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“Why are you bringing this up now?” I meet the professor’s eyes. Amber flickers in them.

“Because I’m trying to remind you that we’ve been to hell and back together. The three of us. We can’t turn on each other now.” He pauses then adds, “Plus, like Kole said, Nova will kick our sorry butts if she comes back and finds us at each other’s throats. And I don’t want an angry girlfriend or an all-powerful witch coming after me. Do you?”

5

SAM

The others are freaking out. I can see it in their faces, and you don’t need to be an empath to figure out they’re torn between overwhelming grief at the thought of losing Nova completely and anger at themselves for doubting she’ll come back to us.

Perhaps I should be freaking out too. I’ll admit, when Kole appeared in the woods looking like he’d just seen the worst horror of his life, I felt sick to my stomach. The idea of her being gone, and the thought of her burning like that, made me want to vomit.

But I can’t feel what they’re feeling because I know she’s okay.

Maybe it’s because I went to hell and came back. Maybe it’s because this entire thing—the prophecy, and the visions, and the rising of the underworld—is so crazy it has to be true. Maybe it’s because I lived twenty years waiting to be reunited with her, believing she was alive even when I should have believed she was dead.

Whatever the reason, I feel calm. All we have to do is be patient. She will come back.

I’m staring out at the lake, standing with my toes in the shallow water when Tanner appears at my side. He’s holding two pieces of blue string and offers one to me. “Mack made these.”

I hold it up. The ring I gave Nova dangles in front of me. At the same time, Tanner and I fasten our necklaces. “The others are going to try and get some sleep,” he says. “You want to come inside?”

“Not yet.” I look at Tanner sideways then—despite it being freezing cold and the middle of the night—I tug off my shirt and drop it to the ground.

“You want to swim? Right now? Really?”

“No,” I tell him. “But you need to.” I reach down and unfasten my belt. “You need to clear your head.”

“I can’t, Sam, not now.” He looks out at the water and his face creases strangely at the sides. Usually, when he looks at the lake, I see relief in his eyes. Now, there’s nothing but darkness.

“She wouldn’t want you to suffer like this.” I stand in front of him, blocking his view of the water.

Tanner’s eyes drift to my chest. My scars catch the muted moonlight. The silvery skin glistens. He reaches out and presses his thumb to the one just below my collarbone. “Alright.” He steps back and, finally, starts to undress.

Quickly, we both pull our pants over our ankles and wade in. The lake is freezing. Without Nova to warm it, my teeth start chattering straight away but Tanner seems immune.

“How are you not shivering?” I ask, moving my arms and legs quickly through the water in an effort to keep myself turning blue with the cold.

“Thick skin,” Tanner says. “Water mage perk.” He looks at me and chuckles. “Come on,” he says. “That’s enough. You’ll freeze to death if we stay in here.”

“But you—”

“I already feel better,” he says, lying through his non-chattering teeth. “Job done, so come on.” He turns and swims back to shore. I follow pathetically slowly.

“You know,” I tell him as we stride up onto the beach, “I’m surprised I still know how to swim.”

Tanner scoops up his clothes and turns to me, raising an eyebrow.

“I spent years in captivity, too, Tanner. Last time I went swimming properly, before fooling about in the lake with you all, I was four years old.”

“I still owe Nova some lessons,” Tanner says. “I’ll give you a discount if you book a double session.”

“How could I refuse an offer like that?” I’m flirting with him, but perhaps that’s what we both need. I move a little closer.

Tanner looks at me for a moment. A smile murmurs on his lips, but it disappears when he says, “Sam, I get that you’re ‘zen’ about Nova coming back. But are you really okay with everything else too?” He pauses, his eyes softening a little. “I feel like, maybe, you’re not letting yourself absorb it all. It happened so quickly.”

I laugh and look away from him. Something bubbles in the pit of my stomach. The blanket of calm that was hugging me has loosened. A breeze is drifting in. I try to shake it, but the way Tanner is looking at me is making it almost impossible. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” I try to laugh again but this time it catches in my throat.

“Sam, we haven’t talked about your mom or about Nico.” Tanner meets my eyes. “You can’t just bury it. It’ll come to the surface eventually. What was it you said about secrets?”