Page 56 of The Narrow

The sky is clear. There is enough of a moon to just make out the Narrow down below me, rushing softly between its banks. It’s only a river, silver in the moonlight.

I can feel her here. Maeve. A presence in the air making the hair on the back of my neck stick up.

“Maeve?” I call softly.

There is no answer. But I almost think I can make something out down below—a pair of hands, gripping the edge of the rocks. Then they let go and slip beneath the surface of the water.

She’s there. And Del was trying to get to her.

—

I get back to Abigail House, and even though it was dry outside, I shower thoroughly and clean my feet, which are scraped up but not cut, thankfully.

When I step into the hall, Madelyn Fournier is there, staring at the still-open door to the upstairs with her arms crossed. She’s wearing lounge clothes, not the silver pajamas she had on when she was running through the woods, but her face is still bare of makeup and her hair is unkempt. I’ve never seen her look so small or so human. She looks over her shoulder at me as I approach.

“There’s something wrong with the locking mechanism,” she says dully, gesturing at the door. “It won’t latch properly.”

I draw closer. The lock on the door has a small logo, the same as the exterior door. FellTech. The same company that makes AtChat. “Has that ever happened before?”

“The lock? Or Delphine getting outside?” Madelyn asks.

“Either.”

“No.” She’s shaking, and she scrubs a threatening tear from the corner of her eye. “I’m sorry about speaking to you that way out there. I assumed you had been careless and left the door unlocked.”

“I wouldn’t,” I say.

“I know. I’m sorry,” she says again. And then she covers her face with her hand and begins to weep.

I don’t know what to do—whether she needs comfort or if me offering it will only make things worse. But it lasts only for a moment, and then she looks up at the ceiling, blinking rapidly, and draws in a breath through her nose.

“Well. I’ll get someone out in the morning to fix it,” she says. “I’ll stay up until Delphine wakes up.”

“I can take a shift,” I say immediately.

“That’s kind of you, Eden, but I won’t be able to relax unless I’m out here anyway. One of us might as well get some sleep,” she says. “It’s Vespers tomorrow, isn’t it? You don’t want to be exhausted.”

Right. Vespers. I’d managed to forget about it. I wish I could just stay home, but I can’tnotgo—I signed up last year to be an escort for Little Vespers, the pre-party for the Lower School students.

But there is one silver lining. Vespers is held in the courtyard outside the old chapel. Right by the path down to the Narrow.

To Maeve.

I need to know what happened to Grace. I need to know why Delphine is drawn to Maeve. I’m sure Oster won’t tell me. Madelyn doesn’t know.

But maybe I can ask Maeve.

Simple as that.

20

THE TECHNICIAN ISalready there repairing the door when I go up to see Del in the morning. She’s sitting on the couch in the living room, her legs crossed. Her feet are raw and angry looking. She looks pale and doesn’t say anything as I approach, carrying a stack of papers and a box tied with a ribbon.

“Hey,” I say. She looks up, her eyes red—either from lack of sleep or crying, I can’t tell. I sit on the couch beside her, the things I’ve brought balanced on my lap. “That was a lot, last night.”

She runs a hand over her head. “My mom is totally freaked out. She almost didn’t want to leave for New York, but she has a bunch of obligations for the new movie.”

I make a noise like I know what she’s talking about, but my knowledge of current cinema extends only to whatever the algorithm recommends to me.

---