Cover

Also by Cat Patrick

Tornado Brain

Just Like Fate, with Suzanne Young

The Originals

Revived

Forgotten

For my elf,

the one who lifts everyone else.

I’ve got you.

♥ ♥ ♥

prologue

“Shhh!” Frankie hissed in the darkness, which only made me and Colette giggle harder. “You guys are so annoying!”

In the furniture-packed bunk room, Frankie was on one of the top bunks; our cousin Kennedy was sleeping like a starfish on the full-size bed, her covers rumpled on the floor; and Colette and I shared the queen-size bed.

Colette and I had been telling ghost stories—quietly, I’d thought.

“Frankie, lower your voice,” I whispered. “You’re going to wake up Kennedy. That would be zero percent amazing.”

“Whatever,” Frankie said, still too loudly. She was sometimes not great at matching her volume to the situation. “You guys are zero percent amazing! You’re making it impossible to sleep!” In the moonlight through the window, I saw her throw her arm over her eyes. “And the crickets are so loud! They’re driving me crazy! I hate it here. I just want to go home. Wyoming sucks!”

She sounded like she was going to cry.

“We’re sorry,” I whispered, immediately feeling bad. She’d had a hard time falling asleep as it was. I sat up and inchwormed toward the bottom of the bed since I was on the side next to the wall. “Here, we’ll go downstairs so you can sleep.”

Kennedy rolled over with a sleep-groan. The rest of us held still like we’d been freeze-tagged until she got settled again.

I turned back to tell Colette, “Come on,” but she was already out of the bed, ducking into her sweatshirt. A best friend to both me and Frankie since kindergarten, Colette knew how to disarm my twin sister almost as well as I did.

“Want my noise-canceling headphones?” she whispered to Frankie, resting her arms on the frame of the bunk. “They’ll drown out the stupid crickets, at least.”

Frankie thought about it, then said, quieter, “Fine.”

“Sorry for keeping you up,” I whispered, hovering in the doorway while Colette dug her headphones out of her bag. I chewed on my right pinkie nail. “Did you take your vitamin?”

“Uh-huh,” Frankie said even quieter, taking the headphones and putting them on. She closed her eyes and didn’t say anything else.

Colette turned and gave me a thumbs-up. Carefully, I crept down from the loft, steps creaking behind me as Colette followed. I held tight to the right handrail nailed to the stacked log wall but had nothing to grip on the left: no handrail or wall, either. If I lost my balance and tipped left, I’d fall into the living room.