Now, sitting beside Charlie in the church pew, I fumble with how to feel. I don’t want this pain for Charlie, but it helps to know Grams’s soul is where it belongs. Though Charlie hasn’t mentioned it, I know she realizes what I did, and I also know it’s helped her cope.
I run my hand over the back of Charlie’s head, and her eyes slip closed. My touch seems to bring her comfort, so I never take my hands away. When the pastor gives the eulogy, I trace circles over her back. When several of Grams’s friends speak from behind the podium, I squeeze each of her individual fingers, all ten of them, over and over. And when finally the organist begins playing, and people around us whisper the word cancer, I run my fingertips over the back of her neck.
I do all of this for her.
But I also do it for myself. Because seeing Grams in a coffin is destroying me.
Hours later, when Grams has finally been laid to rest, Charlie and I walk hand in hand toward a black sedan. Valery and Max are in a car behind us, and Annabelle, Aspen, and Blue keep their distance in a vehicle a few yards back. After I’ve tucked Charlie into the seat, Valery makes a motion for me to join her. I don’t want to leave Charlie, not now, but I also realize every moment we spend in Peachville is a risk in itself. It’s a wonder the collectors haven’t descended on us already.
I duck my head into the sedan. “I’m going to talk to Red for a minute. Will you be okay?”
Charlie stares ahead, her face absent of makeup, her slight frame shrouded in black. She nods.
I run my hand over her hair once, then I shut the door and make my way toward Valery and Max. While walking in their direction, Aspen catches my eye. It reminds me that I have questions for her. Questions like, Who the hell taught you to fight? But that’s a mystery for another time.
When I get nearer to Valery, I notice her eyes are puffy and swollen, though her mascara-junk is pristine. Max touches Red’s arm like he’s trying to console her, but she doesn’t reciprocate.
“I’m sorry about Charlie’s guardian,” Valery says.
“Why are you saying that to me?” I respond. “She wasn’t my family.”
Red purses her lips. “I know you cared about her.”
I glance back at the car Charlie is in and shrug. “We need to get her out of here.” My chest aches saying this aloud. Like Charlie, I don’t want to go anywhere. Because it feels like if we leave, it’s really over. Grams is really gone.
Valery nods. “What do you want to do, Dante?”
“You’re asking me?”
She turns her palms up.
I run a hand over the back of my neck. Should I tell her what I’m thinking? What I’d really like to do? Or should I keep it to myself so she doesn’t interrupt my plan? Eyeing the newly etched gravestone to my right, I decide to trust Valery the way Grams did me.
“I want to get Charlie’s soul back.” I straighten. “I’m going to get her soul back.”
Maybe I’m mistaken, but I imagine I see the corner of Val’s mouth twitch upward.
“Won’t Rector have already turned her soul in downstairs?” Max puts in.
Red meets my gaze. “Probably so.”
I swallow what she’s saying…what I already suspected. “Her soul is in hell.”
Valery doesn’t even blink. “Yes.”
“Then that’s where I’ll go.” I say the words, but I’m not sure I really think about what it will be like—the beast with the gaping mouth or the room of nightmares.
“What?” Max gasps.
“Good,” Valery says, clearly smiling now.
Max looks at his fiancée—ex-fiancée?—like she’s lost her freaking mind. “Am I the only sane one here? What are we even talking about? We keep Charlie safe. She does her job on earth and lives a long life. That’s the deal.”
“And then what?” I bark.
Max flinches. “And then she’ll—”
“And then she’ll join her soul in hell for all eternity, Max.”
He sighs and shakes his head. “So that’s our only option? We send you, my best friend, into hell where they’ll slaughter you on sight?”
“We’ll prepare him,” Valery says.
“Yeah? How’s that?” Max is pacing now, running his hands through his hair.
Valery looks me in the eye. “At our training facility—at the Hive.”
I remember overhearing Red mentioning the Hive at the Birmingham Airport, but I have no idea what it is. Doesn’t matter. It sounds like we’re on the same page, and that’s all I need. “Will this place help get me into hell unnoticed? Our shadow doesn’t work down there, you know.”
She raises an overplucked brow. “They’ll help you,” she says. “Just get Charlie packed, and I’ll meet you at her house in a half hour.”
I motion toward the car a few lengths back, where Aspen, Annabelle, and Blue linger. “What about them?”
“Aspen will come, too, so you can complete your assignment,” she says. I don’t tell her that I’d demand she come, that after liberating Grams’s soul I can’t imagine not doing the same for Aspen. “Blue also,” Valery continues. “He’s one of us.”
“And Annabelle?” I ask.
“She has no place there, Dante. She’s better off far away from us until everything is safe.”
I shake my head. “Annabelle has to come. She knows too much. The collectors could use her to get to Charlie.”
Valery’s face falls like she hadn’t thought of this. Then she glances at Max. He shrugs. “Bring her then,” she says with a hint of defeat. “I’ll talk to her parents. Reference a school field trip or something.”
Wet grass squishes under my heel as I turn and head toward Charlie. For once, I don’t waste time asking more questions. I just want to make progress. As I slide into the seat next to my girlfriend, I wonder how much to tell her. Just enough, I decide. Secrets in a relationship are never good, even I know that, but if she knew I wanted to steal her soul back from hell, she’d flip. So I tell her we’re headed to some place called the Hive, another one of Val’s mysteries. And that we’ll be safe there.
She agrees to go. Or rather, she doesn’t protest.
My arm slips around her shoulder, and I pull her against my side. Charlie lays her head on my shoulder, and I kiss the crown of her head. Her hair is cool beneath my lips. Even in Alabama, winter has made a full appearance, and though there isn’t snow like there was in Denver, the air still has a cold bite. I run my hand over the top of her head and then over her ears, trying to warm her body. Then I tell the driver we’re ready.
We take off toward Charlie’s neighborhood, where an empty house waits.
Happy holidays.
…
Later that evening, after packing everyone’s things and catching a flight to Oregon, we’re nearly at the Hive. Valery, Max, Charlie, and I are in a black SUV in front, and Blue, Annabelle, and Aspen follow along behind us. Our two matching vehicles make us look like we’re Mafiosi, and if we hadn’t had such a gut-wrenching morning, I’m sure Max and I would be cracking jokes.
Red steers our car down a dirt path that’s crooked as the devil’s backbone. When I spot the place Valery says is the Hive, I’m not sure how to react. In my head, I’d imagined a vast fortress-like home, one with a massive gate and soaring doors and guards in uniform. Maybe a moat too, because that’d be totally kickass.
Instead, I see a house that’s enjoyed one too many lines of freebase crack. The entire estate is enormous, but that’s the only part that meets my expectations. Gables rise up in sporadic spots like zits, and the entire place is a painter’s canvas: one piece blue, another yellow, another green, and a small area in the back shaded deep purple. Dozens of lights dot the outside, as if the owner is afraid guests might pass the house altogether and drive straight into the sea.