I laughed, earning her raised eyebrows, then wrote again.

If it were that easy, I would have left here long ago.

She looked at me questioningly.

You can’t just leave. I continued to write.

Are you trying to stop me?

I had to grin again.

I’d like to help you, to be honest.

You? Helping me?

Her expression was full of disbelief. And that although I had already helped her a few times.

Yes, then I have one problem less 😊

She raised both brows again.

Funny, it came back.

😊

I’m serious, I’m going to go.

And leave your mother behind?

Despite all that had happened, I didn't believe she could do it. Ms. Adams was kind and didn’t seem like a bad mother to me.

I don’t want to talk about her.

I nodded. Bay just needed a little more time.

I just want to get out of here.

Believe me, they’ll find you.

“Are you seriously communicating with notes?”

I sped around to where Mia was leaning in the doorway.

How had I not heard her? That little beast.

“That’s fucking cute.” She grinned at me and I threw my pen at her, but narrowly missed.

“Maybe you’d hit it better if you weren’t so dreamily hanging around the window, bothering our new neighbor.”

I looked at her warningly. “Shut up, Mia. What do you want?”

“Dinner’s ready.” She winked at me, but then quickly disappeared through the door again.

I looked back over at Bayla. She had disappeared.

Great.

The note thing might have been a good distraction, but something was going to happen to her tonight that would probably absolutely upset her.

I would have liked to follow her, but that wasn’t an option. The last thing I would do was interfere in the Quatura’s business.

Chapter 39

Bayla

The fact that I was sitting in my mother’s car, on my way to a Satanic cult, instead of fleeing over the mountains of North America with the backpack I had packed yesterday was definitely not my fault. I could have punched myself in the face for listening to my goofy neighbor instead of my uncomfortable gut. If something inside me told me Bayla that wouldn’t go well at all, it usually went that way.

I tried to imagine how far I would have gotten with my backpack now. Julian had probably been right, and this Amara would have tracked me down sooner or later with her superpowers... Or Emely would have found me and eaten me for dinner.

I thought of the note with the words, “I’m sorry if I frighten you. That is not my intention.”

My tension gave way to a certain reflectiveness. To be honest, I didn’t really know if and to what extent I could trust him. Of course, there were his words, but did they guarantee me safety? Or was it one of the next lies in this cursed city?

I was beginning to realize that I shouldn’t believe anyone at all. Not this Amara, not Julie or Grace, probably not Julian either, and certainly not my mother.

Right now, I was sitting next to her and we were both silent. It better remained that way, because I couldn’t guarantee anything. If only she knew how angry, disappointed, and confused I was at that moment. She had thrown my entire old life into a box and let little kids play soccer with it.

If I only had known I would move to a town full of monsters, where my mother belonged to a cult that grew plants. And not to mention her shady past in that place. Or the part where I was in her car on the way to some initiation ritual.

The events of that weekend were definitely beyond the scope. And worst of all. She had lied about having a disease such as breast cancer!

I looked over at Mum, who had just pulled over, her face glowing red from the traffic light.

I wanted to yell at her, but I wasn’t like that. Instead, I punished her with my stares.

Who in the world was this woman in the driver’s seat? Did I even know her?

Mum just looked at the road and pretended I didn’t exist. She was really good at suppressing problems, although she seemed to run from one to the next.

Until now, I had known her as the structured scientist, as a caring mother, almost like my best friend, if there had not been Larissa.

Shit.

I hadn’t responded at all to her Where are you all? Or to her Send me your address and just as little to her What’s going on?

I really wasn’t a great friend, even though Larissa was the only one I could still trust around here.

The last time I had seen her was a few days ago, before I had – in her eyes probably – disappeared from campus without a trace.