“In hell?” he asks.
Her eyes flash. “That wasn’t hell. It’s an alternate world to our own, yes, but it’s not hell. Did you see any boiling pit of lava or a guy in a red suit with a tail and a pitchfork? That’s a myth, baby. What’s important is that we can be together. We’re meant to be together, right?”
For an awful second I think he’s going to say, Right, and walk across to them, and I’ll lose him again, this time forever, but then his jaw tightens.
“No,” he says quietly. “I don’t belong with you.”
“What?” She sounds truly shocked. “What are you saying?”
“He’s saying that he thinks the two of you should see other people,” I quip.
Enough with the small talk, I say to Christian, mind-to-mind. Let’s get out of here. I’d feel a lot better if we were on hallowed ground.
Can you do it? Christian asks. You’re not too tired?
I’m tired. But I’m pretty motivated to give the getting-the-heck-out-of-here plan a try. I’m fine.
Christian takes my hand, and instantly I feel stronger. I can do this, I think. Christian bends and whispers something to Angela. She stands, studiously not looking at Asael or Lucy, and tucks her arm in his.
I hold my hand out to Jeffrey. Let’s go home, I say.
“Jeffrey, listen to me—” Lucy says.
I start to imagine our place in Jackson, only a few miles from here, the aspen tree in the front yard, the wind in the pines, the sense of well-being and warmth that I always associate with our house, the squirrels staking out their territory in the trees, chattering, the birds flitting from branch to branch. That’s where I’ll take us. We’ll be safe there. We can figure things out.
Jeffrey takes my hand, which makes me feel stronger still. “Let’s go,” he says.
Asael makes an angry noise in the back of his throat, but he can’t stop me, he can’t touch me, and I close my eyes.
I’m two seconds from willing us out of there. Two seconds.
But then the barn door opens and Tucker walks in.
I know the minute I see him that we’re screwed.
21
SAFE AND SOUND
Tucker doesn’t see Asael or the others immediately. He only has eyes for me. “You came back,” he says, such relief in his voice that I want to cry, and then before I can warn him Asael is by his side, moving faster than the human eye can perceive, blocking the way out.
“And who is this, come to join the party?” Asael asks.
For a moment nobody speaks. Tucker stands up straighter, and I know he’s wishing that he’d brought the shotgun this time. Not that the shotgun would do any good.
Lucy approaches from the back, giving us and the glory a wide berth. “This must be Tucker,” she says, coming to stand on the other side of him. “Jeffrey’s told me all about him. He’s Clara’s boyfriend.”
“Ah. And a fragile human one at that,” Asael says. “Interesting.”
I find my voice. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Oh, no?” Asael turns to me with an amused expression, like he can’t wait to hear what I’m about to say. He’s enjoying this, the way he’s got us all standing so completely still, afraid. He thrives on this.
“We broke up. It’s like you said, he’s a human. He didn’t understand me. It didn’t work.” Christian’s hand tightens in mine as he registers how, even though what I’m saying is technically the truth, it’s also a lie, and he can feel how desperately I want to be convincing in this lie. Because if Tucker’s not worth anything to me, he can’t be used as leverage.
But then, if Tucker’s not worth anything to me, he can also be discarded like an empty paper cup, used and thrown away. I have to be careful.