Tess helped Emery, who felt weaker than she looked, through the cemetery to the car. As they moved through the statues and tombstones and dead bouquets, nothing was out of place. There was almost no sign at all that the undead had risen and mobbed anyone during the night. In fact, the only shred of evidence that something had occurred was the broken stained glass window in the largest mausoleum. Nobody spoke of what had happened. Between their shock and tiredness and concern, they were all more interested in finding somewhere to sit down than in any conversation.

Charlie drove back into town. It was about six thirty by the time he arrived in their neighborhood, and even though neither he nor Tess wanted to leave Emery, they agreed to find one another at school and talk then. On her end, Emery played lookout for Cearnach and helped him return to the she-shed unnoticed, promising to come back that afternoon.

He barely heard her; he was passed out and snoring before she left the shed.

Emery's mother greeted her at the back door, a perturbed expression on her face. "Where have you been? And why are you dressed already?"

This was no time for honesty. "What do you mean? I was just . . ." She struggled for an excuse, but at that moment, there was a yap from behind, and Tara scrambled past her into the house. "Taking Tara for a walk."

Her mother narrowed her eyes, trying to figure her daughter out, then asked, "Without a lead?"

"He's really good," Emery insisted, sliding through the door past the woman.

"All right, but next time, use the lead, just to be sure!" Emery's mother called, defeated but attempting to sound authoritative.

"Sure, mom." And with that, she was off to take a long, hot shower.

After eating something and taking a little care of herself, Emery decided to walk to school with her sister. Deirdre walked every day with a small group of friends, preferring not to bike or ride with her parents. Emery hadn't walked to school in forever. Even without her bike, she'd had a ride from random friends, but she'd declined a few offers that morning to have time to herself. Deirdre and her freshmen peers kept several yards ahead of Emery, and she was left to her own imaginings. How she'd changed--as a seventeen-year-old, she would've been mortified to walk to school. No juniors, no second-semester sophomores, even, walked to school. They just didn't. But Emery didn't care what anyone thought, now. Too many serious things had been happening, things that were far more important than her transportation methods and potential perceived embarrassment.

Though she was tired, Emery had at least slept a little the previous night. Somehow, she'd drifted off after everything had happened, but she still didn't really understand exactly what all had transpired . . . there were the zombies in the mausoleum, and then she'd run to the woods and found Death, and then there'd been the tree. She'd hidden there, and she'd had another one of those visions. Not dreams or hallucinations--what she'd seen, of him, had been real. He was off undertaking whatever challenges she'd unwittingly sent him on. Cathbad had said the quest was difficult . . . certain death. But she'd seen him twice, now, and he was anything but dead. He appeared to be succeeding. Why she'd been drawn into his endeavors, she didn't know. The experiences had both frightened and reassured her, though she didn't know what, exactly, she'd been reassured about. Hadn't she wanted him gone? Didn't she want him to stop interfering? But she also didn't necessarily want him to die. If Cullen failed, if he were killed, it would be her fault. She'd been the one, after all, to send him off. And yet, had it been her fault? She hadn't known what she'd said. Whatever had happened, for as much as she disliked him, she didn't wish him dead. She just wanted him to leave her alone.

She didn't remember much after her vision. There was light--so much light. And then she'd awakened to see Tess. She couldn't even recall leaving the seclusion of the tree, though she knew she'd been inside of it.

Oh, she wished Cathbad were around so he could explain it all. Death had left her alone, that was certain. Cearnach had called the yew tree that had held her the tree of life; that must've had something to do with it, and yet the warrior hadn't said much more than that the yew was sacred. He hadn't seemed to know anything else. Emery knew the only way to get answers was to wait for the druid.

There was another reason she'd chosen to walk to school: Cathbad had told her to look for somewhere to store his warriors. What had he called them? The Red Knights? The Red Branch Knights. It was a weird name for a group of huge men. Of course, Emery was just assuming they'd all be as big as Cearnach, and she didn't even know how many were coming. Where in the world could they stay without drawing attention? The girl kept her eyes open along the walk through her neighborhood and into a quaint downtown area, but she saw nothing that gave her ideas. And then there was the question of what they'd even do when they got there. Were they supposed to protect her? Emery was tired of being protected. It seemed to her that all these strange people had caused her troubles in the first place. Cullen himself had started it; she'd been perfectly fine until he'd shown up. If they all just left, perhaps her life could go back to normal.

