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I have to tell you something, I try to say around the rope, even though I can’t remember what it was.
“I’m so sorry, Edie. I’m so, so sorry. It is you, right?” he asks, and his voice cracks.
I want to comfort him. To tell him that I’m okay, even though it’s clear that I am not. He looks so afraid right now. I’ve never seen him this afraid before.
“We’re going to be all right. We’re going to get away from here. I’m going to save you,” he says, more to himself than me. He scuttles backward and brings up what I realize was a paddle, then leans over the side of the orange thing we’re riding on and paddles for all his might.
Inside my mind, things slide into place. My ties, our lifeboat. What I want to say to him.
He’s paddling so hard to nowhere that salt water is spraying my face.
And I remember.
Everything.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
The sound of helicopters in moonlight. One flits over to us and dips down like a dragonfly.
All this—again?
Men descend from the sky, only this time Asher helps me over to them. Strange hands grab me, fasten me down, and then hoist me up. I’m frantic until Asher’s brought up too—they let him sit beside me. They leave me tied.
I lose track of time. I can’t hear anything, and Asher’s buckled in. I wake up when we land with a bounce.
Men undo the latches that hold the gurney in place and bring it into a room. Somewhere. All I can really see is the ceiling—and I know with unflinching certainty and sadness that they are taking me away from the sea.
* * *
“Is there any other way?” Asher’s voice breaks through the fog inside my mind. I leave my eyes closed so that I can’t see anything, so that I can pretend that we’re still on the ocean. If I concentrate hard enough, I can still feel the waves rocking me.
“The fact that it is your child is the only thing that’s kept her alive this far. But even now the baby loses strength. When it dies, so will she,” says a voice that’s strange.
“This is wrong. ” Asher’s again. “I want it to be Anna. ”
“Anna’s the one that sent us. ” Stranger one again.
“She’s on the other side of the country. ” And stranger two. Both of them sound imperious.
There is a long pause. Long enough that I can almost convince myself I am back at sea, in the water’s cold embrace.
“What if she never forgives me?”
“Do, or don’t, the choice is yours. ” Stranger one sounds exhausted. “Anna told us not to force you. But dawn is near. ”
“And she won’t live to see another night if you delay. ” Stranger two sounds amused by Asher’s pain.
What’s hurting him? Instinct struggles to mount a response over lassitude, and wins. Whatever’s hurting him, I’ll kill it. I clench my fists and find my hands still tied. Asher places a calming hand atop my brow.
“Okay. Do it. Now. ”
“By the order of the Sanguine, and with the permission of Anna Arsov, progenitor of the Arsov Throne, I bind Edith Spence eternally to me, Raven of the Catacombs. ”
“No—wait—” Asher says.
But whatever he objects to, it’s too late. Something flows into my mouth. It tastes like salt, but it’s not water.
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
It felt like everything had changed when I woke up. I felt … healthy. Like a long fever had broken. And nothing hurt.
“Good morning, sunshine,” a voice said. I turned and found Anna standing right beside me. Her blond hair was unkempt, like she’d just woken up.
“Anna?” I leaned over to look past her, and then around at the rest of the strange room, in case I’d been pranked, and then returned my attention to her again. “How come you’re here?”
“Because I told them that if I weren’t by you when I woke up, I’d slaughter every single one of them. So they put my coffin over there. ” She pointed behind herself.
I looked past her. It didn’t look like a coffin. It looked like a lightproof, bombproof shipping container. Where the hell was I? And what time was it? How long had I been out? I remembered the life raft—and Asher and my child. I put my hand to my stomach as I said Asher’s name. “Where is he? Is he all right?”
“He’ll be here shortly. ”
“What’s going on? Why are you here?”
Anna took my warm hands gently in her cooler ones. “What he did, he did it for you. You both might regret it later, but he did what he thought was right at the time. Don’t be mad at him. ”
