My Sister's Reaper (Reaper's Rite) Read online

  MY SISTER’S REAPER

  Dorothy Dreyer

  MY SISTER’S REAPER is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright ©2013 by Dorothy Dreyer.

  My Sister’s Reaper

  All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America by Month9Books, LLC. Month9Books is a registered trademark, and its related logo is a registered trademark of Month9Books, LLC.

  www.month9books.com

  Summary: Zadie accidentally messes with the Reaper’s Rite, and now both she and her sister must pay the price.

  ISBN 978-0-9850294-9-4 (tr. pbk) ISBN 978-0-9850294-8-7 (e-Book)

  1. Young adult. 2. Fiction. 3. Paranormal. 4. Teen. 5. Romance. 6. Fantasy.

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  For information, address Month9Books, LLC, 4208 Six Forks Rd, Suite 1000, Raleigh, NC 27609.

  www.month9books.com

  Cover Design by Mette Breth design

  Edited by Mandy Schoen

  Cover Copyright ©2013 by Month9Books

  Ebook Formatting by Studio 22 Productions

  For Kirsten

  MY SISTER’S REAPER

  Dorothy Dreyer

  Chapter One

  I didn’t know what scared me more: sneaking out to crash a graveyard party at midnight, or knowing Gavin was going to be there. As I wriggled through the crawlspace someone had cut into the graveyard’s chain-link fence, I fought off nausea and focused on keeping quiet.

  Naomi, on the other hand, was not as discreet.

  “Ow! Watch it, Zadie. Branch, right in the face!”

  “Sorry.”

  I wasn’t that sorry, though. I was still irritated with her for dying my hair jet-black earlier that night—and more irritated with myself for letting her. Still, she was my best friend, so when I climbed to my feet, I extended a hand to help her up.

  I could hear them, their laughter low and muffled. At the sound of Gavin’s voice, my stomach churned. Orange firelight flickered across the faces of headstones. My skin prickled at the thought of some poor soul’s grave being used as a fire pit.

  “This is gonna be awesome!” Naomi shook stray leaves out of her razor-cut, shoulder-length shag. “Come on.”

  Grabbing my wrist before I could respond, she shot off in the direction of the small party. I did my best not to trip as we zigzagged through the headstones. The night sky was devoid of stars, and thunder rumbled low in the distance. We reached a part of the cemetery flanked by a mausoleum. As soon as I spotted Gavin, I reached up to smooth my hair, silently chastising Naomi for the millionth time for talking me into the drastic change from my natural, deep red. It took all I had to hold myself together when Gavin’s eyes met mine.

  His dark chocolate hair fell carelessly around his face. As usual, he was dressed all in black, his signature silver pocket-watch chain hanging between two belt loops. He sat with his elbows perched on his knees, his high-top sneakers planted in the dirt shoulder-width apart. Beneath dark brows, his indigo eyes danced in the firelight.

  I looked away to study the group, and to give myself a minute to let the rush of heat wear off. There were seven others gathered around the small fire, most of them holding beers. I could just make out more figures in the darkness. A few couples engaged in intimate moments in secluded shadows. A clique of girls giggled and whispered under a nearby tree. A group of boys argued about our school’s football team a few yards away.

  Naomi had been generous in saying the party would be awesome. If Gavin hadn’t been there, I would have called it amazingly lame. The Facebook invitation obviously hadn’t made its rounds.

  Tucking away nagging thoughts about trespassing and underage drinking, I offered a small smile to the group around the fire.

  “Hey, guys.” Naomi had always been braver than me.

  I hadn’t expected a warm welcome, but the cold glance Emily Broding gave me almost made me wince. Beside her sat Kelly and Nicole, the lemmings who followed her around and tried their damnedest to be like her. It kind of surprised me that they were here, sitting so close to Gavin. They weren’t his usual crowd. And vice versa; Gavin was one dash of eyeliner shy of being Goth, which didn’t exactly fit in Emily Broding’s world.

  He would fit perfectly in my world, though.

