“Ahhh,” Cobon cooed. “You know it too—you knew it the first time you saw her, didn’t you? I couldn’t use you for Holly, because you would’ve run straight to Asher, but I’m betting you won’t be telling him about our little chat tonight, will you?” he said, watching the red as it fell from Fin’s towel into little puddles on the floor. “Because if you did, I think he’d protect the girl from you. Maybe he’d put you into permanent storage someplace…underground maybe—or perhaps he’d seal you inside a sarcophagus with a heavy stone lid—that would hold you. And you would live your life over and over and over again—an eternity trapped inside a coffin, does that suit you?”
Fin made a mostly nasal gurgling noise then coughed.
“Why don’t you sleep on it? I’ll help you, of course. Good night, Pádraig.” With that, Cobon walked toward a dark corner and vanished.
And Fin sopped up the blood on his floor, using every second of the next twelve hours to decide if he shouldn’t leave Bear Towne University and Hailey Hartley forever.
Chapter twenty-nine
Civilization Road
“Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love.” - Albert Einstein
Fin was a no-show, and Hailey waited a whole fifteen minutes past their rendezvous time before she pounded on his door.
“Enter,” he called, sounding dispirited, and Hailey poked her head in.
“You alright?” she asked when she saw him sitting hunched apathetically over his guitar.
Without looking up, he strummed a familiar tune, singing coldly.
“His disguise is the black of night, and in your heart, he’s darkness…”
He plucked a single, hard note and with his head still bowed, set his guitar aside.
“That’s not how it goes,” Hailey said softly, though his voice was beautiful and honest, and she wished he’d sing some more.
“For me it is.” He showed his face, and Hailey gasped.
“What happened?” He had two black eyes and crooked nose.
“Rough night. I was hoping it would heal a little more before our drive. Maybe by the time we get to town, you won’t be ashamed to be seen with me.”
Hailey rolled her eyes, smiling earnestly as Fin grabbed his wallet and keys.
“And here I thought you were standing me up,”
Fin offered his elbow. “Never, my dear, you’re the only thing in this world that matters to me,” he said under his breath. But Hailey definitely heard it. She froze.
“You alright?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she said softly. “Are you alright?”
Fin let out a curt laugh. “Right as rain, dear,” he answered in his best grumpy Pix voice.
“I think you have a head injury,” she surmised. “Do you wantmeto drive?” she asked coyly, and Fin’s bruised face fell.
“Uh—no.” He led her outside to a brand new, bright red, four-door pickup truck with big tires and decals boasting “off-road” and “4-wheel drive.”
“What happened to your car?” Hailey asked, frowning her disappointment.
“Convertible-go-fast car in Pennsylvania,” he said. “Sturdy-go-in-snow pickup truck in Alaska.”
Civilization Road led out of Bear Towne University and away from The Middle of Nowhere like a stem on the four-leaf-clover-shaped campus, and even traveling at warp-Fin speeds, it took more than three hours to actually reach civilization.
“Where should we start?” Fin asked as they came into Anchorage.
Hailey shushed him so she could concentrate on three small airplanes circling the pattern around an airfield, which she could only see out of Fin’s side window. She leaned into his lap and craned her neck.
