The Gathering Dark (31 page)

Keira reached up and felt her shoulder, the one she’d painfully slammed into the coffee table when she’d first seen the Seeker at her house. It seemed like weeks ago, but it had been less than a day. She tugged the neck of her shirt aside, examining the skin. There was no bruise. She’d been sure it was going to bruise.

“How did I not notice that it was better?” she asked.

Walker wrapped his arm around her, sliding her shirt back into place. “You were maybe too busy freaking out about the fact that you’d crossed into another reality?” he suggested.

His teasing was gentle. She laughed shakily, letting his humor calm her.

“Speaking of which,” he said, “you must be hungry.”

She was. Her stomach twisted with hunger, but it was bearable. “Yeah, but I can wait awhile if we need to.”

Walker’s eyes widened in surprise. He pulled the keys from his pocket and aimed the fob at the car. “You’re adjusting fast. That’s . . . good. Surprising, but good.”

“Why is it surprising?” Keira asked, as she sank into the passenger seat. She reached down and flipped on the seat warmer. The leather heated up beneath her and after the cold concrete of the sidewalk, even the scratchy floor mats felt heavenly beneath her feet.

“The others who crossed—the other Experimentals—they
always came back practically incoherent with hunger. Like you were last night, but even more. Eventually, they’d get a little better, but before any of them could . . . well, you know what happened.”

“The Extermination Program,” Keira said.

“Exactly,” Walker said. Keira saw him swallow, eating the words he didn’t want to say. “I think we should take a quick drive past the Hall on our way out of the neighborhood,” he said. “As long as you’re okay with that? I want to know just how many of the guards they called back.”

“There were an awful lot of them,” Keira said. “I saw at least a dozen, which was sort of surprising, because I thought they were all out at the ravine.”

Walker’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. “It’s my fault. I heard the transport vehicle and assumed they’d sent most of the guards to examine the new rip we’d made. I didn’t think they’d leave so many at the Hall. It’s like they knew we’d be back. . . . ”

“Well, I do live right behind it,” Keira said. “It makes sense that I’d come home sometime. Maybe that’s what they were waiting for?”

“Maybe,” Walker said, though he didn’t sound convinced. He slowed the car, idling on the side of the street. “Oh.
Shit.
”

Keira struggled to make Darkside visible. She could see Jeremy’s house, the darkened windows staring at her. Someone was in there, watching.

Jeremy.

Keira could feel it.

Beside her, Walker’s breath grew ragged, and she refocused, trying to see what he saw. Darkside appeared so quickly that, for a moment, she was afraid she’d actually crossed over. She grabbed the armrest, reassuring herself that she was still in her own world. Guards streamed past the car, along with people she assumed worked in the Hall of Records, since they were dressed in the same sort of robes that Smith had worn. Everyone was running.

Not just running.

Running
away.

The building itself listed slightly to one side, like a ship against a sandbar. In the distance, robed figures stood against the trees that ringed the Hall with their heads in their hands. A few of them actually knelt, having collapsed into dark heaps on the ground.

Keira turned to Walker. “What’s happening?”

Walker looked almost exactly like her mother had, the day she’d announced that she and Keira’s dad were separating. His face was a wide-eyed mask of worry and suspicion and surprise.

Keira’s insides swirled and dropped.

“The building’s not safe anymore,” he said. “The whole area’s unstable.”

Keira watched as a few guards, each carrying a bundle of sharp-tipped spears, crept toward the building. They stopped
in unison about twenty yards from the Hall and began driving the spears into the ground, point first, creating a makeshift perimeter.

“It’s all my fault.” His voice was quiet. “If I hadn’t dragged you here, hadn’t been stupid enough to let the guards catch us . . . ” He stopped for a moment, pulling himself together.

“We crossed back and forth too many times in places that were too close together,” he explained. “All the rips—it’s making lace out of Darkside. This area’s too fragile now. It’s dangerous. Going in the Hall would be like walking out on thin ice. One step in the wrong place, and the whole thing might collapse.”

Keira thought of all the squeezing in and out of Darkside.

