There wasn’t time to think about how the long shadows stretching across the cool brick in the tunnels looked like crooked fingers or that the temperature was five degrees cooler underground, like in a morgue. I didn’t even have time to think whether or not I would be safe with Ms. D.’s driver by myself or if it was even legal for him to take me anywhere.
I knocked on the window frantically and even through the tinted glass could see the driver jolt awake, grabbing at his chest. I widened my eyes, praying he’d recover. The last thing I needed was to give the poor guy a heart attack.
He rolled down the window, his chest rising and falling faster than it should have been.
“I’m sorry if I woke you,” I said uncomfortably. I wondered if he always had to sleep in the car or if he switched off with another driver. Either way, kind of the worst job ever unless living in a car was your thing. Time to focus. “Do you mind driving me somewhere, Mr…?” I blushed at not knowing what to call him. I hated that.
“You can call me Judd. And that’s what I’m here for, Ms. Lowry.” The driver gestured to the back of the car with kind eyes. Great. Nothing made me feel less competent than when someone remembered my name and I had totally forgotten theirs.
“Thanks, Mr…Judd.” His eyes crinkled around the corners even deeper, and I climbed in the back as he started the car and rolled down the privacy window. I resisted the urge to launch my body through the opening and into the front seat. I settled on shoving my head through and breathing down his neck instead.
“Where to?” Judd drove the car forward and punched in a code that opened a secret garage door. Black night spilled in. I glanced down at the two dots on my phone inching forward on the screen.
“The chapel. Can you drop me by the gardens?”
“Not a problem, my dear.” Judd tapped his fingers on the steering wheel as he drove. “But if you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing out here all alone in the middle of the night?” He caught my eye in the rearview mirror, and I thought of Liam. This was it. My chance to save him. To make things right.
My stomach muscles tightened as we closed in on the gardens. I hated the thought of going near the chapel by myself at night. It was haunted. At least for me it was. Going there alone would mean facing everything that had happened to Grace. I couldn’t go alone. My body felt rooted to the seat of the car.
“My daughter’s barely ten but acts about seventeen. I’d kill her if she ever got involved in this stuff.” His eyes flicked to mine in the rearview mirror. “But I’m not stupid.” Judd twisted around in his seat. “Here.” He held out a small container of pepper spray. Such a dad move. “I’ll wait for ten minutes, but if you’re not back, I’ll come looking. Call me immediately if you need me before that.”
I looked down at my phone, willing myself to move. Judd’s number appeared on the screen. Was I prepared for what I might find? Did they sneak to the chapel in the middle of the night to do séances or sacrifices or pray to some great Conventus god or something? Were they planning another attack?
It was enough to give me the courage to get out of the car and face whatever was waiting for me.
“This might take longer than ten minutes, but I’ll hurry.” I shut the door with a soft thud and never felt more alone.
The air was still crisp at this hour, and it cut through my thin sweater as I ran the path toward the thick woods beyond. I gripped the pepper spray in one palm, the tube slipping with sweat despite the cold air, while my phone was clenched in the other. Anticipation bubbled in my chest, burning my lungs, and the air felt charged with the brink of a discovery. Justice and an ending all rolled into one. I’d catch Naomi and Bradley, and this would all be over. Everyone could move on, and no one would get hurt again. Happily ever after. The end.
I slowed at the entrance to the woods and let the thick trees and heavy undergrowth take my breath away for a second. If I thought it was black outside, I didn’t know the definition. The woods swallowed things whole, and I wasn’t sure they’d ever spit me back out. But with responsibility came great risks, and I was ready. Mind over matter, I thought as I willed my feet to tread lightly. Like eating sushi or swimming with sharks. This wasn’t only where Grace died, it was where she’d been betrayed and tricked. It was where she’d been sacrificed. And now it was going to be the place where she was avenged.
Movement caught my eye, although in their camouflage clothing Naomi and Bradley were almost impossible to make out. Naomi held a white card, and it cut through the night, glaring at me. Daring me. They were delivering another one of their horrible Factum Virtutes. I’d actually caught them in the act. With shaking hands, I brought my phone to life and let my finger hover over a single button.
I snapped the picture and immediately sent it off to the entire Sisterhood. They’d come now. All of them. They’d panic. But it would all be worth what everyone was about to witness.
I should wait for them to arrive so we could all confront them together, but I remembered the way Naomi had accused Liam. The way she’d framed him. And I just couldn’t stop myself from speaking the two words that had been waiting on the tip of my tongue since I’d found out Grace had died.
“It’s over.”