Page 54 of House of Hearts
“I guess magical sleeping spells don’t apply to cell phone batteries,” Calvin mutters to himself.
“We should take it anyway,” Birdie insists, swiveling to face the rest of us. “We’ll grab a phone charger back at HOH. We should bring it along, right?”
Sadie gestures down at her brother. “What about Percy? We can’t just leave him here in a graveyard!” She swats uselessly at the tears welling in her eyes. “Shouldn’t we at least try to lift him out of here?”
Calvin has begun pacing circles, but Sadie’s question has him skidding to a halt. “You really think dragging our lifeless brother out of the hedge maze on a Friday night is a good idea? Tripp’s distraction aside, not everyone gives a shit about fireworks and you know what’s more interesting? Percy Lockwell being paraded around like deadweight.”
Sadie sniffles, and as much as she tries to seem older, right now she really does look like a little girl who misses her brother. “We could c-cover him with something.”
“Even better! Roll him in a rug and make it really look like we’re carrying a dead body out of the maze. I don’t want to leave him here, but I don’t want to make a spectacle of him, either, and I’m scared we’ll hurt him if we try to move him.” He shakes his head. “Birdie’s right, we need to bring this to HOH.”
Sadie gives a tight nod and wipes the remnants of tears away. She locks all that’s left of her in a box, and I see the moment she swallows the key and stands up, clear-faced and determined. “All right. Emergency meeting. Grab everyone.”
This has got to be the weirdest “Situation Room” moment of all time.
We’re crisscross applesauce on the floor of the House of Heart’s parlor room. Everyone aside from Ash, that is. He’s lounging across the grand staircase likeThe Creation of Adam, which is fitting given that he’s marble streaked in strokes of gray paint.Mallory beams up at him with a headful of snakes and kiss-smudged lips.
“I’ll have you know I was enjoying the fireworks,” he laments, then, turning to Tripp with a wink: “Mate, you really know how to put on a good show.”
Tripp lifts his Freddy Krueger mask and flashes him a cocky grin in return. “I did pretty good, didn’t I?”
“This isn’t the time to talk about fireworks.” Sadie gets up and starts furiously tapping her heel against the checkered floor. “We found Percy.”
It’s the verbal equivalent of an atom bomb, the room stunned into absolute silence. Tripp sobers in the aftershock of it all, his eyes widening. “You’re serious?”
“You think I’d joke about that?” Sadie seethes. She’s got her mother’s expression mastered, the purse of her lips and the narrowed slits of her eyes.
He scratches his cheek. “When…when you say ‘found’…is he dead?”
Calvin answers with a vague swish of his hands. “Not really.”
“What the hell does ‘not really’ dead mean?”
Sadie tells them precisely what it means, relaying the last half hour in excruciating detail. Then the questions really start.
“Do we bring him to a hospital?” Mallory blurts, her phone whipped out and ready to dial 911 as soon as someone gives the A-okay.
“And tell them what?” Calvin volleys back. His head rests against the front door, and his chin tilts up to the ceiling. “That he’s in a magical coma?”
“I don’t know! We’d tell them something! Did you at least try CPR?”
“What would CPR do at this point?” Oliver weighs in with a sardonic lift of his brow. “His heart is beating.”
“What about true love’s kiss?” Ash offers uselessly. “That always works in the movies.”
“Too late, asshole, his girlfriend’s fucking dead,” Tripp shoots back.He throws us a sheepish look after that, but Birdie’s cheeks burn with a flash of indignation.
“I don’t seeyouthrowing out ideas. Also, can you not talk about Emoree like that?”
I give her an appreciative nod before turning to glare at Tripp as well.
He wipes his lips with the back of his hand. “All right, here’s an idea. Ash and Oliver translated Anastasia’s magical grimoire. Why don’t they hocus-pocus Percy awake?”
“I’m not a wizard, for starters,” Ash argues. “Also, like we said last meeting, most of the pages were useless. You want clear skin? How about getting a boy to notice you? Hit me up. Otherwise, you’re screwed as far as the spells in there go. We still can’t translate that final page, so God knows what that one’s talking about. There’s a reason Em and Percy ripped out what they needed and left the rest behind.”
No one says anything to that for a long time. In the silence I swivel to check how far we’ve gotten Percy’s battery charged to. Ten percent, good enough for me.
“What’s the code?” I ask, and Sadie’s smile is solemn and half-broken.
