“I was using it as an example. That doesn’t give you very much time.”
“Time for what?”
He looked at me as if I wasn’t getting something obvious. “Time to figure out what you’re gonna tell your family. Time to … prepare … everything …”
“Jack’s slipping away. I don’t have time for preparations. I can feel it. I did the math. One day on the Surface equals six months in the Everneath.”
“That was during the Feed. You said time went slower in the Feed.”
“Still … if I wait another day, it will be months for him. Or weeks at least. And he won’t make it. What if one more Surface day kills him?” My voice began to waver. I couldn’t look Will in the eyes, so I stared hard out the window.
Will’s hand closed around mine. Another tear slipped down my cheek; and without acknowledging it, Will used his thumb to wipe it away.
“It has to be tonight,” I said. “Time goes really fast in the Everneath. If all goes well, I can be back before my dad even notices I’m gone.”
Will squeezed my hand. “Six hours, Becks. We’ll give him six hours. I’ll take care of the rest.”
I nodded and grabbed a napkin, sniffing.
He waited in silence for a few moments, typing and retyping Cole’s phone number into his cell phone, watching for signs that I had composed myself.
Finally, he pressed in the last number and said, “Ready?”
I nodded. He handed the phone to me.
After two rings, Cole picked up. “Hello?”
“Cole, it’s Nikki.”
Pause.
“Nik,” he said.
“…”
“…”
I looked to Will for strength. “Listen, because I’m only going to say this once. I’m going to the Everneath. I’m leaving at seven o’clock.”
“I doubt that very much, Nik.” Cole chuckled.
I ignored him. “I’ll be at the Shop-n-Go at seven. And then I’m gone.”
He scoffed through the receiver. “And how do you plan on getting there?”
“I have your hair.”
Cole’s end of the conversation went quiet. I met Will’s gaze, and he nodded in encouragement.
“Three strands to be exact,” I said, staring at my hand as if the hairs were actually there.
“How did you—”
“Why do you think I went to your dressing room last night?” I steadied my voice. “The entire band sheds in there. It wasn’t hard at all.”
He was quiet again. “If you’re so sure, why bother telling me?”
I looked at Will, who waved his hand in a circular motion to keep going. “I’m giving you one more chance to come with me. You know what my odds are without you.” I took a deep breath. “So that’s it. You have six hours, or I’m gone from your life for good.”
“Nik—” His voice was strained, but I snapped the phone shut before I could hear what he was going to say and handed it back to Will. “Do you think he bought it?” he said.
I nodded. “Without a doubt. But I still don’t know if he’ll come.”
I left Will at the Java Hut and went home to get ready, even though I had no idea what getting ready would entail. What do you pack for the Underworld?
When I walked into the house, my dad was sitting in his study, door open.
“Nikki! Come in here, please.” He didn’t sound happy, but I couldn’t think of anything I’d done lately that would make him feel that way.
I stood in the doorway. “What’s up, Dad?”
He looked at his watch. “Did you forget something today?”
I racked my brain. It was Wednesday, wasn’t it? About one thirty. Come to think of it, my dad shouldn’t have been home. And then it hit me.
“Crap. Dr. Hill.”
“Yes. She called to see if you were okay, because you didn’t show up for your appointment. So I rushed home from the office to find you missing.”
I sighed. “I’m sorry. I met a friend this morning, and I totally lost track of time.”
“And didn’t keep your phone with you?”
I drew in a breath and rummaged through my bag. My phone was at the bottom, completely dead. I had been gone until late last night and then had left early this morning without plugging it in.
“Sorry. Battery’s dead.” I waved the phone in front of him so he knew I was telling the truth.
My dad put his elbows on his desk and pressed his fingertips together. “I rescheduled your appointment for tomorrow. Same time.”
Tomorrow. I was hopefully leaving with Cole tonight.
“I’m not sure that’s going to work—”
I stopped short when I saw his face. It fell. Crumbled. Within the space of a moment, he’d gone from strong mayor to weak, tired old man. “Nikki,” he said softly. “Please.” He was not demanding. He was pleading. “I can’t lose you again. Do you know what it did to me last time? To lose your mother … and then to lose you? Can you possibly fathom?”
I stared down at his desk, my eyes burning.
“I know I’ve made mistakes,” he said, “but I can’t go through it again. I can’t.”
I had no words. No expressions of comfort. No promises I could make in good conscience. For a moment I doubted my current course. How could I leave him again? How could I put him through it all again?
But Surface time was slow. I could be back before he knew it.
Unless I failed.
Was there a right answer? Yeah, right. There hadn’t been a right answer since I went to the Everneath in the first place.
I walked around his desk, put my arms around him, and kissed the top of his head. And then I made another promise I wasn’t sure I could keep.
“I know it’s been difficult. And I know it’s not over yet. But I promise you we’ll get through it.”
He didn’t answer. He only nodded.
I went to my room. And waited.
ELEVEN
NOW
The Surface. The Shop-n-Go.
At six fifty-five I walked through the doorway of the Shop-n-Go, my heart drumming in my chest. I gave a quick wave to Ezra at the counter.
“Don’t bother calling him,” I said. “He already knows I’m here.”
Yes, Cole knew I was here, but would he come now? I walked to the back, squeezing past the other two customers in the place. The kind of customers who never seemed to see what was really going on here. I sat on the floor. Ezra had changed out the snacks. Powdered doughnuts now lined the bottom shelf where the chocolate-covered raisins used to be.
