Page 15 of Acedia

Whatever Moriah was saying, she didn’t sound happy about it. I wondered if it was because she could tell through the phone that Travis had been drinking last night—his muttered grunts and replies sounded extremely rough.

“Yeah, alright. Yes! Okay. We’ll be right there. Sorry. No, we really are sorry—”

There was a dull thud, then Justin groaned.

“Come on,” Travis snapped. “She’s been discharged—she’s going back to that big house they’re all staying at. We’re supposed to be there already. Lucas—sorry, man—you have to come too. Mom’s orders.”

“Of course,” Lucas agreed quietly. There was a lot of shuffling around and muttered complaints from the twins, and I huddled quietly in a corner of the kitchen, hoping they’d just leave without acknowledging me. The second they were gone, I was opening the sliding door. I didn’t care how cold it was. They seemed to have been sweating out the beer they drank last night through their skin, and it was the most rancid smell.

“Bye, Iris,” Lucas said gently as the three of them filed out, the door shutting with a deafening click.

I shook my head slightly, trying to clear that odd conversation we’d had this morning from my mind. Realistically, that was probably the last time I’d ever meet Lucas. If he was smart, he’d take this opportunity to get away from my brothers and pretend he’d never met me.

An urgent pounding on the door woke me up from the nap I didn’t realize I’d been taking on the couch.

“Iris!” Lucas whisper-shouted. “Let me in—if you’re going to go, it has to be now. Verity escaped, everything is in chaos.”

Tilly barked—which was very unlike her—and it felt like she was hurrying me along, encouraging me to pounce on this unexpected opportunity.

Or plunge headfirst into this very real risk.

The moment I unlocked the door, Lucas was inside, hurriedly shutting it behind him. “Can I pack your stuff? If we’re going, we need to go now.”

“Is the portal open?”

I heard his pause of hesitation. “No. I’m not letting you be thrown through some random portal and hoping for the best—”

“That’smychoice, Lucas.”

“—when safer options are available. I know where Astrid Bishop has been hiding out, watching the hospital. I left her a note, asking if she could guide you through safely.”

Oh.

“That sounds less intimidating,” I admitted. “If that’s something she’d want to do.”

“Astrid was the leader of the last exodus into the shadow realm. She’ll welcome you with open arms,” Lucas said, sounding slightly resigned by the fact. “I still don’t feel good about this. My human friend in Tucson has a trailer you could hide out in if we could get you there. We could drive through the night and be there by morning. I just want you to know it’s an option.”

I shook my head. No, that wasn’t what I wanted. A trailer in Tucson had the potential to turn into another attic in Colorado. Another four-wall limit that I couldn’t go beyond, because if the wrong person found out about me, it was all over.

Wherever I went next, I didn’t want to be in hiding.

Although I’d never given him an answer, I heard Lucas rushing around, packing my things. Tilly gave a half-hearted growl like she wasn’t sure whether this was acceptable or not before flopping down next to me with an exhausted huff.

“Alright—let’s go. Come on, Tilly. I imagine someone will be here soon to collect you two since Verity disappeared. Half the visiting Councilors had cleared out already by the time I left.”

He ushered me out the door, keeping a hold of my wrist as he guided me to a vehicle and opened the door. “It’s high, there’s a step to get in.”

My stomach dipped in alarm as I scrambled to get in, having no concept of what I was clambering into. I eventually settled awkwardly on my seat as Tilly clambered into the small space at my feet, ignoring Lucas’s instructions for her to get in the backseat.

“How do you think Verity got away?” I asked as Lucas climbed in next to me and started the vehicle. I startled, not expecting the rumbling engine to be quite so loud. “It must have been hard with so many Councilors in one spot.”

“I wasn’t high-level enough to be let in the room, but they were saying something about a temporary portal—I’ve never heard of anything like it. Are you going to put your seat belt on?”

“Oh. Um. I don’t know how. On the way here, I just sat in the RV. I can’t remember the last time I was in a vehicle before that—it must have been when I was a toddler.”

The silence felt very loud.

“Right. I’m going to lean over you, okay? A seat belt is a strap that goes across your body to secure you in place. I’m going to reach over and grab it.”

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