I’m not sure what to say and it comes out all garbled. “I waited at the cave. I made it out of Geneva because of you. I kept hoping you’d be alive. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for you.”
He would normally make some sarcastic comment but now he leans into me again and says something else in French.
We stay together. I hold him, feeling how thin he is, how his ribs are sticking out. I won’t let go, though, not before he does.
He says, “I thought you were dead.” And I realize that’s what he said in French. “Nesbitt said he saw your body.”
“Nesbitt is a fool,” Van chips in.
Nesbitt walks out with a tray crammed with tea things and says, “I heard that. If you’d actually seen his body . . .” And he places the tray down and sets out the china teapot, milk jug, cups, saucers, and sugar, muttering as he does so about me being gray and cold with my eyes half open.
When Nesbitt’s finished he sits down and picks up the teapot. “So, I’ll be mother, shall I?”
a a a
*
We spend the next half hour catching up on what has happened. Van begins with “Do tell us what happened after Gabriel left you, Nathan.”
I shrug. I’m not sure about saying anything, not sure how much she already knows.
“Let me start you off. You, or rather Rose, stole a knife from a house in Geneva. Not any old knife but the Fairborn. Not any old house but the Hunter base, and not from just any old Hunter but Clay, their leader. Rose certainly was a talented witch. However, it was not the best of plans and she paid with her life. And you were shot too.” Van draws on her cigarette and breathes out a long stream of smoke toward me. I smell the strawberries faintly. “Do tell us what happened next, Nathan.”
I look at Gabriel and he nods.
“I was shot and wounded and couldn’t run. Gabriel saved me by drawing the Hunters away.” I try to turn the subject back to her and ask, “And you saved Gabriel but what were you doing in Geneva that night? I thought all Black Witches had fled. The city was full of Hunters.”
“Let’s complete your story first,” she says, smoke curling out of her mouth with each word. “You were wounded but you had the Fairborn. You escaped Geneva through the forest—”
Gabriel interrupts. “But why were you in the forest? Why didn’t you go back to Mercury’s cottage through the cut at the apartment?”
“The poison from the bullet made me ill. I got lost. It took me a long time to find the apartment and when I got there it was swarming with Hunters. So I set off on foot—I thought I’d have plenty of time to get back to Mercury before my birthday. I stole some food, clothes, and money. I felt better at first with the food but I became weaker and weaker until I collapsed. I cut the poison out of me and then I passed out. I wasn’t dead—obviously—but I wasn’t far off. That’s when Nesbitt saw me. I woke later and set off again for Mercury.”
Van inhales deeply. “Of course the question on everyone’s mind is, “Did you make it?”“
“I made it. But Mercury didn’t perform the Giving ceremony.”
“Ah. Because you didn’t have the Fairborn?”
“Because she was busy fighting Hunters.”
They all wait, looking at me.
I say, “My father gave me three gifts.”
Van blinks. “That must have been very special.”
“Yes.”
I notice Van glance at my hand and my ring. I ask her, “Do you know him? Marcus?”
“I met him briefly a couple of times, years ago. He doesn’t come to Black Witch gatherings anymore. Hasn’t for a long time.”
“Do you know where he lives?”
She shakes her head. “No one knows that.”
We’re all silent for a second or two, then Van says, “And your Gift is like your father’s, I’m assuming, from Nesbitt’s little jibe. That is a rare Gift.”
I try to remain blank. I don’t want to think about the animal now. I haven’t felt him at all since I killed Kieran this morning.
“And then what happened?” Gabriel asks.
“My father left. The valley was swarming with Hunters. Mercury was furious with me. She told me she had Annalise and would only release her in exchange for my father’s head or heart. Then the Hunters were on us and I ran. Eventually, after about a week, I lost them. I went back to the cave and waited for you.”
“You waited a long time.”
I shake my head, but I can’t tell him I was about to give up.
Van says, “Yes, it’s fortunate for us all that Nathan is so patient.”
Gabriel’s mouth twitches. “I’ve always thought that—Nathan: such a patient person.”
“And that brings us all rather wonderfully up to date,” says Van. “Nesbitt found you at the cave when he went to collect the letters. Ah! Talking of the letters, please may I have them now?”
I say to Gabriel, “What do you want me to do with them?”
“I promised I would give them to Van.”
“And you want to keep that promise?”
“She saved my life.”
I look at Van. Her face is serenely victorious.