Page 34 of The Infinite Glade
“Don’t. Stop!” Sadina yelled. “It’s my choice, thank you very much.
“You’ll fling it into the ocean, knock it off!” Trish screamed. “Stop!”
Minho thought about knocking the book out of her hands before pushing Alexandra into the cold, icy water below. The only thing he wanted Alexandra to hold right now was her breath . . . underwater.
Roxy pulled him away. “It’s alright . . . she’s not going to hurt the book by looking at it.”
Minho couldn’t get them to see what he saw, no matter how hard he tried. He looked to Dominic for something, but Dom just shrugged. Brainwashed, all of them.
“Who gave it to you, again?” Alexandra asked Sadina with a false sweetness. “It must have been someone special . . .”
Damn.Minho shouldn’t have said anything. The last thing he wanted was for the Godhead to know about poor Old Man Frypan, not after the way she nearly kidnapped Sadina over her connection to the Immunes.
“It’s fine . . . she can hold on to it for now,” Roxy said, de-escalating the situation.
And just like that they had given over their most prized possession to the lying, murderous, so-called Godhead. A Goddess of Nothing.
TheBook of Newtwas just a book, and Roxy’s house was full of books back home. But when Minho had steered theMaze Cutterup to Alaska, he’d found Sadina up late one night, reading that thing when everyone else was sleeping—sometimes smiling, sometimes crying.
“It’s more than just a book . . .” he said under his breath and tried walking back to the captain’s wheel, but his legs and feet wouldn’t let him. He turned right back around to Alexandra. If he wasn’t able to flat out tell the others what he saw her do in the woods, then he would reveal her fraud in other ways: starting with those damn numbers she claimed did something magical. Minho tucked Kletter’s captain’s log tighter into his back pocket. He wouldn’t let Alexandra see it and get any ideas of adding it to her collection.
“Those numbers,” he said. “The ones you mumble to keep yourself from going crazy . . . or should I say crazier . . .” Cornering animals was the best way to hunt. Orphans were taught to corner wild animals, and Alexandra’s mind seemed like it had a lot of cracks and more than enough corners. “I don’t think it’s working for you.” He let out what he hoped sounded like a laugh. “Just some stupid numbers . . . 10, 18, 56. . . . Look, I can do it, too.”
“Minho!” Trish shook her head. “Sorry, Goddess, he’s just someone we found along the way, we don’t actually?—”
“After all, if your numbers are so magic and powerful, why didn’t you use them to save your precious city?” Minho stabbed her with words as theMaze Cutter’s starboard side scraped along a chunk of ice.
Everyone except Minho startled at the roaring from the ship’s hull.
“What’s that?” Miyoko asked Dominic.
“It’s alright. We’re okay, right, Minho?” Dom asked.
Minho shook his head. “Ask the precious Goddess. She said the waters were deep enough for theMaze Cutterout here, that we’d be safe with her. Is she wrong?” He waited for her to call him a liar so he could reveal that she’d wanted to leave the group behind and leave in a damned canoe. He looked up to the sky in frustration, those colors swirling like some haunted dream of a child.
“The digits are sacred, Minho,” Sadina said. “What does it hurt to learn more about all of this?”
“Yes, indeed they are . . . they brought me the Immunes.” Alexandra squinted at Minho. It would take more for her to crack, so he needed to push her.
“Okay. Listen. Why don’t you tell everyone what you were really doing in the woods before we left.”
Alexandra shook her head. Her lips pursed tight. “Absolutely nothing.”
“Come on, let’s get you back to the wheel.” Roxy pulled at Minho but he shook her off.
“You killed a man. In the Berg. Tell them.” He stared into Alexandra’s eyes without blinking.
The Goddess said nothing, but her mouth moved slightly.Reciting those damn numbers.Minho counted the times Alexandra blinked. Five times in one second. No one who’s stable can blink that many times in a row. Alexandra whispered those stupid numbers under her breath like an Orphan trying to remember the number of steps to the rumored underground bunker. “Even the Orphans of Remnant Nation can count silently in their head . . . you’re just a crazy Pilgrim. A desperate, lonely, and crazy Pilgrim that ran from the war. Prove me otherwise.”
“Minho, stop . . . please,” Sadina begged.
“That’s enough! Go!” Trish tried to push him away.
“No! She killed someone back there, and the way she did it . . . I could tell it wasn’t the first time she’s killed someone. She’s crazy. You all trust her, but she only cares about herself, and she’s going to get you killed!” He made sure Trish heard every word, but she didn’t seem to get it. None of them did.
“That’s it . . .” Roxy pulled at Minho again, but Alexandra held up her hand.
“No, he’s right. I did kill that man.” She paused, making eye contact with each of the islanders before continuing. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, before. He was a terrible person. The leader of the Remnant Nation. I’m not even sure he was fully human—he’d moved past The Gone years ago . . .” She spoke softly. “You were upset at me earlier for not showing more grief over my city, but a Goddess does not boast. I killed him to avenge all those who perished. My people, my city, would want me to rebuild, and what better way than with Newt’s descendent.” She held out her hand to Sadina.
