The adrenaline dump is real. We all stumble back into the apartment in utter exhaustion. Zeke locks the door behind us. I hear the deadbolt slide, then the chain, then what sounds like him dragging something heavy in front of it. A chair, maybe. Or the coffee table. Possibly an elephant.
“Paranoid much?” Yasmin asks.
“After tonight?” he replies. “Absolutely fucking yes.”
I sink onto the couch. My legs are finally giving out after carrying me at full speed through a building I couldn’t see, up stairs I didn’t have time to count, past a guard I had to clock in the brain with nothing but a well-placed guess, and then back down a fire escape that was positively crawling with tetanus. Excaliburfalls from my grip and onto the floor beside me. My hands are shaking so badly I couldn’t grip him again if I tried.
Sage hasn’t said a word since we got in the car. I can hear him sighing as Bastian settles him somewhere nearby. The springs of an armchair groan under his weight.
“You okay?” Bastian asks his brother.
Sage doesn’t answer.
His cold shoulder silent treatment gets more and more awkward, more and more suffocating, until finally, Yasmin clears her throat. “I’m making tea. Anyone who doesn’t want some… is getting some anyway.”
She slips away into the kitchen. As she gets to work, the clink of mugs and the hiss of the electric kettle fill a weary silence that none of us seem capable of breaking. I lean my head back against the couch cushions and focus on breathing.
In through the nose, out through the mouth. That’s how it’s done.
“Breathing” was the first thing that Helen ever taught me. I was skeptical about that choice of lesson plan, to say the least. It felt kind of like starting the first day of quantum physics class by reviewing how to add and subtract. But she swore up and down that I’d be surprised how easy it is to forget to breathe when you’re trying to navigate a world you can no longer see.
“Breathing is how we tell our bodies we’re safe. You’re safe here, Eliana. So breathe.”
To my credit, I got that down-pat pretty quickly. And for a while now, I’ve been feeling smug about it. Breathing? Ha! That’schild’s play. I canliterallydo it with my eyes closed. It’s rescuing a hostage that’s the real tricky business.
But I am safe here. And so is Yas, and Bastian, and Zeke, and, thank God, Sage, too. We’re all safe. So I can breathe.
A minute or two later, Yasmin presses a warm mug into my hands. It’s chamomile, from the smell of it. I wrap my fingers around the ceramic and let the heat seep into my bones.
“So,” Bastian says in a way that draws the attention of everyone in the room. “Here’s what happens next.”
He stops pacing. We all hold our breath.
“Sage leaves Chicago tonight,” he declares. “With Eliana and Yasmin.”
That goes over like a wet fart.
Yas is the first to blurt out. “Who do you think you’re?—”
I add, “On what planet were you elected dic?—”
Zeke: “Bro, that seems a bit?—”
But it’s Sage whose voice rises above the racket. “Fucking excuseme?” he roars. “Like hell I will! You don’t get to decide my life.”
“This isn’t a negotiation.” Bastian’s pacing resumes. “Aleksei touches down in Chicago in thirty-six hours. Maybe sooner, depending on how fast he hears about everything that’s happened. And once he does, he’s going to tear this city apart looking for you. All three of you need to be somewhere he can’t reach.”
“And where exactly is that?” I scoff.
Bastian hesitates before answering, “… I’m working on it.”
“You’reworking on it?” Yasmin sounds incredulous. “That’s your plan? Ship us off to parts unknown while you stay here and get yourselfactuallykilled this time? I think you maybe oughta go back to ‘work,’ bud.”
He doesn’t answer, which is answer enough.
“Bastian—” I start.
“I saidno.” He interrupts me in a growl that makes goosebumps rise on my arms. “You don’t get a vote. None of you do. This isn’t a fucking democracy, and I’m not asking for your input. I’m telling you what the fuck is going to happen.”
