After Harper and Alex both nodded in understanding, Marcy flipped open the book and began reading from it. Harper had no idea what most of the words meant, but every now and then she’d catch one like “necro” and “terra.”

As soon as Marcy finished, the candle lit up. A bluish flame burned from the wick, and even though the candle was white, the wax that dripped down the sides was black.

“How’d you do that?” Harper asked.

“I’m magic,” Marcy said matter-of-factly, and closed the book. “So it’s all set. We should be able to talk to Luke now.”

“Really?” Alex asked. “I can just … talk to him?”

“Yeah. I would start by saying his name and seeing if he’s around and wants to talk.”

“How will we know if he wants to talk?” Alex asked. “Will he just talk back?”

“The stones will vibrate if something’s present.” Marcy motioned to the black rocks. “And then we talk to him and decide how he’s going to answer. It’s usually stuff like, Knock once for yes, twice for no.”

“How will he be able to name a place, then?” Alex asked. “If we say, Where’s Gemma? it’s not like he can knock once, and we’ll go, Oh, right, Toledo.”

“Let’s just see if he’s here, and we’ll take it from there,” Marcy suggested. “You start, Alex, since you were closest to him.”

“Okay. Um…” He took a deep breath, then cautiously said, “Luke? Uh, Luke Benfield? It’s me, your friend Alex. Um, I wanted to know if you wanted to talk.”

They waited a few minutes, and when there was no response, Alex tried again. Even Harper joined in, and eventually Marcy retried the incantation. But no matter what they said, they got no response.

All afternoon the three of them tried communing with Luke. The hot sun beat down on them, and Marcy grumbled about the heat a few times, but she stuck with the séance. The stones ended up vibrating twice, but Marcy could never make any contact beyond that.

“So that’s it?” Alex asked when Marcy began packing up her stuff. “We’re giving up?”

“Sorry, loverboy,” Marcy said as the sun began to set. “There’s nothing more I can do. We’ll just have to go back to looking the old-fashioned way.”

16. Wanderlust

SIXTEEN

Wanderlust

Gemma reached a town about a half hour after leaving Sawyer’s house, but she drove around in it for a long time before she stopped. She needed to be sure that her head was clear and her hunger was under control.

That was actually what made her finally decide to stop. She figured that eating people food would at least do something about her appetite.