“Yeah.”
She puts her arm through mine. “So why don’t we just say that you were?”
“What about Nathan?”
She looks up at me. She smiles, then shakes her head.
“What?” I say.
But then she’s looking past me, out the open door. I assume it’s Jared and Nathan coming, but she points to the far exit of the gym where the dance is being held.
A door is open in the dark. A girl I recognize from school whose name I can’t remember comes out, crying. A boy I’ve never seen before has his arm around her, comforting her.
Blue light flickers in the doorway behind them, then vanishes.
“They’re not in prom clothes,” Henna says.
“You know what?” I say, getting out of the seat. “I’m going to go find out what the hell is going on–”
“Mike, don’t–”
“Where are you going?” Jared says, showing up with Nathan and accidentally blocking the exit.
“To talk to them,” I say, looking over his shoulder.
But when we turn to look, they’re gone.
“I think I want to get out of here, Mike,” Henna says, pulling at my arm, getting me back in my seat.
“I think I really do.”
And I can’t argue with her.
I never could.
CHAPTER THE EIGHTEENTH, in which Satchel flees with the Prince, thinking it’s to safety, but the Prince has betrayed her; he takes her to the Court of the Immortals, which has been searching for the perfect Vessel for their Empress, a better body for her to inhabit forever; that body will be Satchel’s, made ready by the amulet left not by indie kid Kerouac, but by the Prince; the Empress says, “I sent a Messenger to make your world ready for us. It took several tries before one survived what the process required”; the Messenger reveals himself; it’s been Dylan since the night he first came to her house; he begins the ceremony that will kill Satchel and allow the Empress to live in Satchel’s body; fissures open all over town to allow the invasion of the Immortals to begin.
“There’s a smell,” Nathan says, entering the cabin.
“Otter,” Jared says. “Sorry.”
Nathan winces. “No, I didn’t mean… It’s not a bad smell–”
“Just musky,” Mel says, handing everyone a beer, which Mr Shurin stocked up for us. I know that lots of children of alcoholics become alcoholics themselves and maybe that’ll happen one day to me or Mel, but we kind of figure with her eating issues and my anxiety issues, we’re already covered.
(We hope for the best with Meredith, like we do with everything else.) I wasn’t kidding before, though; none of us really like to drink all that much.
Except Nathan, it turns out. He downs his beer in one like it’s a challenge, does that end-of-drinking gasp, and reaches for another. He sees us all staring at him. “What?” he says. “Oh.” He takes the second one and sips it.
“Music?” Mel says, taking a phone out of her bag and plugging it in. Tunes start to play, quietly, not dancy, just good stuff. The cabin has a small main room with a sofa and a little kitchen. There are two tiny bedrooms, which means at least some of us are going to have to sleep on the couch. I already assume one of them’s me.
“What is there to do up here?” Nathan asks. “Not being a dick, just genuinely wondering.”
“Eat, for one thing,” Jared says, opening the fridge.
“Oh, God bless you, Mr Shurin,” Henna says, next to him, taking out some steaks.