Half Lost (The Half Bad Trilogy #3) - Sally Green Page 0,38
in Geneva when I thought she was a man. She was always so beautiful: stunning, literally breathtaking at times. So sharp and quick and clever. And I remember the stakes and potions she made to help Gabriel recover from being stuck as a fain. How cool she was in that whole process. And then with Pilot and Mercury and with Annalise too. She was always calm and calculating, but also wise and funny. And now she’s nothing. She’ll be pecked at by birds, eaten by insects. And the Alliance has lost another important person. Another Black Witch gone. Another witch with huge power and it’s all lost, lost to the Alliance and lost to the world. And instead all we have is a corpse lying in the mud. There is only Soul to blame for this. He’s to blame for it all: for my father’s death, for driving Annalise and me apart, for the deaths of so many Black and White Witches. Soul is the root of the problem.
Adele comes and says, “Celia says we have to move out. Now.” And Gabriel and I go with her, leaving Nesbitt alone with Van for the last time. Celia is waiting at the side of the camp near where we entered it. She looks impatient.
Gabriel says, “Nesbitt’s just coming.” But I know he won’t want to leave Van. It’s not good having to rush away.
“Have you seen Donna?” Celia asks.
“Not for a while,” Gabriel replies.
We stand there and wait. No one comes. Celia mutters something about discipline.
“What do you want to do?” Gabriel asks her.
“I want us to leave five minutes ago.” Celia shakes her head. “Gabriel, go and find Donna. She can’t be far. Nathan, tell Nesbitt we’re going. We leave in ten minutes, with or without them.”
I trudge back toward Van’s body and am not surprised to see Nesbitt still by her side.
I tell him, “We have to go.”
He leans over Van and says something to her quietly. I step back, not wanting to hear. Then he stands but keeps his back to me. I think he’s crying again.
I tell him, “Donna’s disappeared. We need to find her.”
Nesbitt says, “I saw her a few minutes ago. This way.” And he sets off into the trees, scanning the ground. I think he’s looking for her tracks.
“What do you think?” I ask him. “Has she run off?”
“Wouldn’t blame her. She’s hardly been welcomed into the Alliance and now she’s seen that this is what’s in store for her if she’s given the grand honor of joining . . .”
We reach the edge of the trees the way the Hunters went.
“You don’t think they’re back already, do you?” Nesbitt asks, looking to the distant hillside.
“They closed the cut. They can’t get back so quickly.”
But I’m wondering if they have another cut, or if the cut they went through only took them a mile or two away and they’re already on their way back.
Nesbitt curses the Hunters under his breath.
“We need to find Donna,” I remind him.
“She was here.” He points at the ground and I see the smudge of a trainer print. “But . . .” He glances up and around and says, “She could be anywhere by now.”
“What do you think?” I ask him.
“She’ll come with us if she wants to. It’s up to her,” Nesbitt says, and he heads back to the camp. I stare out over the fields, wondering if Donna has run off and given up on the Alliance. She’s spent the last few weeks as a prisoner, and today she came a meter away from being blown up. I wouldn’t blame her for leaving.
I’m about to turn to follow Nesbitt when the sun comes out to my left, low in the sky and partially hidden by a long bank of clouds. The clouds are clearing already and the meadow in front of me is flooded with warm light. After the rain it’s a good thing to feel sunlight on my skin. The land around looks lush, smells fresh. And even with all this death so close to us—because of the death—it’s amazing to see the beauty of the world. It’s so beautiful and so brutal. It’s a reminder that every second of life is precious.
I turn to see Nesbitt disappear into the trees. And further to my right is Gabriel, waving me over to join him. I look back one last time the way the Hunters went and the sun dips below the cloud, turning it red and