Page 150 of The Last Session

“Someone’s faith is being put to the test,” Mikki said wryly.

“I don’t know if it worked.” Karen sighed.

But in the same mysterious way that Catherine had known I’d take the bait of her crayoned letter, I knew Moon would do the same now.

“It worked,” I said.

59

The three of us curled up on the blanket in the cold room, drifting in and out of dusky sleep, until the door unlocked again.

This time they were all here. Sol, Joe, and Steven all carried guns while Moon and Catherine held lanterns. How gendered. My hands were clammy and I wiped them on my pants. It was go time.

“Hello again.” Sol wore a weird smile, and his eyes looked glazed. Was he on something? “So, let’s go to the tower.” He tossed a pair of my shoes towards me. “I hear you’ve offered to leap to your deaths. Which sounds unlikely, but stranger things have happened.”

Karen nudged my arm as I pulled on my shoes, and I could sense her question: Had Moon not told Sol that we wereallplanning to do so? Was she going to put him on the spot upstairs? It’d make sense—there was no way he was going to agree with it beforehand. Or ever.

“Each of you will get a chaperone.” Sol strolled forward. “Thea, I’d love to accompany you.” He gestured for me to walk ahead of him. As we exited the room, I caught eyes with Catherine. She, like Steven and Joe, looked deadened and strange.

Though my body was flooded with fear, I felt a stab of pity for her. Moon and Sol would never have been able to seduce her if she’d been happy and healthy. They preyed on people in pain, who just wanted someone to tell them how to feel better. If I’d met Moon, I couldn’t say for certain thatIwouldn’t have been pulled into her web of nurturing in the same exact way.

Maybe in different circumstances, Moon’s healing could’ve remained just that. But her longing to help had mutated, devolving into something dark. All because of her fury towards an unfathomably unfair world.

I led the slow procession into the courtyard, up the stairs, down the hall, and up the spiral staircase. The metal staircase shook, and I wonderedif it’d detach and fall under our combined weight. Sol shoved the cold, hard muzzle between my shoulder blades, urging me to go faster.

It was a clear night, the stars blazing overhead as I stepped onto the roof. The frigid wind had strengthened, whipping our hair. I thought of when I’d come up here the first time, mere days ago, viewing the rolling hills, the winding gravel drive, the mountains beyond. Now the horizon was black, like a drop cloth, beyond the weak light from the lanterns.

“Stand at the ledge, please,” Sol instructed.

I stopped about a foot from the edge, lined with the slightly raised adobe. Below, the SUV and sedan looked like toy cars. This tower roof was the highest part of the castle—at least sixty or seventy feet up. Karen grabbed my hand and squeezed. Mikki stood on my other side. The three of us faced the group.

“Mikki shouldn’t be here.” I gestured. “She got caught up in this, but she’s not one of us. Moon, you know that.”

Moon nodded. “Mikki, you can go.”

“What?” Sol cried. “Babe, no.”

“Isaidshe can go.” Moon glared at Sol. “That’s my final decision.”

Sol’s mouth worked. After a second he dropped his gun to his side and laughed. “Well, okay, then. I guess it’s her word against ours.” He smirked at Mikki. “But you know who the cops will believe, right?”

Mikki ignored him, keeping her eyes trained on Moon. Raising her hands, she took a step forward, then two. She then fled past Joe, Steven, and Catherine, racing through the doorway, down the clanging steps.

“Good god,” Sol muttered. He waited, watching over the side. “Oh, there she goes.”

We could just make out Mikki’s small figure below as she sprinted past the vehicles, down the long driveway. Something in my chest loosened. This part of the plan, at least, had worked. Mikki would get to Clint’s car, flag the first car she saw, get them to call the police.

“You happy?” Sol faced Moon. “That could really bite us in the ass, babe.”

“Don’t worry.” Moon smiled. “This is all happening as it should.”

“Are you a believer, Sol?” I asked.

His mouth was tight with irritation. “What?”

“I don’t think you are.” I gestured. “Joe either.”

Sol squinted at me. “What are you playing at, Thea?” He and Moon were standing closest to us, Joe and Steven behind them, and Catherine by the door. There was not a ton of room to maneuver with this many people up here.