He blinked, too, barely awake, looking as surprised as I was at the indent in the blankets where I’d just been curled against his chest. “Apparently we fell asleep.”
I looked guiltily at Jack. Last thing I remembered, we were watching game shows and my hand was on his back.
“Lucky for you, I’m not dead. You’re not very good at babysitting.” A small smile pulled at Stellan’s lips. “Pretty great at cuddling, though.”
“Shh,” I hissed. I felt my face heat up and shot another glance at Jack. His dark brows drew down, and his mouth twitched like he was talking to someone in a dream. Without making eye contact, I whispered, “I’m going to—” I gestured with my head and made my way into the hall outside our room.
It was later than I thought. The sun had already risen, and I made my way to the space between the cars, where there were large windows on the doors. We were speeding past a vineyard, and a whitewashed stone house sat on the top of a rise behind it, and then a field of sunflowers, bright yellow, stretched as far as I could see.
I pulled my hair back into a ponytail, brushing through the tangles with my fingers. I wasn’t sure whether it was a step forward or a step back that I’d been able to sleep at all after yesterday. What’s more, I think I’d slept the whole night straight through. I couldn’t remember the last time that happened.
So I’d just have to sleep sandwiched between them for the rest of my life. That wasn’t horribly weird and wrong or anything.
A few minutes later, I turned around to footsteps. Stellan was wearing his own clothes again, slim jeans and a T-shirt, dark enough to not show dried blood. I felt myself blush again, thinking about how much of the night I must have spent with his arms wrapped around me. I wondered how we’d ended up that way, whether one of us did it accidentally or whether we just migrated together while we slept, our unconscious minds giving in to the need to hold somebody. He paused when he noticed me, and I wondered if he was thinking the same thing.
He reached around me and hauled open the sliding door.
“Are you allowed to do that?” I backed up a few feet as the wind whipped past, like it could drag me right out the door. The sunflower fields had given way to a ravine, and the train sped along the edge of a cliff.
“Probably not.” Stellan tested his weight on one of the handholds at the door of the train, leaning out over the tracks so the wind pulled at his clothes, then leaned back in and lit a cigarette. He let a curl of smoke out of the corner of his mouth, and the breeze rushing past caught it and left not even a wisp.
I made a face at the cigarette, anyway, and he made a face back.
“You seem better,” I said. He was back to his old self, not soft and fuzzy around the edges like he’d been last night. “Have you checked on your head?”
He held his cigarette out the door and leaned over for me to look at it. I only had to part his hair and take a cursory glance to realize the cut was much smaller than it had been last night. “It’s healing really quickly. Weirdly quickly.”
He pushed his hair back into place. “Maybe it’s the magic skin thing. I guess I have always healed quickly. Never thought much about it.”
I would have been interested to know more about the “magic skin thing” if we had time. Maybe in the future. If Stellan was in my future at all, I reminded myself. In just a couple days, I’d know. We’d have the second bracelet, and hopefully have the way to the tomb. If all went well, I’d trade it to Alistair for my mom, and then . . . well, then I’d decide. Whether to stay and be part of the world’s most powerful secret society, or to get off the grid and make plans to stay off forever.
I leaned against the wall and played with my necklace. When I let go, my hands were smudged with black soot. I inspected the locket, and realized there was dust coming out of the holes in the pattern. I clicked it open.
The picture inside must have gone up in flames when we heated the necklace, because now, it was nothing but ash. I only had time to draw in a surprised breath before the wind rushing by whipped the delicate pieces of my old life into the air as easily as it had the cigarette smoke.
I blinked at the empty locket for a second, then closed it slowly.
“What was in it?” Stellan said after a second.
“A picture of my mom.” I wiped the last of the ash from the design and clenched the locket in my fist, against my heart.
Stellan stood quietly for a second, then stubbed out his cigarette and sat down on the top step, folding his long legs into the small space. He patted the step next to him.
I stayed a distance back. “Open train door, sheer cliff face, no thanks.”
He curled his lip. “Really? After everything else you’ve been through, you’re scared of this?”
I had to admit, the breeze did kind of feel nice. I tried to ignore the plunge into the ravine and sat down next to him carefully, though I made sure to keep the hand that wasn’t clutching my necklace on the doorjamb.
“See?” Stellan said. “Perfectly safe.”