Unmarked (11 page)

T
he three soggy bears were still standing in formation as we passed Paul Revere’s grave. When we reached his family tomb, Priest examined the base. “The cornerstone should be over here.”

In the northeast corner, the initials
P.R.
were carved into the stone.

Lukas positioned the compass at the ninety-degree angle at the bottom of the cornerstone. “This point would be zero.” He drew an arc to thirty-nine. “What’s the other number?”

I double-checked the note. “One hundred thirty-three.”

He measured the second angle and drew an arc that bisected the first.

“Is it just supposed to open or what?” Alara asked, holding her umbrella over Lukas while he worked.

Jared scrolled down the display on his cell phone. “According to everything online, if you hit the spot where the lines intersect, the cornerstone should open.”

Priest pulled a screwdriver out of his back pocket and elbowed Lukas. “Scoot over. Mathematical genius required.”

“You know you’re about to steal from someone’s grave, right?” Alara looked nervous.

“Relax. The EMF didn’t pick up any spirits.” Priest positioned the screwdriver and picked up a broken brick, holding the brick over the end of the screwdriver like a hammer.

Alara stepped back like she wanted to be sure the spirits of Paul Revere’s relatives knew she disapproved.

Lukas pointed at the stone. “Make sure you hit it right where the lines intersect.”

“Got it.” Priest tapped the end of the screwdriver with the brick.

Elle hovered behind him. “Nothing’s happening.”

“Give it a minute. It’s not a magic trick.” Priest tapped it again. This time, the cornerstone shifted, and the edge across from the screwdriver pivoted toward us. Priest worked the rectangular stone free, revealing a dark space behind it. “Who’s sticking their hand in there?”

Alara held up her hands and stepped back. “Don’t look at me. I don’t do grave robbing.”

“We’re not stealing anything from the dead people,” Jared said. “Whatever’s in there belonged to Faith, and she wanted Kennedy to have it.”

I pushed up my sleeve. “I’ll do it.” I slid my hand into the hole, trying not to think about all of the disgusting and dead things that were probably inside. I walked my fingers forward one at a time until they hit a smooth, rectangular surface. “I found something.”

“What is it?” Priest asked.

My knuckles scraped against the stone as I eased it out. “It feels like a box.”

A book emerged, the pages protected by silver-plated covers. Dirt had settled into the symbols and scrollwork engraved on the front. Alara held the umbrella above me, shielding the book as I opened it carefully. Despite the tears and water damage, it only took me a moment to recognize the story on the first page and realize what I was holding.

My aunt’s journal.

Alara smiled. “Unbelievable.”

Priest nudged her. “How do you feel about grave robbing now?”

“You know what this means, right?” Lukas watched me expectantly. “Your aunt’s passing the torch.”

I wanted to believe it, but I’d been disappointed so
many times. “Faith wouldn’t even discuss letting me replace her. You were all there.”

“Maybe it was some kind of test to see if you really wanted in,” Alara said.

“I’m not sure.” After spending less than twenty-four hours with my aunt, I didn’t know her any better than my friends did.

Elle wedged herself between Alara and me. “If Faith didn’t pick you to replace her, then why would she give you that crazy math equation and leave you her journal? Isn’t she supposed to pass it down to the next person in line?”

Alara stared at Elle like she’d just proven the earth was round. “Seriously? You’re gonna throw that out there like it’s no big deal? Have you actually been paying attention this whole time?”

Elle flashed her a self-satisfied smile. “Remembering the name of your electromagnet ghost-finding gadget isn’t a measure of intelligence.”

Alara shook her head. “You were so close.”

“Close only counts when it comes to horseshoes and hand grenades,” Priest said. “Which means the next paranormal entity that messes with us belongs to Kennedy.” He turned to me. “We’ll stand back while you draw a symbol and destroy it. Then you’ll get your mark.”

I touched my wrist.

Was there still a chance?

Jared brought his lips to my ear. “I knew you were part of the Legion,” he whispered.

Don’t get your hopes up again.
But I had Faith’s journal, which made me feel like one of them.

“Maybe she left you a note,” Elle said.

I scanned the first entry, which outlined the plan to summon Andras. It matched the one Faith’s father had copied, word for word. But there was something different about seeing the writing on the aged parchment.

One line stopped me cold.

The angel had spoken those words to Konstantin—an angel who couldn’t stand humans. I flipped to the next entry, which consisted of two lines centered on the page.

“You guys never mentioned a white dove,” I said.

“I’ve never heard of one before.” Lukas looked at Priest and Alara. “Have you?”

Alara shook her head.

“Negative,” Priest said.

“Everything means something.” The last few months had taught me that.

Lukas slid the cornerstone back in place. After he brushed away the bits of loose rock, it blended seamlessly into the tomb again.

As I skimmed a few more entries, my eidetic memory created snapshots of the pages and filed them away. Another line caught my attention. “Faith was telling the truth about the protective barrier.”

“Yeah.” Priest sounded strangely disappointed. “We can make a force field.”

Alara glanced down the path at another Paul Revere look-alike heading our way with a fresh flock of tourists. “We can figure it all out in the car.”

