“Keeping you alive is what’s most important,” Tori said. “Tell me what you want to do.”
I put my hand on her doorknob and turned it. “Send Thorin away, put Kalani and Inyoni at my disposal, and tell the others to be on alert.”
I waited for the sun to rise with every nerve in my body on fire and a ten-pound rock of worry in my gut. I paced before the window in my room, listening to Skyla sleep, hoping Helen would give us another day to get safely away before her attack. I thought of waking Skyla a million times, but she needed to rest up, to conserve her energy for what was to come.
If I woke her early, there would be nothing for her to do other than share my fear and trepidation. If not for the fact that waking him would have stirred his immediate suspicion, I would have already gone to Thorin’s room, told him of my intentions to stay, and encouraged him to get on the road.
Before I left her room, Tori had said she would quietly notify her sisters of the situation, tell Inyoni and Kalani to start packing, and pass word to the others to establish a perimeter patrol around the property. I spent the last, dark morning hours trying to spot the Valkyries roaming the cliffs and scrub brush. The moment the first glow of the approaching sunrise brightened the sky and signaled a clear, cloudless day, I managed to make myself lie down and doze in a short, fitful nap.
Skyla leaving the bed woke me again. “Where are you going?” I asked.
“Uh, to pee. Is that okay?” Her curls stood out around her face like a mad scientist’s, and she scowled at me through sleep-swollen eyes.
“Hurry up. We gotta talk.”
“Good talk or bad talk?”
“It’s not good.”
Skyla rushed to the bathroom and returned, launching from the floor to the bed in a single leap. She landed, feet tucked underneath, with a plop. “What’s up?”
I told Skyla what had happened in the night, my dream and my conversation with Tori. As she listened, Skyla’s expression hardened. Her brow furrowed. “Those bastards. Never a moment’s peace with them, is there? What’s the plan? Where are we going? How soon do we leave?”
“We?” I said, trying to keep any hint of hope out of my voice.
“Yeah, we—me and you, you and me. You weren’t thinking of ditching me, were you?”
I lunged across the bed and flung my arms around her, hugging her with the strength of all my fear and worry.
“What’s this for?” Skyla asked, patting my back.
“I couldn’t ask you to go with me. It’s so dangerous.”
“Don’t be stupid. Of course I’m going with you. I’m in this to the end.”
“I’m so glad. Having you around gives me a lot more confidence.”
“We need to talk about this crush you have on me, girlfriend. It’s getting embarrassing for you.”
I released her from the hug and fell against the pillows. “Where do you think we should go? Tori said she would lend us Inyoni and Kalani, her two best fighters, but the rest would stay here to defend home turf.”
“If there’s a mole in the Valkyries like you think there is, then isn’t there a chance they’ll tell Helen we’ve left and set her on our trail?”
“It’s a possibility. That’s why we can’t tell anyone where we’re going. Whatever plan we think of, we have to keep it between the two of us. Once Val and Thorin hit the road, then we’ve got to get out of here, too, as soon as possible. We have to go where no one will think to look for us.”
“And where is that?”
“I have no idea. Until I came to Alaska, I’d never been anywhere outside of North Carolina.”
Skyla’s face lit. “I know just the place.”
“Already? Where?”
“My dad had a fishing cabin on Oneida Lake in New York. It’s really rural, nobody around for miles. We can hide out. There are no ties to us to lead them there. My dad gave the cabin to my brother, but he never uses it. He hates fishing.”
“You have a brother?” I said, surprised she had never mentioned him before.
Skyla grimaced as if she had swallowed something cold and slimy. “We aren’t close. He’s a lot older than me.”
“It sounds like the plot in a bad horror movie,” I said. “Go out to some rural spot where no one can hear you scream when the monsters come to get you. Maybe if we go into a well-populated area, Helen will avoid making a scene. We can hide in plain sight, so to speak.”
Skyla tapped a finger on her bottom lip as she thought my comments over. “You have a point, but I’ll tell you the reason I don’t like it. I don’t know how many eyes Helen has, but I’m sure she has an APB out on you. You go to a place with more people, then there’s a greater chance of you being seen.”
“I’ll stay to the shadows.”
“I’ll give you another reason I don’t like it,” she said. “Helen wants to tear down the world and start again. Why does she care if she makes a scene in the middle of a crowded city? As soon as you’re dead, the war against mankind begins. She might even see your publicized death as a sort of coming-out party. Do you think mortal authorities pose a risk for her?”
“No, I guess not.”
“But listen. Only you and I need to know our final destination. The fewer people who know our plans, the better. Then Helen can’t use them to get to us.”
“Inyoni and Kalani will want to know where we’re going,” I said.
“They’ll have to figure it out when we get there.”
“So. A lake in the middle of nowhere. You’re sure about this?”
