Cain turns to Daisy. “Thank you for bringing this to us, but you can go now.”
I grab Daisy’s fingers. “No, she can’t go.”
“What?” Mal snaps, clearly furious.
“She’s gotnowhere to go,” I say, “other than back to the cult. I’m not letting her go back there.”
Daisy looks at me. “I might have to, Ophelia. How else will I save my family? I can’t let them die alone.”
“You’re not going back. I won’t have it.”
Roman steps forward. “Malachi, wait a minute. We might be able to use this information.”
It clearly pains him to talk, but he forces himself to. My God, my father’s men really did beat him badly. It makes guilt twist in my stomach when I think back to them smashing their fists into Roman because of what he did to save me at the institute.
Malachi narrows his dark eyes. “What? How?”
“Daisy wants to save her family, and we want to be rid of the Prophet for good, right?”
“What are you saying?”
“That Daisy helps us find him. She came from the cult, so she must be able to find her way back again, right?” He shoots Daisy a look. She seems to shrink under his gaze, but she gives the tiniest of nods.
Malachi picks up on what Roman is suggesting. “That she leads us back to the cult so we can find the Prophet and stop him.”
“Could you do it?” Cain asks her. “Would you be able to take us back there?”
Instinctively, I squeeze Daisy’s hand. Her fingers are warm compared to my cool ones. It’s probably the shock of seeing her, but I feel icy. What the men are discussing only makes the freeze inside me deepen.
I don’t want her going back. I don’t want any of them going there. My heart is jackhammering, and adrenaline makes me dizzy. But I know this plan they’re forming is right. Daisy came to us for help and to warn us. She was never going to sit back and allow her family to die. I think of Daisy’s mother—a sweet woman in her forties called Susan—and her father, David. Daisy has younger siblings, too, a brother and a sister. Her brother would be about twelve years old now, and her sister only nine. How could she possibly live with herself knowing they’d be willing to take their own lives, not really understanding what they were doing, without her trying in some way to stop them?
Daisy dares look Cain in the eye, and I’m proud of her for that. She’s stronger than she seems. After all, she made it all the way here, didn’t she?
“Yes, I could do that, if you’ll help my family.”
Cain gives a curt nod. “That seems fair.”
“Let’s get back to the water tower,” Malachi says. “We can talk better there.”
Still holding Daisy’s hand, I stand and pull her up with me.
“Where are we going?” she asks in a small voice.
“To the place we live,” I tell her.
“Okay.”
As we walk back up the gravel path, Daisy’s attention is focused on the grand old building of the college.
“That’s Verona Falls University,” I tell her. “It’s where I’m studying.”
“Wow, you’re at a real college?”
“I am.”
“It’s so beautiful,” she says wistfully.
“You’ll have to get a tour later,” I say, “after you’ve rested. It’s stunning inside.”
