Everything Is Eternal (Book Two)

LI

Kate waited that night. When the door finally creaked open, she tensed. Her stomach clenched at the fear that Shin returned.

It was Will.

He seemed taken aback to see her up. She opened her mouth to bring up Shin, but couldn't force out the words. Not as Will went over to the stove, desperately trying to get some heat.

"Will." She bit her lip. "You've been spending a longer time than usual in the Edges."

"No more than usual," Will said the guarded way he now spoke to her.

"How far to the edge are you going?"

"Not too far," he said vaguely.

"What if the Dark moves?"

"It always moves," Will said with an infuriating indifference. "A little in, a little out. It doesn't scare me."

Except that it should. "What has Ginny McIntyre had you looking into?"

"This and that." Will shrugged. "I can't say, Kate. She pays me to keep my mouth shut."

Except there was a time when Will trusted her enough to tell her anything. "Will, I don't think you should be going back to the Edges."

Will grabbed a half empty bottle and drank straight from it. "Isn't it a little late for that?"

"I'm not trying to be difficult," Kate said. "I'm worried that something might go wrong."

"Why?"

She hesitated. She couldn't exactly bring up Shin's visit, or the fact that he seemed intent on keeping Will out of the Edges. "Ginny McIntyre wouldn't need you in the Edges so much if she didn't think something was going on. People there are on edge... no pun intended. It's late. Anyway, I've been editing other people's articles and my eyes are open. Rebels are being busted and the whole movement is being corralled into the Edges. It all seems like a strategy to..."

"To?"

She expelled a breath. "To get rid of the rest of the opposition." She frowned as he shrugged. "You don't think it's possible?"

"I think it's possible," Will said. "Probable even. And let's say I was looking for evidence for Mrs. McIntyre... why would I stop?"

"Because it's dangerous. Because..."

"Because I'm hurt and I might never get better?"

"Those are your words." She hugged herself. "It's late. Let's not fight."

Will sighed. "I can't stop. Mrs. McIntyre pays me since nobody else really wants to go into the Edges for this kind of job. And I have my own interest in the Edges, you know I do. I'm not stopping."

"And what if you get lost in the Dark?"

"Kate, Shin and I ran straight into the Near Darkening the last time and I survived."

"Well, things are a little different now, aren't they?" Kate asked belligerently. "Shin's not here to make you do something stupid, you're not seventeen, you can't run the way you used to, and there was something else... you were arrested during the Near Darkening! You were also arrested a year ago. Why do you keep tempting fate?"

He didn't answer her question. "I can't stop."

"If Umbra is being forced into the Edges, they could end up Darkening the Edges again."

She wanted to tell him about Shin. She wanted to tell him that Shin wanted him to be safe. But that would just push him further into danger.

"Why do you think I've been busting my ass—or at least my knee—and spending all my time there? I know something's coming, Kate. So I have to use this time to talk with people while I can. Those who know things about the mysteries of the Eternal."