Bitter Demons

35. I Have A Lot Of Gifts

Midnight couldn't come fast enough. I paced the floor of my room in the dark, checking the time on my cell phone religiously. At ten 'til midnight, I unhooked the latch on my window and pushed the window open. I shivered at the blast of cold air.

The window was large enough for me to push my legs through and sit on the windowsill without ducking my head. I sat there for a moment staring up at the starry sky. Everything seemed so still and peaceful out here.

A bird flew from one tree to another in the distant woods and I froze. Was it a crow? It was too dark to tell, but I wouldn't have been surprised if the crow was watching me, biding its time until it could find me alone and vulnerable.

I wondered if meeting Jackson in the barn was such a brilliant idea. My heart pumped in my chest, and I glanced back toward the safety of my warm bedroom.

I took in a deep breath. I could do this. I wanted to know what he'd found out at the florist. Plus, I wanted to tell him about my fall today at practice. If I didn't show up, he'd get worried and come looking for me, anyway. I had to go.

I closed my eyes and let all the clutter of my mind fall away. I concentrated on a single image-a blue butterfly like Zara taught me-until there was nothing else in my mind. When I felt the pulse of electric energy flowing through me, I opened my eyes and pushed away from my window. The feeling of being suspended so high above the ground was such a crazy rush.

I let myself down slowly, floating to the ground without banging my knee this time. I looked around to make sure no one was around, then slipped around the house and into the barn.

Jackson was already there. I could see the glow of his cigarette in the far corner as he tossed it to the ground and stomped it out.

"Hey," I said, smiling. There was something about meeting him here like this, in the dark after midnight that felt so exciting. My pulse quickened.

"Have any trouble getting out?" Jackson passed through the moonlit cracks between boards. His face appeared, then disappeared as he walked closer.

"Not at all," I said. Then I thought about the movement in the woods. "I saw a bird and almost chickened out."

Jackson laughed and ran his hand down my arm. "Understandable, but I won't let anything happen to you Harper. I promise."

"I might still make you walk me back to my window," I said. "Just in case."

"Fair enough," he said. He jumped up on a wooden crate, his boots dangling just above the dirt floor. "I went to both florists in town and found out that the box was definitely one from Alice's Florist on Broad Street. I talked to the owner. She was out front arranging some flowers, so I just asked her if she knew who'd sent black roses to a girl at Shadowford."

"What'd she say?"

"She said she had no idea what I was talking about. She said black roses would be a special order and she would have known if something like that had come through her shop."

"Crap," I said. I kicked at the crate. "But if the flowers came in a box from her store, she had to have placed the order."

"I know," he said. "I got the feeling she was hiding something from me. So I went around back and talked to this guy Aaron I know from school. He works there after school, so I thought he might know something. He said they had this one weird lady come in a few days ago. She was dressed in all black and had jet-black hair."

I shivered. "Like a crow?"

"Maybe," he said. "Aaron said he didn't know what the lady ordered, because Alice sent him out of the room when the weird lady came in. He also said that he's the one who delivered the box to Shadowford. Alice asked him to do it first thing when he got there Saturday morning."