And right next to her, holding onto her hand, was Evie.
“They’re in here.” Nell’s voice. Close yet far away. Footsteps approached, and then Patricia was by Harper’s side, Nell following right after.
Harper didn’t acknowledge them. Maybe they weren’t even there. She had hit her head pretty hard, and a concussion might have caused a few dreams to slip into her waking hours.
“Harper?” Patricia grabbed her arm. “What’s wrong? You look like you’ve seen a gho—”
She stopped. Nell did the same, her hands flying up to cover her mouth as Evie turned towards them.
Her grip on Natalya’s hand tightened to the point where her knuckles turned white, but Natalya didn’t even react. She just squeezed Evie’s hand back, making her let out a trembling sigh.
The longer Harper stared at her, the less recognizable she became. This wasn’t the same woman who had left for New Orleans two years ago. Her strawberry blonde hair was still full and wavy, but it was longer. She was also thinner than Harper remembered. And, worst of all, her pale, freckled skin was covered in scars.
Jagged marks, straight lines, and what looked like puncture holes covered almost every inch of her body. A tapestry of terror that only her face had been spared from.
But one thing was the same. Her eyes. Her beautiful mossy green eyes that, despite filling with tears, held nothing but warmth.
“Hey…” Evie said, voice shaking. But it was hers. Even though it was weak, it washers. Small, shaky, and so painfully familiar.
Natalyawhispered something in her ear. She brought Evie’s hand to her lips, kissing it, and then gave her a gentle push forward. Evie stepped closer, tears glinting in her eyes, though they didn’t fall until Natalya let go of her hand.
“I know this isn’t what you expected,” Evie said. “I wanted to do it differently. To get you here sooner, but… we couldn’t find you and it…” Her lip started trembling, and she bit down on it to make it stop. “I’m sorry for not calling. For not saying anything, but I—”
Nell rushed forward, pulling Evie into a hug far tighter than Harper had thought her capable of giving.
“I knew it,” she whispered. “I knew it. I knew you were alive.”
She kept repeating it as Patricia hurried over to them. She put her hands on Evie’s face, staring at her as though shocked she wasn’t a mirage. Questions stumbled out of her mouth, all of them dying before they could be fully voiced.
There were too many. Far too many. But they all stemmed from one key phrase.
“How?” Harper turned towards Maya. Her vision had unfocused from rising tears, but she still saw the regret filling Maya’s eyes.
“I think Evie would like to tell you herself,” Maya said. “I’m sorry I hid this from you. I was under orders, so I couldn’t—” Her hands closed into fists. She shook her head, turning away. “I’m sorry.”
She walked off without another word, heading back towards the hallway. Normally, Harper would have followed or yelled more questions, but her body was battling so many contrasting emotions that she couldn’t even move.
This couldn’t be real. People didn’t come back from the dead. That was afact, one so certain that even seeing Evie being embraced by Nell and Patricia didn’t feel as assuring as it should.
They were all laughing now. A choked-up, breathless kind of laughing, the sound of which brought agony with it. As though a dagger had been plunged into Harper’s body and now guilt was twisting it in place over and over again.
“You were dead,” Harper whispered, and even though her voice was all but inaudible, it still made Evie look her way.
Harper took a step back. “No, you were… you were gone. You disappeared, so I… I thought you were…”
Evie untangled herself from Nell and Patricia. She crossed the room, stopping when she was so close that Harper could see tears beading in her eyelashes.
“I know you did. For a while, I wished I was.” Evie’s voice cracked. “And for a while, I thought you were, too.”
Evie took Harper’s hand. The touch was so careful, as though it wasHarperwho had been believed dead. As thoughshehad been referred to asmissingfor over two years, even though everyone knew it wasn’t the right term to use.
Evie pulled Harper close, hugging her as though she’d feared she would never get to do so again.
“I missed you so much.” Evie’s body shook, uneven breaths hitting Harper’s skin. A frail statement, contrasted by how tight her hold was.
Maybe it was her words that made everything fall apart. Or maybe the embrace was to blame. That feeling of Evie’s arms around her—something both familiar and indisputable. But, most likely, it was that combined with Nell and Patricia joining them until they stood in a small huddle with Harper at its center.
Logic had no power against that. No statistics, reason, or cynicism born of experience could stand against it. She had no defenses left. No way to shield her heart from the hope that had refused to die these past few years, even though she’d done her best to kill it.