How many times had
she
crossed that morning? Six? Eight? Plus, Walker and Smith had crossed too. . . . Oh, sweet Jesus.
She stared at the wounded building, drowning in the knowledge that she was the reason it had been ruined.

“Will they be able to fix it?” she asked.

Walker ran a hand through his curls. “It might settle where it is, if the fabric of Darkside is strong enough to hold it. There’s a chance it won’t sink any farther than that.”

Relief spread over her and Keira loosened her grip on the door handle.

“But they’ll never be able to use the building again,” Walker said. “The records . . . ” His voice was thick. “They won’t be able to get to the records. One Darkling stepping into an area that
weak could destroy the whole thing. It’s happened before, in other places. Never with a Hall of Records, though.” His cheeks were ghostly pale.

Keira’s hope shattered, as broken as the bit of Darkside spread out in front of her. Only four Halls of Records in all of Darkside, and they’d destroyed one of them. That sort of tragedy wasn’t going to go unnoticed.

“The Reformers,” she whispered.

Walker nodded. “They’re going to spend the next several months consoling the Darklings—and looking for someone to hang for this.”

Keira shuddered. “But we didn’t mean to destroy it.”

“It doesn’t matter. We did. And they want us anyway, so we’re ready-made for blaming.” Everyone in Darkside had their attention pinned to the Hall of Records, which made the sudden movement toward Keira and Walker that much more noticeable. No one in Darkside was looking at them.

But Jeremy Reynolds obviously was.

Chapter Forty

T
HE FRONT DOOR OF
the house stood open and Jeremy took a half step toward the street, shading his eyes with his hand. He had his cell phone in his other hand and he tapped it against his leg.

Keira pressed herself back against the seat, hoping the glare of the sun against the windshield was enough to keep her invisible to Jeremy. Walker just stared through the houses and past the lawns, his attention still fixed on the tragedy unfolding in his own world.

“Walker,” she whispered, as though Jeremy would somehow hear her even through the steel of the Mercedes, “he’s watching us. We have to
go.
”

Walker jerked around, his focus shifting away from the Hall of Records. He stared at Jeremy. Then Walker clenched his jaw and stomped on the gas pedal. In a bone-jarring second, they were racing for the stop sign at the end of the street. “I don’t like the way he looks—or the way he looks at you. At all. I’m glad you got out of his house before he saw you.”

Keira froze. Walker didn’t know. Of course. He’d been unconscious.

“Um, actually, I sort of had to go through his house again, to find you. After the guard beat you up.”

“You went into his house,
alone
?” Walker asked. “What were you thinking?”

Keira crossed her arms, squaring off against him. “I thought I was rescuing
you.
And besides, I knew I could cross over if anything happened.”

Walker pressed his head back against the head rest. “How would you have explained it if you’d up and disappeared? You’re lucky he
didn’t
try anything.”

Keira’s silence lasted a heartbeat too long.

Walker’s eyes cut over to her. His gaze lanced through her bravado.

“What happened?” His words were measured with restraint.

“Nothing, really. He said some stuff about how he and I should be together. And then he shoved his disgusting tongue in my mouth.”

“He
what
?”

“Listen, I handled it!” Keira insisted. “I got away, didn’t I? I ran out the back and crossed over into the Hall. I found you and I got us both out. That’s all that matters.”

“He could have . . . he could’ve—” Walker struggled with the words.

“What? Raped me? Hurt me?” Keira spat. “So could the guard who caught me in the Hall. Pretty much everyone in your world thinks I’m an experiment that needs to be ended, so what’s one more asshole who thinks he owns me? I took care of myself. I took care of
you.
A little gratitude wouldn’t be completely misplaced here.”

Walker pulled the car over to the side of the road and killed the engine. For a long moment he was silent, staring out the windshield at the empty street. A single slash of darkness appeared on the side of his neck, fading almost as quickly as it had come. Finally, he turned to look at Keira, his eyes sorrowful. “You’re right. You are so, one hundred percent right. I know you saved me. If you hadn’t come back, the guards would have taken me, and probably Smith, too.” He shuddered. “Thank you. I’m sorry I didn’t say it sooner.”

