by Amanda Gray
“Got it,” they both agreed.
Jenny looked at Tiffany, feeling bad about dragging her into everything. “You sure about this? I’ll totally understand if you change your mind.”
“Are you kidding?” Tiffany grinned. “This is the most excitement I’ve ever had.” Her expression grew serious, her voice softer. “And I want to do this for you.”
Jenny reached in and gave her a quick hug. “Thanks, Tiff. And be careful.”
“You, too.”
They took off at a sprint. When they got to the driveway, Jenny and Ben cut into the woods to the right. Tiffany disappeared to the left.
It was harder following Ben this time. His black T-shirt didn’t provide the same kind of marker as the white one he’d worn the first time they’d come to the monastery, and it was a lot later. Thankfully, the full moon provided a little bit of light. It was a small comfort. Every time Jenny looked up, all she could do was think of Nikolai, getting farther and farther away from her as the clock drew closer to midnight.
They were about halfway to the top of the hill when Jenny heard the chanting. It started as a vibration in the ground, a hum in the air. But as they came closer to the retaining wall, it became louder and clearer. She couldn’t tell if they were saying something specific or if it was just formless notes, but it wound its way through her, sinking through her pores, settling into some lost place in her psyche.
“You coming?” Ben whispered.
She hadn’t realized that she’d stopped walking. She shook off the strange lethargy, ducking with Ben behind the wall and walking, low to the ground, until they came to the place where they could see the torches lit up around the pond. The monks were there, their robes pulled up to hide their faces, standing in a circle. The sound came from them, the chanting rising and falling on the soft summer breeze, drifting through the air toward Jenny.
“Let’s go to the back,” Ben said quietly. “Try to find the Sleep Temple.”
Jenny nodded her agreement, and they headed to the back of the compound, the chanting becoming slightly fainter as they moved away from the pond. They stopped when they came to a cluster of buildings near the dome. Morgan had told them the Sleep Temple was in a long, low building to the left of the dome. Jenny scanned the grounds, looking for it. It took her two passes to come up with a candidate.
The building was separated from the dome by a two-story structure with lots of windows. It wasn’t as low to the ground as Jenny had imagined when Morgan described it, but it was shorter than the others and distinctly rectangular.
“Think that’s it?” Jenny whispered, pointing to the building.
Ben peered at it through the darkness. There were torches at the back of the compound, too, but they were fewer and farther between. It was hard to see all the way across the grounds.
“Probably. I don’t see anything else that matches Morgan’s description.”
Someone was approaching on one of the footpaths from the front of the compound. Jenny and Ben ducked a little lower, watching as two robed monks approached the door to the building. One of them was holding something in his hands; Jenny thought it might be a folded bunch of fabric. The other one went for a metal box mounted to the wall of the building. He opened it, pulling out a key.
“That has to be the one,” Jenny said. She pulled out her phone, consulting it for the time. “It’s eleven-fifteen. How are we getting in?”
The monks approached the door. Jenny couldn’t see what he was doing, but a couple seconds later the door swung open, the crack just big enough to let the monks through one at a time. The door closed behind them.
“The most obvious way in is to grab the key when the fireworks go off, but that’ll only work if the monks leave.”
“And if they leave the key,” Jenny said.
“Right.”
“What if they don’t?”
Ben shook his head. “I don’t know. Let’s work our way around to that side of the compound. At least we’ll be closer.”
They crouched low, making their way to the back of the property. Everything ended at the domed building, and they went around it, crossing in front of a massive garage with several black town cars parked outside its doors. They kept going, continuing around the dome until they came even with the Sleep Temple.
“Now what?” Ben asked as they peered over the wall.
Jenny considered. “You stay here. I’m going to take a look around the building and see if there are any windows in that ground floor room.”
“I’ll come with you,” Ben said.
“No. Stay here and keep an eye on the door so we know if the monks leave or not.”
Ben nodded reluctantly. “Be careful.”
She made her way closer to the building, keeping her head below the line of the fence until she could stop and be sure no one was watching. Then she peered over it, looking for anything that might pass as another way in if the monks took the key with them when they left. Assuming they left at all.
The thought brought on a fresh burst of panic. What would they do if the monks stayed in the room—presumably with Nikolai—right up until they took him to the others out by the pond? How would they get Nikolai away from what were essentially two guards?
She forced herself not to think about it. She’d just have to assume the monks would go running when the fireworks went off or that they would leave before.
And she’d have to hope they didn’t take the key.
Scanning the building for other ways in didn’t help. There were no windows on the ground floor and only the one door leading into it.
She made her way back to Ben, still crouched behind the wall, his head just far enough over it that he could keep an eye on the building.
“Anything?” she said.
He shook his head. “How’s it looking for a Plan B?”
“Not good. No windows and only the one door.”
Ben heaved a worried sigh. “What time is it?”
Jenny consulted her phone. “11:31.”
