Page 34 of The Shade of Things
Eli popped back into the studio. “Let’s get going. We’ve only got three days left in this game to save Teresa.”
I gave one last look at Tatiana’s frail figure dwarfed by that enormous canvas, yet standing strong as always, a stubborn tilt to her chin, then headed home.
* * *
I kept Sadie with me while I dumped a change of clothes into a backpack along with some pouches of water and nonperishable food stolen out of the earthquake kit.
Eli was bringing a first aid kit and we were leaving our phones at home in case they could be tracked.
At the last minute, I tossed in a roll of duct tape. My cousin Goldie agreed with Tatiana on its versatility, using it for everything from making shoe soles less slippery to getting rid of warts.
It didn’t take long to get the small pack ready, then Sadie and I curled up against my headboard, our legs stretched out on the mattress.
She lay her head on my shoulder and I stroked her hair.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?” I said. Sadie had been part of the decision about Eli and I working together, but she hadn’t signed up for anything like what this mission had turned into.
“No, but yes. I want you to go find her.” She wrapped her arms around my biceps, just like when she’d been little and hadn’t wanted me to leave.
I swallowed a lump in my throat.
Eli joined us soon after. He stretched out on his back along the foot of the bed and Sadie plopped her feet on his belly. We didn’t speak but we were all connected.
Were we really going to bid our child farewell and hie off on this dangerous undercover mission? I reassured myself that Eli and I were both smart, weapon-bearing, and incentivized to get home safely to Sadie. We’d find Teresa, and all of us would make it out alive. That wasn’t hubris talking, it was confidence.
I bet Arlo Garcia had thought the same thing about the angels.
Jude and Emmett arrived on time, which was far too early for me. Eli and I put on our hiking boots and hefted the packs, while Jude rested her small suitcase against the wall.
Emmett wore the black sweats he now favored for covert missions and a pair of runners that Tatiana must have bought him. He carried a black garbage bag and the black cane topped with a silver dragon that Nav had gifted the golem when he’d temporarily been missing a leg.
Eli blinked at him. “Are those clothes mine?”
“Actually,” Sadie said, “they’re mine. You gave them to me.”
Emmett gave himself a once-over. “They look better on me.”
Jude bundled me in a fierce hug. “You can’t die.”
“I love you too.”
“Not that.” She pushed me away and tilted up her chin to reveal two thick black hairs. “Anything happens to me and it’s on you to take care of these buggers.”
I gave a watery laugh and she winked.
While Eli bid Jude goodbye, I took Sadie’s hands. She seemed so young in her pale pink sweatpants and a T-shirt with a sparkly donut on it, her long dark hair in braids.
“I love you more than anything,” I said.
“I love you more than you love me.”
“That’s impossible and ridiculous and impossible and ridiculous,” I said loftily.
Sadie grinned at our old schtick. “Here.” She dug in her pocket and pulled out her favorite pair of purple amethyst earrings. Goldie had sent them to her for her sixteenth birthday, saying that amethyst brought good luck. She handed one to me and one to her dad. “Bring them back safe and sound.”
Eli closed his fist around his. “We will.”
I put mine in one of my ears. “Promise.”
Sadie nodded, then she pushed me out the open door, exactly like she did on the first day of preschool. “Go.”
And just like at preschool, I didn’t let myself look back.
