YOU’RE MINE, YOU know. Forever. No matter what.
In the dream, we’re in the woods together, me and Maeve. Her fingertips trail up the inside of my forearm, sending shivers down my spine. My back against a tree trunk, she kisses my neck, my jaw. Her body is against mine, trapping me there as I sigh and moan at her touch.
We’re meant to be together. It’s destiny.
She kisses me, and my mouth fills with river water.
Forever, forever, forever.
I wake suddenly, and for a moment I don’t realize why. Then I hear it—footsteps in the hall. I bolt upright. I was careful today. I didn’t let a single drop of water in, I’m sure of it. It can’t be Maeve.
The footsteps pass my door, and I realize they’re going the wrong way. As I sit frozen in bed, I hear the door at the end of the hall open. Is Madelyn going outside for some reason?
I force myself out of bed and go to the hall. The lights are off. The door to the entry room is open.
So is the door at the bottom of the stairs.
I lose another few seconds processing the impossibility of what I’m seeing. Then I’m down the hall, screaming for Madelyn but not waiting for her to wake. I bolt through the empty changing room. The front door gapes open, and beyond it snakes the empty path. I run outside barefoot and look around wildly, searching for any sign of Del.
Something coppery glints among the trees. Del, moving quickly away. She’s already crossed the lawn—dry, thankfully, after days without rain—and is heading into the cover of the woods.
I do not have to wonder where she’s going. I already know. I sprint after her, calling her name. As soon as the grass gives way to the dirt and roots and underbrush of the woods, I regret not stopping for shoes. Rocks dig into the arch of my foot; sticks stab at me. Somehow Del is still moving with smooth, swift steps away from me. The ground slopes down. In the dark, I can’t see where I’m going, tripping and sliding and careening off tree trunks.
“Del!” I call out.
She halts. I scramble down the incline to catch up with her and discover what’s stopped her—the chain-link fence that divides the campus from the Narrow. Del stands dumbfounded in front of it, fingers laced through the wire.
“Del,” I say, reaching for her shoulder.
“I have to go,” she says hollowly. “I have to find her.”
“Who?” I ask. “Grace?”
She turns her face toward me, but her eyes don’t seem to see me. “I promised I would come find her,” she says.
A flashlight bobs among the trees. “Delphine! Eden!” Madelyn calls.
I shield my eyes as the light sweeps over us, and Madelyn comes scrambling down the same way I did. She’s at least shoved her feet into shoes, untied.
Beside me, Del gives a little sigh, and her knees go out from under her. I yelp in surprise and grab hold of her, grateful for how small she is. Madelyn dashes forward to help, and we hold her up as Del’s head rolls, then snaps up, her eyes blinking.
“What . . . Where . . . ?” she starts, and then she gasps, eyes widening in fear.
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” Madelyn soothes her. “We’re going to get you back inside. The ground’s dry, you’re okay.” She starts to guide the stricken Del up the hill. When I move to help, Madelyn moves protectively to block me and snaps, “I’ve got it. I think you’ve done enough, Eden.”
Startled, I fall back, letting them make their way up the hill together. The adrenaline surge is collapsing. My feet hurt. I watch the flashlight vanishing up the hill and shiver, though it isn’t cold.
Behind me, the Narrow whispers between its banks. I turn, standing right where Del stood, fingers laced through the chain link.
The sky is clear. There is enough of a moon to just make out the Narrow down below me, rushing softly between its banks. It’s only a river, silver in the moonlight.
I can feel her here. Maeve. A presence in the air making the hair on the back of my neck stick up.
“Maeve?” I call softly.
There is no answer. But I almost think I can make something out down below—a pair of hands, gripping the edge of the rocks. Then they let go and slip beneath the surface of the water.
She’s there. And Del was trying to get to her.
I get back to Abigail House, and even though it was dry outside, I shower thoroughly and clean my feet, which are scraped up but not cut, thankfully.
When I step into the hall, Madelyn Fournier is there, staring at the still-open door to the upstairs with her arms crossed. She’s wearing lounge clothes, not the silver pajamas she had on when she was running through the woods, but her face is still bare of makeup and her hair is unkempt. I’ve never seen her look so small or so human. She looks over her shoulder at me as I approach.
“There’s something wrong with the locking mechanism,” she says dully, gesturing at the door. “It won’t latch properly.”
I draw closer. The lock on the door has a small logo, the same as the exterior door. FellTech. The same company that makes AtChat. “Has that ever happened before?”
“The lock? Or Delphine getting outside?” Madelyn asks.
“Either.”
“No.” She’s shaking, and she scrubs a threatening tear from the corner of her eye. “I’m sorry about speaking to you that way out there. I assumed you had been careless and left the door unlocked.”
“I wouldn’t,” I say.
“I know. I’m sorry,” she says again. And then she covers her face with her hand and begins to weep.
I don’t know what to do—whether she needs comfort or if me offering it will only make things worse. But it lasts only for a moment, and then she looks up at the ceiling, blinking rapidly, and draws in a breath through her nose.
“Well. I’ll get someone out in the morning to fix it,” she says. “I’ll stay up until Delphine wakes up.”
“I can take a shift,” I say immediately.
“That’s kind of you, Eden, but I won’t be able to relax unless I’m out here anyway. One of us might as well get some sleep,” she says. “It’s Vespers tomorrow, isn’t it? You don’t want to be exhausted.”
Right. Vespers. I’d managed to forget about it. I wish I could just stay home, but I can’t not go—I signed up last year to be an escort for Little Vespers, the pre-party for the Lower School students.
But there is one silver lining. Vespers is held in the courtyard outside the old chapel. Right by the path down to the Narrow.
To Maeve.
I need to know what happened to Grace. I need to know why Delphine is drawn to Maeve. I’m sure Oster won’t tell me. Madelyn doesn’t know.
But maybe I can ask Maeve.
Simple as that.