Emma
I’m nearly elbow deep in a hole by an old elm tree when Haley walks up to me.
“What did Trina say to you?” she asks.
I lie. I don’t know why. There’s just something about Haley lately. . . . “N-nothing.”
Her eyebrows go up. Way up. She’s the only one of us who hasn’t had to sacrifice her hair for Hecate, and I can’t help noticing
how nice it—and her eyebrows—look. It’s almost like she’s been using a flat iron and shaping her brows in a mirror somewhere.
“I know she said something to you, Emma. Were you aware she has a phone?”
I panic. It shouldn’t be a big deal—all of us have phones.
We just don’t have them with us at the present moment, because Haley said the cops would be able to use them to trace us,
and then they’d put us in jail.
“No,” I lie again. “I had no idea.” I haven’t seen Trina since she said I could use her phone to call my mom. But then, I haven’t seen Meg, either. Everyone seems to be disappearing. “What . . . what’s going to happen to her?”
“What I said was going to happen if I found any of you disobeying me,” Haley says, matter-of-factly. “You’ll have to pay the
price. Trina is learning that the hard—”
“I found it!”
A jubilant shout rips through the forest. I turn my head and see Bella standing at the bottom of the same gully I’m kneeling
in. Only she’s on her feet and holding something small high above her head. The smile on her face is rapturous.
“Haley, I think I found it!” she cries.
Haley is already rushing toward her. The rest of us follow, eager to see what Bella has in her hand.
When I finally slog my way through the mud to her side, however, I see that what she’s holding is only a small, skinny stick.
It’s whitish in color. But other than that, it seems unremarkable.
Not to Haley, however. She lifts the stick from Bella’s hand and examines it closely while the rest of us watch. I don’t know
about anyone else, but I find myself holding my breath.
After a moment, Haley lifts the little stick high in the air, her expression ecstatic with joy.
“All hail Hecate,” she shouts joyfully to the sky. “We honor and salute you! Soon, you will once again reign over the sea,
sky, land, and—” she lowers her head and looks at us, her eyes glowing with triumph “—all of humankind.”