Keira’s anger leaked out of her and she leaned back against the seat, limp. “It’s okay. I didn’t mean to freak out. I’m really not the freaking-out type. I just—”

“You’ve just had people trying to kill you all morning,” Walker interrupted her. “You’re not
supposed
to be all calm and composed after that, Keira. Let’s agree that we might both
need a little help in the saving our own lives department, okay?”

Keira closed her eyes briefly, shutting out the disbelief and despair that she was even having this conversation in the first place.

“Okay,” she agreed. She would get through this the same way she’d gotten through every hard piece of music she’d ever played—by focusing on the next line, and nothing more. Not the movement she’d just played, not the hard crescendo that came later. Only what was in front of her. One finger stroke after the next. It was the only way through. The only way out.

“So, what next?” Walker asked.

Keira looked down at her bare, muddy feet. Her naked toes were mottled with cold.

“I need shoes,” she said. “And food. Let’s start with that.”

Three quarter notes and a rest. Food and shoes.

One thing at a time.

•  •  •

Keira had inhaled the bag of fast food almost before Walker disappeared into the shoe store. She’d shoved some money into his hand and instructed him to get whatever he could find in a size eight that was less than thirty dollars. She knew he hadn’t wanted to take her money.

She also knew that he could read her face well enough to realize that arguing would be pointless.

Alone in the car, she counted up the cash left in her wallet. It was barely enough to buy food for the next couple of days,
much less enough for a place to stay or new clothes. And her clothes were starting to stink.

She was going to have to go home. The thought made her scalp prickle. It was so close to the Hall. The whole area was
swarming
with guards. But where else was she going to get clothes?

Her phone rang and Keira dug it out of the bottom of the bag, noticing that her battery was getting low.

It was Susan. Susan, who wore almost exactly the same size as she did. Who could save Keira now in more ways than one.

Oh, thank God.

“Hello?”

“Hi. It’s me. Why are you not at school? Have you heard from Walker or Smith?” Susan’s voice was all wrong and it sent a chill down Keira’s spine.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“I think I need to talk to my parents. Or maybe even call the cops. I don’t know. I just talked to Smith and I think he’s lost his mind.”

Susan’s choice of words made Keira’s throat seize.

“What happened?” she choked out.

“We had this really amazing night last night, and he was totally saying all this stuff about how he hadn’t expected to feel the way he did. I was like, ‘Okay, I need to think about whether I want this to be more than a rebound.’ ”

Keira gagged silently.

“But then he called and was saying all this weird stuff about how he and I couldn’t be together and it wasn’t Walker’s fault, but that he still hated him for it. It didn’t make
any
sense, but I figured Smith was just being a drama queen, because, you know, he’s sort of a drama queen. But I still want to know what’s going on. Did I get dumped? Again?”

The burger Keira’d eaten swam unpleasantly in her stomach. There was no way out of this except to explain it to Susan.

“I don’t know what to say. I do think we need to talk, though.”

“Hang on, I’m getting a text.” When Susan came back on the line, her voice had gone squeaky. “I’ll say we need to talk. Apparently, word is out about you and Jeremy.”

“What do you mean? There is no ‘me and Jeremy.’ ”

“Not according to this. Tommy just texted me that Jeremy said the two of you hooked up this morning.”

Keira’s stomach dropped. The cell phone Jeremy had in his hand before she’d driven away with Walker—the horrible look he’d had on his face . . .

Oh, no.

Oh, no, no, nonono.

“It’s not true,” she said adamantly. “I mean, I’m with Walker. Why would I hook up with Jeremy?”

“So, why aren’t you at school with the rest of us? It’s not that I don’t believe you. I do. But it looks really bad.”

It was a reasonable question, but she still hated that Susan had a reason to ask it.

“I’ve been with Walker. Mostly.” She rubbed a hand over her aching eyes. “We got separated for a little bit while we were looking for something. I ended up at Jeremy’s. And yeah, he told me he liked me. And yeah, he kissed me. But he also ripped my shirt trying to force me into that kiss.”

“I . . . oh.” Susan sucked in a long breath. “But wait, I still don’t get why you were there in the first place.”