Lily Whitmore's Arc

Chapter 10 of 17

Marrow tipped the small flask into the leaves and the dirt loosened under her hands. Ollie dug beside her. The girl in the red top pushed leaves aside with quick sweeps. The man in the long coat set his device on the bank and knelt to help. Lily stood over them and watched the pink line climb the trunks. She did not see the shape moving through the pines behind them. The blue-edged boy did. He straightened at the edge of the bowl and turned his head. "Someone's coming," he said. "Fast." He pointed back through the trees. "From the ridge." Lily turned. She saw him then, between two pines, and knew him before she saw his face. Orin. Her brother. He wore the gray hoodie she remembered and he was running, and he had a shovel in one hand. He had come back to move her again. He did not know they were already here. He would in a moment. "Keep digging," Lily said. She stepped out of the pit and onto the slope between Orin and the others. She had almost nothing left. One flask in Ollie's pocket. A candle in the dirt. Her own cold. She said to the boy with the blue edges, "Stand with me. He can't see you yet. Let him come close." Orin broke through the last stand of trunks and stopped. He saw the pit. He saw Marrow's hands in the dirt. His face did the thing Lily remembered from when their mother caught him lying, a small tightening around the mouth. He lifted the shovel. "Get away from there," he said. His voice cracked on the last word. Lily stepped into his path. He did not see her at first. Then he did. The shovel dropped a few inches. "Lily," he said. Just her name. He said it the way he had said it in the note. She held his eyes and did not move. Behind her Marrow's hands kept working. The girl in the red top lifted a pale wrist out of the leaves. The man in the long coat braced the shoulders. Ollie eased the head free. They had her. They had all of her. Orin swung the shovel at Lily and it went through her and struck the leaves. He stumbled. Mr. Echo was already up the bank with his device raised like a weight, and he brought it down on the back of Orin's knee. Orin went down. Marrow did not look up. "Got her," Marrow said. "All of her. She's out." The sun cleared the ridge. Lily looked at her own body lying in the leaves, whole now, and then at her brother on the ground, and she knew where she was and who had put her there, and there was still no grave.