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“Okay, so Union’s definitely not hallucinating,” Alec announced.
“Damn. Does she know about her sister?” Keene wondered, which made me clench my teeth and send him a glare as Raina popped back to her feet to shoot me a questioning glance.
“What about my sister?”
I turned my gaze to her and swallowed before answering everyone else. “I was hopingOaklynnwould be able to tell her.”
“Tell mewhat?” Raina asked a little more urgently.
Oaklynn lifted her face in surprise. “Me? Why me?”
I sent her a prodding glance and gritted out, “You guys arefriends. I just met her.”
Meanwhile, Raina started to sort through the puzzle pieces on her own. “Wait, wait, wait,” she announced aloud, lifting her hands as the wheel in her brain started to whirl. “I was with Kinsey that night. She and I saw Damien and Hudson standing right over there together when we walked into the kitchen.” Pointing to where Damien and Oaklynn were standing now, she directed her finger to the door that led into the garage next. “Then Keene came in through there, and almost as soon as he and Kinsey met, they went off together to hook up. After that, I met that other guy—Parker—and he—wait.” She turned to me, blinking in confusion.
“She was in the car with me,” she said as she started to nod slowly. “I followed her into the back seat as we left here to go meet you at the other party. But then…” Her brow furrowed. “I don’t remember anything else.”
She looked up at me, squinting. “How could she have been in the car with me when the car accident happened, though? You said I was the only survivor, didn’t you?”
I opened my mouth, except no words came.
The rest of the kitchen fell silent as my friends realized from my expression that Raina was learning the truth at that moment.
“Foster,” she said very slowly and very calmly. “Where is my sister?”
I fisted my hand and pressed it to my mouth. Not sure how else to tell her, I simply shook my head and whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
“What?” she rasped, her eyes widening with wild shock. “No. No.” Wrapping her arms around her waist, she began to back away from me. “That’s not possible. She can’t?—”
“Raina,” I said, lifting my hand in her direction as I took a step toward her, but she shook her head, and I fell to a stop, letting her process the shock.
“Not Kinsey,” she started in a choked voice. “She’s not—no. She’s the most alive person I know. She can’t be?—”
She broke herself off, unable to speak.
“The article said she died at the scene, so it was fast,” I said, thinking that should be helpful information. I couldn’t count the number of times I had suffered through panic attacks when I’d thought about Hayes drowning, alone and frightened, unable to breathe, unable to get to safety. “It was instant,” I assured her. “She didn’t suffer or feel any pain.”
But Raina sobbed, shuddering painfully. Her face turned bright red as if she’d forgotten to breathe. Then she bent at the waist, still clutching her middle, and her mouth opened before a magnifying scream emerged.
“NO,” she wailed loudly, making me suck in a pained breath for her and lurch a step backward, running into the cabinets behind me.
I grabbed hold of the edge of the countertop and clenched my teeth, wishing I could go to her and hug her.
Crumpling all the way to her knees, she sat on the floor of the kitchen and cried out again.
Except the sound was abruptly cut short as she popped out of existence completely.
“What the hell?” I gasped, leaping forward as if trying to catch her. But she was already gone as if she hadn’t been there at all. “Raina?” I spun in a circle, searching the kitchen.
My friends blinked at me as if I were insane.
“What happened?” Alec asked.
“She—she disappeared,” I said, still looking for her. “She fell to her knees and started to scream. A second later, she just…disappeared.”
“You don’t think—?” Faith started to wonder, only to cut herself off abruptly.
I whirled toward her. “Do I thinkwhat?”
