It kills me to hand Web over to Billy, but I try to smile when I do it. He’ll be safer with Billy, I remind myself. But he’s uncertain in her arms, whimpering, and my heart squeezes painfully at the way he keeps looking at me.
“It’s okay, little dude. Auntie Billy’s going to take good care of you,” I say, and go over all his stuff one last time, what kind of formula he takes and which one makes him puke like The Exorcist, which blanket to swaddle him in at night, which pacifier is his favorite, the vital importance of his stuffed monkey.
“I got it, kid,” Billy says, patting my arm. She’s feeling emotional, too. Deep down she’s always wanted a child. She would have had one with Walter, if she could have. But she herself only has seven more years to live.
“I’ll call tonight and sing him a song,” I promise, and only barely get out of there without bursting into tears.
And that entire time, Christian stands beside me, waiting for me to tell him what’s up.
He’s crazy surprised when I cross us to the study room in the Roble basement and not back to Lincoln.
“All right, Clara,” he says, trying to hide his alarm. “Where are we? What’s going on?”
I tell him.
He has the following reaction:
“You did what?”
Yeah, he’s a little upset. Understandably.
“I agreed to meet Samjeeza at the Palo Alto train station, at midnight,” I say again.
“How could you do that?” He tugs his hands through his hair. “Do you have a death wish?”
“No,” I reply coolly. “I have a vision, and it’s telling me that I’m going to go meet him.”
“You’re talking about taking a train ride into hell.”
“I know.”
He starts shaking his head. “No. No way. No.”
“I’ll show you,” I say, refusing to take no for an answer. “Come on.”
Without another word I head off, up the stairs, out of Roble, walking fast across campus, and he doesn’t have much of a choice but to follow. He hasn’t learned to cross yet—for as amazing as he is with flying and glory swords, I am still light years ahead of him when it comes to calling and using glory. He can’t get back without me.
When he sees the church, he suddenly gets where I’m going, and he doesn’t want to come. I take his hand and start pulling him across the quad. We reach the doors of MemChu. I turn to him. “Just go inside with me. Walk the labyrinth. See if you don’t have a vision there, too. I’ll bet you ten bucks you see a train station.”
Uncertainty flashes in his eyes. He’s tempted.
“Last time I went in there, I came out thinking you were going to die,” he says hoarsely.
“But I didn’t. And you did what you were supposed to do. You saved me. You saved Web.”
“I killed a person,” he whispers.
“I know. But this is what we’re supposed to do now. Don’t you see? It’s our purpose. Maybe all of it, all along, has been about this. Rescuing Angela. Getting her out of hell.” I feel like somebody’s lit a fire under me. I can hardly stand still, I’m so full of anticipation.
Christian’s brow rumples. “All along?” he asks. “What do you mean?”
“What if Angela was always supposed to have Web? I mean, Asael sent Phen to find her, and maybe they were meant to fall for each other, and she was meant to get pregnant. With the seventh—God’s perfect number.”
“What does that have to do with us?”
“So I had my first vision, which told me that I had to move to Wyoming. So I did. And met you, and Angela. And then I had my second vision—and this one’s a stumper, because I never could understand why I kept seeing the cemetery, why God wanted me to know about that moment in advance, but now I think I was being shown two things that I would need to know. I was being shown that Samjeeza was there, so I knew he would be there that day when I went to give him my mother’s bracelet. I chose to be kind to him, which changed the way he felt about me. Which is why he’s been watching me, talking to me, and why I could go to him and ask for this.”