“Hang on,” Lucy muttered. “Let me get outside.”
She thought she’d said it calmly, but there must have been something in her tone that Pallas heard. “Are you safe?” she asked.
Lucy laughed darkly. “Good question.”
She made her way back to the ground floor, tucking herself into a sunbathed corner. Instantly, the now-familiar headache started behind her eyes. “Okay, I’m good,” she said. She hoped she was, anyway. “Pallas, you have to tell me what’s going on.”
“Soon.” Pallas’s off-air voice had the same calm, sonorous quality as her radio voice did. “I needed to find us a neutral place.”
“I can’t just come to you?” Lucy asked.
“Neutral place first,” Pallas said. “For now.”
Right, she thought. Pallas had told her the night before that the vampire had power over her. And whether or not that was true, Pallas probably didn’t trust her. “I’m still in control,” she said quickly.
The beat of silencewasa long one this time. “Lucy,” Pallas said. Her voice had gone gentle. “If you don’t mind my saying so, that may be what he wants you to believe.”
Lucy shivered. All right, then. Touché.
“Okay,” she said. “Where’s this neutral place?”
Pallas let out a slight hum. “Your tour would have taken you by the Interfaith Triangle. Do you remember it?”
“The place with all the yellow tape?” Lucy said.
“That’s the one,” Pallas said. “It’s one of the safest places on campus. Meet me there at six, and I’ll tell you why. And I’ll tell you anything else I can, too.
“Oh, and Lucy?” Pallas said. “I understand you may not have much say in this. But try not to be followed.”
“I feel like this is pushing it,” Lucy said. “Semantically speaking.”
“Semantically speaking, you’re doing exactly what she told you to do,” Natalie said. “She said ‘Try not to be followed.’ You’re literally trying to stop me from following you. You can proceed guilt-free.”
“I don’t know if my guilt is what matters here,” Lucy said.
Natalie offered one of her breezy shrugs. “Ms. Pallas Radio will survive. If she wanted me to trust her, she shouldn’t have had you meet her all the way out here.”
The Interfaith Triangle lay just ahead, a glittering arrangement of concrete and glass in the golden-hour sun. The structures, one Jewish, one Catholic, and one Protestant, were beautiful. But even from this distance, it was easy to tell that they were long empty. According to Lucy’s orientation tour, various services were being held in the student center while each building was having its roof replaced, but it didn’t appear to be much of a priority. The heavy machinery, parked by the drained reflecting pool, looked dusty. The flutteringNO ENTRYtape was flecked with dirt.
“You should keep your distance, in any case,” Lucy whispered. “She seems—cautious.”
“Well…I get that. But there’s cautious, and there’s cloak-and-dagger bullshit.” Natalie slowed, turning toward a wide-trunked tree to their left. “I’ll wait here out of sight. I should be close enough to see if anything goes wrong, but maybe we need a code word if something seems off.”
“Natalie…” Lucy faltered. “You really don’t have to do this.”
Natalie blinked. Somehow, in all the chaos of the day, she’d had time to put on her false eyelashes. “This happened to you at my party,” she said.
“That doesn’t make it your responsibility,” Lucy said.
“Oh, I know.” Natalie offered one of her breezy shrugs. “But I feel like the Middle Ages had it right about hospitality. If someone eats your food, they should be safe in your home. Dorm, I guess.” She paused. “If you really would rather go alone, though—”
“That’s not it,” Lucy said. She wasn’t sure why she was getting flustered. It wasn’t like she hadn’t had friends in high school. But they’d been so young then. Young enough that it was still scary, the idea of having someone else rely on them.
However, Natalie wanted to be relied on. That much, in the past few days, had been made clear.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Lucy finally said.
“Well, good,” Natalie said. “Because I’m here for whatever you need. Unless it’s manual labor, obviously. This may shock you, but I don’t lift.” She cast a wary eye ahead, and added, “I’ll hang back here. If something goes wrong, the code word isWarsaw. Or you could scream, I guess.”
