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None of us said a word for a good ten minutes, and I let Alarik speed through red lights and down the empty streets – still deserted at that early hour – until he left the downtown area and headed toward Vanderwood, where he slowed down.

Nimb

Jay Varton

He was the first to speak.

“Are you okay?”

He turned his face toward me for a moment and looked me over searchingly.

“I think so…” I began hesitantly, glancing once more in the side mirror, just as I had done for the past ten minutes.

Those women would haunt me in my dreams.

“It’s just strange that you showed up here… and…”

Bayla, relax. This situation was not normal, and you have every right to be confused and upset.

The urge to scratch my wrists was abnormally strong, and the dark, heavy weight in my head – the one I convinced myself every sleepless night I had left behind in Sacramento – kept growing, so I pushed it away with all my might.

“I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get you in trouble, but I feel responsible for you.”

He did what?

I looked at Alarik in confusion.

“And God knows what else those people would have done to you,” he continued, his jaw still working, and my thoughts wandered back to Gloria's words.

Damn it... Mum.

“Whatever happens, never trust the Councils.”

I looked at Alarik from the side, trying to bring order to my messy mind.

“Why do you know so much about the Quatura?”

Of course, I knew the answer. And of course, he did too. But it took him a long time to find an explanation.

“I'd be stupid not to have learned at least a little bit about them.”

About whom? The Quatura... or about Alice?

Instead of rudely grilling him, I stared off into the snowy woods we were passing through, toward the island's towering mountain peaks, unsure of what to say.

I didn't want to give him the wrong reaction. He had saved me. Or was he kidnapping me?

The painful thought from earlier came back to me.

“Mum...”

We had left her behind. And Gloria had called her a traitor.

Everything in me wanted to go back, wanted to know if she was okay, what she was doing, if maybe it was all just a misunderstanding and the Councils had overreacted because they had seen Alarik...

With growing unease, I watched Alarik's face contort.

“I'm sorry. I don't know what awaits her there. And believe me, I'd prefer to help her...”