Once Dead, Twice Shy (Madison Avery Trilogy #1)(30)
Author: Kim Harrison

Ms. Cartwright set down the photo when another woman began looking over the pictures. Recognizing her, I pointed hers out. Her ooh of delight made me smile, and she lingered before going to pay for it, laughing at pictures of her neighbors.

"I’ll talk to the counselor and get you into my advanced class," Ms. Cartwright said to bring my attention back. "You’ll be a senior this year, right?"

A thrill ran through me. Senior. I liked the sound of that. "Okay," I said. "You convinced me." I was happier being myself – purple hair, loud music, dead, and everything – than trying to fit in with the Amys. And I didn’t think that Josh would dump me just because I wasn’t in the cool crowd. Not that we really were anything.

She nodded, sliding down to take the photo of Josh, one of the first to have printed out. "Another one of Josh?" she said, smiling. "Wow, you did good here. Did you take this from the bleachers?" I nodded, and she murmured, "Steady hand. Too bad about the glint of sun in the picture. Funny. Those don’t usually show up when the sun is at that angle." She frowned, bringing the picture to her nose. "Something about this one makes me uneasy. The pinch of his eyes, perhaps…" Her shoulders lifted and fell. "It might be the crows in the background. My grandmother would chase them off her roof all the time. She hated crows."

My face stiffened. Crows?

Ms. Cartwright set the photo down. "You did great today, Madison," she said with a smile. "People have been giving more than the requested donation. You brought in over two hundred dollars."

There hadn’t been any crows at the track – had there? Grace had been right there with Josh. I’d seen her.

"Better than the dunk tank," Ms. Cartwright was saying. "Howard will be disappointed. He’s usually the big draw. Why don’t you call it a day?" she suggested. "Go enjoy yourself. They’re about to read the totals. You should find Josh and stick around for the party. There will be dancing…."

She gave me a final smile and was pulled away by a nervous woman holding a handful of tickets. I hardly noticed her leaving, and I snatched up the last picture I’d taken of Josh. Those weren’t crows in the background; they were black wings. They were in the distance above the tree line, but that was what they were.

Frantic, I looked out from under the tent to search the line the trees made with the sky. Nothing. I could only see a small slice of heaven. Something must be wrong. Grace was supposed to be watching him, but there were black wings, and where there were black wings, there were reapers. Or Kairos. If he was here, I’d never know it. Grace’s job was to protect Josh, not tell me when there was trouble.

In a surge of motion, I disconnected my camera from the printer. The pictures were already in the queue, and after making sure there was enough paper in the hopper, I slipped out under the ropes at the back of the tent. I had to find Josh.

CHAPTER 9

The people around me turned from beautiful representations of life to annoying obstacles, and I dodged through them trying to phone Josh and scan the skies at the same time. "Must be still running," I muttered when I got no answer, and I shoved my phone into a back pocket. I made better progress that way, but the occasional hail from some of the same people I’d taken pictures of earlier slowed me down as I begged off taking any new ones.

The sun was hot, but being dead had its advantages, and I wasn’t even sweating when I finally got back to the track. Heat had pushed almost all the watchers to the nearby shade, and I spotted Josh quickly. He was running just as when I’d left him, looking strong and ready to go another lap or two. Relief unclenched my jaw, but it tightened again when I scanned the line of trees. Black wings. At least six.

"Crap," I whispered, climbing up onto the chain-link fence between the bleachers and the track to try to get Josh’s attention. The black wings were distant, but they were there. It was as if they were confused. Finally Josh spotted me, and I frantically waved.

Immediately he gestured for a runner to come out to take his place and slowed to a walk. Breathing heavily, he caught the bottled water someone threw at him and headed my way.

"That’s sixteen laps total!" a thick-looking man called, squinting from under a clip-on umbrella. "Good job, Josh. Are you coming to the Low D with the rest of the track team? Pizza’s on me."

Josh searched my concerned expression, then waved him off. "No, thanks!" he called. "I gotta go." And the man went back to his clipboard. From the sidelines, Amy frowned, watching us with a hand on a hip. Beside her was a blond girl dressed exactly like her.

"What’s up?" Josh said as I opened the latch to the gate and he came through. "You look like you’ve seen a ghost."

"Very funny. Ha-ha," I said, tugging him toward the parking lot. If Kairos was around, this was not the place to meet him. "Look at this," I said, handing him his picture.

A smile came over his face. "Look at the sweat on me! Is that Grace?"

From above us came a tiny giggle, and I glanced up, to be blinded by the sun. Blinking, I stumbled over to the pile of bags. "Check out the horizon," I suggested as my sight cleared, "not how good you look."

"Black wings?" he said.

"They’re not crows," I said, ducking when Grace hovered close to the photo to see.

"It’s not my fault," Grace said as Josh started to shove stuff into his bag. "I’ve been with him all day," she protested. "See, that’s me in the photograph. And besides, they haven’t gotten any closer. Much."

Josh zipped up his gym bag and straightened, shooting nervous glances at the tree line and the waiting black wings. "You knew they were there?" I questioned her, and the glow of her light brightened.

"Well, yeah. They’ve been there all along." Grace’s tinkling voice sounded sarcastic. "Slowly circling in. It’s as if a reaper is about, but not sure where they’re going."

I looked at Josh, afraid and almost guilty. What was I doing enjoying myself, hiding among my neighbors like an ostrich? I should be in a back alley facing down this creep. The fact that Grace thought going invisible was dangerous shouldn’t have stopped me.

"We gotta go," I said, and after glancing at his teammates, Josh nodded. His face was pale, and together we headed for the exit. "Grace, if you try to stop us, I swear I’m going to take your name away."

She was silent, and tension wound its way through my gut, worsening when we found the midway and the slowly milling people. We had to go past the bandstand to reach the parking lot, and it had gotten crowded as everyone was congregating to hear the totals. The middle school band was trying to organize, and between the parents waving for their kids’ attention and the officials bringing in the last numbers, getting through the crowd was impossible.