Ben started to say something and stopped. The door opened to the room, the two monks exiting minus the bundle of cloth. One of the monks bent his head to the door and then walked to the metal box on the wall. He opened it, hanging the key on one of many hooks inside, and closed it.
The two men said something to each other before heading to the front of the compound.
“Do we go now?” Ben whispered.
Jenny thought about it before shaking her head. “I’d rather make sure the fireworks are going to blow. Even if we get in clean now, we still have to get off the grounds. It’ll be easier if everyone’s busy trying to figure out what’s going on with the fireworks.”
Ben nodded. The seconds seemed to slow, stretching like hours. Jenny would be sure five minutes had passed and then check her phone to see that only two had gone by. The fireworks still hadn’t gone off at 11:40 when one of the monks started back toward the room.
Ben swore. “We’re going to have to try and take him and get into the room. Something must have happened with Tiffany.”
“What do you mean, ‘try and take him’?” Jenny asked, a little too loudly.
“I don’t know. We’ll have to hit him over the head or something. Once he has his hands on Nikolai and is taking him back up to that weird ritual thing, everything’s going to get a lot more complicated.”
Jenny was trying to wrap her head around the idea of hurting someone to get Nikolai out when the first crack came from the woods at the front of the compound.
The monk stopped in his tracks, looking back toward the sound. He was still standing there, seeming to deliberate, when an explosion shot through the night, followed by a bunch of popping that sounded like gunfire.
The monk turned and ran, robe flowing behind him, toward the front of the property.
Ben grabbed her hand. “Let’s go.”
They leaped over the fence and ran for the Sleep Temple. Jenny made a beeline for the key cabinet, her heart sinking whe
n it revealed not one but at least twenty different keys on hooks, none of them labeled.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ben groaned. “Just … take them all!”
Voices were erupting at the front of the compound, footsteps beating the pathways somewhere in the distance. Jenny grabbed the keys off the hooks and headed for the door of the Sleep Temple. The keys looked mostly the same. She picked one, trying it in the lock and pulling it out when it didn’t work. The lock finally clicked open with the eleventh key.
Ben opened the door, stepping into the room. Jenny stepped in after him, stepping backward as someone jumped on Ben from the side, tackling him to the floor. Jenny almost screamed before she realized who it was.
“Nikolai! Stop! It’s me. It’s … us! We’re here to get you out.”
He stopped, his face contorted with rage, eyes glassy with disorientation. He wore a robe like that of the other monks, the hood down around his neck. “Jenny?”
She rushed toward him. He got up, holding her shoulders and looking at her like she was some kind of mirage. Then he crushed her to him.
“Thank God!” He pulled back to look at her. “Are you alright? Did anyone hurt you?”
She shook her head. “But you might have hurt Ben and he’s here to get you out.”
“Ben?” He seemed to search his memory for the name, then he walked over to Ben, still on the floor, and held out a hand. “I’m sorry.”
Ben took the hand and got to his feet, his own face red with anger. “Whatever. Let’s just get out of here.”
Nikolai pulled off the robe to reveal his regular clothes. He tossed the garment aside and grabbed Jenny’s hand, heading for the door.
They stepped out of the room, looking left and then right. The fireworks had stopped and there was no one on the walkways, though they could hear voices, some of them shouting, in the distance.
“Let’s go,” Ben said.
Nikolai’s hand was strong and sure around her own as they cut across the courtyard, staying as far back as possible from the trees and flowering shrubs that they knew concealed the pond. Their footsteps crunched across gravel and stone until they hit the grass that stood between the center’s main building and the woods.
They were almost within the confines of the forest when the shadows were suddenly illuminated. The periphery of the property lit up as a bank of harsh blue lights went on all around the main building. Despite Nikolai’s tugging on her hand, Jenny stopped, her eyes sweeping the area, anticipating the pursuers who were surely coming.
“Don’t look back!” Nikolai pulled harder on her hand. “Just run.”
The words shattered her stupor. She turned and ran. They headed for the cover of the woods as voices rose behind them, angry, urgent, and way too close.
“Over there!” The shout came from behind them.
They reached the edge of the property. Nikolai and Jenny followed Ben, jumping over the low stone fence without bothering to slow down. Jenny slid a little as she landed on the leaf-covered forest floor but managed to right herself without losing too much speed. She could hear footsteps behind them, and though it was impossible to know exactly how many people were chasing them, it sounded like a lot.
Ben barreled down the slope leading to the road. Nikolai crashed along behind him, pulling Jenny along, half running, half sliding, behind him. She lost all sense of time and distance, unsure how much further they had to go and if they would get there before their pursuers caught up to them. The footsteps were unrelenting, but it didn’t sound as if they were gaining on them.
The stone wall at the bottom of the incline came upon them so fast that they almost smacked into it before skidding to a stop. It was taller than the one at the top of the hill. Too tall to jump or climb. She followed Ben as he ran alongside it, looking for the opening that would lead them to the road. She had one panicked moment when she imagined that members of the Order would be waiting at the car, expecting her and Ben to make a run for the driveway. But when the break came into sight, no one was there. They made straight for it, turning onto the road without slowing down at all.
