Beautiful Redemption by Kami García, Margaret Stohl

he is or isn’t? If you’re so sure and all?” Link’s Sunday school background wasn’t helping him out here. He was probably busy imagining houses made of clouds, and cherubs with wings.
    “Uncle Macon said that new spirits don’t know where they are or what they’re doing. They barely know how they died or what happened to them in real life. It’s upsetting, suddenly finding yourself in the Otherworld. Ethan might not even know who he is yet, or who I am.”
    I knew who she was. How could I forget something like that?
    “Yeah? Well, say you’re right. If that’s the case, you have nothin’ to worry about. Liv told me that she’d find him. She has that watch a hers all tweaked up, like some kind a Ethan Wate–ometer.”
    Lena sighed. “I wish it was that simple.” She reached for the wooden cross. “This thing’s crooked again.”
    Link looked frustrated. “Yeah? Well, there’s no merit badge for grave diggin’. Not in Gatlin’s pack meetin’s.”
    “I’m talking about the cross, not the grave.”
    “You’re the one who wouldn’t let us get a stone,” Link said.
    “He doesn’t need a gravestone when he’s not—”
    Then her hand froze, because she noticed. The silver button wasn’t where she’d left it.
    Of course it wasn’t. It was where I dropped it.
    “Link, look!”
    “It’s a cross. Or two sticks, dependin’ on how you look at it.” Link squinted. He was starting to tune out; I could tell by the glazed look in his eyes, the one I’d seen on every school day.
    “Not that.” Lena pointed. “The button.”
    “Yep. It’s a button, all right. Any way you slice it.” Link was staring at Lena like she was suddenly the dense one. It was probably a terrifying thought.
    “It’s my button. And that’s not where I put it.”
    Link shrugged. “So?”
    “Don’t you get it?” Lena sounded hopeful.
    “Not usually.”
    “Ethan’s been here. He moved it.”
    Hallelujah, L. It’s about time.
We were making some progress here.
    I held my arms out to her, and she threw her arms around Link and hugged him tight. Figures.
    She pulled back from Link, excited.
    “Hey now.” Link looked embarrassed. “It could have been the wind. It could have been—I don’t know—wildlife or somethin’.”
    “It wasn’t.” I knew the mood she was in. There was nothing anyone could say to change her mind, no matter how irrational it seemed.
    “Seem pretty sure a that.”
    “I am.” Lena’s cheeks were pink, and her eyes were bright. She opened her notebook, unclipping the Sharpie from hercharm necklace with one hand. I smiled to myself, because I’d given her that Sharpie at the top of the Summerville water tower, not so long ago.
    I winced at the thought now.
    Lena scribbled something and ripped out the page of her notebook. She used a rock to hold the note on top of the cross.
    The paper fluttered in the cool breeze but remained where she’d left it.
    She wiped a stray tear and smiled.
    The paper had only one word on it, but we both knew what it meant. It was a reference to one of the first conversations we’d ever had, when she told me what it said on the poet Bukowski’s grave. Only two words:
Don’t try.
    But the torn piece of paper on my grave was christened with only one word, in all caps. Still damp and still smelling like Sharpie.
    Sharpie and lemons and rosemary.
    All the things that were Lena.
TRY.
    I will, L.
    I promise.

CHAPTER 7
Crosswords
    A s I watched Link and Lena disappear toward Ravenwood, I knew there was one more place I needed to go, one person I had to see before I went back. She owned Wate’s Landing more than any Wate ever would. She haunted that place even in full flesh and blood.
    Part of me was dreading it, imagining how torn up she must be. But I needed to see her, all the same.
    Bad things had happened.
    I couldn’t change that, no matter how much I wanted to.
    Everything felt wrong, and even seeing Lena didn’t make it feel right.
    As Aunt Prue would