“Then this other guard came—he must have been a superior or something. He was amazingly good looking too, but he got into a fight with the tourist, and then he . . .” She started crying again.
“He what, Hunter? It’s okay. It’s not your fault.” It’s my fault.
“Th-th- they started swinging at each other,” she gasped, “an-and the new guard punched th-the guy in the face, and his n-n-neck snapped.” She was back to sobbing.
“Noooo!” I breathed.
“Yes, I swear. He killed the guy. In one blow. And then it was absolute chaos. The guy’s friends all ran off, the guards tried to grab me, and I just ran. It was horrible. It was like a call went out to every demon in the country, and they came after me. They were like shadows, pushing and tripping me. I fell and bashed my knee.” Just like in my dream. “I even lost my necklace, Maren,” Hunter wailed, “the one from my mum. But I just kept running. I must have run a mile when I saw the church dome all lit up. They chased me all the way. I barely made it in.”
“How are you still there?” I asked. “It’s five thirty in the morning. Did they give you permission to stay overnight?”
“No, I hid until all the visitors left, and I’ve been hiding ever since. I could live in this place for a year and no one would find me,” she said. “Crap! My phone’s about to die. It took me forever to find a signal in here . . . You have to come get me! I can’t even step outside—they’re out there waiting for me. I can hear them!”
“No, of course, of course, I’ll leave right away,” I said. Gavin was vigorously shaking his head in the negative direction, but I ignored him.
“Thank you.” Hunter sounded like she wanted to start crying again, but discovered she was too tired. “I knew I could count on you.”
“Wait!” I said before I lost her to the empty battery. “Where are you?”
“St. Paul’s,” she answered. “Hurry!”
The line clicked and went dead.
I turned to Gavin, panicked. “St. Paul’s? That’s all we’ve got to go on? St. Paul’s? There must be a million St. Paul’s churches!”
“Actually,” Gavin answered, “when it comes to London, there’s only one.”
St. Paul’s, it turns out, is the largest cathedral in London. I should have recognized the name, because it’s where Princess Diana married Prince Charles. My mom wasn’t sentimental about things, except when it came to Princess Diana. My mom told me that when Diana died, she called in sick to work and lay on the couch in front of the live television coverage, crying for two straight days. When I was born, she gave me the middle name Diana in tribute to the real-life princess who had to navigate a not-so-fairy-tale world.
Now Hunter was hiding there. Five minutes after she hung up, I got a single text from her. She must have tried to send it out before she called, but it had been delayed. It was ominously short, just five words: “STUCK IN ST PAULS. PLEASE HELP!” I was glad I had gotten to speak to her, because the message alone would have freaked me out, but it did underscore the urgency. I had to get to her quickly.
“How long is a plane ride down to London?” I asked Gavin, already moving around my room and throwing things into a small backpack.
“With heightened security at the airports, the train is faster,” he answered. “Only four hours from Glasgow to London. But for you, it’s zero.”
“What do you mean, ‘zero’? Are we going to drive there or something?”
“No, I mean there’s zero chance that you’re going,” he answered. “Why would you?”
I stopped packing and studied his face to see if he was joking, but he looked pretty serious. Which made me pretty furious.
“Why wouldn’t I?” I said.
“It’s too dangerous,” he answered.
“Well, I don’t care.” The words tumbled out of my mouth. “She’s my friend, and she’s in trouble, and it’s all my fault, and she doesn’t have anyone else.”
“Well, I do care, Maren,” he answered. “And it’s not happening.” I loved when Gavin said my name in his thick accent. My heart melted like summer snow. Until he ruined it with the whole telling me what to do part.
“‘Not happening’?” I said. “You’re not the boss of me. It is happening.” Did I really just say, “You’re not the boss of me”? Now I was acting like the kindergartener who teased the boy she liked. Ridiculous. He made me act like this. He made me crazy.
“What exactly is your plan?” he asked, far too smugly. “You’re going to race down to London, go to St. Paul’s, and then what?”
“We’ll find Magnificat,” I said. “I’ll turn in my mom’s stuff, get the antidote, and we’ll all be safe.”
“How are you two going to leave the church when there are demons outside who’ve surely recorded Hunter’s heartbeat?”
“I don’t know.” I threw up my hands, anger rushing through me. “I honestly have no freaking idea about anything!” I hissed, wanting to holler but not wanting to wake up my grandparents any further. To my extreme frustration and embarrassment, my eyes brimmed with tears. But there was no holding them back. There was no holding anything back. “Is that what you want to hear? I don’t know! All I know is I lost my mom—who apparently kept her entire life a secret from me—and I’m alone in the middle of nowhere. My only two friends in the whole world are either on their deathbed or trapped in a church. All because of me. And I have to try to do something about it. I don’t know what, I don’t know how, but I have to try.” Tears rolled down my face, but I didn’t care.
Gavin, however, did. He inhaled sharply, like he didn’t know what to do with my burst of emotion. “I’m sorry,” he said gently, placing a hand on my shoulder. “I didn’t mean to make you upset. I just . . . I just don’t want to see anything bad happen to you. I’ll take care of it. I was waiting for you to wake up to tell you that I was going to go to Magnificat anyway.”
“What you mean?” I asked, wiping at my cheeks. My fury dissipated like clouds in the sun. Gavin somehow had the ability to make me instantly happy no matter what the circumstance.
“The village decided I should go to Magnificat to see if there’s an antidote,” he replied.
“So they believe my mom’s encryption?”
He nodded. “We knew something was being planned. Now we know what.”
“Why you?” I asked. “Why are you going?”
“Because it’s my assignment. This is my town, my time,” he said, pride illuminating his eyes.
“Well, I’m coming with you,” I said.
“No, you’re not,” he answered.
I wasn’t going to get mad again. I had to stay focused. I turned away and continued filling my backpack. I got my mother’s journal, carefully wrapped it in a scarf, and zipped it inside.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Packing,” I said simply.
“Why?”
“You’ve got your duty, and I’ve got mine. You’re going to London. Great. I’m going to get Hunter. Maybe I’ll see you there, maybe I won’t.”