Ghosts of July (Shamans of the Divide, Book 1)

Chapter Thirty

It took me a few days to come to terms with the fact that Renn left.

He never came to beg forgiveness or to tell me how wrong he was. Never tried to contact me on that phone he passed along through Skye, which now sported a huge crack through it. Never mind that it still displayed messages just fine—it didn't matter.

I didn't see Skye, either. I figure he was under lock and key while he healed up, too. Camille stopped by on her way out of town to visit with a couple college recruiters in Michigan.

"A bear!" She squealed. "Do you know how cool that'll make you in school next year? That's even cooler than getting sucker slapped by a varsity volleyball player!"

Nana had hovered the first couple days, taking time off at the diner to make sure I wasn't alone. But when my mom had blown into town, Nana suddenly came up with a to-do list a mile long that needed her immediate attention. That'd left me with Berit Henry-Higgins in this house for two entire days.

"I don't think you understand how stressful this was for me," she'd said the first night after her day-late arrival. "I've just been worried sick and I did a lot of thinking on the drive up."

That never meant anything good for me.

"I think it's time you come back to Colorado."

I wasn't looking at her when she said it and immediately my gaze swung right to her to see if she was messing with me. She looked serious.

"We can enroll you back in your old school if you like," she said. "I'm living with my new boyfriend and his daughter, really close to our old house and we can start getting used to each other—a big, happy family like you always wanted."

Annoying new fake family aside, living back in the same neighborhood was exactly what I'd been dreaming about these past few months each time I'd cried myself to sleep at night.

But I wasn't sure now.

Mom hadn't stuck around long and within a day and a half, she'd given me $300 for gas and made me promise I'd be two or three days behind her. I didn't agree, exactly, but I hadn't outright told her no, either.

Nana knew it was coming, though.

"You're going back?" She asked over eggs the morning after my mom left.

"I'm not really sure yet, Nana," I said, pushing my eggs around. But in my heart, I really couldn't see staying here and moping around, heartbroken over Renn. At least back at my old school, I'd have a chance at numbing myself for a few months until I felt normal again. Whatever normal was. I was more than certain that looking at Taylor now, after the past few weeks with Renn, wouldn't make it especially hard to give him all the distance in the world he craved.

"You do what you feel is right, Buttercup," she said, pouring herself another cup of coffee. "You're turning 18 in a few short months. Just remember that."

I was putting things away in boxes, still unsure about whether I was leaving for good or not, when the phone rang in the hallway. I answered.

"Is this July?" a woman on the other end asked.

"Speaking."

"Honey, this is Billie Whalen."

She waited for me to say something, but I didn't. I didn't know what to say.

"Anyway, we hear you're on the mend and I'm so glad. Silas is still not in the clear but the doctors think he's going to recover by the end of summer."

"That's great news," I said, honestly relieved.

"Honey, the reason I'm calling you is because I want to tell you we made a mistake when we didn't take you and your abilities seriously," she said. My heart started pounding against my chest—where was she going to take this? "The bottom line is that you've got more instincts and more power in your little pinkie than me and Leonard have in our whole bodies. You saved our butts, darlin', and there's no two ways about that. You have so much raw talent and for the life of us, we can't tell where it's coming from. We still can't piece together what the dead were doing out of their graves or whether they've gotten back in them. We've never seen anything like this before in our lives."