Steadfast(59)

So he continued, “So, Nadia’s going to talk to her mother. The mother known for deals with darkness.”

That broke through the silence. “What do you know about it?”

Asa held up his hands in the time-out symbol. “Very little, and there’s even less I could do about it. But remember what I told you about Nadia wanting power. Right now she wants it for all the right reasons, but how long will that be true?”

Mateo shook his head. “You don’t know her.”


“I know humanity. Better than knowing individuals any day. Saves time, at any rate.” He continued, “Ask yourself this, Mateo—if Nadia does what it takes to defeat Elizabeth, if she becomes what she’d have to be to bring a Sorceress down, then will she still be the girl you fell in love with? She might come back to you, but will she come back as someone you’d still love, or someone you’d fear?”

With that, Asa turned to go. For a moment he thought Mateo might follow him, but he didn’t. The damage was done.

Mateo drove Nadia out on the back road himself, just after midnight. The barricades were up there, too, but without any streetlights or businesses around, they at least had darkness on their side. Once they went as far as Mateo thought safe, they shut off the motorcycle and walked it off the road, into the woods.

Nadia’s backpack was slung over her shoulders, the straps pressing deep into the down jacket she wore. Her thick, black hair was in a loose knot at the nape of her neck, and her cheeks were so reddened by the chill that he could see the flush clearly despite the scanty moonlight. She looked not at him, but at the far-off checkpoint blocking the road. At this distance the barricades and vehicles were just dark shadows, nothing more.

“What did you tell your dad?” he asked.

“That I was going to stay with Verlaine for a couple of days to help out while Uncle Gary’s in the hospital. Right now he can’t get to his job anyway, so he can be around for Cole. Verlaine’s going to cover for me if he drops by there.”

“Got everything?”

She nodded, and at last she turned back to him. “Thanks to you.”

Mateo patted the handlebars. “You walk it at least half a mile past the checkpoint, out in the field. Then get it back on the road and go. You know the way to Providence?”

“Yeah. I go to the airport, put your motorcycle in long-term parking, and then I can pick up my ticket.”

“And you remember everything I taught you about the bike. Really, riding it is easier than it looks.”

“Right.” But Nadia didn’t look too sure. It hardly mattered; this was their only shot.

Only then did Mateo realize he was still thinking of this as their chance, their risk, not hers alone.

“Mateo—thank you.”

He shook his head. “You’d do the same for me.”

“Not just for the bike, or the loan, or the ride. For believing in me, despite everything.”

The thing was, Mateo had his doubts. He didn’t know what temptations Nadia was about to face, or whether she could resist them. Whether any of this would be enough to conquer Elizabeth or the One Beneath.

But he’d made a decision. Mateo knew he couldn’t test Nadia; he could only test himself, and his love for her.

So he had to trust her enough to let her go.

“You can do it,” he said.

Only now did he recognize the forest where they stood. He’d seen it in his dreams. In that vision Nadia had said she might never return—but had that been a metaphor, a sign that she would not return as the girl he knew and loved, but as someone else entirely?

Nadia clutched at his jacket, pulled him close, and kissed him so hungrily, so hard, that he knew she felt the same desperation he did. For a moment he could only think of the first time their lips had met—when she’d been trapped underwater, and he’d had to breathe for her. It was like that now, as though they were keeping each other alive.

The wind picked up around them again, so hard it nearly knocked him over. They broke the kiss, clinging to each other in the gale. And yet there was something about this—a shimmer in the wind that meant it wasn’t only natural. His Steadfast abilities told him another force had caused that . . .

. . . but in this Sorceress-haunted town, when wasn’t magic at work?

He met Nadia’s eyes again, willing himself to be strong for her. When he repeated the words, his voice was near breaking: “You can do it.”

“If I can, it’s because of you,” Nadia said, and she turned away.

Then he watched her walking the cycle out off the paved road, into the dust and brambles all alone, until her shadow was just one more sliver of the night.





20


ELIZABETH STOOD AT THE SEASHORE, LOOKING OUT AT the old lighthouse tower. The gray clouds in the sky hung low, threatening either snow or rain. By now she owned a warm coat, a loose gray cape that reminded her of the cloaks she’d worn long ago; wearing it was her acknowledgment that she had to walk in this world for as long as it endured.

Not much longer now.

She could feel the bridge growing stronger beneath her. Already so much was being pushed up from the muck. The earth beneath her feet was only a shell now, and in time the shell could be broken—but first, first, the bridge had to be completed.

Every stone in the bridge was made of suffering, of sorrow. Her work had created so much pain, and yet still the path was not clear.