“Comforting.”
“I mean only to put your mind at ease. You’re safe here.”
I snorted. Rumor had it any living being who found themselves on the night road would go mad within minutes. So my definition of safe varied wildly from hers. “Why did you bring me here? If you wanted to show Manea you could get to me first, bravo, you win.”
“You’re special, Tallulah, but not irreplaceable. Show some respect.” Her tone never stopped being warm and welcoming, but I knew better than to be dismissive of what she was saying. She wouldn’t warn me twice.
“Sorry.”
“I’ll pass it off as circumstantial stress.”
“I still don’t understand why you want to help me. You don’t even like Seth.”
“This has very little to do with Seth and everything to do with what you can offer me in the future.”
“Last time I checked, the goddess of night didn’t have the gift of foresight.”
“Last time I checked, I still had the ear of the Fates, so do not doubt how far forward my eyes can see, my dear.”
That shut me up. Whatever it was she expected from me, whatever this crossroads I had coming, it was foretold by the Fates themselves. There was no power more infallible. I didn’t want to know anything more. No good could come from seeing the path my life would take. Call me crazy, but I’d prefer a little mystery.
I knew I’d die someday. I didn’t need to know the finer details.
“Why am I here?” I asked more quietly this time.
The air around us was still, stuffy. The silence was so complete it deafened me. No wind, no animal noises, not the usual chittering of insects. In spite of trees surrounding us on all sides, not even the sound of rustling leaves could be heard. It was eerie, this much silence.
I read somewhere there was a room researchers designed that was so quiet you could hear the blood rushing through your veins, and no one could stand to be left in there for longer than five minutes. At the time I’d read the article I thought it was silly. Who was afraid to be alone with the quiet?
Now I got it. Now I understood why humans were not meant for the night road.
After a while your mind would start to fill in the quiet with imagined voices.
I hoped to get out of here before that became a concern.
Hecate held her hand out to me, and I hesitated only briefly before taking it. At this point I was in her domain anyway. She could leave me here if she wanted, and I could imagine very little that would be worse than that.
“I want to show you something.”
We walked, and the road seemed to move the opposite way, ushering us forward at incredible speed. The trees were a blur beside us, until they slowed and stopped, and we found ourselves standing at a five-point crossroads.
“Welcome to the end of the night road. This is something not many living souls have seen before.”
“Is that because they all end up dead afterwards?” I sounded wary, not entirely sure I wanted to hear her answer.
“Some. But for the most part this is not meant for mortal eyes. This is where the spirits determine which way thei
r final journey will lead them.”
My skin went cold in spite of the stifling air. “This isn’t the crossroads you were telling me about?”
“No. I told you that would be symbolic. This one is very real, and you have a long way to go on your current journey before you will find yourself here.”
I let my breath out all at once, bracing my trembling hands on my thighs. I hadn’t realized until right then how much I wasn’t ready to die. I liked to talk a big game, pretending I could deal with the consequences of Manea’s threat, but the truth was I was pretty fond of living and didn’t want to give that up yet.
“So what does this have to do with Leo Marquette?” Might as well bring this discussion back to the information she’d promised me. The sooner I got out of here the better.
“Leo Marquette has been at this crossroad.”