I slid the journal under my jacket and thought about my mom. The journal made me feel a step closer to destroying the demon responsible for her death. I tried not to think about the other person the pages connected me to, or where he had been all this time.

As we walked along the slushy streets, I held the journal against my chest and tried to pretend I didn’t care. But my father’s shadow still lurked in the back of my mind, like a different kind of ghost.

After trekking back to the Jeep in the rain, everyone was wrecked.

“I’ll drive,” Jared said.

Lukas tossed him the keys, and I climbed into the passenger seat next to Jared. Alara and Bear had permanently claimed the third row, so Priest got stuck with Lukas and Elle.

Elle pulled off her boots and rubbed her wet socks. “I think the bottom of my foot is one huge blister.”

“If you had real boots instead of those fashion statements you’re wearing, you wouldn’t be so miserable,” Alara said, peeling off her coat.

Elle unearthed a brush from her gigantic bag and dragged it through her hair. “Not everyone shops at the army surplus store.”

“Not everyone can pull it off,” Alara shot back.

“Let’s save the catfight for pay per view.” Priest sounded a little too hopeful.

“We’re all just tired,” Lukas said. “I vote we find a hotel. I need to get more info about the girl who disappeared—”

“Lucy Klein,” I said. She deserved to have someone remember her name.

Lukas gave me a strange look. “And I want to get online and see if I can figure out where the hell Andras is now.”

Priest dried off his headphones and MP3 player. “I should probably check out the weapons and make sure we’re good on ammo.”

“You don’t have to convince me,” Jared said. “I’m freezing and starving.”

“Me too.” Elle coughed, phlegm rattling in her chest. “I think I’m getting sick.”

“Why are you still here?” Alara asked.

“Excuse me?” Elle looked offended.

“Lay off, Alara,” Lukas snapped, before I had a chance to bite her head off.

“Calm down, Romeo,” Alara said. “I didn’t mean it the way it sounded.”

Lukas blushed.

“What I meant was you don’t have to be here,” Alara said to Elle. “If I could leave, I’d be gone.”

Priest turned around in his seat. “You’d walk away from the Legion?”

“I said if I
could
leave. Like if tomorrow we destroyed Andras and this whole thing was over.”

Priest frowned as if he’d never considered the possibility.

Alara leaned forward and propped her elbows on the back of the seat, between Elle and Priest. “If we took down Andras tomorrow, I’d pack my bags and backpack around Europe for a year. Maybe two. And Asia. I’d hang around cafés all day and drink coffee, and walk the Great Wall of China. I’d get a stamp on every page of my passport. What would you do, Lukas?”

Lukas thought about it for a moment. “Go to college, I guess?”

“Where?” Elle asked, egging him on.

Lukas smiled at her sheepishly. “Virginia Tech. My calculus teacher always said I could get in if I stopped cutting class.”

Jared looked surprised. “When did she say that?”

“When you were in Algebra I with all the freshmen,” Lukas said.

“What would you major in?” I asked.

“Applied mathematics. But it wouldn’t matter, because I’d get recruited by the Department of Defense or Homeland Security right after I hacked their system during senior year.”

Priest crossed his arms and shifted in his seat. “You mean after they let you out of jail for threatening national security?”

“They only throw you in jail if you’re an actual threat. Otherwise, hacking their mainframe is basically the job interview. I bet half the guys working there are former
hackers. How about you, Priest?” Lukas asked. “You could probably walk right into a mechanical engineering class at Harvard and ace it without cracking a book. You’d probably have your PhD before I even graduated.”

Priest pressed his lips together in a tight line. “I’m not interested in going to some pretentious university to earn a worthless degree I don’t need.”

Alara slung her arm around his neck. “I’m with you. Screw the system. Go straight to NASA or revolutionize an entire industry with one of your inventions.”

“Like that guy who invented the star for Christmas trees that sprays water all over the tree if it catches on fire,” Elle said.

“Of course, you’d deejay on the weekends at some exclusive club,” Alara said. “And I’d have to show up every once in a while to scare off all the girls who’d be stalking you.”

Priest shrugged Alara’s arm off his shoulder. “If I invent anything worth remembering, it’ll be for the Legion. We can’t just walk away if we destroy Andras. What about all the vengeance spirits and dangerous paranormal entities out there? Someone has to protect people, and it’s
our
job.”

“Our job is to protect the world from the malevolent spirits Andras influences, and to keep him from finding a way into this world.” Alara glanced at me awkwardly. “I mean… it was. Now our job is to destroy him. If we
do that, it’s over. I’m not sticking around to be one of the Ghostbusters.”

Priest cringed at the reference, his eyes flickering over the faces of the other Legion members. “Is that how you all feel? You’d just bail?”

Alara twisted her eyebrow ring, and Lukas took out his coin and flipped it between his fingers.

“Jared? Is that how you feel, too?” Priest asked.

Jared rubbed the back of his neck. He seemed almost as uncomfortable with the conversation as Priest. “I’m not sure what I’d do if I wasn’t part of the Legion. But I don’t want to fight vengeance spirits if I have a choice.”

Priest stared at him, speechless. Then he put on his headphones and yanked up his hood. “Good to know. I didn’t realize I was the only one who actually believed we had a calling. That we were in this for the long haul.”