Chapters (25)
“He’s dangerous, Hypatia. I should know. You shouldn’t have done it.”
“Dangerous to you, you mean.”
“Dangerous to anyone.”
“You and Mariel are like kin to me. I’d do it again if I had to, but it’s not me he wants to see.”
It took Celeste a moment to comprehend her meaning, only because she didn’t want to. “Me?”
“I’m sorry, Celeste. I tried, you know I did. But it’s you who’s asking for help, so it’s you he wants to see.”
“You told him it was about Mariel?”
Her look was all sympathy. “Of course I did.”
Celeste rubbed at her temples. “I don’t know if that makes it better or worse.”
“He said he’d help, but you don’t have to go.”
For a moment, Celeste clung to her words and the excuse in them. But it wasn’t enough, and she knew it. “You said we were like kin, Hypatia, but do you have real kin?”
“You are my real kin. Everyone at the Eden is.”
“I mean blood kin, like a ma and a pa. Brothers, sisters, cousins.”
“A bushelful.” She smiled at some fond memory. “So many, and all of them underfoot when I’m back home. Siblings and nieces and nephews. Heaven and hell, I came to Goetia to get a little breathing room.”
Celeste folded her hands on the table, fingers gripping one another tightly. “I don’t have any. Both our parents are dead, and good riddance. But we never had any extended relatives, at least none they told us about. It’s just me and Mariel in all the world, and it pretty much always has been. All we got is each other, and I’d do anything to save her.”
“I was worried you’d say that.” She put her own hand over Celeste’s. “He said he’d meet you at the crossroads on the edge of town, just past the tent city, where Perdition and Zion Street meet. He said before dawn.”
It was still dark outside, but it wouldn’t be for long. Celeste made herself stand. “I better go then, while the sun’s still down, and I got the nerve.”
She said it like that, but if she was honest, under all that fear was anticipation. To her dismay, she realized she missed him, and despite the way it had ended—the way she had ended it—she wanted to see him. She just wasn’t sure why he’d agreed to this meeting at all. Abraxas never did anything out of kindness. He was a demon, after all. But whatever he wanted, even if it was only to hurt her, again, she would endure it.
“I’ll walk out with you. And Celeste…”
She looked up, hoping for a last morsel of sage advice.
But all Hypatia said was, “I’m sorry.”