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We had been hiking for forty minutes when my phone—which had thankfully not been destroyed—chimed with a text message alert. Then another, and another, and another.
Theo looked at me with raised eyebrows and a slight smile. "You're popular."
"I have a signal!" I fumbled in my pocket and pulled it out. Five messages from Vanessa and two from Raheem. I opened Vanessa's message thread. Good morning! Checking in. You okay? You PROMISED you'd update me. And finally: Should I be worried?
Clingy, Lilin remarked dryly.
Shut up, I replied. Out loud, I said, "I'm going to call Vanessa to come get us."
“Maybe we need to stay here,” Theo said. “Is there, like, a Hell portal? Some place where the space-time continuum is weaker, or something?”
Julian stopped in his tracks and gave him a look of disbelief. “No.”
“It’s a reasonable question,” I said defensively. “I don’t want to jeopardize finding Luca.”
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“Okay.” I felt like stomping with exasperation. “Then how does it work? Because I’m kind of at a loss here.”
There was a long silence as Julian started walking again, his feet scuffling slightly louder than a few moments ago. Finally he said, "Who's Vanessa?"
"She's my very good friend," I said. "Who happens to be excellent at keeping secrets."
“So it’s okay to leave,” Theo persisted, nudging Julian’s arm. “You didn’t say.”
Julian grunted, picking up his pace. “We have to regroup,” he mumbled.
"Hey." Theo sped up to a trot. "Don't steal my light. I can't handle another injury."
"You have your own lantern," Julian reminded him, but he slowed down a little.
"I’m calling. Both of you be quiet," I instructed, as a third signal bar appeared on my screen. I hit the call button.
Halfway through the second ring, Vanessa answered. "Are you dead?" she demanded, by way of greeting.
"Good guess," Theo muttered beside me.
"No," I said.
"Oh, thank God." I heard the sound of Vanessa's head hitting the pillow. "Did you just have really great sex?"
My face heated, and I hurried to turn the volume down on the phone, but I heard Julian's snort.
"No," I lied. "V. Come on."
"Just trying to figure out why you're calling me at two in the morning," she said, yawning. "You don't need me to bail you out of jail, do you?"
I grimaced. "Not exactly."
"What?" She suddenly sounded more awake. "What's going on?"
I sighed. "How do you feel about a road trip?"
By the time we reached the outskirts of town, the sun was rising, and I could see exactly how atrocious we all looked.
"We can't go anywhere like this," I said, taking in Theo's new, intact-but-filthy shirt and Julian's bloodstained, sooty face. "We'll get arrested."
