Page 74 of Ghostlighted
“How could he do that?I’mnot the one who’s forging Sofia’s signature and trying to declare her non compos mentis.”
“No, but he could muddy the waters, and we want these waters totally clear, don’t we?”
“Very true. But I wasn’t planning to face him at all.” Because there was no way I could resist punching him, and then hecouldcast blame on me. “Sofia’s garage is a single-wide, so if I park in the driveway, I can block him in.”
“That’ll infuriate him.”
“Good,” I growled as I turned the key in the ignition. It caught the first time. “That’ll make two of us.”
“Don’t you mean… three?”
I met Avi’s evil grin, threw the car into reverse, and hit the gas.
The Civic skidded on the driveway gravel as its rear wheels cleared the garage. Yes, my tire treads were pathetic, but I probably shouldn’t punch the gas this hard or I’d be making an unscheduled appearance in Patrice’s sitting room.
I eased up on the pedal as I finished backing out. I shifted into Drive. “Hold on.”
There was no answer, and when I glanced to my right, Avi was gone.Crap. We weren’t in his domain anymore and we must be outside of the ring’s radius. But I couldn’t stop to check on him. Liam had been packing up. If he’d already left the house, we couldn’t afford another delay.
Could Liam run faster than I could drive? He didn’t have as far to go, but I wasn’t an Indy 500 driver by any stretch, and my car wasn’t exactly a Formula 1. So I headed down the driveway and pulled onto Iris Lane, hoping that Avi wasn’t stuckelsewhereand that he’d be able to rejoin me once I was back in range.
Gunning the engine, I peeled off down the road, taking the turn on to Birch Street way too fast. The Civic groaned, tires squealing, as I yanked the wheel straight. Sofia’s garage door was up, but I couldn’t see Liam’s car. Was I too late? Had he already left?
I punched it again and huffed a relieved breath when I spotted the silver trunk. Hunching over the wheel, I braked hard as I turned into Sofia’s driveway and screeched to a halt smack in the middle. Liam wouldn’t be able to maneuver his way out on either side of me, even if he was willing to scrape his paint all to hell. He’d need some way to collapse his Porsche into a concertina if he wanted to escape, and since he wasn’t Mr. Incredible, I doubted he’d be able to pull that off.
As I switched off my ignition, Avi blinked into sight in the passenger seat again.
“You okay?”
He nodded. “Just a little disoriented.”
I gestured to the garage. “Was the door up when you checked out the license plate?”
“No. I… don’t think so? I wasn’t really focusing on that when I was trying to remember the numbers.”
I scanned Birch Street. No sign of Kamilla yet. “His car’s windows are too dark for me to see the interior. Did he already make it to the garage?”
“I don’t know. Once you backed out of the garage, I waselsewherebefore I showed up back in our attic. I know he’s not in Sofia’s house anymore because I popped in there first.” Avitsked. “He left the back door hanging open. You’d think he was born in a barn.”
“So the ring’s still on the windowsill?”
“Yes.” The relief in Avi’s voice was palpable. “I didn’t follow him outside, though. I’ll check now.”
“You don’t have to—” But he was already gone.
The Porsche’s brake lights flared. “Uh oh.”
Through my open window, I heard a muffled click. And another. And another, followed by some very creative cursing, but no sound of the engine.
Avi. He’s interrupting the ignition.
Pride swelled in my chest. He was making such great progress, not only in mapping his current abilities, but in embracing new ones. Is this what parents felt like when their kids mastered a skill?
“Watch out, EVP devices, because Avi Felder is in the hou?—”
The Porsche’s engine roared, and Avi flashed into the passenger seat.
“Maz! Jump!”
