Page 52 of Thrall
“What better way to tell us we’re not in control than to threaten us in the middle of the day?” Athena said. “He left Lucy alone last night, and now he invites us somewhere in the middle of the afternoon? He wants us to know that we can’t predict him. And he’s right, isn’t he?”
Lucy could feel what Mila had spoken of yesterday: Athena’s fear, in the room with them like a presence.She hates that she’ll never really know if every precaution she’s taken is enough, Mila had said. But looking at Athena now, Lucy couldn’t help but feel like that wasn’t it. Lucy would have recognized the fear of uncertainty. It was her mother’s constant companion, after all.
This felt like the opposite. A fear that came from understanding. Because Athena knew Vanya better than anyone else alive. Sheknewthat no precaution could truly be enough. The moment Vanya wanted this to be over, he would end it.
“I’ll go,” Mila said. “Maybe I can lure him out.”
“The hell you will,” Athena snapped. “This is a trap, Mila.”
“Then we should see what happens when I set that trap off.” It was the strongest disagreement Lucy had ever heard out of Mila, at least where Athena was concerned. “I’m sorry, boss. But he clearly knows we’re trying to lure him in. If he’s not going to let that happen, then I have to go to him.”
The flinch was only visible in Athena’s eyes. “Mila,” she said. “You promised me no more of this.”
“I know. And I really am sorry about that.” Mila took a breath before she spoke again. “But I don’t know how much longer we can stay in this holding pattern. I don’t know how much longer—” The sentence ended in a vague gesture. But it was hard not to notice how carefully Mila avoided looking at Lucy.
Mila didn’t know how much more Lucy could take. And Lucy couldn’t help but think, with a rush of cold down her chest, that she was right to wonder.
“I’ll come with you,” Natalie said.
“Natalie—” Mila said.
“No, I’m going,” Natalie said. “I’m the one who invited that thing into my dorm in the first place. I’m sick of sitting around waiting to see which of us he’s going to hurt next.”
“Natalie.” Lucy was the one to say it this time. “It’s not your—”
“Babe,” Natalie said, “I love you to pieces, but if you say it’s not my fault one more time, I’ll bite you myself. I know it’s not my fault. And I know I’m not a junior archery champion. But I’ll bet you could use me for something. If Mila’s going, I’ll go, too.”
Lucy let out a breath. What she was about to say was not going to go over well with any of them. But if Mila and Natalie were going, she wasn’t going to sit in the studio and wait by the phone. “I’ll go with you.”
The uproar started almost instantly. Lucy raised her voice over them before the protests could gain steam. “You said it yourselves,” she said. “My role here is to be bait. So…I should go be bait, shouldn’t I?”
“Lucy.” Athena’s voice, always calm no matter how fast her heart was beating, had started to tremble. “I know the waiting is hard. Believe me, I know. But this isn’t the way.”
Her eyes fell back to the flyer, as if by scanning the cheery font one last time, they’d find something useful. But there was no more information they were going to find that would change anything, just like there wasn’t going to be an article about what happened after the Mountain Villa Massacre. No web search or book was going to be able to tell them what Vanya had done once his family was dead. What he planned to do now. What he hungered for.
This was no longer a hunt. It was a siege. He had surrounded them, and now he was trying to smoke them out. And if anyone could survive that siege, it was Athena. He was never going to bait her into leaving this fortress that she’d built. She could outlast him. She probably would, in the end.
That would never be true for Lucy. No matter how many doors she put between them. No matter how many times she practiced locking them. Sooner or later, she would walk out into the night.
“I’m sorry” was what she finally said. “But I’m tired of waiting, too.”
TRANSCRIPT OF ROLLINS UNIVERSITY STUDENT RADIO STATION WVBS (“PALLAS RADIO”)
Broadcast number: 62
CALLER #6: I…Sorry. [laughter] I don’t know why I’m so nervous.
PALLAS (HOST): Take your time. We’re in no rush.
[Pause.]
CALLER #6: It’s just that…the v—the friend with the cold hands. You said he had light hair. Blue eyes. Average height. Right?
PALLAS: Yes, that’s correct.
CALLER #6: By average…How tall is that exactly? Like, five foot eight? Five foot nine?
PALLAS: I—don’t think I could say. Caller number six, are you calling to report a sighting?
