have to.”
She wanted to shake him. “Spit it out, then!”
A grim smile touched his mouth. “As usual, Underwood, you’ve hit the proverbial nail on the head.”
She just glared at him.
“‘Spit it out.’ That’s just it. That’s the problem—I didn’t. You know … ” He raised an eyebrow. “Spit.”
Donna wished she could make some kind of crude joke so that they could move on to figuring out how to get the escalator moving again. But the expression on his face was too serious. It wasn’t like Navin at all, and it scared her.
“The water, Don. In the River of Memory and Forgetting. I swallowed a whole bunch of it when I jumped in after you.”
No, no, no.
“No,” Donna said. This wasn’t happening. It wasn’t. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. They were supposed to get out of here—together—and move on to the final stage of the plan. She had to make the Philosopher’s Stone and she needed Navin with her. She couldn’t do this without him.
She couldn’t lose him, not again. This time it might be forever.
He shook his head, placed his fingers on her lips. “Don’t,” he said. “I knew it when it happened. He warned me. I just hoped … ” He shrugged, unable to continue.
“You just hoped it wasn’t true,” she finished.
“Yeah. And when I got on the escalator and we started moving, I really allowed myself to think that I’d gotten away with it.”
Horror dawned on Donna, filling her heart with ink-stained fear. “We’ll figure something out. I’ll—”
“No.” Navin shook his head. He had visibly paled, but he seemed composed enough. “You have to take the ingredients out of here. You don’t need me for that.”
“But I do,” she whispered, eyes burning.
They held hands for a long moment, and Donna counted the beats of her heart.
And then something else happened. Navin’s stair started moving down while hers resumed its ascent. They were moving in opposite directions—on the same freaking escalator—and there was nothing either of them could do about it. She felt nauseated trying to make her brain process what was happening, the sheer impossibility of it.
“No!” Donna screamed, trying to run back down against the upward drive of the mechanism. But no matter how fast she moved, Navin continued to slip further and further away.
“I love you, Donna!” he called. “Take good care of yourself.”
His final words were for her. He was so selfless, and this wasn’t fair.
Donna glanced up, feeling desperate, and realized that she was approaching what could only be the top of the escalator. A summit that hadn’t even existed until now. More demon tricks.
She clenched her fist and punched the moving handrail with every bit of the strength in her iron hands. She rarely cut loose like that, not completely. It was too dangerous.
The results should have been staggering. But her fist bounced off the rubber and metal and all she got for her effort was an agonizing shooting pain through her knuckles.
She screamed with frustration, then took a deep breath. Preparing herself. She gripped the silver rail and tried to stop the escalator’s inexorable progress. She threw a wild glance over her shoulder, trying to catch sight of Nav, but he was nothing more than a pinprick at the very bottom.
Donna breathed deep and pulled.
The metal gave way with a rending, shrieking sound. She managed to tear the entire section of rail off its moorings—
But it was hopeless. The stairs were still moving, closer and closer to the top.
Then the escalator stopped. Her eyes widened. It had stopped ! She could run down again, back to Navin.
Donna flew down the stairs, wondering how long it
would take her to reach the bottom. She already felt ex-hausted, but she didn’t care. Not many people would consider entering the Otherworld by choice, even once. But to do so twice? Probably she was crazy, which was fine by her. She was sure she’d go even more crazy knowing that Navin was stuck down there while she went about her business in the world above without him.
Her chest burned and her knees ached, but she kept going.
Until the stairs suddenly sprang into life once more, and they slid upwards faster than ever, taking her with them.
“Shit!” She kicked the side of the stairway. It didn’t make her feel any better.
She sat down in despair and waited for the escalator to dump her at the top. She wasn’t getting down; she knew that now. Navin wasn’t getting out. He’d drunk water from the river and this