“Studying the corruption?” Augusta snarled. “How long has he been here?”
“Augusta,” Ezra said.
“I’m not talking to you.” Augusta’s gloved hands twitched with fury. “Ezra, sit. The dogs will keep you company. I need a word with my children.”
Ezra sat nervously on the couch. Brutus and Cassius flanked him, still at full attention. A long string of drool dripped onto the floor from Brutus’s gaping maw as he gazed at May’s father like he was an afternoon snack. She hoped he’d still be in one piece whenever they came back.
Augusta herded Justin and May into the foyer. The moment the living room door was closed behind them, she rounded on May, her voice low but furious.
“May Elaine Hawthorne, how long has he been here?”
When Augusta was angry, she had a kind of terrifying focus. May had seen it in action many times, the way her mother could zero in on a target and immediately decide how best to eliminate it as a threat. Right now May was in the center of her mother’s furious spotlight, and she knew there was only one way out: telling the truth.
“He’s been in and out of town over the last few weeks,” she said.
“And you didn’t see fit to inform me that your father had decided to waltz back into Four Paths and make contact with you?”
“He didn’t make contact with me. I invited him.”
At this, Justin let out a sharp noise of disbelief.
Augusta’s face twisted. “Why on earth would you do that?”
“Because we needed help.” May was so tired of her family acting like any slight deviation from the Hawthornes’ precious rules was a betrayal of the highest order. Following the rules had led them here, to a town on the verge of falling into a corrupted hell. As far as she was concerned, that meant the rules needed to be broken, or at least changed. “Help he’s offering, if you would just be willing to listen—”
“You listen to me.” Augusta leaned forward, tilting her head down until she was less than a foot away from her daughter. “You cannot trust that man. Any plan he wishes to put into motion will only benefit himself. It is not worth your time or consideration. So let me tell you what’s going to happen: We are going to go back into the living room, and I will personally escort him out of town. He can evacuate, just like everyone else, and we will discuss your punishment for this transgression later.”
“No.”
May didn’t even realize she’d spoken aloud until Augusta stepped back, as if she had been struck.
“No?” she repeated slowly.
“You heard me.” May’s heart was beating far too fast, adrenaline coursing through her veins. She felt as if she might pass out, as if she was standing outside of her body. Never in her life had she spoken to Augusta this way. But she wasn’t ready to stop. “Dad has a theory about my powers, about the corruption. About a way we might be able to stop it. I’m not giving up on that just because you told me to drop it.”
“Wait.” It was Justin’s voice. He was staring at her with that same fearful expression May had seen as they knelt beneath the hawthorn tree. Again that memory stirred in her: his face, much younger. Don’t go downstairs, May—but it slipped away before she could grasp it. “Is that why you said you could fix the corruption by changing the future? Because of him?”
“You what?” Augusta shook her head. “Of course. You came to me about your powers. I should have known that’s where you got such a ridiculous idea.”
“It isn’t ridiculous!” Tears burned in the back of May’s throat. Her voice had grown shrill, and she hated it—she hated it. “I did it before. I could do it again, if I had the right support. The right training.”
“I told you, May. Some powers aren’t meant for us.”
“You mean me. Some powers aren’t meant for me. Because it’s not like you put those limits on yourself.” May’s voice rose. She was shaking; she was very close to screaming. “You’ve erased half this town’s memories, but how dare I try to give any of them back. How dare I try to change the cards.”
“When I was younger, May, I didn’t know my limits. I’m trying to help you learn yours before you hurt someone you love. I don’t know why you’re so determined to let your father poison your mind, but I assure you that I know more about our family than he does.”
“Oh, I see.” May’s voice was just as cruel as Augusta’s. She knew how to use her anger, too. She knew how to make words hurt. “This isn’t about Dad at all, is it? This is about my ritual. You still can’t handle that the hawthorn tree chose me, not Justin. That’s right, Mom, I’m powerful—more powerful than you. And it terrifies you, because you can’t just take it away the same way you took it from Violet and Harper or control me the way you control Isaac.”
“Be very careful, May,” Augusta said softly. “You cannot take this back.”
“Maybe I don’t want to take it back.” May stared at her. “Maybe you deserve to know that I see exactly what you’ve done to protect this town. And I think you’ve done a shitty job.”
“I see you’ve made up your mind,” Augusta said coldly. “If you’re so determined to believe that you know everything, go on. Take him with you. Enact that brilliant plan of his and see just how well it goes for you. But if you think our family has done nothing but hurt this town, then surely you can protect us all without the gifts we’ve so generously given you.”
She held out her hand expectantly. It took May a long, disbelieving moment to understand what she was asking for.
“The Deck of Omens doesn’t belong to you,” she whispered, her heart thumping painfully in her chest. “It chose me. It’s mine.”
“It belongs to the Hawthornes,” Augusta said, a brutal smile flickering at the corners of her mouth. And May understood. This was her mother’s trump card. If May refused to hand the deck over, she’d be a hypocrite. But if she did, she’d be powerless.
Slowly, she drew the cards from her pocket. Peeling her fingers away and leaving them in her mother’s hand felt like ripping out a vital organ with her fingernails.
“Take them, then,” she said, proud of how her voice did not waver. She turned away, unable to bear even another second of watching Augusta clutch the cards triumphantly, and started toward the living room. But a hand closed around her wrist before she’d taken a single step.
“If you leave, you’re betraying us.” Justin’s eyes were wide with panic, his hand clammy around her arm. He paused, gasping for breath, and May felt a stab of unease. He hadn’t been running. Why was he so tired? “Just stay for a few minutes, all right? I want to talk to you about Dad. About your powers—”
May shook him off. She was done listening to her family’s excuses.
“You’ve betrayed us for the so-called greater good a hundred times,” she told him. “Seems right that I finally get a turn to save the day, don’t you think?”
The forest was eerily silent. All sounds of life were absent except the rustling of May’s footsteps in the dead leaves as the sun set around them. Before long, the ground grew soft and squishy beneath May’s feet and the smell of corruption began to rise around her, stronger than she remembered. It was the smell of lost and ancient things, the smell of despair, the smell of death. But May headed deeper into the trees anyway. All she wanted to do was get as far away from her family as possible.