Page 52

A tta sat numbly in the car, barely registering where Gibbs was driving to.

She’d been so dissociated that, at some point, Sonder made Gibbs pull over, and he climbed in the back seat with her.

“Talk to me, a stór .”

“If only we’d been there sooner.”

She watched his chest rise and fall in her periphery as Dublin proper passed by. “You can’t do that to yourself.” His words were so gentle it made her want to weep.

“But if we’d left earlier. . . We were—” She abruptly cut herself off, unsure if it was out of embarrassment, shame, or not wanting to say anything that would lead him to believe she regretted what they’d been doing that morning. “We were frivolous with our time this morning.”

He brought one of his arms around her and scooted her until her thigh was flush against his. “No, we weren’t. We’d only just heard of this man at all, and we showed up exactly when we were asked to. Twelve minutes early, actually.” She rested her head on his shoulder, staring ahead at the back of Gibbs’s hair. “Just because someone else is dying doesn’t mean the rest of the world has to stop living. That would spit in the face of the days they did have. Don’t get lost in if-only’s. Today was not a total failure. You trapped a faerie—for good. We can study it now.”

“They hunt for pairs.”

Sonder stiffened and Gibbs caught her eyes in the rearview. “Pardon?”

She picked at her thumbnail. “The Fae. To be fully successful, they need a host and then another person to provide the nourishment. Seed in the soil—the sacrifice—then a living host to make it flourish. Ms McDonough had her son, Lauren had her roommate, and Mr Byrne had his wife.” She didn’t mention Sonder’s parents, not with Gibbs around, but one glance at his face showed he was adding them to the list as well.

“, then you saved Mr Byrne’s wife. That faerie was almost successful. You saw how close it was. And now we’re one step closer to figuring out why this is happening and how to stop it.”

“ has a theory,” Gibbs piped up from the front seat.

“Oh?” Sonder looked at her with one brow raised.

“You didn’t tell him?”

glared at Gibbs in the rearview. “I’m beginning to think they aren't just possessing people. It isn’t that they want to walk around as us in the flesh, but they want our world.” She let her words sink in as Sonder’s brows furrowed, but he remained silent. “I think their world is dying.”

She didn’t need to explain why she thought that. Gibbs didn’t know about her visions, and he already thought the two of them mental enough. “The reason they’re using flora is to make a suitable environment for their species.”

“ ‘Humans in the crucible’ ,” Sonder quoted.

nodded. “Humans are the soil.”

They rode on in silence until Gibbs pulled up to the treeline outside Achilles House. “I have to gather some things Lynch asked me for.” He tossed Sonder the keys. “Be back in a couple of hours and I’ll take you home.”

The pair of them climbed into the front seats and it reminded of their nights spent in her car or his Capri. He took her hand in his as they drove, a comfort and balm. It wasn’t until he pulled into campus that her anxiety came flooding back.

“I’m not supposed to be here.”

Sonder took the keys out of the ignition. “Have you gotten this far by following the rules, ?”

“I could be arrested if Lynch finds out I was here.”

“He won’t call the Garda. I told you, Agamemnon functions by council.” He squeezed her thigh right above her knee, and she was momentarily distracted, but it didn’t last long. “But this is Trinity business, not Agamemnon business.”

A sad smile lifted the corners of his mouth. “Darling, it’s all the same. You weren’t expelled because you traipsed through the cemetery. You were expelled because your ideas scare the Society. We scare them. If we eradicate this plague separate from Agamemnon, then we disembowel everything they’ve done.”

“The public may not know Agamemnon’s name, but we all know of the secret society that claims they’ve made great strides for Ireland,” she argued.

“But they’ve never before claimed they would do away with something like this, something so massive. If they aren’t first, the public will lose their faith. HPSC will take a hit. Politicians will take a hit. ”

“Good,” punctuated the word.

Sonder ran a knuckle down her cheek. “But not for them. We threaten their foundation.”

“They’re going to figure out it’s us. Me, at least.”

“Probably.”

“And what will we do?”

“We’ll figure it out.”

“ How ?”

“I don’t have the answers—right now. But I will.” A sly grin spread across his face, and she knew it was intended to make her laugh, but it didn’t work. “We’ve only just begun doing whatever it is we’re doing. We’re still figuring out what that is. And while we figure it out, failures will come. The Inhabitations will continue to come; the Society will continue to come. We have to continue to come forward. Not give up.”

After a long moment of silence, gathered her resolve. “All right.”

“There she is.” He smiled and leaned across the car to kiss her cheek. “I want to show you something.”

The campus was quiet, even for a Sunday. Very few students milled about and they spotted no other faculty as Sonder led to Freeman Library.

Several students were hunched over desks trying to finish up assignments at the last minute. There was an ache in ’s chest as she passed them. She’d been so busy down the rabbit hole of faeries and exorcisms that she hadn’t paused to consider that she should be one of these students.

Christ, had it only been a week since she’d been expelled? It felt like ages and no time at all.

Sonder walked to a door situated in the back corner that had never noticed before and produced one of the several keys on his chain, letting her inside.

The tiny room was a mess of disassembled books. A work table stood in the centre with an apparatus of wood and screws, surrounded by spools of thread and other materials, and it sandwiched a bare-pages book within its wooden slats.

“Is this a bindery?”

Sonder closed the door and walked around the work table. “This is where I come when I’m trapped on campus but need to get away.”

“You bind books when you’re upset?” she teased, secretly pleased that he had cheered her up.

“I do. It’s just mindful enough to keep your mind empty.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “I also play banjo.” He smiled, his cheeks turning pink above his beardline.

“What?” sputtered.

“When I’m upset, I play the banjo.”

“Oh, I have to see that.” She felt her face stretch with a wide smile.

“Come here, and I’ll first show you how to bind a book.”

As he’d said, the process took just enough concentration to leave her mind blank, save for the thoughts his hands on hers brought about as he guided her in certain steps.

“Do you think Gibbs is through yet?” They’d re-bound an old, tattered copy of Jane Eyre and was feeling quite a lot more grounded. “We need to get that faerie back to begin studying it.” The footwell of the car was probably not the best place to keep a mythical creature.

They’d only been outside Achilles House for a few moments when Gibbs came rushing toward the car, looking over his shoulder anxiously as if something were chasing him.

“We need to go,” he whispered harshly, fumbling with the door to close it. “, get down.”

She wasted no time ducking in the backseat, and Sonder wasted no time kicking up gravel as they sped off.

“What’s happened?” he questioned when they were out on the main road and popped back upright.

Gibbs took off his glasses to wipe them on his shirt. “You need to get to Achilles as soon as you can. Your absence has been noticed, and Lynch is on a warpath. Word is already spreading about the death this afternoon. They sent Vasilios to speak with the widow and field any news crews that decide to show up, but they’re on the lookout for who’s fucking with Agamemnon’s precious reputation.”

“I’ll drop the pair of you off at the manor and head straight in,” Sonder said diplomatically.

bit her lip, thinking through everything being said. The risks still seemed as if they were outweighing the rewards, but in her heart of hearts, she knew that wasn’t true.

The prize, the prize , that fairytale voice hummed, always comes with sacrifice .