Page 132 of White Lights
“Are you in love with Asher Ibrahim?”
Dez shakes her head. “I barely know him.”
“That’s never stopped a mortal before,” Moriah says.
“What do my feelings for someone I’ll probably never see again have to do with you censoring Lifelines?” Dez says.
“Because we’re trying to figure outwhyyou’d steal another soul’s halo,” Moriah says. “It’s unbecoming of an Acheron filmmaker.”
“Because you’re this close to a Dream Expulsion,” Zarlengo says.
“Because love makes us do idiotic things,” Rafe says, now looking straight at Dez.
She swallows. “I looked in one person’s halo, yes,” she says, emboldened by finally being able to tell the truth of her intentions. “But I know there’s more down there. My brother had a censored scene I should have been able to see. Every film I make is a person with a life you’re cutting off from them for reasons I can assume benefit you, not them. If all those other halos are anything like this one, they hold moments that deserve to be part of people’s stories at the end. And I think every filmmaker at Acheron should know the truth.”
The snake hisses, drawing Moriah’s attention back to her desk. She gazes into the snake’s eyes, as if receiving a message, then says, “Mr. Zarlengo, escort Ms. Rae to Sheol.”
“No!” Rafe cries, leaping to his feet.
Dez rears back, startled by Rafe’s intensity. She doesn’t know whatSheol is, but judging by Rafe’s reaction, it isn’t anyplace she wants to go.
“You can’t,” Rafe says.
Dez rises to her feet. “What’s he talking about? What is Sheol?”
Moriah folds her hands over her desk and holds Dez’s gaze. “It is a realm of opaque mist, bereft of both free will and fate.”
“Don’t do this,” Rafe says quietly. “It’s my fault. Not hers. I should have been there to stop her. But the fact that she’s capable of cracking her own Lens, of even finding the halos below, of knowing there was more to the Lifelines—that alone should tell you what she’s capable of. She broke the rules, but … Dez sees things other mortals don’t.”
“Such as?” Moriah says.
“Me. Outside thebarbelo,” Rafe says. “She saw me when I went to recruit her.”
Moriah tips her head at Rafe, then at Dez. “I see.”
“She deserves one more chance,” Rafe says. “Please.”
Moriah looks at Rafe, amused. “If Mr. de la Cruz agrees to supervise you with increased attention, will you stay away from halos?”
“I still don’t understand why we can’t use those scenes—”
“Take the offer, Dez,” Rafe says through his teeth.
It’s shut up or Sheol, she senses.
“Fine,” Dez says.
“Very well,” Moriah says. “A probationary period until the fifteenth hundredth film is complete. No more missteps.” With her pointer finger, she pets the cobra between the eyes. “Dr. Ezekiel, fix my wall.”
“Shall I return the halo?” he asks.
Moriah eyes the halo, beckoning it closer with her hand.
Dez fights to keep herself from wresting it out of the director’s grip.
“Leave it here with me,” Moriah says.
“Hurry up,” Rafe says as he escorts her out of the meeting.
