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Noah adjusted his glasses, deep in thought "Then she ith her doctor to his hospital in the Aht "When she was there, she somehow transitioned from patient to nurse and headh to be either of those as an Undead They only have twenty-one years to find their souls" The lines of the notebook paper blurred as the dates swirled in my head The realization came to me before the words to articulate it did, and I let out a strange squeak that halted conversation Anya and Noah stared at id as I looked up "What if she used the secret while she was there?"

Noah held a finger to his lips in thought "Isn’t there a lake there?"

"A salt lake," I"With a statue of Ursa Major looking over it"

"A bear," Anya said in awe

"Yes," I said,as I realized that the answer to

Noah looked up at ?"

Chapter 16

IT WAS THAT WITCHING TIME BETWEEN FOUR AND five in thewhen Noah and I boarded a train to Maine The cars were rickety old things, h theed our shovels by the , Noah’s and mine Anya wanted to come, but I hadn’t let her Someone had to stay behind in case we didn’t come back

With a groan, the train heaved forward, hurling us south, though I wouldn’t have known it from the view It was all black tountil it was resting againstto nudge hi si the border in the ht of his head pressing me deeper into the seat I felt so far from where I had started that it seemed I would never be able to find my way back

A conductor sauntered down the aisle in a black uniform "Billets," he said

I reached into my sweater pocket for our tickets and handed them to the conductor He sta it back toit froasped

It was a worn photograph of a sarden that was overexposed with yellow California light I knew that door, I thought, tracing its edges I knew the carpet behind it, the way it felt plush betweenroom, the den, the stairs with the creak in the third step Through the frontI could see aover the counter in the kitchen It looked like they were laughing My parents My kitchen My life

I gripped the photograph, staring at the blur of their faces I had never seen it before How had it gotten into er I stared at it, the an to feel My eyes darted about the train car to the other passengers, sluht No one knew except for ret I was the only one who could have warned otten there sooner I could have saved Annette LaBarge, too I could have saved all of thereet I blinked A tear fell ontoheavy, and the sky outside seehten

A third ti Exhausted, ainst the leather of the seat, andon a n of life other than the twin ruts of tire tracks caked in the dirt I didn’t stop until I was in front of a log cabin hidden behind the weeds A mailbox stood outside, labeled with the nun that said: BEWARE OF DOG

Crouching low behind the bushes, I waited until a car drove up the road where I had come from From the bottom of the shrubs, I could only see four feet as they stepped out of the car, but I already kneho they were Two Brothers of the Liberum "How did you find this woman?" one of theer

"I followed her through Europe," the second brother said in a low baritone "I think she found soht lead us to the Sisters"

"They never find anything," the other one said, kicking a rock It landed inches away fro more, he opened theboth directions, they got back into the car and drove away

At first I didn’tto ht it was clear, I opened the mailbox door It made a loud screech My eyes darted to the cabin, where I heard the sound of little footsteps Quickly, I took the paper and vanished into the woods, just as a swarh the front door