The Greywoods camp was eerily silent as Hailey and Jessica landed, but there was smoke issuing from Cinza's chimney nonetheless. Yusuf and Joe looked up from the field curiously as Hailey landed, since she wasn't expected. She ignored them, heading straight for Cinza's cabin. She tried to compose the words in her head to explain what had happened, but she couldn't think of anything.
She didn't have to. Cinza and Ruby were sitting together on their wide chair, both staring at the monitor. There were tears on Ruby's cheeks. As Hailey entered, she turned away and hid her face in the thick cushions.
"I will end him," said Cinza, her arm around Ruby's shoulder.
"I couldn't find him," Hailey sighed, taking one of the chairs opposite. Josh bolted into the room a moment later, his mouth open.
"Cinza—"
"We already know," Hailey interrupted.
Josh glanced at her. "When'd you get here?"
"Like thirty seconds ago. We had to outrun a helicopter that chased us across Tacoma. Jess made us invisible, but I could've sworn it was still following us, then it made a few wrong turns and we got away." She leaned back in the chair, stretching out from the hard flight. "Also, I got outed too."
"By your own choice," Cinza said quietly. It wasn't an accusation.
They're gonna know all of us sooner or later... "...Yeah." Hailey looked back at her. If Ruby was so devastated, Hailey expected Cinza to be doubly so—but she was practically radiating pure, focused rage.
If she weren't so angry at him herself, Hailey might have pitied Nate in that moment. Cinza would tear him to pieces if she got her hands on him.
"Ruby..." Josh started.
"Don't look at me," snapped Ruby, her voice muffled by the chair. "You both saw it, right?"
"Well... no," said Hailey, glancing between them. "As soon as I saw the first couple channels talking about it, I flew straight to the lawyers Nate hired. I didn't really have a chance to look at anything. I read a little bit more when we stopped halfway across to eat, but my phone was almost dead."
"Ruby got outed," explained Josh, before Cinza could speak.
"...I mean, that's not surprising," said Hailey.
"No, I mean her real name and everything. Her dad. Where she's from. Age, birthday, appearance, preferences, favorite foods. A whole fuckin' profile." Josh glanced at Cinza oddly. "That was some diary."
"No one was ever meant to read them. They were private," she snapped.
"Ruby's real name?" Hailey asked, surprised. For some reason, she'd never really considered the idea. She'd always doubted Cinza's name, but she'd never bothered to consider that her girlfriend's might be fake, too.
Josh looked over at Cinza again, as if seeking permission. Cinza sighed. "It's public record now. You'll hear it sooner or later. Her name is Hannah Newman, and she's from Tacoma. She ran away from home at fifteen and ended up in Rallsburg, May before last."
Hailey did the quick mental math. "So she's... oh. Oh god."
"Cinza, don't let them—" Ruby started, still muffled. Hailey could barely hear her over the crackling fire and the rain that was beginning to pour down on the roof. Jessica opened the door, letting in Scrappy, who ambled through and sat down next to the fire.
Cinza ran a hand through her hair, shushing her and holding her close. "Ruby, I shall never in an eternity of life, be they god or devil or the force of nature itself, allow anyone to take you from me."
"...Cinza, you're not gonna have a choice," Josh said uneasily. "If she's a minor, we all know how this looks. The law's never gonna let her stay with a cult."
"This isn't really a cult..." said Hailey.
"You think anyone's gonna care? As the resident non-member, this is absolutely a damn cult and anyone sayin' otherwise is kiddin' themselves." Josh held up his hand as both Cinza and Hailey opened their mouths angrily. "It's a good cult, calm the fuck down. But until she's eighteen, it's gonna be a shitshow."
"When is that?" Hailey asked gently, looking back to Cinza.
"Next September," she replied. "Far too long."
"It's so stupid," Ruby cried. "I'm not going back to him. Never."
"They can never find you here," Cinza reminded her, hugging her close. "You're safe."
"For how long though?" asked Hailey uneasily.
"Forever, if they want," Josh said with a shrug. "It's totally self-sustaining now. I mean, it's fuckin' November and we're still growing food outdoors. We've got electricity, heat, everything. The magic's solid."
"The rest of the world won't be so simple," said Cinza, finally loosening her grip on Ruby, though the girl didn't move an inch. She continued to run a hand through the thick red hair as she spoke. "We'll be safe, but our moment has come. We can't let this pass unchallenged."
"Unchallenged?" Hailey asked.
