on her bottom lip. “He said he knew of only one other person who could do what you did, and her name was Helen Conway.”

Helen Conway.

Helen.

My Helen.

That... Well, it proved what Helen had said that day in the forest. Had it really happened yesterday, even though it felt like forever ago? Her hand had hovered over mine as warmth had flowed through me, passing her ability to me. A gift.

“Ali,” Kat continued, her voice wobbling. “Ten years ago, Helen died doing a job...for Anima.”

Chapter 15

GOT BRAIN?

Helen died doing a job for Anima.

The words tumbled through my mind, making me buzz with equal parts bewilderment and frustration. If she had worked for the enemy, why was she helping me now? To lure me in, just to trick me more easily later?

Smart, yes. But not likely.

First, she was a Witness, and Witnesses worked for Team Good, never Team Evil. Second, a monster wouldn’t have cared about giving up her little girl.

But her remorse...a dream, nothing more.

No. I didn’t think so. Not anymore. The emotions had been real, the scene vivid. It had happened, no doubt about it. My heart accepted what my mind couldn’t yet understand. Somehow, I’d seen into someone else’s past.

Yet, here was another conundrum. Helen died ten years ago, roughly twelve months after giving up her little girl. So, where was the little girl? Well, not so little anymore. I remembered the calendar, knew she’d be seventeen...maybe eighteen.

What was she to me? Because she had to be something. No one else had eyes like ours. I’d always thought I’d inherited mine from my dad, even though his were dark blue. Apples and oranges, I admitted now.

How was Cole going to react to this?

I peered at Kat. “Would you hate me if I skipped out on another girls’ day?”

“Only for a minute. Then I’ll get over myself.”

I smiled. “If I was into girls...”

“I know! You’d be all over me. You wouldn’t be able to help yourself. But that’s true of every person on the planet.”

Healthy ego intact? Check. I kissed her cheek and gave Reeve a hug. “Thanks, guys.”

“I notice you didn’t ask about my hate,” Reeve quipped.

“You’re not likely to claw my face off in a fit of pique.”

She nodded. “That’s fair.”

I paced outside Mr. Ankh’s office for ten...fifteen minutes, but the conversation remained on business, and I couldn’t interrupt. I finally gave up and holed up in my room to pore over the journal and compare its pages to the pictures on my phone.

The effort paid off. I found a missing page in the journal, the paper ripped close to the binding. My mind leaped from one thought to the next. The copied page had come from Anima. Helen had worked for them. If she came from my mother’s side, she could have had access to the journal. She could have ripped out a page and handed it over.

That would make her the traitor Cole was certain she was.

No time to process. Cole strode into my room and shut the door. Gasping, guilty, I shut the journal and jolted to my feet.

“You’re here,” I said and gulped.

He frowned. “Do you not want me to be?”

Yes. No. Maybe. “Will you...” crap “...tell me what you know about Helen Conway.” I couldn’t avoid this topic anymore, didn’t want to. “Please.”

“What do you want to know?”

Everything. “Anything.”

“Why?”

“Tell me. Then I’ll outline my reasons.”

He scrubbed a hand down his face. “She worked for Anima with Veronica’s mom. They were roommates, friends. Then Veronica’s mom abandoned ship. She didn’t.”

“How did she die?”

“My dad killed her.”

Okay. That, I couldn’t have predicted. “Because she worked for Anima?”

His eyes narrowed, hate swimming in their depths. “Zombies might have been the smoking gun that killed my mother, but she pulled the trigger. She sent them. Then she collared my mother’s spirit and sent her after me and my dad.”

And I was most likely related to her? Might vomit. “Cole. I’m so sorry.”

He waved away my sympathy, too upset to accept it.

“How do you know she was responsible?” I asked.

“She cornered my dad about a week before, bragged about what she was going to do.”

Wait. I shook my head, unsure. Bragged—or warned?

I don’t want to think the worst about her, do I? No matter the evidence stacked against her.