WE TOOK TURNS DRIVING, one catching z’s when the other was at the wheel. Occasionally we passed other Humvees, but no one gave us a second glance. We were just one more military vehicle keeping the RTA safe from harm.
We drove through the night, all the next day, into the next night and day as well. We knew our timeline. The inauguration was just days away, and the math was pretty simple: either we got to Chancellor Maddox before then . . . or it wouldn’t matter.
The farther north we drove, the more snow we saw. Up there in the foothills of Skeleton Ridge, it was still late winter, the earth frozen.
Once, when we stopped, I caught Hope looking up at the millions of stars pressing down on us. She extended her hand, fooling herself into thinking she could actually touch one. When she saw me watching her, she blushed and tightened the hoodie around her face.
“Come on,” she muttered. “Let’s get going.”
We got back in the car and drove on.
“You think we’ll see him again?” I asked. She was at the wheel, I was riding shotgun.
“Who?”
“Cat.”
“Course we’ll see him. Nothing can destroy that guy.”
“It’s not him I’m worried about.”
Hope didn’t speak. Her gaze followed the headlight beams until they faded into black.
“You’re not planning on coming back, are you?” I asked.
At first, I wasn’t sure she’d heard me. The tires hissed. Argos snored softly from the backseat.
“One way or the other, Chancellor Maddox was responsible for the death of every single person in my family,” she said, “and I’m going to end her life if it’s the last thing I do.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Whether I live or die is irrelevant. In fact, it’s probably better if I die. Less hurt that way.”
“Not for me.”
She offered a weak smile, and her hand fumbled for mine in the dark. “Oh, Book. You and me, we could never make it. We’re too different.”
“You mean because I like to read and you don’t? So I’ll read enough for both of us.”
“It’s not that. . . .”
“Don’t tell me you’re going to bring up those silly scars again.”
“They’re anything but silly. I may not be the most feminine girl, but I still care, and I don’t think I could ever forget that I’m damaged goods.”
I actually laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“Believe me,” I said, “of the two of us, you’re the one who’s got it together.”
She didn’t answer, and the road hummed beneath us.
“So that’s it? End of story? You and me are no more?”
“You figure it out, Book. There can’t very well be a you and me if one of us doesn’t make it.”
What could I say? Hope was as stubborn and headstrong as any person I’d ever met. When she set her mind to something, she did it. On her terms. And woe to whoever stood in her way.
But that didn’t change one simple fact: I was in love with her.
I pulled my hand away and pressed my forehead against the glass, only vaguely aware of the haunted reflection staring back at me.