She arrived at school a good fifteen minutes before the first bell, but she didn't feel inclined to go talk to anyone, so she just sat at her locker and closed her eyes, the sounds of other students walking and chatting as they began to arrive soothing her. Emery thought of her meadow. Why couldn't it be real? Why couldn't she just will herself there? Whenever she'd dreamed of it, she'd been at complete peace. She'd give anything to forget all of her troubles and stay there, forever . . .

"What's up, Emery?" Liam slid down next to her, splayed his legs out in front of him, unconcerned by the people who'd have to step over them. "Are you doing all right?"

Emery opened her eyes and poofed out a big breath. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Talya said you cut out yesterday."

"I haven't been feeling great lately." She gave Liam a sideways glance. He was one of her older friends. They'd known one another since elementary school, when they'd been in a robotics club together. Liam was kind and quirky and cute--one of those high school boys who still looked like he belonged in middle school but had enough confidence not to care--and he was always willing to help Emery with her math and science classes.

"Seems like everyone's been kind of down."

Emery's phone chimed, and she pulled it out to see a message from Tess: Staying home. Mom insisted.

Sighing, Emery said aloud, "Tess isn't coming today."

"Is she sick? Maybe she has what you had."

Something like that, Emery thought.

"You know what we should do? We should all get together again." Liam removed his glasses to wipe a smudge off of them. "We should go camping. Remember how we all went to the lake back in June? The weather is still nice enough for it."

Emery very much remembered. About seven or eight of them had camped out, brought the tents and grill and swimsuits and everything, and Adam had been the life of the party. He'd made everything entertaining, even mosquitoes and the lack of toilet paper. But Emery couldn't mention him, now. Liam wouldn't remember.

Where was Adam, right then? What was he doing? Was he okay? The fact that she couldn't talk about him, not even to his former friends, was painful.

Something suddenly occurred to Emery. "Wait—Liam. Wasn't the place where we stayed right by that school camp? That one we all went to at the end of fifth grade, before we went to middle school?"

"Yeah!" Liam's eyes lit up. "Camp Hackysack." He raised his eyebrows. "Stupid name, wasn't it?"

"That definitely wasn't its name. But is the camp still there?"

"My little brother went last year, so I'm pretty sure it is. Camp Haveasnack? What was it called?" He recalibrated. "Why do you want to know?"

Emery's wheels were turning. "It's probably closed for the season, though, now that school's back."

"I guess."

"Does Ben still have that big van? The one his family uses for their deliveries?"

Liam was beginning to grow curious. "Probably, but why? What are you thinking?"

Emery started to her feet. "I need to talk to him. Liam, you've totally helped me out. You've given me the best idea."

The boy just sat there for a minute and stared at her, then stood up and shrugged. "Ok, well, glad to help."

"Come on. I'll explain. Let's find Ben."

The week somehow passed with little event. By the time Saturday arrived, Emery felt renewed enough to get things ready for Cathbad's return. Once she'd thought of her plan, school had been easy to sit through for the next few days. She had a goal, and in order to reach it, she had to play normal long enough to convince her parents and teachers and Jeff that she was well. So she forced herself to pay attention to calculus and poetry and basketball, and when lunch came around, she sat and made plans with her friends. Whether or not Cathbad would be pleased that she'd asked them for help, she didn't know, but Emery also didn't need his approval, especially when he had such a big request. Besides, she'd not told them everything. In fact, she'd not told them much at all. She'd said only that she needed a place for a large group of people (what she'd meant was a group of large people, but that sounded weirder) to stay, and she wanted to bring them up to the closed campsite. She needed help with transportation, and though she hadn't intended to ask more than Liam and Ben and Tess for their help, secrets were hard to keep in a group like hers.

