But I did. I knew exactly how much time I had. I couldn’t take any more time. My time was up.

I was going anyway. I had to do the right thing, be my true self, with what time I had left.

With a sigh that seemed to come all the way from the soles of my feet and the palms of my hands, I got up.

Aaron and Brandt wouldn’t wait forever. And now I had a few more questions that I needed answered. This time, the questions were for Doc.

The caves were full of sad, cast-down eyes. It was easy enough to slip unobtrusively past them all. No one cared what I was doing right now, except maybe Jeb, Brandt, and Aaron, and they weren’t here.

I didn’t have an open, rainy field, but at least I had the long south tunnel. It was too dark to run flat out the way I wanted, but I kept up a steady jog. It felt good as my muscles warmed.

I expected I would find Doc already there, but I’d wait if I had to. He would be alone. Poor Doc, that was usually the case now.

Doc had been sleeping alone in his hospital since the night we’d saved Jamie’s life. Sharon had taken her things from their room and moved them to her mother’s, and Doc wouldn’t sleep in the empty room.

Such a great hatred. Sharon would rather kill her own happiness, and Doc’s, too, than forgive him for helping me heal Jamie.

Sharon and Maggie were barely a presence in the caves anymore. They looked past everyone now, the way they used to look past only me. I wondered if that would change when I was gone, or if they were both so rigid in their grudge that it would be too late for them to change.

What an extraordinarily stupid way to waste time.

For the first time ever, the south tunnel felt short. Before I thought I’d gone halfway, I could see Doc’s light glowing dimly from the rough arch ahead. He was home.

I slowed myself to a walk before I interrupted him. I didn’t want to scare him, to make him think there was an emergency.

He was still startled when I appeared, a little breathless, in the stone doorway.

He jumped up from behind his desk. The book he was reading fell out of his hands.

“Wanda? Is something wrong?”

“No, Doc,” I reassured him. “Everything’s fine.”

“Does someone need me?”

“Just me.” I gave him a weak smile.

He walked around his desk to meet me, his eyes wide with curiosity. He paused half a step away and raised one eyebrow.

His long face was gentle, the opposite of alarming. It was hard to remember how he’d looked like a monster to me before.

“You are a man of your word,” I began.