  “What are they doing here? And what happened to her hair?” Kelly turned to see her leader’s reaction like a good little lemming. Naomi rolled her eyes at me. Emily took a swig of her wine cooler and ignored me completely, pushing her icy blonde hair out of her annoyingly beautiful face. I almost laughed when Kelly and Nicole copied the movement exactly.

  “There’s no guest list.” Gavin shifted the wood in the fire with a long twig. “Grab a seat.”

  “Cool, thanks.” Naomi plopped down against one of the tall, thick headstones. Then she reached for my hand and pulled me down between her and Gavin.

  “Want a drink?” Gavin asked us.

  “Sure.” Naomi leaned over and grabbed a bottle from a cooler.

  Gavin looked at me, eyebrows raised. Except for the stick he’d used to poke the fire, his hands were empty. I shook my head and muttered, “No thanks.”

  “Zadie, right?”

  He actually knew my name? Shocked, the only response I could offer was a curt nod.

  Gavin’s best friend, Danny, ran a hand over his cropped hair and gave me a look of recognition. “You’re Mara’s sister, right? How is she?”

  Oh. Of course. That’s how Gavin knew who I was. Everyone knew Mara. Especially now. As if she wasn’t popular enough, she’d made big news by landing herself in a coma three weeks ago. Her picture had graced the front page of our town paper for a week after that.

  Emily shot me a quick look. She and Mara were best friends. Despite Emily’s distaste for me, she sat forward as if anticipating my answer.

  “Uh, no change yet.” My voice sounded so small. I cleared my throat.

  “I heard she was brain-dead,” a jock named Brent blurted out. There were already three empty beer bottles by his feet, which explained his slur.

  “I heard she jumped in front of a bus,” the girl hanging all over Brent said. Tasha, I remembered. When she noticed Kelly and Nicole look her way, she inched closer to Brent and ran a hand through his hair.

  “On purpose?” Danny asked, picking at his beer bottle label.

  Emily huffed and tossed her hair back. “She didn’t jump in front of a bus, stupid. She just … didn’t see it coming.”

  “Dude,” Danny said, “that’s messed up.”

  “I’m surprised she survived,” Tasha said, her head on Brent’s shoulder.

  “She didn’t.” Brent tapped his temple with the beer bottle. “She’s brain-dead, remember? That’s, like, technically dead.”

  “She’s not brain-dead, you idiot.” Emily cast a fleeting glance my way, as if she wanted me to confirm the statement, but wouldn’t stoop so low as to ask me.

  Everyone’s attention shifted to me. I rubbed my arm.

  “There were, um, some glitches with her brain monitor.” I couldn’t believe I was actually talking about this in front of Gavin. It was hard enough to talk about it to Naomi. “The doctors weren’t sure if it was just low brain activity or if the machines were messed up. I think they switched the machines a couple times or something. But, um, we don’t really know yet.”

  “See?”
Brent said. “Dead.”

  With furrowed brows, I averted my eyes. My heart felt like a stone in my chest.

  “Could you be a little less disrespectful?” Naomi put an arm around me. “Hello! Her sister’s sitting right here.”

  “Yeah, that’s kind of lame, Brent.” Gavin shook his head and jabbed his stick into the fire.

  Brent simply shrugged and tipped back his beer.

  Naomi gave me a sympathetic smile and slipped her arm off me.

  Arching her brow, Tasha fiddled with Brent’s shirt collar. “I heard she was kind of messed up in the head to begin with.”

  I was beginning to dislike Tasha.

  “She was not.” Emily narrowed her eyes at Tasha, tossing her empty wine cooler bottle near the fire. “She had issues, but who doesn’t?”

  “Don’t you think it’s odd that she gets hit by a bus right after Luke breaks up with her?” Nicole asked. Kelly smacked her in the leg and gave her a disapproving look.

  Everyone was quiet for a moment, contemplating that. Then Emily spoke up. “I miss her. I wish she would wake up already.”

  “Oh, Emily.” Kelly pouted and rubbed her leader’s arm. Nicole jumped up and grabbed another wine cooler, handing it to Emily as she took her assigned spot next to her.

