Witch and Wizard - James Patterson [39]
Then something hit me like a cheap shot to the jaw. Did none of these kids have any parents? We were just arriving at the main floor. I started to look around and think, Every single one of these kids, Half-light or not, has a story… maybe even a story worse than ours.
“So how many live here?”
“I guess around two hundred fifty,” Sasha mused, “not counting Half-lights, who drift in and out. They can’t stay very long, or—”
“We don’t need to go into that,” said Celia, looking anxious, so very different from the laid-back Celia I’d known before. All I wanted to do was hold her close, tell her everything would be all right. But I wouldn’t be able to really hold Celia ever again, would I? And I definitely couldn’t tell her that things would be all right.
“We’ve got our own little pukka society here,” said Sasha. “Including, ta da, this week’s leader!” He’d led us down a corridor to a small bank of offices.
There, sitting at a desk with a little brass-colored MANAGER sign on it, was a cute girl of no more than fifteen; she was busily punching keys on a laptop.
A thick cable ran from the back of the computer to what looked like a small metal garbage can about twenty feet away. I could smell smoke and something like burned lemons coming from the fragrance-fueled laptop. Ugh. I’d never look at perfume the same way again.
The cute girl looked up, brushing long, brown curls over her shoulder. She had a no-nonsense look on her face, no makeup, and was wearing denim overalls over a stained T-shirt.
“Sasha,” she said, “it’s been, what, forty-three days? We needed you here.”
“I’m not ducking responsibility, but Celia ran the operation,” Sasha said. “And, I should point out, it was a hugely successful one. But there’s no accounting for those portals into the Shadowland. Not to mention that we had a prison break to engineer.
“Whit and Wisty”—he turned to us—“meet my former basic-combat partner and this week’s leader—you can tell because she’s in the manager’s office, wearing a MANAGER lapel pin—Janine!”
“Hi,” said Janine, not smiling. Still sitting, she reached out and shook my hand like I’d just arrived for a job interview. “Welcome,” she said, and then targeted Celia. “Did you get any other kids out of the Hospital?”
Celia shook her head. “There was only one other on the floor, and he wasn’t… rescuable.”
Janine nodded. “Such a shame to find Straight and Narrows afflicting a child. Well, the fight goes on!”
“The fight goes on,” Celia echoed, then she turned to me. “I have to go, Whit,” she said. “But I’ll try to come back.”
The word “try” rang in my ears like a funeral bell.
Chapter 63
Whit
HAVE YOU EVER LOST anyone close to you? Then you can imagine my feelings. I loved Celia like crazy. To have her ripped out of my life, over and over again, was unbearable.
I motioned for Celia to come behind one of those mirrored department-store columns for some privacy.
I tried to hold her hands, grasping the shape of them in mine. “Please come back,” I told her, looking into her eyes. “I can’t stand to lose you again.”
She nodded and gave me one of her smiles. “I want to, Whit. I’m so glad… I’m so glad you’re alive. Out of everything I miss, I’ve missed you the most. Oh God, I’ve missed you.”
Then Celia did the most amazing thing.
She came very close to me. Then even closer, until I couldn’t see her anymore. I could only feel her, in a way that was more intense and intimate than ever before.
Then we merged. Really—we were like one person.
It was warmth, it was peace, it was pure beauty. I was part of Celia; she was part of me. It was only for a moment, but it seemed as if the feeling were big and powerful enough to last a lifetime. I knew I’d never forget this. Who could?
Finally Celia separated from me. She blew a kiss and ran to a nearby portal, apparently in the boys’ shoe department, where she disappeared.
Honestly, it was like