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I smiled at them. “She tries hard. Hold on, I have to get my herbs. We might need them.”
“Your mother packed them.” Freddie held up a box. “I’ll carry them with my stuff. I think we’re ready to go. We just need you to say your goodbyes and then we can go.”
Truett frowned. “We’ll see you outside.”
It sounded sort of permanent, but I had every intention of coming back. When I’d traveled with them to get the mothman, I hadn’t said my goodbyes first. We just sort waved, knowing I was coming right back.
So why does this feel different?
I didn’t want to overthink it, so I stepped inside quickly. Walter played in his crib, and I bent over to kiss him. It really did help that I’d seen him live to adulthood. He was going to be fine, whatever happened to the rest of us. My father slept on the couch. I hadn’t noticed the degree to which he was constantly drunk. How long had it been going on, and why hadn’t I paid attention? I did the same for him as for Walter. In some ways, these days, they really were the same.
With that thought, I sought out Mama. She stood by the window, staring outside at the backyard.
“I don’t know if it’s going to make apples this year. This might be one of those years it doesn’t.”
I’d opened my mouth, and that was what came out. She turned around to embrace me. “Listen to me, this is important. I think they are good people. I’ve been watching them. They’re burdened in ways I don’t think you understand yet. How could you? You’re only just starting to see things. But they’re good people. Make them be good to you, do you understand? Make them make you happy. Do better with that than I did.”
What did she mean? She hugged me and then she let go, exiting the room fast.
“I’m coming back,” I shouted after her, but she didn’t answer me. It was a little bit like I’d fallen off the roof. I walked in a daze back outside where the breeze hit me again. It felt colder, so I shivered.
Truett stroked a finger down my face. I didn’t know how he could touch me tenderly and still look so remote, as though he had no feelings about what he’d done. “Are you okay? You’re shivering.”
“I’m okay.” I rubbed my arms. “Just…I feel like something just shifted. Hard to explain.”
To his credit, he just nodded. “Ride with me until you feel better. You were going to go with Oliver, but I want him on our flank. He’s best at it.”
I thought about arguing, but Truett was being nice. I should take advantage of the moment. He was the one who was arranging for me to come back there again. I needed Truett on my side. Plus, maybe we should talk about the kiss so we could put it behind us. Or something. “Thank you.”
He got on his horse, a beautiful brown one with smart eyes, and then offered me his hand, which I took to climb on in front of him. He wrapped me in a blanket. It wasn’t cold, but he was right, I still shivered a little.
“Want to ride with me?” Oliver asked Charlie, who laughed.
“No, I’m fine. I can stay on my horse now.” He rolled his eyes. “I’m more likely to keep you upright.”
I sighed. The machismo was really on display right at that second. Ignoring it, I spoke to Charlie. “If you have pain, let me know.”
“Don’t tell him that.” Oliver grinned. “He wants your attention, so he’s going to fake pain from now on. Oh, Sloane, fix me. Fix me.”
With that, Oliver rode ahead, leaving us behind. We were in the center of the formation. Charles was also in front of us, and Freddie was behind us. He also had my horse attached to his, and she seemed just as happy as ever.
“This is really my secret way of keeping you from disappearing on your horse,” Truett said to me, and I grinned. That was true. I couldn’t run from them if I was on his horse.
“That vision, it had to be awful for you guys to see. Pascal died.” So had Jayne, Hannah, and Caroline. I didn’t want to ever see it again, and I shuddered at the memory.
Truett took a moment to answer me. “It’s awful, of course, but it’s also good because we’re going to stop it now. He won’t die, because we’ll get there, and we’ll tell them, too. All the Warriors will work together to take them down. I’ve never seen them that big.”
“They almost looked like the mom and dad to the ones you guys killed before the ritual.”
He squeezed me a bit. “I don’t know if they have parents. I don’t know anything about them. I just kill them or I watch people die. Over and over. They come, and we fight them. People die. Eventually, we’ll die, too.”
Well, I hoped it wasn’t that simple. I didn’t want that fate for them. It was my job to keep them safe. To tell them what was coming, and I was as completely out of my depth in controlling what I saw as they were in knowing what was coming without me.
“Did you prefer it when you didn’t have me? I’m not trying to rehash a fight or discomfort, by the way. How did you handle it when you didn’t have a gifted person? Like, how did you fight monsters?”
The wind blew harder, and I was grateful for the blanket he’d wrapped around me. “Believe it or not, monsters seem to be attracted to Warriors. A person can go their whole lives and never see one. I mean…how many have come around here? The one we stopped two days ago and then how many?”
“Just the one I saw as a kid. Carissa’s group took care of them…they wear green.” That was the best way I could describe it.
