“No.”
“Is she—dead?”
“Yes,” he answered, again devoid of compassion.
“How do you know?”
His silence widened the gap between them, and Hailey squeezed her eyes shut. “Did an Envoy kill her?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t—you stop him?” she sobbed, enraged and still staring at the street, with no idea who “him” was.
The Envoy placed his hand on her shoulder and like a blanket, hot from the dryer, it chased her shivers away. She should have shrugged him off, but instead she raised her shoulder, tilting her head until his hand brushed her face.
“I could not stop him,” he said, and he slowly withdrew his hand.
“Couldn’t? Or wouldn’t?” she demanded, shivering again and still refusing to look at him. She could feel him standing very still behind her, and when he didn’t answer she fired another, equally wrenching question at him.
“Did she suffer?”
Silence.
And then he abandoned her too.
Hailey slid to the floor and curled into a ball, resting her head against the gritty concrete as she cried and ached and seethed.
An engine rumbled in the distance, growing steadily louder for a time, and Hailey recognized it immediately. Fin’s car screeched to a halt in front of the townhouse, causing the neighbor’s dog to go bananas. Bursting out of his Shelby, Fin sprinted toward the house, stopping midway when he heard Hailey sniffling on the balcony.
“Hailey!” he called to her.
She didn’t answer. She didn’t even look.
“Come and open the door, Hailey!”
She could hear him jiggle the handle to the front door, which was right under the balcony, but she just didn’t care.
“Hailey!”
Something scraped along the outer brick wall, and the next thing she knew, someone lifted her up and was carrying her inside. It smelled like Fin, but her eyes were swollen, and she couldn’t muster the energy to open them enough to see. Not that she cared.
“Hailey, I’m so sorry…” Fin was saying, but his voice faded in and out. “…freezing cold…in the house…” Hailey heard, but sleep thundered through her mind and claimed her for its own.
Chapter nine
Hailey’s Nightmare
“Reality is never as bad as a nightmare, as the mental tortures we inflict on ourselves.” - Sammy Davis, Jr.
Churning skies of violet greeted Hailey when she succumbed, still sobbing, to her dreams. Andhewas there waiting. His voice came in the usual way—first as an echo, before it rang out loud.
“I’m very sorry,” he said as Hailey approached. “I did not want to leave you tonight.”
The Envoy was a muscular silhouette of soft iridescence. His eyes were exactly as Hailey remembered them—very kind and swirling with purple clouds. He still looked like an angel, but angels don’t leave you in your time of need.
“Why did you leave me all alone?” She enunciated her syllables.
Talking to someone through the Aether was a lot like speaking across a giant chasm. You can’t really touch each other, and you’d better not mumble or else the other person won’t hear.
