HOW MANY ANSWERS YOU SEEK ARE JUST A PART OF YOU, WAITING TO BE FOUND?
The game has changed.
Fresh from her first brush with mortality, a fragile Sadie Matthau is playing human in New York while the Survivors endure unimaginable tragedy. Wrought wit...
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EVERETT WINTER SIGHED: "SADIE'S RIGHT." IT SURPRISED ME. "LET'S go get him a coat, and then we can all take him to Bigfork and find him a place to stay. We'll work out the rest of it in the morning."
Something in his expression softened. I wanted it to be compassion, understanding, but it could have just as easily have been defeat.
I looked at him sincerely and mouthed, Thank you.
Anthony relented. "Don't let her out of your sight."
"I won't," Everett promised.
"Mark, you go with them, but Ginny, we still need to resolve the issue of the enchantments. You need to feed anyway. Go southward and get a human, find out if it can see the city," Anthony said. It, I noticed. Not he or she. "Then have at it," he said, and then he walked away.
There was a heavy silence between the three Winter siblings and me. Have at it. He meant kill the human. We all knew it. And they knew that, although this is what they did, not talking about it, not admitting it, and never so blatantly addressing it when it happened had made it seem unreal. But moments ago, we were talking about a human, my human: Cole. And then seconds later, another human — another life — became an it that Anthony instructed his daughter to have at. Now there was a reality between us, the Winter kids and me, and suddenly it was too real.
I didn't know I was holding Everett's hand until I dropped it.
Mark spoke first. "Come on, Gin. Let's give these two a moment."
Ginny nodded and followed. Are you okay? she asked me in her mind.
As okay as I could be, I guess, I said.
Just remind Everett you love him. It wouldn't hurt, she said and disappeared.
When they were gone, Everett said, "Is there any chance you didn't just picture Ginny killing someone?"
"No, there's not."
He groaned. "I'm so tired of this, Sadie. I'm tired of having things to apologize for."
"It's never been easy for us, has it?" I asked.
"You're telling me," he said, the slightest smile lighting his face. "I hate fighting with you."
"Are we fighting?"
He shrugged. "Why is he here?" That wasn't really an answer to my question.
"Because I left without telling him," I said.
He nodded with sadness. "And so of course he came. I came after you. Why wouldn't he?"
"You didn't this last time," I said.
"Because you didn't want me to, and I tried to respect that," he said. "If you wanted to be with him . . ."
"I wanted to be away from here. Not away from you. And not with him. I needed to escape from a world where my boyfriend and his siblings kill people, away from worrying about a war and a man who will kill my entire family, away from everything I have become. I'm sorry that I had to hurt you to do that."
