“I need to talk to Blair. Alone. Let me into your place,” he said.
“No,” Cass answered. The top part of her nightgown fell open a bit and she snatched it back up, gathering the fabric in a fist. “It’s for your own good. Stay out of this, Ethan.”
“Why did Blair come to you? What does she want, Cass?” He felt his stomach clench and ache. Cass didn’t know the whole story; she was working with only half of the puzzle, and Ethan still wasn’t convinced Blair’s intentions were good. What prevented her from outing the survivors and keeping Teddy for herself?
“She wants us to help her get Teddy back...then she plans to escape the Island. But now I’ve already told you too much…you have to go.”
“I need to talk to Blair. Move, Cass.” He took a step toward the door, but she blocked his way.
“This does not concern you right now, Ethan. Whatever happens with Blair and me is none of your concern. After your father lost his position last night and the drama of Grant, maybe give this particular adventure a rest. Okay? Please understand. You need to back away from the door...”
Ethan acted out of instinct and out of panic. He put his hand out and grabbed Cass around the shoulder, and turned her into him. Then he leaned down and kissed her, spinning her into him and away from her door, positioning himself closest to the knob. He could feel her reacting to him, first with surprise, and then shifting into the kiss. There was not a single moment of resistance, although he had prepared for her to shy away from his lips and his touch. Instead, she kissed him back, and not the slow tentative kiss of someone unsure, but with the power and relief of someone who had wanted to kiss him for a long time. For a second, he forgot his place and his plan.
He felt his resolve shifting as he began to kiss her stronger and with more intensity; her lips were soft against his, her skin smooth under his touch. He let his hand wander to her waist. She touched his face.
Then he reached down with his free hand and found her doorknob. He pulled back and looked at her; a coy smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. She was amazing. And she had kissed him back. Ethan closed his eyes before he changed his mind, and then he was quick, possessing a certain agility that he did not know he had recovered. He turned the knob, opened the door to Cass’s apartment and darted inside, leaving his kissing partner dazed and confused in the hallway. By the time he saw her eyes flash with understanding, he was already standing on the other side of the door, shutting it swiftly. Then he hit the lock and stood back.
He could hear her banging with her fists, swearing at him in a jumble of French and Creole and English.
“Ethan King. This is a bad idea!” she called. “You don’t know what you’re doing!”
Blair sat crouched on Cass’s couch, her knees drawn up to her chest, her hair wild, and her eyes bloodshot. She looked at Ethan and then the door and glared at Ethan with a glacial disposition. Sitting on the coffee table in front of her were a series of Tarot cards. They were lined up and splayed out facing Blair, and he walked over and peered down at them. When he looked back up at Blair, she was wiping tears from her eyes.
“I don’t have long,” Ethan said quickly, putting up his hands like Blair was holding a gun at him. “So, please listen. Listen carefully.”
She looked like she was about to burst into sobs, but she didn’t fight him. Cass’s knocking died away as if she realized its futility.
“Did you tell Cass about the others?” Ethan asked, spitting the words out.
Blair narrowed her glare. Then she shook her head. “You don’t trust me...”
“You can’t tell her.”
“I...” Blair started. “I told her...just Teddy and I...” She was struggling to put her words out. Taking a deep breath, she grounded herself and stared right at Ethan. “I wanted to see if the cards were in my favor. Everything else Cass told me came true. She’s a prophet,” Blair whispered.
“She can’t know,” Ethan said. “If you’re serious about reuniting Teddy and Darla...” he looked at her and waited.
“I am,” Blair answered. She sniffed. “I am.”
“Good,” Ethan said. “Cass can’t know. You have to protect her at all costs. You understand?”
She swallowed. “Cass told me that you’d want to keep Teddy...”
“Cass doesn’t know about Darla. And she should never find out. There’s a reason she’s in the hallway and I’m in here. This is about Teddy. And if your father ever finds out she helped him escape...”
Blair looked at the floor. Cass’s knocking resumed.
“Blair...” Ethan asked again. “Help me save Cass. Don’t tell her a damn thing.”
“Yes,” she said, but it came out like a squeak. “Yes,” she said again, stronger this time. “I have a pilot. That’s all I can offer. His name is Hank. I negotiated for him to leave, too. He has a wife who was left behind...she missed her plane…my dad didn’t let him go back for her. He wants to go to her. Just to see. From there...I don’t know.”
“Are you going?”
She went silent. “I don’t know,” she whispered. She looked up at Ethan, and then leaned down and touched one of the cards Cass had laid out for her. The cards were set up in a cross pattern, and Blair kept her finger on the middle card. “I don’t think I should,” she replied. “This one...this one says that in the physical realm I am needed to help change the tide of a great battle.” She picked it up and then put it back down. “And this one...says my spiritual energy is being zapped by someone who rules over me.” She looked up to Ethan, pleading. “If he thinks he’s lost me, too...Kymberlin will never know peace. If I want the best for Teddy and Darla and…the others? My father would never recover. I want to go,” Blair said, her eyes filling with tears again, “but I can’t. I’m doomed and destined to remain here...”
“I can make it work,” Ethan said. “You say the word.”
“No,” Blair said again. “You don’t know what he’d do. You’ve never seen his grief firsthand. I’ve lived it my entire life.”
Cass had resorted to a steady knock-knock-knock every second.
Ethan started back to the door. “I need your pilot in the Remembering Room in an hour. Not a word. I need you to promise. Please, Blair, Cass can’t know.”
“You love her?” Blair said, and she nodded toward the door.
At first Ethan didn’t understand, and then he turned back to Blair and shook his head. “I could have. In a different world.” He stepped back up out of the sunken living room and unlocked Cass’s door. He opened it wide and waited for the onslaught of her wrath. Still clutching her silky black bathrobe in one hand, her other hand poised in midair, Cass looked at him.
Without a word, she unclenched her hand and in one big swoop slapped Ethan across the face. Rubbing his jaw, he took a step toward her, his hands out in front of him in supplication, but Cass glided past, her shoulder hitting his arm as she moved past him and into her house. She slammed the door behind him.
Ethan knew right where to go. He left Cass’s apartment and wandered back to the North Tower, then he went to the levels that housed the science and industry labs and made his way to his father’s lab. Although his father had been stripped of his clearance, Huck wouldn’t have taken his lab away yet. And without anywhere else to hide, it was the only place Scott could have disappeared to. Ethan walked past the guards and knocked on the unassuming white door down a brightly lit hallway. Scott’s name was still there in a brass plaque, although it looked like someone had tried to pry the plate off with a sharp object: there were deep scratches at the corners.