“Don't be afraid for me, Emma,” he finally breaks the silence.
“I can't help it,” I sigh. “What if I can't do it? What if I can't prove what actually happened and they send you back?”
“Then I would have gotten this time,” he says. “This is my reality now. That was my reality then. And if it becomes my reality again, that will be the way it is. I will hang onto now and know that then won't be forever. There's more. I don't want to go back. And I don't believe I will.”
“You don't?”
“No. You will do this, Emma. You will understand. It's all just waiting for you. It's always waited for you,” he says.
“What do you mean?" I ask.
"There is an explanation for everything. I have waited all these years because it wasn't time. I've been waiting for you," he says.
"How do you know?" I ask, feeling the weight and significance of his trust heavy in my chest.
"You've never looked through me. Other people act as if I don't exist. They try to force me into their world, their language. You weren't afraid to come into mine. Which means you won't be afraid of theirs."
His eyes break away from mine only when the door opens again, and Dean comes back in. Xavier said I have never looked through him, but it's the way he looks at me that's unnerving. I feel he's seeing something other people don't. And I can't help but wonder what it is.
“Try these,” Dean says, tossing a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt onto the bed next to Xavier. “They're probably going to be a bit big on you, but they'll be way more comfortable.”
“I will pick up some clothes for you on the way back,” I tell him. “Is there anything else you need?”
“A green toothbrush,” he says.
It's matter of fact, and I don't question it.
“Stay here and relax,” I say. “Don't leave the room. Lock the door when we leave, put the chain on.”
“Should I stay?” Dean asks.
“I'll be fine,” Xavier tells him. “I do very well staying in one room behind a locked door.”
I’d already changed out of my court clothes when we first got back to the hotel, so all I need to do is put on my shoes, and Dean and I are on our way. My heart pounds heavily in my chest as we drive toward the temple. We are going to be able to find them now. All the answers that were hidden.
We will get the proof we were trying to give them all along. And finally, this will be done.
“What do you mean, nothing?” Xavier asks two hours later when we're back in the hotel room. “How could there be nothing?”
“That's what we want to know too,” I sigh. “We got inside, and when the locksmith opened the doors, the rooms were empty. I mean, there was still furniture, but the papers were gone. The ledgers, the books, the records. The clock on the wall. The wheel. Everything. It was gone.”
Xavier shakes his head for several seconds, as if he's juggling the words around in his brain and hopes they will fall together in an order that makes more sense.
“You said everything was there.”
“It was,” I say. “I have pictures of it.”
“Then why can't those pictures be used?” Xavier asks. “Why haven't you shown them to the detective, so he'll open an investigation into Sterling?”
“Because they're not admissible,” I explain. “Neither are the ones that Lakyn took. We were both trespassing when we took those pictures. Breaking and entering. A whole slew of crimes was being committed when we took those pictures. That means we can't use them. According to the detective, those pictures don't even exist. Unless he is able to find that evidence in the building when he's there, it doesn't matter.”
“What I don't understand is how they got everything out,” Dean says. “That building has been under total surveillance for months. The task force has been on twenty-four-hour watch. Nobody has gone in or out. How did that happen?”
“There has to be some other way to get in the building,” Xavier announces. “A door that isn't a door.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“A diversion. They made themselves invisible, so no one would see them. They were there, and they weren't there. They were gone, and they were always gone,” he says.
“So, we're right back to the beginning,” I say.
“What are we going to do?” Dean plops dramatically against the couch.
“Until we can figure out how they got into that building, we need to know everything we can about The Order of Prometheus. And that means FireStarter,” I say.
I pull out my phone and pull up the images I took in the temple the night Dean and I went in. “Look at these letters. They keep track of all the property The Order owns or controls.”
“What does that have to do with FireStarter?” Dean asks. “I know they own the cornfields and the Halloween attractions.”
“Yes,” I nod. “The cornfields adjacent to the ones filled with bones. FireStarter is a shell company, a front for The Order. Look.” I open my computer and bring up the file full of research I already did on the mysterious company.
“So, all of these things are business ventures by Prometheus?” Dean asks.
“Not all of them,” Xavier points. “They would spread out. Like water on air. If they were too close, you could see them like the mist. So close, the connection would be obvious. But if they stay just so far apart, they would become invisible. If the water is far apart, you can’t see it. But it’s still there.”
“Sterling Jennings’ brother is not a member of The Order. Yet, he controls FireStarter,” points out Dean.
“And I'm still sure Millie knows so much more than she's talking about,” I say. “I think it's what she wanted
