Sacrilege (Theo Raeken) [2]

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"Lydia..."

"Arden, don't ask me how," she urges, "but his name was Stiles. And I think I loved him." She pauses. "Please. Help us find him."

I bite my lip. "What do you need?"

Her eyebrows dip into an urgent, melancholy expression. "You felt that he wasn't there, Arden," she says. "You must remember something else." She sighs. "We'll discuss this at school."

I scowl. "Who said I agreed to go back to the hellhole?"

"Well, you already went to one hell," a voice behind me says. I turn to see my mom leaning against the wall, a small smile on her lips. "Think of this as punishment for doing something stupid." She pauses. "See? Already feels normal again. Thank you, Lydia. Look after my baby at school."

A slight grin creeps its way up to Lydia's face. This is what she does best, stays put together. "I will, Ms Dimitri. Don't you worry." She pauses. "I'll wait outside for you to get your stuff."

I nod quickly, before heading upstairs. I scramble to pack all my books in my bag, and by the time I swing it over my shoulder, it's agonisingly heavy.

"You leaving me for school?" Kai's voice says from behind me. "What am I supposed to do now? Hang around with people my own age?"

I chuckle, slipping on my sneakers. "I don't even want to go." I pause. "But now that I think about it, maybe it is better than spending time with you. Look after my mom." I jab my index finger at his chest. "Promise."

He grabs my wrist and puts it back beside me, his lips curving upwards. "Maybe it's good for you. You know, doing something productive for once."

I step outside of my room, scurrying to get to Lydia. "And when have you done anything productive, like, at all?"

"I'm more productive than you," he retorts. I approach my mom and squeeze her tightly, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Text me every hour, okay?" I tell her. "To make sure you're safe."

"Hey, Arden?" Kai says. "You don't need to worry about that. I'll keep her safe."

"Thank you," I say. "I mean it. I'll see you both, later."

They both farewell me as I walk out of the house, a knot of anxiety forming in my belly. I hurry down to the front gate and haul it open before making a beeline to Lydia's car. I drop into the passenger seat. "Thank you for coming to see me," I say. "I needed that."

When I say the words, it feels almost normal again. Well, as normal as things can get these days.

"No problem," she says. "So, how have you been?"

I pause, carefully considering my words. For the first time, I allow myself to think about how extraordinarily miraculous the past few days have been. "I thought I'd lost everything." I gnaw on my lip. "I don't know how to explain it. It's almost an out of body sort of happiness, you know? Like you can't believe it's happening?"

"What are you going to do about Theo?" she asks, turning a corner.

I feel guilt coursing through me. Theo. How could I forget?

"You don't need to feel bad, Arden," she says. Another outstanding thing about Lydia: she seems to be able to dissect anyone. Whether because she's a banshee, or not, I don't know. "You're allowed to be happy. That's what Theo would've wanted."

I look down, avoiding her stare. "Is it?"

"He's dead, Arden," she reinforces. "He doesn't think anything of anything."