“The gondolas are running, your father won’t get here until dinner time, and if we move now, we can pack a bag, take anything of value, and get to VeVille before the curfew shuts down the gondolas. There will be no other time—it needs to be today.”
Still, I am stagnant in the shock.
I think that’s what is happening to me.
Shock.
I can’t think straight.
I can only watch as she moves for the next cupboard, on the other side of the entry door, and she rifles around, stealing.
Serena carries on, “Today is the only day it’ll work. Security at the veil is expecting people to come through,” she says with a look over her shoulder at me. “Your father, Mr Younge, maybe even your mother. Maybe the Sinclairs, or the Ströms—who knows how many are on their way after that?”
Silence has my tongue.
I’ve stopped watching her.
I turn my gaze back to the cupboard, the door wide open, boxes out of place, and a syringe hanging from the shelf.
I reach for it.
The metal is cool against my fingertips.
“My print will get us out of here. I can use illusion on us both, and I can do it with anything, paper into documents, into passports. I’ve been practicing,” she rambles on, threads severed, and it’s a frantic breathy voice, a side of Serena I’ve never seen before. “I can do cash, too. But that’s tricky, because illusions fade, and fake cash is trackable. I’ve been saving, though. And you have jewellery with you, yes?”
Snowboots thud heavy on the floorboards.
I look up as she advances on me, determination firming her face.
“I’m leaving now,” Serena reaches out for me, for my hand. “Will you come with me, Olivia?”
“You won’t get far.” The truth dulls my tone. “They’ll track you.”
Still, her hand is outstretched, and her face is firmly determined. “Not if I reach the rogue first.”
“What rogue?”
“A shield witch.” Serena lifts her chin, and pride rinses over her.
She really has thought of everything.
And still, that hand is offered to me.
I don’t take it.
My mouth parts around uncertain answers.
I should.
I should run away with her. Live a little life that she promises. A life free of the destruction all around me, like vampires feeding off of me at every turn.
And yet, I hesitate.
My heart sinks to my gut and sways like a boat on waves.
“I…”
Her fingertips touch mine. “You will never be free while you’re with them. You will never be accepted—or happy.”
