Finn curled into fists at his sides.He didn't know how to answer.
"I don't know," Finn muttered.
He didn't know what he was allowed to want.Everstill had a way of taking away all their thoughts until they no longer cared what happened.He wanted to protect her, but letting the others see how much Kallie meant to him could backfire.
Moe blinked slowly."Doesn't matter either way."
That indifference seared Finn right through the chest.Kallie fucking mattered, even if he struggled with what to do with her.
He stepped back, needing to get away from Moe's emptiness before it swallowed him whole.There were things Moe never noticed.The days.The way Finn slipped away, making sure he counted them.
Moe was unaware of the turmoil Finn was going through.Or, he didn't care.He simply nodded again and walked away, returning to whatever task he'd been doing before.
Finn stared at the spot where Moe had been.Kallie had done something to him.He questioned his place in Everstill as the others were content to wake each morning and do the same damn thing.They were getting worse while he was regaining parts of himself.
How was that possible?Could the food that showed up regularly be poisoning them all?Was it the air they breathed that stripped them of their memories?
Or was it Kallie?
Had her arrival weakened the hold Everstill had on him?Was she his way out?
He turned away from the street, the men, and the town that had kept him numb for so long.He walked toward the tree line.She came back for him.He squeezed his eyes shut, his breath shaking.He didn't know how to handle this.
All he knew was that he couldn't go back inside yet.
Finn walked until the tightness in his chest dulled and he could inhale without choking.Then, he changed directions.He needed answers.
He needed someone who'd been here longer than anyone else.Copper.
Finn found him in the restaurant kitchen, standing over a simmering pot on the stove.The place smelled of onions and broth, the same scent that had clung to Copper for as long as Finn had known him.The older man didn't look up when Finn stepped inside.
Finn cleared his throat.
Copper turned off the burner with a slow twist of his wrist.He set the spoon aside, wiped his hands on a towel, and finally looked at Finn with his pale, unreadable eyes."You look troubled."
Finn swallowed hard."Has a woman ever walked through the veil before?"
Copper folded the towel neatly, set it on the counter, and leaned back against the stove with a slow, deliberate exhale."Yeah."
Finn's heart kicked hard in his chest."What happened?"
Copper's gaze drifted past him, as if he were looking at something far away or checking whether the others could hear him."She came here a long time ago, before you arrived.She was young and determined, much like the one who arrived today."
Finn's pulse quickened, hope flickering to life before he could stop it.
Copper continued emotionlessly."She tried to convince Noah to leave with her."
Noah?He hadn't met anyone by that name.
"Did they make it out?"Finn asked, trying and failing to keep the urgency out of his voice.
Copper's expression never changed."The veil opened."
Finn's chest tightened.Maybe there was a way he could take Kallie out of here.He could go with her."And?"
Copper looked at him with the same calm, hollow stare."Noah died trying to go through with her."
Finn exhaled harshly."And the girl?Did she die?"
