Smiling, he said, “Even if you know the end is coming, you refuse to let me go.”

The end? No, no, no, we weren’t going there. “We’re just getting started,” I said and dropped the towel to beat at his shoulders. “There will be no end.” Not for decades to come. “You said we’d be okay.”

“I know, love. I know. I’m not talking about the vision.”

I relaxed, but only slightly. “Then what?”

“When we had the vision of you making out with Gavin—”

“Hey now! We weren’t making out. Z.A. was trying to eat him.”

Cole kissed the crown of my head. “I know. But the point is, I stopped trusting you, and what I knew about you, instead trusting in what my eyes, or mind, had seen. But you didn’t. You loved me, and you were willing to fight for me. Well, I need you to trust me again. Trust that I’m not going anywhere.”

Trust. He was right.

Last night I’d trusted him with my body. Today, I would trust him with this.

“Like I said before, I just won you back. Nothing and no one will be able to take me away from you, Ali. Not ever again.”

Chapter 14

THERE’S NO

PLACE LIKE BONES

During the hour-long drive to Mr. Ankh’s house, I created a mental decision tree.

Root question: Where had Camilla and River gotten the coded papers?

Trunk: to ask or not to ask.

The branches: if I asked, they would know I’d seen them. If I didn’t ask, I wouldn’t get an answer.

Would their knowing be such a bad thing?

Not really. What was the worst they could do? Accuse me of snooping?

So I did it. I asked.

“How dare you!” Camilla snarled. “You went through my things.”

“Actually, I didn’t.” Maybe I should have charted the branches a littler farther and picked a better place to have this conversation. A crowded car—bad decision. “Is it my fault you left the papers on your desk for anyone and everyone to see? Wait. Let me answer that for you, since I’ll be honest. No. Now, who wrote the code and do you have any idea what it says?”

The question I really wanted to ask: Do you know who “she” is?

River scowled at me. “One of our spies saw the document at an Anima facility and made copies. And no, we haven’t been able to decode it.”

Truth or a lie? Trust him or doubt him? I couldn’t do both.

“Can you?” Camilla demanded. “Decode it, I mean?”

Well, heck. No matter what it cost me, I couldn’t—wouldn’t—lie. Isn’t that what I’d told her? “Yes,” I said. “They talk about the sacrifice of one leading to the liberation of many and a ‘she’ that is coming. What they don’t say is who she is or what she’s supposed to do.”

“How were you able to decode it?” River asked.

I pressed my lips together, refusing to mention the journal.

“It’s a spirit thing.” Cole drummed his fingers against the wheel of Mr. Ankh’s SUV. River’s crew had been the ones to take it but had given it back as a gesture of goodwill. “You have to look at the pages through the eyes of your spirit, not your mind.”

My phone beeped, the sound almost like a trumpet in the sudden quiet.

I looked at the screen. Another text from Kat.

RED ALERT. Cops R here asking Q’s about Trina & Lucas & Cruz. Like what we were doing other nite, & Ankh is being honestish, just not mentioning Cole’s injury, the Z’s or Anima. He even told them U guys were on UR way. Oh, & FYI, he said Cole’s dad is away on business, & UR Nana went w/him—she’s like his new assistant, I guess. Now, back in the lion’s den 4 me. I told them I had 2 pee, & I don’t want them 2 think I ran away. Or, U know, had 2 do #2. C U when I C U. Good luck!

“Guys,” I said with a sigh. Like we really needed another dose of trouble. Legal, at that. “We’ve got a bit of a problem.” I read the text aloud. Well, most of it.

River and Camilla cursed.

“They’ve already come knocking at my door,” River said.

Cole stopped drumming. “What did you tell them?”

“That I had nothing to do with what happened. Then I gave a rock-solid alibi.”

I bet his alibi involved his crew, which meant the police probably hadn’t bought it. And if they ever found Collins... “Will showing up together hurt us or help us?”

“Help,” Cole said, at the same time River said, “Hurt.”

Great.

Cole added, “Why not let them know we’re working together to find the people trying to take us both down? Because if they ever put a tail on us, and I’m sure they will, they’ll see us together and wonder why we kept quiet about our association.”

River thought for a moment, nodded. “All right. But if you sell me out, I’ll kill you.”

Oh, heck no. Death threats weren’t allowed. “Say that again, and I will do horrible things to your intestines.”

River gave a mock shudder.

Cole reached over and tugged on my earlobe—I’d claimed the passenger seat. “That’s sweet of you, love. A part of me kind of hopes he repeats himself. Later. For now, everyone will put on a cheerful face. We’re here.”

The iron gate blocking Mr. Ankh’s property from the rest of the world opened automatically, responding to the sensor on the dash of the car. Neither River nor Camilla looked particularly impressed by the sprawling mansion with alabaster columns and wraparound balconies, and I wondered if pride had anything to do with it. They seemed to have more than most.