“Yeah, well.” Kai limps forward until he’s standing beside me. “You’re stuck with us now, so I guess you’d better get used to it,Professor.”
A startled laugh escapes Bastian. It transforms his face, making him look almost boyish.
I sense a lingering doubt, almost like a sixth sense.
He hasn’t told us everything.
He’s told usa lot…but not everything.
There’s one demon he’s keeping locked away in the dark recesses of his mind…but for now, I think that’s exactly where it should stay.
We spend the next hour planning…after meticulously destroying our cellphones. Kai looks miserable as he follows Bastian’s instructions to encrypt his phone’s data and reset it to factory settings, and I swear he even tears up when Bastian hands him a hammer to finish the job.
Then Bastian fetches a map from his study and spreads it open on the kitchen island, marking our route with a red Sharpie. His cabin in Montana is apparently the best option for now. It’s remote, but accessible enough to reach in a few days of hard driving…and, most importantly, can’t be traced back to him.
“The Landie can handle the snow once the blizzard’s cleared,” he says, tracing a line over the map. “We pack light. A few of my clothes, cash, essentials. Anything else we need, we’ll get on the way.”
Kai nods slowly, his eyes following the route on the map. “And when we get there? Then what?”
“We wait. Let things die down. Figure out our next move.”
“What if they don’t die down?” I hate to voice the fear, but someone has to. “What if someone comes looking?”
“They can look all they want, they won’t find us,” Bastian says.
“But what if they do?” I press.
Bastian meets my eyes. “Then we disappear again, and keep moving until they stop.”
“What if they never stop?” Kai asks in a hushed voice.
Bastian reaches across the map to lay his hand on Kai’s. “Trust me, they always stop.”
It’s not a perfect plan. It’s not even a good plan, really. But it’s a future—however brief—that doesn’t involve prison cells or courtrooms.
I’ll take it.
“Okay.” Kai straightens up, rolling his shoulders. “Soon as the storm has cleared, we’re gone.”
“And not a moment later,” Bastian confirms.
We start gathering supplies. Bastian moves through his house with purpose, pulling clothes from closets, stackingcanned goods on the counter, carrying bags to the living room. We both help, Kai despite his limp.
I’m in Bastian’s study, looking for anything useful, when I spot the butterfly paperweight on his desk. The same iridescent blue as the ones in my dream.
My hand trembles as I reach for it.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
I spin to find Bastian in the doorway, watching me.
“It’s a Northern Blue,” he says, moving closer to take the crystal globe from me. “Billy loved them.”
“Billy?”
He shakes his head, a tiny frown tightening his brows. “Sybil, my sister.”
“I never knew you had a sister.”