"If all they have is Nate's word and my writing, they will make assumptions. Many of which will be false."
"What exactly do they have?" asked Josh. "We gotta know what we're up against."
"I wrote down everything. Everything that happened, everything I thought and did and saw, to the best of my knowledge and my memory." Cinza glanced over at the wall of journals, barely visible through the thick starry curtain that separated the cabin into rooms. Hailey squinted, and sure enough, it seemed to be locked up tight, instead of an open shelf as before. "Based upon the volumes that remain, they have every event from the end of July last year until May fifteenth, after we gathered in the library. Three books in total."
"Son of a bitch," he muttered.
"I'm sorry," said Hailey, "but I wasn't really there for most of that... What does that mean?"
"Second coup?" Josh asked, glancing at Cinza.
She shook her head. "I was only tangentially involved, so I didn't record much of it. Ruby and I left Rallsburg for much of November. Certainly not enough to condemn anyone."
"Thank god. But still... That's gonna have the names of everyone, yeah? And what we can do, who was in charge, everything." He slumped in his chair. "Shit, I'm gonna be all over that aren't I?"
"You were the most frequent visitor to our ritual," Cinza replied, with the faintest smile creasing her lips.
"I needed a distraction after Rika stabbed me in the fucking back," he muttered. "Okay, so they're gonna know everything about us."
"They already do," said Hailey. "They already went over all of us when the town got wiped out, remember?"
"Like you're the same person you were before?" asked Josh. He shook his head. "That's not what I'm really worried about."
"Rachel," added Cinza with a nod.
"...What?"
"She shot Jackson. Right in front of me," said Cinza quietly.
"Self defense, right?"
"As long as we advocate for her."
"What about you?" asked Josh, looking over at her. "You and Ruby killed a couple people too..." He trailed off, realizing what he'd just said so casually.
Cinza nodded, unperturbed. "I will probably be forced to answer for that. I'm not an expert on legal matters, but I think that too would be construed as self defense."
"They were trying to kill us," murmured Ruby. "How more self-defense can you get?"
"We need Jackie," muttered Josh, pressing his hands to his face.
"I've been trying," Hailey sighed. "I promised Agent Ashe I would."
"Shit!" Josh sat up suddenly. "He's on our side now, right? Ask him for help."
"I don't know about on our side," said Hailey dubiously. "But I can try."
"Should we really contact them as our first move?" wondered Cinza aloud. "We may be stepping right into a trap, if we place ourselves in the hands of federal agents on the first day of the new world."
"Not really our first move," Josh pointed out. "Hailey already showed off live on national TV. They can't bury her." He glanced over at her. "Nice speech, by the way."
"Thanks?"
"A bit short for my taste," commented Cinza. Hailey was glad the mood was finally warming up a bit.
"Everything's too short for your taste," she teased back, grinning.
"Perhaps I'm overcompensating for something," Cinza added mildly, smiling as well.
"What's going to happen to us?" asked Ruby, finally looking up. Her face, streaked with tears, chilled the mood back down to ice-cold. No one answered, while the fire crackled away and Jessica glanced between them, sitting up against the wall with Scrappy curled up by her side.
"It's time to face the real world, my love," Cinza said, kissing her on the forehead. "Our brief stay from the public eye is past. The second emergence has begun." She looked up at Hailey. "I suppose you'll be representing us."
Hailey glanced between the two of them, uncertain. Josh nodded. "She's the best choice." He raised his eyebrows pointedly. "I mean: damn, Hales."
She shrugged. "I've been waiting so long to go back to normal. I kind of overdid it."
"It paid off."
"You look too perfect," commented Cinza. "It's unnatural."
"You think it's bad?" she asked, surprised.
Cinza smiled. "Of course not. We are unnatural. Embrace it. You're beautiful, Hailey, and your magic has only served to bring out the best of you."
Hailey did her best not to blush, but hearing that from Cinza made her feel positively glowing. Ruby looked up at the words, and she nodded her agreement.
"Okay, this is all uplifting and shit, but don't you have some phone calls to make?" Josh said pointedly. Hailey nodded, still basking in the praise a little bit. She pulled out her phone and started scrolling through the contacts. Jessica looked up as she stood, but Hailey just pointed at the phone in her hand, and she nodded.
Hailey stepped outside. There was a wide, comfortable bench on the front porch, under the awning. She bundled up in her thick flight jacket, pulled her scarf in close, and tapped the name on her phone.