“Marcus told me that Hunters have a way of finding cuts. They must have detected it somehow.”
Gabriel sits up. “No, Nathan. I don’t think that’s how it works. I don’t think they can detect them from long distances. If they could do that they would’ve found the other cut to Mercury’s real home.”
“We don’t know that they haven’t. And anyway Mercury had time to destroy the cut. They won’t have been able to find it.”
“You build up excuses and come up with explanations but the obvious explanation you won’t admit to is that Annalise told the Hunters about the apartment.”
“You said yourself that I shouldn’t leave the apartment but I did. Someone, I don’t know who, an informer, a Half Blood, could have seen me when I followed you. They could have alerted the Hunters and so they were there when I got back.”
Gabriel is silent but lies back down.
I say, “You have to agree that’s a possibility.”
He doesn’t look at me, which I take as an admission that I’m right.
I say, “Gabriel, I trust her. She tried to help us. She told me how Hunters protect their base, what spells they use.”
“She has to build up your trust to convince you of her devotion. Nathan, spies don’t go around with big banners that say, ‘I’m a spy.’ The whole point is that they behave like they’re on your side.”
I remember Annalise sitting next to me on the roof of Mercury’s cottage, her whole body shaking with fear and I know she didn’t betray me.
“I have to try to help her, Gabriel. It’s what you would do for me and it’s what I must do for her.”
He says nothing.
“I like her a lot, Gabriel. You know that.”
Gabriel puts his arms over his face. He still says nothing but I can see his chest is heaving.
“I’ve got a serious favor to ask you,” I say.
I wait.
So does Gabriel.
“Will you help me find Mercury?” Because we both know that, wherever Mercury is, she’s got Annalise with her. “I need your help, Gabriel.”
He doesn’t reply. Doesn’t uncover his face.
There’s nothing more I can do, so I go down to the lakeshore.
A while later he joins me and we both look out over the calm water, the mountains beyond, and the sky, clear and blue above that.
Gabriel says, “Van told me that you were dead. Nesbitt described your body, your wound. He had the Fairborn and I knew you wouldn’t have let him take it if you were alive. I knew you were dead. There was no doubt in my mind.” He glances at me but looks away again across the lake. “I wept. I wept a lot, Nathan. And I had this idea that I’d go and find your body and hold it to mine and not let it go, ever. I would stay with you, starve, but at least I’d die holding you. That’s all I thought was left to me.”
“Gabriel . . .” But I don’t know what to say. I don’t want him to starve or die. “You’re my friend, Gabriel. My best, my only friend. But . . .”
He turns to me. “I’ll stay with you always; go where you go always. I don’t want to be anywhere else. I couldn’t stand to be anywhere else. If you go to Mercury then I’ll go too. If you want me to help free Annalise then I will.”
I turn to face him and see how angry he looks. I say, “Thank you.” I think it’s the first time I’ve thanked Gabriel for anything but I know that he doesn’t want my thanks; he doesn’t want any of it.
A Proposition
“I have a proposition.” Van started the elaborate evening meal with this comment, though we have yet to hear what the proposition is and the meal is nearly over.