When she left her cabin, she was surprised to find the hallways and salons of the airship empty. There were no voices coming from the higher reaches of the ship either. Nick must have already roused them and gotten them off the ship. He was very efficient, and it was good of him to let her sleep, although it wasn’t exactly her plan to sleep the entire day.

She descended the gangway expecting to find kids clustered around, but there were none. There was only one figure out there. Someone sitting on the ground a hundred yards away.

As she approached she could see that it was Nick. He sat cross-legged, staring at the Hindenburg. She realized he was waiting there for her. Beside him sat the bucket of coins.

Only now did Mary begin to get worried.

“This is a pretty big dead-spot,” Nick said.

“The entire tarmac,” Mary answered. “The death of the Hindenburg was a large-scale event. The ground here will remember it forever.” She waited for Nick to say something more, but he didn’t.

“So,” Mary said, “where is everyone?”

“Gone,” said Nick.

“Gone,” echoed Mary, still not sure she had heard him correctly. “Gone where, exactly?”

Nick stood up. “Don’t know. Not my business.”

Mary looked into the bucket at his feet. To her horror the bucket was empty. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing—what he was telling her.

“All of them?” She looked around the tarmac hoping for a sign that this wasn’t true, but there was not a soul in sight.

“What can I say?” said Nick. “They were all ready to go.”

For the first time in her memory, Mary was speechless. This was a betrayal of such magnitude there were no words to express it. It was as awful, and as evil as anything Mikey had done in all his years as a monster. It was worse!

“Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Mary knew she was screaming, but she didn’t care. How dare he! How dare he do this to her!

“I know exactly what I’ve done,” said Nick with all the calm in his voice that Mary had lost. “I let them go to where they should have gone in the first place.”

“How dare you presume to know where they should have gone. They were here, which means this is where they were meant to be!”

“I don’t believe that!”

“Who cares what you believe!” It was as if she was looking at a different boy. She had taken him into her confidence—she had trusted him. They were going to be a team, benevolently leading the Afterlights of Everlost forever and ever. This wasn’t supposed to happen!

Then Nick’s expression changed, and for the first time his calm took a turn toward anger, and accusation.

“How long have you known?” Nick demanded.

Mary refused to answer him.

“Did you know about the coins from the beginning? How long have you been robbing them from the children who come to you for help?”