no,” said Susanah, “I’d never leave you. Never in a million years.”
Then the two of them hugged, and the other girls huddled close around them. I let out a whooshing breath of relief. I had done it. Neither of them had to know a life without the other. And even if I had ruined Elysium, at least I had been able to do this. To return this. I stepped back from their circle of tears, an outsider again. Then I felt someone standing beside me.
“She gave you one of those?” Olivia said, her eyes on the stone in my hand. Her voice had an odd, tight quality to it that I couldn’t place. “From what I remember, Morevna didn’t just give those away.”
“You knew Mother Morevna?” I asked.
“No, I didn’t,” said Olivia, her voice as flat as a stone itself. She watched the weeping, huddled mass around Susanah’s cot.
“You know, Susanah’s been out here longer than any of us—even me,” said Olivia. She took a drag of her cigarette and blew out a line of smoke. “That’s how she found Mowse—she hid in a car throughout Black Sunday after she broke out of that… school… she was in up north. Mowse was inside under some blankets. Probably an Okie family on the way to California who abandoned her, thinking she’d be one less mouth to feed.” Olivia paused. “Mowse would’ve still had us, but… I can’t imagine what she would have done if Susanah…”
“I know,” I said, watching Susanah and Mowse, feeling my chest grow tight. “I know what that’s like.”
Olivia turned to me and really looked me in the eyes for the first time.
“You’re the Girl Who Cried Rain,” she said. “I remember you now.”
That name. It was always unexpectedly sharp, always cut just a little. But Olivia said it differently, with—no, not pity in her voice. Understanding. Because who could understand being alone against Elysium if not Olivia Rosales?
“Sal,” I said. “Just Sal.”
Olivia nodded.
“We’re in your debt, Sal,” she said. “Anything you want, name it. You’re one of us now.”
One of us. That phrase felt golden in my mind. To be one of something. I’d never had that, I realized. Not even as Mother Morevna’s Successor. That had been more isolating than anything. One of us. But there were two.
“What about Asa?” I asked. “I can’t leave him out there by himself. He’s invited too, right?”
“Why, of cour—” Olivia began, but before she could finish, Asa himself appeared in the doorway, looking paler than usual.
“Actually, I think I’ll have to decline that offer,” Asa said, his eyes darting from me to Olivia, a strange kind of panic behind them. “As kind as it is, I think I need to go it alone for a bit. You stay here, Sal. I’ll be fine on my own.” He turned to Olivia. “I’m sorry again about the picture misunderstanding and I wish you the best, but I don’t think I should be here.…”
It didn’t make sense. Asa seemed so shaky, so fearful. He didn’t even cross the doorway. He stood at the edge of it like a vampire waiting to be let in, his eyes falling again and again on Olivia.
“But, Asa, where are you going to—”
“This is stupid,” Olivia said. “It’s insane to be alone out there. You won’t get another offer like this.”
“Maybe not,” he said. “But I’d rather be safe than sorry.” He tipped his hat, and without another word, Asa disappeared into the desert, leaving me. Again.
Out in the desert, Asa’s brain pounded with panic. His human mask threatened to fall off in bits like pieces of a car in a junkyard. When he was with someone else, he could focus on other things, whistling, snapping, making plans. Playing at being human.
But now he was alone. And better alone than there, with her.
Olivia Rosales, the one who could disarm him, whose nature Death was using to further Her own ends. She was Death’s Wildcard, she had to be, though he doubted she knew it. A human chosen by Death wouldn’t know; she’d just inadvertently serve Death’s cause through her own nature, her own decisions. And that explained even more: As the opposing Card, he was drawn to her, drawn inexorably. That’s what he had felt as Judith and Zo led them to the train. That’s why the photograph had felt so significant. She was the Card. And if he’d had any doubts, fighting her had alleviated them. It had been an enormous risk to fight her hand