  I had to look away from them. I stared into the fire, thankful for a friend like Naomi. She knew I didn’t like to think about it, didn’t like to be fawned over like that. It sucked to be reminded of my sister lying in the hospital, all alone with nothing but the life-support machine to keep her company. After the first week, I couldn’t bring myself to visit her much. I just wanted her to wake up.

  The fire held my gaze. My world was so screwed up. Too many strange things had happened to me. Not just Mara’s accident, but things I kept to myself. Things I had kept secret.

  “I could make it happen. Make her wake up.” The mumbled remark tumbled out of my mouth before I could stop it.

  “What?” Gavin asked.

  “Zadie,” Naomi whispered, her brows furrowed. She couldn’t know I had never been more serious. I bit my lip and looked back to Gavin.

  “You mean like willpower?” He raised his brows, and then nodded slowly. “Yeah, I get that.”

  “Kinda like willpower. But kinda more like …”

  “Magic?” Gavin said.

  I sucked in a breath. When he smiled, I exhaled. It was hard to tell with such little light, but I could have sworn he had a twinkle in his eyes.

  “Now that would be cool,” Gavin said, his low voice humming through me. “Bringing her back to life with some kind of spell. Like raising the dead.”

  My body warmed under his approval. Lost in his gaze, I went on. “Yeah. I mean, it couldn’t hurt to try.”

  “Oh my God, what a freak,” Kelly said.

  “Maybe you should be hanging out with the witch lady up on Magnolia Street,” Nicole added.

  Their words doused my skin with ice water.

  Emily shook her head. “Talk about brain-dead. It should be you in that coma, Zadie. Not Mara.”

  I held back a gasp and kept my eyes trained on the ground. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Naomi’s mouth hanging open. I felt everyone’s gaze on me and just wanted to disappear.

  Thankfully, Gavin distracted me from Emily’s harsh words. “So are you saying you know magic spells or something?”

  I was half-afraid to answer him, and half-exhilarated that I had his attention. “I might have read a thing or two,” I said.

  “Cool.”

  For one perfect moment, it was just me and Gavin, sitting alone in the dark, the word magic floating between us. Then thunder ripped through the sky, accompanied by a cool wind that coaxed the fire to crackle and glow brighter. A drop of water splashed against my cheek. I tore my gaze from Gavin’s long enough to glance at the sky, and was punished with a downpour.

  Kelly and Nicole shrieked and grabbed their things, following Emily, who made her escape with her jacket held over her head. Naomi and I rushed up against the side of the mausoleum. The short overhang dropped a curtain of rainwater on us. I didn’t see Brent and Tasha or the others take off, but Danny and Gavin huddled up to us by the tomb wall.

  Gavin was right in front of me. I had to tip my head back a little to meet his eyes. Even soaking wet, he was amazing. Rain sluiced down his face, dipping into the corners of his mouth. I watched water drip from his bottom lip and wondered what it’d be like to put my mouth there.

  “Do it,” he said.

  My heart raced. Maybe he could read my thoughts. And what if I did it? What if I leaned into him, pressed my lips to his …

  “Bring her back to life,” he said.

  I blinked rain out of my eyes. Before I could respond, Gavin jerked his head at Danny, and the two of them ran off. They disappeared past the smoke of the extinguished fire, carrying the cooler between them.

  Naomi grinned at me. “I told you this would be awesome.”

  “Yeah. Let’s get out of here. I don’t think it’s gonna let up.”

  We ducked our heads and jogged to the hole in the fence. The rain pounded hard against the ground, kicking up mud, and the branches of the trees pitched in the wind. Naomi made a sound of disgust as she crouched in the sludge to wriggle through the small opening.

  Just as I was about to follow her, I heard a whisper, the soft noise tickling the hairs on the back of my neck. I whirled around and scanned the cemetery, but it was hard to make out shapes through the heavy curtain of rain. Lightning streaked across the sky, the flash illuminating the mausoleum. A shadow moved across the wall. I blinked rapidly, trying to focus on where the shadow had been. My heart picked up speed as I waited anxiously for another flash of lightning. But it never came. The shadow was gone.

