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Staying quiet, I just work my jaw with irritation because I’m uncertain, and I hate not knowing.
Ro and I slowly shuffle down the main aisle.
On either side of us, there are rows of benches facing an altar. As we get closer to the raised stage-like platform, I see a long table.
Suddenly, Ro grasps my hand and squeezes it so tightly, I’m afraid she might injure her own knuckles. Her pulse is fast—I feel it through the veins in her palm.
“What’s going on?” I ask, noting the way she’s staring at the scene ahead with horror on her face.
I look forward, searching for obvious dangers, when Ro finally whispers, “Frosted glass.”
“The glass table?” I’m very confused at her reaction.
Shaking her head, she swallows so hard I can hear it. “No. That’s not a table. It’s a casket, and I recognize it. Zay—” Her breath hitches with a sob. “Zaylee’s in there.”
Ro
“Are you certain?” Kai doesn’t want it to be true, but I know it is.
“Yes.” When I look closely, the dark outline of a body inside the casket is impossible to miss. “This is what Armand showed me when he said I could see my family as they are now.”
Several vases of glass flowers surround the vessel. They’re not roses. The petals are pointy, like lilies, and they’re the same color as the casket. A semi-opaque grayish white.
As I gaze at the setup that resembles a funeral, grief punches me in the gut. Nausea swims in my stomach. My heart is both heavy with devastation and light with panicked fluttering.
I’m woozy.
Gripping Kai for support, I sway on my feet. “Don’t you see what that means? We’re in the present. The first challenge was in the past, but this isnow. This is happening. It’s real.”
When Kai realizes I’m making sense, he closes his eyes for a second as if it pains him. “Past, present, and future. It’s likely Armand would follow a pattern. He probably takes great pleasure in watching the contestants of his game figure it out and experience the consequent dread.”
“I have to see Zaylee.” I take a step forward, but Kai grabs my arm to stop me.
“Let me be the one to check it out, okay?”
“No.”
“It’s only going to hurt you.”
True, but I owe Zaylee this—my attention, my mourning. Because what did her life amount to if I’m not even willing to look at her one more time?
“Maybe this challenge isn’t about your strength.” My voice wavers because I’m trying not to cry. “Maybe it’s about mine. Armand never said we wouldn’t each be tested.”
Stepping in close, Kai places a quick kiss of comfort on my lips. “We’ll go together, then. You’re not alone.”
Grateful to have him by my side, I hug his waist as we eat up the distance between us and the casket.
After I climb the three stairs, I hover over the glass top and bravely peer inside at the beautiful face of my innocent granddaughter.
“It’s her,” I confirm, giving into the tears that want to come.
Two big drops fall from my face onto the glass.
Kai rubs my back, and his voice is filled with sympathy when he says, “Oh, Sunny. This is an immeasurable loss. I’m so sorry.”
I’m the one who should be sorry.
Because I failed Zaylee. I don’t know what I could’ve done differently to save her, but if I’d known the answer, I would’ve done it. I would’ve done anything.
