“Ari, wake up.”
The ember seemed to pulse at her, knocking her back, pushing at her shoulder.
“Ari.”
It kept coming for her. “No.”
“Ari. Wake. Up.”
Her eyes flew open, her breathing coming in gasping pants. She saw a strange man looking down at her with a frown on his face as he lifted his bag from the overhead luggage compartment. Blinking rapidly, Ari turned to Jai. “We’re here?”
Her guardian frowned at her, his eyes even more vivid in the dim light of the plane. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” She shrugged off his concern and turned to tell Charlie to let her out. Instead, her friend just stared at her. “What?”
“You were having a nightmare,” Charlie said quietly, his dark eyes glittering with worry and love. “You sure you’re okay?”
“It was a bad dream, that’s all.”
“You want to talk about it?” Charlie shot a look at Jai and she realized they were tag-teaming her. When did this happen?
“Yeah, that’d be great.” She sneered, standing up, irritation from the dream and general lack of sleep eating away at her patience. “And then we can all eat ice cream together and take turns braiding each other’s hair.”
At the sound of two long-suffering sighs, Ari pushed past Charlie, not sure she could restrain herself from clunking their heads together.
Chapter
Twenty-One
RUMOR TOLD ME NOT TO LIKE YOU
The house in Scottsdale was huge. They’d passed similar ones in the sparse, affluent neighborhood, all built with Arizona Stone. Most of them were carefully designed to blend into the surroundings and yet still offer a feeling of space and laid-back wealth with their palatial arches, pillared columns, fancy pond-like pools, and cool flag-stoned flooring running from outside to inside. The Roes rented this place while they were out in Arizona. Since there were fifteen of them, they’d have to rent something that could accommodate them all. And accommodate them in style, apparently.
“We better go in before they mistake us for weirdos,” Charlie said from the backseat of the rental car.
Jai grunted. “Mistake?”
Charlie snorted.
Ari quirked an eyebrow. Charlie’s snort was a ‘laugh with’ not ‘laugh at’ kind of snort. Were Charlie and Jai getting along? Uncomfortable with the two of them getting along when she wasn’t getting along with either of them, Ari frowned. “Try not to tell them about Ms. Maggie. I think it’ll just freak them out to know she’s there and they can’t see her.”
“Amen. Why couldn’t you keep it from me?” Charlie asked teasingly, his attempts to brighten her mood obvious and annoying since they only made her feel guilty.
Instead of acknowledging the comment, Jai nodded. “Agreed. We keep Ms. Maggie a secret. The fewer people know we have her as extra protection, the better.”
Well, he’d certainly changed his tune about her poltergeist. Without looking at him, Ari asked with a slightly antagonistic clip to her tone, “How come you never told me you talked to Ms. Maggie through the telepathy?”
“It never came up.”
“Well?”
“Well, what?” Jai frowned, impatience eating into his tone. Clearly, her bad mood was wearing on him.
“What does she sound like?”
“A woman.”
Ari threw him a look of irritation. “You know you’re so articulate. It really makes me feel intellectually inadequate, Jai.”
Charlie snorted again.
Jai ignored them both and got out of the car, making Ari feel like a twelve-year-old. That she was acting like one hadn’t escaped her and only made her feel worse. Even Charlie rubbing her shoulder reassuringly and saying, “I thought it was funny,” didn’t help any. With an exaggerated sigh, she got out of the car and into the thick air outside.
“Why is it hot everywhere we go?” Charlie grumbled, shrugging out of the plaid shirt he wore over his red Silversun Pickups T-shirt. “Can we go somewhere cold and wet next time?”
Jai pulled the bags out of the trunk of the car, slinging Ari’s over his shoulder. He threw Charlie’s at him as he said, “I envy you and your lack of awareness. I think Ari would like you to stop talking.”
“You ever think your taciturnity is the reason she’s in a bad mood?”
“You ever think it’s because you’re a dumbass who made a wish?”
“You ever think—”
“You ever think of shutting up?” Ari snapped, grabbing her backpack from Jai and striding away from them to the front door. In actuality, she was glad the two of them were sniping at one another again. At least some things didn’t change.
Before Ari could even raise a hand to knock, one of the double doors was wrenched open and a cute girl with choppy dark hair stood smirking at her. She ran her dark brown eyes over Ari and crossed her arms over her chest as she cocked her hip. The girl could be Ari’s age or maybe even a little younger — it was hard to tell because she was short and cute. As if she knew just how cute she was and was appalled by the adjective, the girl wore thick black eyeliner and a ton of mascara to make her eyes huge and dramatic. A tiny silver stud pierced her nose and Ari could make out at least six piercings along her left ear as the breeze blew back her flyaway hair. The grungy T-shirt she wore was too tight and the skinny jeans with a chain attached to the belt patterned with skulls and crossbones all growled, ‘call me cute and die’.