  “Come on, Zadie!” Naomi yelled from the other side of the fence.

  I watched the mausoleum a moment longer, telling myself it was just a trick of light. Probably leaves or smoke or something. Naomi called once more, her voice sounding miles away. On a shuddered breath, I dropped to all fours and plodded toward her, willing the notion of whispers and visions of looming shadows out of my head.

  Chapter Two

  Monday morning snuck up on me and clobbered me on the head. At least the sun was shining. I looked out the kitchen window, sipping my juice in hopes for a blood sugar boost to get me through the day. The dew on the grass sparkled like it had the day the frogs came. That was years ago, but as I stared at the grass, I could almost see them. I could almost feel Mara at my back, clinging to my shirt.

  I dropped my gaze to my orange juice. My stomach twisted at the possibilities of what could happen if I thought too hard about something like that.

  When I was young, strange things started happening. Weird coincidences that made me wonder. They were little things at first, like wishing for a snow day and waking up to a blizzard. Or not studying for a test at school and learning the teacher was out sick. Then the frogs happened.

  Mara and I had been fighting. We were little, so the fight was over something stupid, like toys or dolls or something. Mara hated frogs, so I imagined dozens of frogs surrounding the house so Mara couldn’t go outside to play. It was just a silly daydream, until I heard her screaming. I ran to the front porch. Hopping and croaking, frogs covered the front lawn. Mara hid behind me as a couple of the slimy creatures leaped up the porch steps. It wasn’t until I started to laugh that Mara stepped out from behind me.

  “You did this!” She ran to her room, and didn’t speak to me for three days.

  Scared I had done something wicked, I was very careful what I daydreamed from then on—or at least, I tried to be.

  Mara eventually forgave me, but we never regained the closeness we’d had before the frogs. She became a social magnet the other kids at school couldn’t resist. The more popular she became, the less time we spent together. And the more left behind I felt.

  And then she stepped in front of a bus. I don’t know why she did it, or if th
e rumors about her break-up with Luke were true. In the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but think the schizophrenia that had imprisoned Mom in her own head—and the mental hospital—had also gotten a hold of Mara. Made her play chicken with a bus.

  “You ready, Zadie?” My dad’s voice stirred me from my thoughts. He set his briefcase on the kitchen table as he grabbed a cup of coffee.

  “Yeah, almost,” I answered, stretching in my chair. I let out a yawn and finished off my toast.

  “Must have been some sleepover,” he said.

  I looked at him questioningly, until he sat next to me and gently tugged on my hair. Oh right, it was black now. Naomi had left a few strands of red to highlight the dark curtain that now framed my face, but it was a big change.

  I smoothed my hands over the sides of my head. “Naomi’s idea. Is it stupid?”

  He let out a breath and shook his head. “No, it’s … nice?”

  “You hate it, don’t you?”

  “I don’t hate it. I just really liked your natural color. Always reminded me of a nice, warm fire.”

  “Ugh, Dad. Don’t get corny on me now, I’ve got to get to school.”

  He smiled at me and gently flicked under my chin.

  “Okay, kid.” The corners of his eyes tightened. “I’ll be home late again.”

  I hid my disappointment and offered a smile instead. He coped by keeping busy. That way he wouldn’t have to think about Mara, or Mom. If I robbed him of his coping mechanism, he’d break down on me, too. I stood and kissed his cheek. “I’ll put dinner in the fridge for you.”

  ***

  “Have you seen him yet?” Naomi propped a shoulder against the locker next to mine.

  “Gavin?” I asked, which was unnecessary because there was no one else she would have asked me about. “No, not yet.”

  “So what’s the plan?”

  “The plan for what?” I asked.

  “I’m assuming you brought up getting your sister out of her coma as some grand scheme to hook up with Gavin. So, what’s the plan?”

  I shrugged, unable to meet her eyes. “I don’t know.”