The Hidden - Jessica Verday [97]
“Grifyth!” he yelled.
Everything happened at once then, in a blur of motion that left me stunned, as the man tackled Vincent and they went flying past me. The man in the white suit shoved Vincent into the bathroom and slammed the door shut between them. Reaching for a kitchen chair, he wedged it up under the knob. It didn’t take long for the pounding on the other side to begin.
I glanced over at him. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”
“Well, I was coming to rescue you,” he said in an amused voice. “But it looks like you were taking care of that yourself.”
He put out a hand and reached for me. “Come on. We’re leaving.”
Apparently I didn’t have a choice in the matter, because he was already hauling me behind him, and my legs followed.
“What’s going to happen with Vincent?” I said.
“He’s not going to be happy when he gets out, but we need to get you back to the other Revenants.” He directed me to a gray car sitting outside. We both got in.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“You can call me Monty.”
“Do you know where Caspian is?”
He nodded. “With the Revenants. But he doesn’t have much more time.”
He looked sad as he started up the car, but he floored it and we drove away. He was going over the speed limit by a good thirty miles as we headed back to Sleepy Hollow, but something told me we weren’t going to be stopped by any cops.
“You were at the asylum, right?” I said. “Gray’s Folly?”
“Yes.”
“How did Uri know you would be there?”
“I spent a lot of time there when I was human. The place was named for me, actually.”
The puzzle pieces were starting to slide into place. But the biggest one, the most obvious one, didn’t fit yet, and I wanted to tread delicately. I don’t know why, but he struck me as someone with a wounded soul.
“Monty … can I ask you something?” I said.
He nodded.
“Are you Vincent’s partner? His other half?”
Sorrow crossed his face, along with something else. And I knew the answer was yes.
“How can that be?” I said. “I thought Shades were supposed to be male and female? A love match?”
“Most are. But when Grifyth was a child—I’m sorry, I mean Vincent. When he was a child, he was a student at my school. He died there, but I still kept seeing him everywhere. I thought that I was being punished for not saving him.”
“Not saving him? How did he die?”
Monty’s expression darkened. “He drowned.”
Vincent had drowned? Now it made sense. Shades and their other halves were a love match. But for Monty it had been a self-sacrificing love.
“So when you found out you were like me, you completed him out of guilt, right?”
He sighed. “I did. That was many lifetimes ago now.”
We passed the enormous covered bridge as we drove through Sleepy Hollow, and I glanced back at it for a moment. It reminded me of what I was rushing toward. If I was going to save Caspian, if I was going to complete him, there was only one thing I was sure of: I had to die first.
Reaching over to touch his hand as we pulled up to the cemetery, I said, “Thank you, Monty. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t come.” Then I got out of the car, unsure if he would follow, but I knowing where I had to go.
To the river. To the spot where Kristen had died.
They were all there, waiting for me, forming a small circle, with Uri and Cacey off to one side and Kame and Sophie on the other. Caspian was standing in the middle, gesturing and speaking loudly.
I went running. Flying. Toward the bridge. Toward him.
He met me halfway, and I stumbled, hands reaching out for him. They went through, of course, but I was so happy to see him that I didn’t care.
“Where were you?” he asked. “Oh, God, Astrid. I was so worried! We didn’t know where to look, but I didn’t want to leave in case you came here. What happened? Why didn’t you—”
“Vincent was here,” I said. “He took me, to my family’s cabin. He kidnapped me.”
Monty came strolling up behind me, and the others welcomed him. He didn’t seem very