“Where are we going?” Nikolai yelled.
“To the left. At the trailhead.”
They ran along the side of the road, heading for the car. Jenny hoped Tiffany was there, waiting for them.
A shout sounded from behind them. “There they are!”
Jenny turned to look over her shoulder, expecting to see the robed men giving chase. Instead, she saw four men in suits running about fifty feet behind them. She’d been foolish to think that they were only being chased by a bunch of out-of-shape people in robes. She picked up her speed and Ben hurried to catch up to her.
"We’ re almost there.”
Almost. Almost. Almost. It was like a mantra.
Jenny’s lungs burned, her legs growing heavier with each stride, but she and Ben kept their pace.
They were about fifty yards from the trailhead when something burst through a clearing. It took Jenny a second to realize it was Nikolai’s car. It screeched to a stop next to them.
“Get in!” Tiffany yelled through the open window.
Ben jumped in the passenger side while Jenny and Nikolai piled into the back.
“Go, go, go!” Ben screamed.
The car lurched forward, the locks depressing with a thunk. Jenny jumped as a noise exploded behind them. Swiveling in her seat, she saw that it was one of the men hitting the back of the car as Tiffany sped ahead. The man’s eyes met Jenny’s as the car fishtailed just before it found traction and sped off down the road.
Jenny held her breath, eyes glued to the passenger side mirror as the car sped down the mountain. The men who had chased them grew smaller as Tiffany put more and more distance between them and the car. Finally, she rounded a corner on the mountain road and the men disappeared from view.
THIRTY-FOUR
Adrenaline was still pumping through Jenny’s body as they sped down the mountain. She leaned forward in the seat.
“Drive around for a bit, Tiff, okay? Take a roundabout way to the cemetery or something. I want to make sure we’re not being followed.”
“The cemetery?” Nikolai asked. “Why are we going to the cemetery?”
She realized Nikolai knew nothing about her conversation with Morgan. Had no idea that the plan was for him to leave Stony Creek via the underground.
She turned to him while Tiffany drove. “It turns out that Morgan wasn’t really a spy for the Order. Well, she was, but only so she could help me if I needed it.”
Suspicion darkened Nikolai’s eyes. “I don’t understand.”
“She’s part of the underground,” Jenny said. “A big part. She took over for my mom after she died.”
“What does this have to do with the cemetery?” he asked.
They were off the mountain. Tiffany turned left, away from the cemetery, and Jenny gave her attention back to Nikolai.
“We haven’t found the book,” she said softly. “And even though the full moon will pass, it will come again. The Order will just keep looking for you.”
Understanding shadowed his eyes. “I have to leave you. Again.”
“Morgan says she can get you into the underground from Stony Creek. I don’t … ” Her throat closed and she had to wait a minute, forcing herself to continue. “I don’t want you to go, but I don’t see any other way. At least you won’t be in the bardo. We can keep looking for the book, trying to find a way for you to stay.”
He pulled her into his arms. “I’ve only just found you again.”
She buried her face in his chest, inhaling the scent of him, trying to memorize it. For a few minutes, she was almost able to convince herself that there was no world outside of the car. That she could stay in Nikolai’s arms while they drove and drove, the Order disappearing with the rest of the world beyond the windows.
“Jen?” Tiffany said from the front. “How long do you want me to wait to meet up with Morgan?”
Je
nny lifted her head to look at Ben. “Anybody following us?”
“Not that I can see.”
She took a deep breath. “Head to the cemetery. But take that back road. The one that takes you past the field that runs behind the graveyard. I don’t want to risk the main entrance.”
“Will do,” she said.
Jenny pressed herself closer to Nikolai, wanting to stop the clock. Time was suddenly moving too fast. She had the sense of it, rushing and rushing to the moment when Nikolai would step away from her. She could already feel his absence like a cold wind.
“I see the field up ahead,” Tiffany said. “Where do you want me to park?”
“Still nobody behind us, Ben?”
Ben shook his head. “Not that I’ve seen.”
“Just pull off to the side of the road,” Jenny instructed, “as far into the long grass as you can without getting stuck.”
The car slowed, the passenger side dipping as the car hit the shoulder.
“Ready?” Nikolai whispered to her when Tiffany turned off the engine.
She shook her head, clinging to him. “No.”
“Me, either.” He kissed her head. “But we have to go.”
She nodded reluctantly, reaching for the door handle.
“I didn’t even know you could get to the cemetery through here,” Tiffany said when they were all out of the car.
“I’ve never tested the theory,” Jenny admitted. “But this field backs up to the graveyard and there’s no fence on that side, so we should be able to reach it.”
Nikolai held out a hand to Tiffany. “May I have the keys?”
Tiffany looked surprised by the request, but she handed him the keys. He went to the back of the car and opened the trunk, pulling out the duffel bag he’d packed earlier. He walked back to Jenny’s side and gave her the keys.