Unmarked by Kami García Read Free Book Online Page A

the end of an unmarked road. We hadn’t seen a single car since we turned off the highway.
    “Doubtful.” Lukas pointed at the brass placard next to the door.
    TOPSFIELD MUSEUM OF REVOLUTIONARY
TAXIDERMY AND PATRIOTS
    HOURS: 11:00 AM–4:00 PM
    TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS & THE FIRST
SATURDAY OF EVERY MONTH
    “HOME OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST
BOTTLE CAP”
    “What kind of museum is only open twice a week?” Alara asked.
    Lukas tapped on the front window. “One that’s full of revolutionary taxidermy.”
    Priest wiggled the wire and a small screwdriver inside the lock. Elle hovered behind him, which seemed to be slowing him down.
    “After we destroy the demon and save the world, I totally need a tutorial,” Elle said. “I can never get into my locker.”
    “We’re in.” Priest opened the door and waved Alara over from where she was standing at the edge of the porch. “Alara, let’s go.”
    She held up one finger, her phone against her ear.
    Elle grabbed the elbow of my jacket. “Come on. She’s on her cell again.”
    “Who’s she talking to?” I’d never seen Alara call anyone except her parents.
    “No idea. But she keeps calling someone.”
    Inside, the museum looked like a cross between an eighty-year-old woman’s cluttered living room and a display at a natural history museum. Glass cases full of Revolutionary War memorabilia were crammed between antique curio cabinets that held everything from pocket watches and thimbles to a shoehorn and a butter dish.
    The taxidermy collection appeared to be the only thing that wasn’t behind glass. A deer dressed in a wedding gown stood on its hind legs behind a Victorian dollhouse. Inside the miniature rooms, chipmunks positioned in classic fencing stances wielded tiny épée swords.
    Elle backed away from a squirrel bronco-riding a saddled rattlesnake. “That is wrong on so many levels.”
    Priest poked at it. “Some people have too much free time.”
    Alara made her way toward us from the front of the museum, dodging two white mice with unicorn horns, and a beaver wearing a golden crown.
    “Talking to your sister again?” Jared asked.
    “When who I call becomes your business, I’ll let you know,” Alara said.
    “So where’s this giant bottle cap?” Elle asked in one of her not-so-subtle attempts to change the subject.
    “In here,” Lukas called from the next room.
    Four cables secured the bottle cap to the ceiling.
    Elle sighed, unimpressed. “I expected it to be bigger.”
    Lukas knocked on the red metal. “It’s the size of a monster truck tire. How big did you think it would be?”
    Elle dug through her purse and pulled out a plastic camera.
    Alara started to say something when Elle waved the camera in the air. “It’s disposable. I don’t need to hear the ‘only use your cell to call your mom’ speech again.” She handed me the camera and stood in front of the bottle cap. “Take my picture. And I want one of those stickers that says ‘I visited the world’s biggest bottle cap.’ ”
    I snapped the photo before World War III could break out between them.
    Priest stared into one of the display cases running along the walls. “You can take your picture with John Hancock’s shoelace, too, if you want.”
    Someone had taped a laminated note to the glass.
    Historical artifacts generously donated by the residents of Topsfield, Massachusetts, and their families.
    According to the labels, the cases held the personal effects of Revolutionary War patriots: an assortment of muskets and bayonets, tattered flags, broken dishes, aBible, and a wooden leg. The highlights of the exhibit were John Hancock’s shoelace, a halfpenny that supposedly belonged to Joseph Warren, and a page from Paul Revere’s Bible.
    Priest pointed at the random items. “All three of those guys were members of the Sons of Liberty and the Freemasons. John Hancock’s signature showed up on lodge ledgers way before he signed the Declaration of Independence. My granddad said Paul