Involuntarily, I thought of that day a few months ago when Jack had confronted me inside the Shop-n-Go.
“You don’t like raisins,” Jack had said.
“They’re not so bad now,” I’d lied.
“But I don’t change, Jack,” I whispered now. “I won’t change.”
A knock at the window broke me from the memory. Will was on the other side, gesturing to the back of the store to let me know he’d be waiting.
I smiled and nodded, then checked my watch. Six fifty-nine.
No sign of Cole.
I took out the blond hair I had in my pocket. Will had to steal it from the new bartender at Mulligan’s on Main Street. There was a shocking lack of blond people in my life, except for Jules, and I couldn’t very well nonchalantly ask her for a strand of her hair. Bartender Jimmy let Will get away with a lot more than the previous owner did, but I think even he was a little surprised about the hair thing.
I checked my phone. Time was up. But there was still no sign of Cole. My heart was no longer drumming. It now felt as if it were lodged in my throat. I shook my head. Maybe I was stupid to think I meant anything to him. Maybe he’d finally had enough, and the possibility that he’d found his queen was no longer worth it.
I still brought the strand to my mouth, trying not to think about the fact that I was about to eat the hair of a bartender named Jimmy. Will and I had already planned to go through with the eating of the hair in case Cole was watching from somewhere else.
If Cole caught me in this bluff, I’d probably be blowing my last chance to get him to come with me. Then again, I’d already run out of chances.
The hair was light and roughly Cole’s length. It could’ve been his hair. I wondered for a moment, if I really had a strand of his hair, would I go through with it again?
“Here goes,” I said softly.
Just as I opened my mouth, a hand grabbed my wrist hard.
I whirled around, expecting to see Cole but it wasn’t him. It was Max.
With his hand clenched around my wrist, he took the hair out of my fingers, held it up to his eyes, and examined it.
“This isn’t Cole’s.” His hair looked black under the fluorescent lights, and his eyes looked even blacker.
“How do you know?”
He flicked the hair aside, ignoring my question. Turning his tall, lanky body to the window, he made a motion, and then he watched me silently, leather-clad arms folded across his chest. The muscles around his mouth were tight, making him look hard and detached at the same time. Like a bodyguard.
I looked out the window, to where he’d signaled, but I didn’t see anything. “What, did you alert the authorities or something?” I mumbled. “Unauthorized attempt to eat hair at the Shop-n-Go?”
He looked unimpressed but stayed quiet. The doors to the store opened and shut, and moments later Cole joined us.
“Pay up,” Max said to him, holding out his hand.
Cole sighed and pulled a ten-dollar bill from his pocket. Max wadded it up and wandered toward the front of the store, leaving Cole and me alone.
“What was that about?” I asked.
“Ah, Nik.” He ran his fingers through his blond hair, and my gaze darted to his hand to see if he had any loose strands. “You’re always losing me bets. You see, Max bet that you were bluffing. Lying. About having a hair of mine. As usual, I was blinded by my high expectations of you. I didn’t think you had it in you to pull that kind of bluff.”
“Jack and I played poker once a week for years. I can lie.”
“An admirable trait, to be sure.”
My eyes involuntarily went up to his head. His hair. Maybe if I—
“Stop thinking about it, Nik!”
“What?”
He grinned and shook his head. “You know what. You’re looking at my hair like an addict at a crack carnival. Enough already.” He took a step closer. “Look. You may have bluffed, but I know enough about you to know you won’t stop until you get my hair; and at the risk of you taking my scalp with you, I’ll go.”
His words didn’t quite reach my brain. “You’ll go where?”
He rolled his eyes and then spoke slowly. “I’ll go with you.”
“You’ll go with me?” I said, incredulous.
“Yes. But not because I have any feelings for you or I’m attached to you in any way. I’m just attached to my hair. Quite literally.”
I didn’t know what to say. “You’ll go with me?”
He gave a sideways glance. “Oh boy. It’s like your brain is on a ten-second delay. Just do what you have to do and then meet me at my condo. We need to prepare.”
“Prepare how?”
“Look, the Everneath is not a place you go to lightly. If you land in the wrong spot, if you make a wrong turn, you’ll die. And if you die, I’ll lose everything I’ve been working toward.”
The air was heavy with a sudden ominous feeling until Cole clapped his hands together loudly. “Right then. See you later!”
“What do I pack?”
His lips turned up. “Pack light. You can’t really bring much to the Everneath. But one thing you will need is a token of Jack’s.”
“A token?”
His face grew serious. “Yes. A token. Look, Nik, there are scary things that go bump in the Everneath, and the terrain is hard to navigate, but our biggest challenge will be you.” He took his pointer finger and poked my forehead. “More specifically, your memory. Find something that reminds you of Jack. Something that connects your brain to him, and only him.”
“Like what?”
“The two of you were lovey-dovey. Didn’t he ever give you … I don’t know … a heart-shaped locket necklace?”
“No.”
“A teddy? With a T-shirt that says I LOVE YOU BEARY MUCH?”
I rolled my eyes. “No. He wasn’t like that.”
“Whatever. Just find some object that makes you think of Jack and no one else, and bring it with you.” He started to turn away.
“So you’re going with me?” I said.
He paused for a moment, shook his head in an exasperated sort of way, and then continued out of the store. Max followed closely behind, shooting me a disgusted glance before storming out the doorway.
I heard motorcycles rev up and pull away, and then Will came rushing in.