Page 122 of The Last Session

There was another empty chair.

“Where’s Karen?” I asked as Grace set a plate of lasagna in front of me. The garlic, basil, and tomato smell and oozing cheese made me suddenly ravenous.

“She’s not feeling too well.” Moon shrugged. “She might join us for the session, but we’ll have to see.”

“The session?”

“Of course.” Moon’s eyebrows dipped. “You didn’t think we were going to stop our sessions just because you were leaving, did you?”

“But now that you’re here, you can participate.” Sol smiled, a drip of red at the corner of his lip.

“If you’d like.” Moon shot him a sharp look.

“Um…” Something was definitely off. About Steven still missing. About the others’ reaction to Sol mentioning Talia. And about Catherine sitting there like she was shell-shocked.

“We weren’t planning on it.” Jonah squeezed my knee.

“It’s totally up to you.” Moon shrugged. “This session is really for Grace, anyway.”

“What do you mean?” The cheese burned the roof of my mouth, but I couldn’t stop myself from wolfing it down.

“It’s an amends.” Moon took the wine from Sol, poured herself a big glass. “For what she did last time.”

“You mean…”

“As the sorcerer.” Moon gave me a tight smile, as if she was tired of explaining it. She stood and leaned to pour me a glass, which I wasn’t planning on touching. She then poured one for Jonah, who took a sip.

My mind spun as Sol and Moon kept up the chatter throughout dinner. Grace seemed perfectly normal, smiling and even ribbing Sol at points.

This session had to do with the conversation I’d overheard. Didn’t it?

Sol’s voice arose in my head:You’re the bravest person I ever met. No one would’ve expected that you’d be able to do this. The others, they think you’re a coward. But I know what you’re capable of.

This was it, then. The thing that Grace’s body was telling her to be afraid to do.

“We’ll attend.” I pushed my leg into Jonah’s. “Wouldn’t miss it.” After all, Jonah held the trump card: a gun. If anything started happening that didn’t feel right, we’d be able to stop it.

Even my worst fear—getting trapped down there—wouldn’t happen. Not with a gun that could help us bust through a flimsy wooden door.

“Great.” Moon beamed at me.

Catherine looked up at me. She hadn’t touched her food. Her eyes were still deadened, exhausted. But now they also looked sad.

“You sure you want to do this?” Jonah asked. We were in the courtyard. Everyone else—barring Steven and Karen—was down in the cave. The square of the sky above was deepening into a royal blue as the sun set, the stars already shining bright. For a second I was reminded of the end ofStargirl: Thuya on a spaceship, getting ready to take revenge on the queen. Had Catherine dreamed that part too?

“Yeah.” I forced myself to focus. “You have the… thing, right?”

He lifted his baggy sweatshirt; there it was, holstered to his belt. Itlooked fake, like a stage prop. I had the sudden urge to grab it, just to know what it’d feel like in my hands. He let his shirt drop.

“Do you think this is, like, dangerous?” I asked. “Like, where is Steven?”

“I don’t know.” He shook his head. “Look, we can skip this session if you feel weirded out.”

“I do. But that’s why I want to go to it. I don’t want anything bad to happen to Grace. Or Catherine.” I glanced at the sculpture of the woman’s eyeless face and shivered.

“What do you think will happen?”

“I don’t know. But she sounded scared, Jonah. About this ‘amends’ or whatever Moon called it.” I paused. “And why aren’t Moon and Sol doing fucking amends?They’rethe ones that supposedly killed Catherine and me, right?”

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