Page 90 of The Last Session

“Where is she?” My stomach clenched; for a moment I thought I’d vomit again.

Grace and Steven exchanged a glance.

“Look.” Sol shook his head. “I don’t know what you think happened to Catherine, but—”

“So you admit you know her.” Jonah stepped forward. “Is she here?”

“If she is, you better let us see her,” Mikki added.

“Sure.” Moon shrugged.

“What?” I asked.

“Come with me.” Moon beckoned. “All of you. I promise you will feel a whole lot better.”

Was this a trap? Being in the cave had done something to me, thrown off my internal compass. A distant part of me wondered if I was acting irrational, overdramatic. But that altar, the sculpture, the necklace, theblood… I glanced down at my phone, those small white letters—Emergency Call—waiting patiently.

“Or you can leave.” Sol glanced at Moon. “If that’s what you’d rather do. Grace can start driving you to the airport right now.”

“Yes.” Moon blinked. “But they won’t. Because they want to see Catherine.”

“Have you beenhidingher?” Mikki asked.

Moon’s expression sharpened into irritation, a look I’d rarely seen from her. “Of course not. She’s undertaking an intense regimen of meditation. An internal vision quest. Which you do alone.”

Was it true? Had Catherine been in the castle this whole time,meditating? I wanted to laugh wildly. I didn’t trust Moon, but she seemed so sure, so untroubled.

“Take us to her.” I kept my phone at the ready in my hand.

“Wonderful.” Moon turned and walked out the door. I hurried after her, through the moonlight-streaked courtyard, up the wooden stairs to the second floor. Jonah and Mikki followed, their faces uncertain. Moon paused in front of one of the doors and unlocked it; a skinny hallway led to a whole different part of the castle. The walls were hung with photographs.

This part of the building was a maze. We walked down some stairs, though another, smaller courtyard with a fountain, up other stairs,though a room dominated by a dusty piano. In the next hall, Moon stopped. She knocked on a door, then opened it. She gestured for us to go inside.

The room was lit by a crystal-laden chandelier hanging lopsided from the ceiling. There was an unmade twin bed shoved in the corner, a freestanding air conditioner beside it. In the middle of the room was a table covered with books and papers. The room smelled like unwashed sheets mixed with incense.

A woman came out of a doorway in the back. She wore a fuzzy zip-up fleece and biker shorts, and her hair was up in a messy bun.

Even though I recognized her immediately, it took a second to sink in.

She looked fine, good even—her face fuller than at the hospital, her skin golden-hued with a tan.

“Thea?” Her blank face shifted into an expression that hit me like a gut punch: eyes stretched open with fear, lips pulling back into a rictus of horror.

Almost immediately it melted into something else: the fearful eyes now wide with excitement, the grimace now a pleased grin.

“What are you doing here?” Catherine bounded forward and pulled me into a tight hug. I stood there, stunned and confused, as her arms tightened around me.

Part Three

38

I stood stock-still as she pulled away. This new, healthy-looking Catherine took me in, and it struck me, lightning-quick, that I’d taken her place: disheveled, dirty, confused.

“Are you okay?” I asked. Her brief, horrified expression had imprinted on my brain. It seemed so at odds with how she looked now: content, relaxed. Had I mistaken what I’d seen?

“Of course.” She grinned. “How are you? This is so random. I’m so happy you’re here!”

I glanced behind me. Near the doorway, Moon was beaming, beatific. Jonah and Mikki both watched us, uncertain.

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