A Grave Tree Read Online Free PDF Page B

carefully about whether you saw the file anywhere, and whether it may have fallen out on the road or in a parking lot during some of your travels.”
    He had pressed them regarding the files several times already, the files that they had in fact removed from the Jag and left in Simon’s group home. The files with the photocopies of ancient texts that Simon was now trying to interpret.
    As with the previous times Sylvain had asked, Abbey and Caleb both solemnly shook their heads, and Mark furrowed his brow in confusion. Mark had been so absorbed in his maps that Abbey doubted he’d even seen the files, which was convenient, because Abbey wasn’t sure how good Mark would be at lying. Sylvain scrutinized them each carefully in turn, and Abbey felt the now-familiar tug, an eddy in her brain that made her want to shout out the truth. Was this witchcraft? Was Sylvain somehow partially inside her brain? Or was this just her boring, garden-variety commitment to truth-telling?
    She assembled a set of blocks in her mind, walled off the location of the files and the compulsion to tell the truth, and blinked ingenuously at Sylvain. If he could withhold information, so could they.
    The tug vanished, and Sylvain crossed over to the door and gave them a wave and another slitty-eyed warning to stay put, and then he was gone, the Jag cruising down the winding dirt road in a torrent of rain.
    “So I understand you’re going to give Abbey a physics lesson,” Caleb said brightly to Russell. “Then I was thinking we could all go out and play capture the flag.”
    “I’m under strict orders to keep you inside, and not to open the door, except to let Farley out,” Russell said, “and I hardly think I could teach Abbey anything about physics. But I was thinking she and I could discuss some of the finer points of entanglement.” The way Russell said “entanglement” made Abbey shiver a little, and not in a good way.
    “Sure thing, bro. You two brainiacs fill your physics boots,” Caleb replied. “Mark and I are going to go play World of Warcraft in Sylvain’s office. He has a data projector with a huge screen.”
    Mark shifted his face into a big toothy smile, as if he had been coached that this was what he and Caleb would be doing. Abbey had never seen Mark play a video game before.
    “Just remember to watch for ghosts,” Caleb added, “and keep your lesson PG. There’s lots of chaperones here today.” He winked and sent what seemed like a meaningful look in Abbey’s direction.
    Abbey glared at Caleb and felt her face flush hot. What was he on about this time? But before she could say anything, Mark and Caleb scurried out of the room and into the office, and a few seconds later Abbey heard the opening music for the video game. What could they be planning? Caleb was broad and muscular for his age, and Mark had grown increasingly fit, but Russell was taller and broader than both of them. Working together they might be able to take him down—Abbey was not sure about Mark’s effectiveness in a fight, although he had been pretty good with the pointed stick-throwing in Caleb’s treed future—but someone would probably get hurt.
    Russell went over to the office door and peeked in. Apparently satisfied that they were indeed playing video games, he closed the door slightly and returned to the main room, where Abbey stood by the dining room table. She flicked her eyes to the alarm panel that hung on the wall by the door to the kitchen. The light indicated that the sensors on the doors and windows were set to beep if opened. Sylvain must have flicked it on using the remote in his car.
    “What ghosts is your brother talking about?” Russell said.
    Alone together in the room, with the other door partially closed, Russell felt excruciatingly close, even though he wasn’t.
    “Mark and I saw something yesterday in the woods. Two white figures just off the path. They spooked Sylvain, and he didn’t seem to know what they were, not