Page 136 of The Last Session

“Yeah.” It’s finally happening. Moon has for whatever reason declared that Grace is the good sister who offered to sacrifice herself. I wondered if she would have let Clint watch the ceremony, given what’s going to happen.

“Seriously, call me anytime.” He sits beside me. “I’ll fly back from New York if you need me. Yeah?”

“Sure.”

He kisses me. “They don’t get to control you, you know.”

“I know.”

“Here.” Karen sets a bowl in front of me. “Hon, you need to eat. You didn’t have anything for dinner.”

I nod, unable to speak. Moon just shoved Thea into the hole, and now everyone is shoveling food into their mouths. We’re having a nice little late-night snack. Disposing of people is apparently hard work. Moon is chatting about something, her tone normal. My brain refuses to translate the words; they sound like a foreign language. Whatever Sol made me take seems to be wearing off, but slowly.

The loop keeps playing in the back of my mind like a flickering TV screen: Thea’s arms pincered by Jonah and Sol. Her shrill screams echoing in the rocky chamber. The sound abruptly cutting off as her head disappears into the water.

I raise a spoonful of beans to my mouth, but my lips won’t open. Karen continues to watch me across the table. She still looks awful. Joe looks dazed, eyes glassy like he’s high, which maybe he is. Steven stares down at his plate. He’s moving his food around but only pretending to eat. Is this how he felt after Talia? Wondering why he didn’t do anything to stop it?

I touch the diamond at my throat. Before the session where Grace pushed me in, Moon asked for it, saying metals couldn’t be near the vortex. Maybe she wanted a memento to rememberme by. But tonight she grabbed it from the altar and it’s back around my neck, like a shackle.

Sol watches me, eyes at half-mast. He looks unconcerned, but I know that’s a trick. He’s always lying in wait, a snake waiting to strike.

“You okay, dear?” he asks.

I manage to understand his words, to nod.

“I know that wasn’t easy.”

Moon glances at him sharply. “It was beautiful, Sol. We didn’t have enough time to help Thea understand, but it had to happen. And you can already feel it, can’t you?” She wiggles her fingers. “She’s in the next realm, looking down on us. Helping to start the shift.”

“Sure.” Sol nods. “I’m just glad we’re moving into this next phase. Did I tell you all that Ramit’s coming back next month? And bringing some of his friends.” He smiles, delighted. “And Dawne’s going to connect us with someone she knows, this girl on a reality show. She hasmillionsof followers.”

Moon’s frowning. “I don’t know if we need to talk about that right now.”

“I know, I’m just excited.” He leans over and kisses her on the cheek. “It’s a big deal. Now that we’ve gotten through this—uh, process, we can finally concentrate on the Center.”

She gazes at him. “Well, let’s keep the focus on Thea for now. We owe her a lot.”

I sit on the bed in the gathering dusk. I stare at the handcuffs that are still fixed to the bedframe.

I did this. I brought her here.

But it was meant to happen. I knew as soon as I saw her in the hospital, walking up to me with that face, that hair. I felt a sudden urge to pull it, a little girl yanking another’s pigtail.

There are no coincidences, Moon’s voice whispered in my ear.

And though I was groggy, seeing Thea gave me a hit of adrenaline. This woman looked like me and more than that, shefeltlike something to me. Unlike Grace, who’d never seemed like a sister in any sense of the word.

So I asked Thea about herself, her background—Moon said that siblings from past lifetimes often have similar genetic heritages—and her birthday, just to make sure. And as we spoke, my chest filled with something, a heavy, vibrating certainty that climbed up my throat, threatening to break out into a triumphant, primal scream.

Moon was right. I had a twin. Itwastrue.

And if it was true, then I had to play my part. But it wouldn’t be too hard; Thea had been waiting her whole life to meet me. The one trick was getting her to follow me in a way where she’d think it was her idea. I knew if I asked her outright to come to the Center, she’d be suspicious. But if she thought I was in trouble, she’d want to help.

My full name was on my hospital bracelet; I knew we had limited time before Moon and Sol showed up. All I had to do was write a note, hide it in a crayon box. And she appeared like clockwork days later.

I had to continuously convince myself—by observing her through the purple door, watching her sleep, searching her things. But even though I knew it was true, a dark dread filled me. If Thea was my sister, then I was going to watch my sister die. Somehow the vortex had spit me out, but if she was the right priestess, then she’d be lost to me forever.

And so I spent the hours in my room or in the cave praying, fervently asking whoever or whatever was out there to get Thea to leave. I even told her to outright. I agreed to leave with her if we could do it the right way, when everyone else was asleep. She said yes, then failed me, getting caught up in Moon and Sol’s web.