His good intentions had become like the chocolate devouring him—sweet and rich, but also muddy and debilitating. He had become too much of a good thing. Now he sat with a full bucket of coins that could free countless Afterlights, but how many had he freed since he began to build his army? None. He began to wonder how much different he was from Mary after all.

“So, is this it, then?” Zin asked, as she stepped up into the parlor car. “Do we got our date with the devil today?”

“Sit down,” Nick told her.

“I prefer not to, sir,” she said. “Ain’t no chair clean enough in this train car.”

And she was right, so he didn’t force her. “Mary has called for a meeting. We’ll take a team with us, but once we get there, you and I will go in alone,” he told her. “Bring paper—I’ll tell her you’re there to write up a treaty.”

“Johnnie-O’s been teachin’ me readin’ but we haven’t got to writin’ yet.”

“That doesn’t matter—because when I give the word, you’re going to drop everything, and cram Mary like there’s no tomorrow.”

Nick had played it out dozens of different ways until he saw the whole thing clearly in his mind. He would be there with Mary, engaged in a polite, but guarded conversation of diplomacy. He would string her along until he felt the moment was right, then he would make his move.

I have a gift for you, he would tell her. The finest gift in the universe, and it’s all for you. He would step forward, and he would kiss her. A final kiss. Then Zin would grab her, and begin to push, until Mary was thrust through to the other side, into the living world, just as Zin had done to Kudzu. Mary would be alive, with nothing but the clothes on her back, and the sweet taste of chocolate on her lips.

I will not only save Everlost from you, but I will save you from yourself. I will give you the precious gift of life, Mary. Because I love you.

“What if I can’t do it, sir?” said Zin. “Crammin’ Kudzu was near impossible, and a person’s bigger than a dog.”

He put his good hand on her shoulder. “Your whole afterlife has been leading to this,” he told her. “I have every faith in you, Zin.”

CHAPTER 34
Poolside Rendezvous

Several of Nick’s scouts had gone down Danny Rozelli’s street, and one even walked right through the boy, but they were looking for a teenage Afterlight girl, not a live seven-year-old boy. A needle in a haystack didn’t come close.