“There was construction and—” She shook her head, almost angrily. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be stashed away with the Moroi!” Increasing my astonishment, she grabbed my sleeve and began steering me farther from the station. “You have to get out of here!”
Cue more astonishment. “Are you . . . helping me?”
Before she could answer, I heard Eddie’s voice. “Sydney?”
It was all he said, but as Zoe and I turned around, I could see the apprehension and battle readiness all over him. He stayed where he was but looked as though he could instantly leap up and throw Zoe against the building if she tried to hurt me. I really hoped it wouldn’t come to that, because no matter what had happened between us, no matter how much she’d betrayed me, she was still my sister. I still loved her.
“Is it true?” she whispered. “Did they really torture you in re-education?”
I nodded and cast another anxious glance at the gas station. “In more ways than you can imagine.”
She blanched but drew a resolved breath. “Then get out of here. Hurry—before he comes out. Both of you.”
I was stunned at this complete reversal in her behavior, but Eddie didn’t need to be told twice. He took hold of my arm and nearly dragged me to the car. “We’re going—now,” he ordered.
I caught one last glimpse of Zoe before Eddie shoved me in the car, where Ms. Terwilliger sat waiting for us. A thousand emotions played over Zoe’s face as we peeled out, but I could only interpret a few. Sadness. Longing. As we quickly got back on the road, I found myself shaking. Eddie was driving and kept anxiously checking the rearview mirror.
“No sign of pursuit,” he said. “She must not have been able to see which direction we went to tell him.”
I slowly shook my head. “No . . . she didn’t tell him at all. She helped us.”
“Sydney,” said Eddie, in a stern-but-trying-to-sound-kind voice, “she’s the one who turned you in the first time! The one who started that whole re-education nightmare.”
“I know, but . . .”
I thought back to Zoe’s face just now, looking so serious and upset about the notion of me being tortured. I thought back also to the day Adrian and I had first arrived at Court, when we’d been hauled in front of the queen and found a group of Alchemists already waiting there to try to get me back. My father and Ian, another Alchemist we knew, had spoken plenty about the wrongness of what I’d done and how I needed to be removed from the Moroi. Zoe had stayed silent, her face stricken, and I’d been too overwhelmed to think much about what she might be feeling. I’d assumed she’d been too outraged by my marriage to speak—not to mention the fact that my dad didn’t really let anyone else get a word in edgewise.
Now I suddenly realized there might have been something I’d missed altogether: regret.
“I really think she was trying to help,” I insisted, knowing how crazy the words sounded—especially to Eddie. He’d been there the night I was taken, the night she’d betrayed me. “Something’s changed.”
He didn’t contradict me but was still on edge. “I wonder if we should change our plans, in case they start scouting the area for us.”
“No,” I said firmly, feeling more and more confident of my suspicions. “She’s not going to turn us in. Unless you see active signs of someone coming after us, we’re pushing on to Ha Ha Tonka.”
I was reeling as the drive continued, still in awe at this new revelation that Zoe might be having doubts—if not about the Alchemists, then at least about what had been done to me. Once I recovered from my initial shock, I found myself feeling an emotion I hadn’t felt about her in a very long time: hope.
Clouds were thinning out when we reached Ha Ha Tonka State Park, and the early morning temperatures were already promising a sweltering day ahead. We parked and stopped by the visitors’ center, clustering around a map of the park. Although there were extensive grounds and trails, we decided the ruins of the massive stone building—which even the park referred to as the “castle”—were the place to start, seeing as that’s what our clue directly connected to.
No one else was out this early, aside from the staff at the visitors’ center. Ms. Terwilliger and I walked around the stone ruins, looking for signs of magic and occasionally casting detection spells. Eddie stayed near us protectively, doing his own searching as well, but mostly relying on us to find whatever it was we were looking for. The part of me that had long loved art and architecture couldn’t help but get caught up in the ruined grandeur around us, and I wished Adrian was with me. We hadn’t officially had a honeymoon after our wedding, but we’d often talked about all the potential places we’d like to go, if only we had the freedom. Italy was still high on my list, as was Greece. But honestly, I would’ve gladly settled for Missouri, if only Adrian could be with me, free from pursuit.
After a few hours of searching, we were hot and sweaty but had yielded no results. Eddie, still not convinced of Zoe’s intentions, was growing nervous about us lingering and wanted to be on the road soon. As lunchtime neared and we contemplated calling a break, something flashed in my periphery. I turned and looked up at one of the castle’s dilapidated towers and saw something small and golden shining in the afternoon sunlight. I touched Eddie’s arm and pointed.
“What’s that gold thing?”