Free Luminosity (Gravity Series #3) (The Gravity Series) by Abigail Boyd

festering.”
    “You’re the ghost whisperer. It all gives me the shivers. Stories are one thing, seances another. But thinking that all of this could be real is freaking me out. I mean, a dead guy with a grudge against you and an army of undead children? Sounds like one of your movies.”
    I agreed. I’d never thought I would be in the middle of one.
    “So, what’s the theory? How did Dexter kill those birds?” Theo asked.
    “We’re thinking that when the orphanage caught on fire, either in defense or in retaliation, whatever is there sent out a sort of evil force that hit the birds and killed them,” I told her.
    Theo was dead silent for a minute. Then she said, “I think you’ve watched Evil Dead one too many times. Put down the chainsaw, Ash. Don’t make an arm out of it.”
    Her reference made me smile, since she wouldn’t have known about that movie before me.
    “Well, their feathers were burnt. They all suffered crush injuries like they’d been hit. The biggest concentration of birds that day, according to the paperwork Golem showed me, was down Sanitorium Road, the one the orphanage is on.”
    “That’s incredibly creepy,” Theo said. “And it’s worse because after all that’s happened since I’ve lived here, I can’t say it’s impossible.”
    An unfamiliar car was taking up space in my driveway when Theo pulled in to drop me off. It was parked off to the side.
    “Who’s that?” she asked. I shook my head. Instantly paranoid, I thought that maybe Thornhill had gotten wind of Golem’s theories and sent someone to question me.
    I rushed in through the back door. Claire was sitting on the kitchen floor with a field of cookbooks spread out around her, her reading glasses on as she flipped through one.
    “Who’s here?” I asked, craning my neck to look around.
    “No one,” Claire said, frowning up at me. “Why?”
    “There’s some weird car parked in the driveway.”
    I heard my father walking up behind me and I turned. He reached into the fruit bowl on the counter, picked up my cupped hand and dropped a set of keys into my palm.
    “What’s going on?” I asked, looking quickly between him and my mother.
    “That’s your car in the driveway,” Hugh said, smiling a little. Creases lined his tired eyes.
    Claire was frowning up at me over her reading glasses, like she didn’t approve. “Hugh bought it without consulting me. I still don’t think it’s entirely safe for you to be out on your own.”
    Hugh shrugged. “Bruce Slaughter gave me a good deal. And I figured it was time, since you’re going to be a senior next year. Good to give you a little freedom so you know what to do with it when you have a lot.” He nodded his head in the direction of the door. “Now go, before I change my mind.”
    I threw my arms around his neck in a tight hug and kissed his cheek. I couldn’t believe it. He laughed a little, a sound I hadn’t heard in a while. Then I turned and ran out the door.
    “Be careful!” Claire called after me. “And call us if you’re gone longer than twenty minutes! And don’t go a mile over the speed limit!”
    They used to watch me so closely I had felt like I was locked in a cage, but between Hugh’s work and Claire’s Thornhill doings, they had become distracted and allowed me more wiggle room. I had never thought it would actually extend this far, though. They seemed to think I was much safer now that Warwick was dead. If only they knew the truth. But I wasn’t about to argue it at this moment.
    The car was not fancy. It was a little old Ford, the paint rusty around the wheel wells and the steering wheel and seats torn. But I didn’t care as I slid the keys in and started the engine. It hummed with promise beneath my thighs and I smiled. Witnessing my parents fight had its perks.
    I set off and started driving into town. It took me a minute to adjust to the controls, but my comfort grew quickly. Traffic was light enough that I was able to stay at a