“Do we know where the Nomad is right now?” I ask.
Maddox shakes his head. “The Gathers have been uncharted since we left Lady Whitaker’s. No one knows where the Nomad’s gotten off to.”
I can’t help but wonder if that has something to do with his intentions for Tink, but I have so much energy bursting through my veins now, I don’t let it deter me.
“Speaking of, what about Lady Whitaker?” says Charlie.
“She doesn’t place children,” I say. “Not in other homes. She only keeps them in that school of hers. Besides, I don’t know how willing she would be to help me, anyway. I can’t imagine she would look fondly on the bargain I made.”
No one argues with that. And though the guilt, the shame of it all threatens to take my breath away, I stay focused on the task at hand, tracing a trembling finger over the map.
There’s something about how big it is—how vast the world is—that makes me feel as if there has to be something, someone out there to help us. Something we could do.
“We’ll find a solution,” says Charlie.
“We already have,” says Nolan.
From my periphery, I can tell Charlie glances up at my husband. I don’t. I just continue staring at the map, ignoring what he’s about to tell her.
“When the time comes, I am going to give myself in his place,” he says.
Charlie lets out the smallest noise. It’s not quite a whimper, not quite a scoff. It lies somewhere in the in-between of disbelief and admiration.
She shakes her head. “No. No, we’ll find another way. We’ll find something else.”
Maddox joins us at the map table.
“There’s not another option. Not that I can see,” says Nolan.
Charlie sets her jaw. “That’s just because we haven’t looked hard enough.”
I don’t know if I’ve ever loved her more than I love her in this moment.
“We’re not separating your family. You’re not giving yourself over to that wretched creature.”
I squeeze her hand. When she nods at me, tears brimming in her eyes, it’s evident she still feels that this is her fault. I wish I could alleviate her of that guilt, but Charlie takes her mistakes personally, no matter how unintentional.
The best I can do is help her succeed in saving us.
Maddox stops, jaw slightly agape, as if he’s tasted a strange idea in the air.
“What is it?” I ask.
“It’s something Charlie said,” he says, staring far off. “About separating you.”
My heart sinks before it even has the time to lift.
“Go on,” I say.
He glances at Charlie.
“What about Kendra?”
Charlie goes stiff.
“I don’t think—” she starts, then something in her face shifts. A moment later, and she’s slapping Maddox on the back, looking relieved at first, but then her face pales to the faintest of greens. “No. But that would mean?—”
Maddox nods, and the two of them look at me, my eyes wide.
