Chapter Twenty-Two

His fingers brushed away my tears before I even realized he was awake. My crying must have woken him.

“Hey,” he whispered, “what’s wrong? Did you have another dream?”

All I could do was nod. Tanner’s lips came down and touched my temple. His hand came down to my shoulder and ran up and down my arm. His touch slowly sent the pain far enough away that I could feel his warmth surrounding me. Reaching up for his hand, I grabbed it and pulled it across me so I was wrapped in his arms. I felt protected in that moment. I never wanted to move.

“What happened in the dream,” Tanner asked.

I did not want to think about it, but I answered anyway.

“She gave us all up. She promised her daughters’ lives to her god so she could save herself.” I choked back another fit of crying. I could hardly believe the words I was saying. This belonged in a bad Hollywood movie, not in real life. Blood thirsty gods thousands of years old did not exist, I told myself over and over again. Tonight I would go to dinner and watch a random movie with my parents. I would.

“Are you alright?” Tanner asked, shattering my weak fantasy.

“How could she?” I questioned, the tears and sobs flowing freely once more. I was amazed to find I even had any tears left to cry. “How could she condemn her own children, condemn me and Katie and everyone else, to death? She had no right to offer what wasn’t hers to begin with. How could she?”

“Some people are just so selfish they can’t think about anything beyond what they want,” Tanner said.

“What do I do now? There’s no way to stop this, is there?”

Tanner’s body stiffened and he moved my face to look at him. “Arra, you are not going to die today. Do you hear me? It isn’t going to happen.”

“Yes it is. There’s no way to stop it. I don’t know how many girls have died already, but I know I’m going to be the next one.” I just wanted to curl back up and close my eyes.

“What about your grandpa? You said he had some kind of theory or something. What was his plan?” Tanner asked.

“I don’t know. He said he had an idea, but he never told me what it was,” I said. “He might not actually have a plan. He might have just been saying that to make me feel better.”

Tanner rolled onto his back, but did not let go of my hand. “There has to be something we can do.” He looked back over at me. “I wish you’d told me sooner. Maybe if we had more time we could find something.”

I almost laughed. “Tanner, for one thing, if you hadn’t mentioned going to the bonfire Saturday, I don’t think I would have told you at all. I mean, ‘Hey, Tanner, I’m gonna die tomorrow. Wanna hang out?’ just isn’t something you really say to someone. And two, I have been trying to figure this thing out since I found out about it. There’s just nothing left to do.”

“I won’t accept that, Arra.” The seriousness in Tanner’s face startled me.

“Why do you care so much?” I asked. “You’ve know me for less than a week. I mean, I’m glad you do, and I’m glad you even believe me, but why? Why aren’t you running from the crazy new girl as fast as you can?”

Tanner’s face softened as he looked at me. I was no shrinking violet. I didn’t fall all over myself or spend hours in front of the mirror, but I knew I was attractive. Being pretty was definitely not the whole reason for Tanner sticking by me, though. It would take way more than pretty to make up for everything I had laid on Tanner. There had to be something more.

“Why are you still here?” I asked.

“I…I don’t really know,” he admitted. “I remember seeing you walk down the dirt path that day and I was completely mesmerized by you. You were so focused that you didn’t even notice us even though Evan was laughing like an idiot about something. I didn’t know what you were thinking about, but it seemed important, and I instantly wanted to know more about you.” He paused and his boyish grin returned. “Plus I thought you were absolutely gorgeous.”

That broke through my hopeless pallor and elicited the tiniest smile. Tanner leaned down and kissed me lightly, transferring a little more of his hope to me.

“Well, now you know what I was thinking about that day,” I said. “And you’re still here.” I wanted to believe him so badly. I had nothing left to put my hope in but him. “Do you have any ideas? I’m willing to try anything.”

Tanner considered my question for a few minutes. I could see the barest hint of the morning sun starting to edge into the sky.

“I may have one,” Tanner said.