Page 99 of Priest and his Anarchist

“Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”

My stomach drops at his words. The realization of everything hits me like a ton of bricks.

Crap. I’m leaving. I’m leaving.

I’m leaving.

I’ll never see Jessica again. Or Joshua. I don’t care for Josh, but he sure made it fun for me on the nights I was bored.

Sadness weighs the muscles in my face. This time neither of them are looking at me and they’re both sparring mid-argument.

I won’t even tell them I’m leaving. It’ll make it too hard.

“I’ll never see them again.” I try to force away the sadness.

“Joshua, no. Jessica, yes.” He stands to his full height, placing his hand out to me. “Come on.” The final pass-through of a place I’ve spent so long in is bittersweet. The laboratory circles the main beehive, the home base to doors. Most of which I never even went through.

“You sure you want to do it like this?” Nate asks once we’re outside the entrance to Del Morts. It takes thirty minutes to get through the tunnels by cart.

“Yes. I can’t imagine ever saying goodbye.”

Nate doesn’t answer, and I keep my eyes fixed on the thick mountains in the distance.

“Jessica, will she be here?”

Nate looks down at me as if pondering how to answer. “You’ll know when she’s here, but who she is, is not who she seems.”

“I’d expect nothing less.” I laugh, but it doesn’t feel happy.

“You’re still not to know each other, Lulu Bell. You’ll be strangers on the outside looking in. One more thing before they get here,” Nate says, staring off into the distance. I ignore his warning about Jessica. That is the first thing we learned, and we’ll both abide by it.

Nate’s about three times my size, so looking up at him requires my neck being bent. “What is it?”

His eyes search mine, and although he’s been a great commander-in-chief, teaching me so many things through the years, I can see it in him now. The soft side he has. I wonder if it has always been there or whether having a wife and children did that to him. I make a mental note to not allow myself the luxury of creating something so fragile.

“The final show will be in four nights from now. He will be there. We need you to come back for that.”

The muscles in my body all coil into knots. “And what does he know of where I’ve been for the past four years?”

He pauses a moment. “With Archer Thorn. He will think that Archer allowed you to maintain a normal life, going back and forth between Spain, Perdita, and Thornhill.”

There’ve been minimal times in my life where I’ve been shocked, since my whole life has been a reel of shocking moments, but this one catches me. “How?” His words from earlier come back to me. “You’re friends with Archer?”

A small shake of his head. “No, not me directly, but Bishop. Priest won’t know yet, so we’re going to maximize on that until he takes the gavel, because once he does?” Nate finally turns back to me. His smile isn’t one I’m used to. “He’ll be in Bishop’s place and that is not only the head of the EKC, but another, where you won’t know until your Hayes has the gavel.”

I swallow past the lump forming in my throat. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Fuck.” Nate pulls at his hair, distracting me a moment from the sound of tires crushing gravel. “I’m sorry, Luna.” His hand dips beneath his jacket, pulling out a black envelope.

“What is this?” My eyes dry out when I don’t blink, my fingers wrapping around the envelope.

“That is your life insurance. He signed it with more knowledge than you did. We didn’t lie to him, you’re both needed at the table, but we didn’t tell him explicitly why we needed you to sign that.” I’ve already torn it open.

The City of New York

Office of the Clerk

Certificate of Marriage Registration.

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