Vengeance by Megan Miranda Read Free Book Online Page A

he mumbled.
    Right. Get them in the same room. Obviously they’ll get back together. I wondered if Delaney put Maya up to it, but from the way her feet froze at the bottom of the steps, I knew she was surprised to see me here too. Her feet moved to the side as Janna and I approached the steps.
    A breeze blew down the street, and Janna rubbed her hands over the goose bumps on her arms. “I never realized how cold it was until I left,” she said. But it wasn’t cold at all.
    We stood on Justin’s porch, shaded by a row of evergreens on the side of his yard. The sky behind us was a heavy gray, almost black. Storms were rolling in.
    “He’s dead everywhere, you know.”
    “I know,” I said.
    “My dad thinks that as long as we lived in a place where Carson never had a room, he never left it.”
    “Hence Arizona.”
    “Hence.”
    “We missed you,” I said.
    She pulled at a curl, stretching it down past her collarbone, and it was so achingly familiar. I could see her sitting beside Carson—always with him—doing the same. She shrugged, like she was clearing a thought. “So … are you gonna tell me what happened? Or do I have to consult the rumor mill?”
    I almost told her right then. Told her how Delaney’s brainwas damaged, like the doctors said. That she could tell when someone was sick—going to die. That she knew Carson was going to die and that’s why she was driving him down the highway to her doctor. That she was trying to save him and couldn’t. That she knew when she walked into my house that my dad was sick, that he was going to die, and she said nothing. Didn’t try to save him. Didn’t even tell me. I almost told her because she would understand. She was furious with Delaney, and she would understand.
    I shrugged. “Nothing to it. We’re not together.”
    She tilted her head back and laughed. “I gathered. Not that I object or anything. I’m just wondering why you can’t even look at her.”
    “I can look—”
    The door swung open behind us and Delaney barged out, just as I was turning to look. She bumped my shoulder. Stumbled back. Looked at the ground. “Sorry,” she said as I grabbed her elbow to steady her. And then I looked away. Problem with looking at her, with being this close, is I couldn’t remember why I was angry. What I was mad about. Not till I stepped away and felt the rage clawing its way to the surface again.
    Maya walked down the steps after her, not even looking in Janna’s direction. “Okay, so I’m sorry,” Maya said. “I was trying to help.”
    “I need to go,” Delaney said, looking at Janna, who wasn’t saying anything.
    Maya turned and finally realized they weren’t alone. Sheignored us and turned back to Delaney. “Please don’t be mad,” she said.
    Delaney’s eyes grazed mine for a heartbeat as she turned away, walking toward her mom’s car. And then I felt it: the tightness in my throat, the inability to take a breath. Cold hands on my throat. Janna was saying something, but I was clawing at my neck. And for a second it had a face, the thing cutting off my air. It had gray eyes and hands of ice and a hazy cloud of mist. And it tightened those fingers while it leaned closer, like it was furious with me. Panic , I thought. If I gave it a name, it stopped having power. That’s what the doctor told us. Panic .
    I took a breath.
    Janna’s hands were on mine, pulling them away from my neck. “Decker?” she was yelling. She was pale, like Delaney had been in my house that day when she knew the truth and said nothing. But Janna was probably thinking of Carson.
    “Something stuck in my throat,” I said. I coughed into my fist and pounded twice on my chest. “I’m gonna leave,” I said.
    “God, do you ever think of anything besides her?” It reminded me of my dad telling me I was too close. Too wrapped up.
    I shook my head. “Told my mom I’d meet her at her friends’ place. But you should stay. Catch up on all the gossip and stuff. I only