In any case, Saturday afternoon, around one, Emery and a few others traveled to the campsite to check it out. They'd brought the van, because they'd brought Cearnach. The poor warrior had been going absolutely bonkers in the shed, to the point where Emery was afraid he'd run off to the bowling alley again. She had told him to sleep during the day and go out into the yard at night, but there'd been way too many near-sightings and run-ins to let him stay there any longer. It was lucky that nobody in the family paid much attention to the yard; otherwise, he would've been discovered long ago. Between finding appropriate places to relieve himself and swinging his sword at all the trees to, as he put it, "get in some training," Cearnach had been giving Emery quite the headache.

Camp Hack-a-back (as it was actually called), was located in a relatively isolated area, away from major thoroughfares and suburbs. A ten-minute drive led to civilization, though, so the remoteness was really only an illusion. They were happy to see that it was indeed closed for the season, a large sign stating as much on the gate leading into the place. Security was entirely lax, though, and all they had to do was ask Cearnach to get out and push the gate aside, which he did with ease.

Once in the complex, Emery and Tess and Liam and Ben cautiously walked around the buildings. There was the main hall, which held the dining and meeting areas, and then there were about twenty cabins that, when they'd attended, had held about twelve campers apiece. There was also an office and gathering space for counselors, a pavilion for outdoor events, a flag pole for singing around, and numerous trails leading up and into the trees, for kids to go on nature hikes. The place was huge, and hopefully whomever Cathbad brought with him would find it suitable enough. Cearnach seemed immediately relieved upon getting into such a large open area, and Emery smiled as she watched him gallop around like a horse.

Satisfied, Emery stood and just breathed in the September warmth. "This is perfect," she said to Tess, who stood next to her. "Whenever Cat comes back, we'll bring them all here."

Tess twisted a ring with a little blue flower on it. "Aren't they coming to keep you safe? How are they going to do it from all the way over here?"

"I don't know. But I'm going to be fine. I just want everybody out of my backyard. I want to go back to things the way they were."

"We're checking out the pond!" Liam called, and he and Ben wandered off in the same direction Cearnach had gone.

Sitting at a picnic table under the pavilion, the girls looked around and at one another. Emery could tell Tess had something to say, but she had a feeling she didn't want to know what it was. Charlie had been avoiding her all week--which had actually been a relief--but he was Tess's brother, after all, and Tess was her closest friend; she couldn't allow a rift to form between them. "Just say it, will you? Whatever you want to say?"

Tess frowned, not appreciative of Emery's prompting. "You have some kind of feelings for that Cullen person, don't you?"

It wasn't what Emery had expected her to say. "No, Tess. Not the way you make it sound."

"But he has a sort of hold on you."

Emery shook her head, aggravated, but she couldn't lie to Tess. "There's something . . . I've seen him. Twice. Once after he'd crossed a bridge over a deep pit, and once while he was killing some monsters. And both times, he saw me. It was like, we'd crossed into each other's paths, or something. I don't know what it means, but yes, I guess; there's something connecting us. I don't get it."

"I understand, Em. This is all really weird. It's something that you have to figure out. I know that, but . . ." She looked sincerely at her friend, with both hands pushed hair behind her ears. "My brother doesn't. I'm not trying to pressure you to do anything, but maybe you could just tell him about it, so he understands, too. He's not even talking to me right now."

"Why? What did you do?"

"Nothing. I don't think he's mad at me, or even at you. I just think he feels confused, maybe embarrassed even."

Emery knew why. He had every right to be confused. He'd done it again, after what had happened in the cemetery--sent her more messages than she wanted to respond to, so she'd just . . . not responded. It was why he was avoiding her, too. Even in the class they shared, he'd made sure to sit far from her and surround himself with his own friends.

"I'll talk to him, all right? Tess, I like your brother so much. But--" Her phone chimed, and she was happy for the distraction. The screen showed she had a message, but the number . . . it was certainly not one she recognized, and it was way too long . . .

Emer, the druid returns tonight by the forest. Come back, soon. Lir.