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When she got back, Lewis had already gone home. The living room looked like they'd been planning a heist: scattered across the floor were books on Casper, a selection of marker pens and a various assortment of snacks. The map Lewis bought was now covered in pins marking out all the weak spots they'd found and annotations done in permanent marker.
"So it's all ready to go?" Sadie asked.
Baz nodded and quickly ran her through the plan. "I feel good about this," he said. "Really good."
And Baz was normally right about these things. Sadie helped herself to one of the leftover taro fritters and made herself comfortable on the sofa while Baz went to take a shower, messing around on her phone to pass the time.
Without meaning to, Sadie found herself back on the Stonebridge Lost Voices page, looking at Etta's entry. She hadn't given her time to let it sink in, but it occurred to her that if all went to plan, Etta would be back in Stonebridge.
A thrill threaded through her body as she thought it, a prick of nervous, excited energy. Hope, she realised. The one feeling she'd avoided above all others, until now.
Her first thought was to quash it, just in case everything went wrong tomorrow and she had to deal with the dreaded flipside: disappointment. But this time, Sadie let it be.
Absently, she scrolled further down the page, checking out the lower entries. Once again, her attention snagged on the post at the bottom, from over a decade ago.
Police are on the lookout for Rhys Connolly, last seen outside the Lucky Four convenience store on Alma Street...
Poor kid, she thought. He'd only been ten when he went missing, and they still hadn't found him. She hated to think what his parents must be going through. Three years was long enough. She'd already seen what it had done to Etta's parents. But eleven?
Maybe it wasn't so bad, though. The date of his disappearance matched up with the blue moon, so perhaps he was in Eseran, too.
And yet, looking at the picture again, Sadie couldn't help but think he seemed familiar. Dark hair and blue-grey eyes, and faint freckles over his face. A little like...
She shook her head. What the heck was she thinking? The names didn't even match. But now the thought was in her mind, Sadie started replaying their conversations back in her head, thinking back to something that had bothered her when they'd spoken earlier.
I only got serious about it after I got back to Stonebridge...
Back to Stonebridge. As in, he'd been there before. Sadie had assumed Avel was talking about the first few times he'd visited, those temporary trips where he'd first met Etta. But now she wondered if he'd meant back before then, when he was younger.
And then another image swam up in her mind: the painting he'd done on Bolstone road, the broken chains dangling from the woman's hands. And the quote on his artist's bio. And the gate is broken open, and the bird can stretch its wings...
"No way," Sadie muttered, just as Baz walked in.
"What's up?" he asked, coming over to her.
"This guy," Sadie said, holding up her phone. "Doesn't he look a bit like Avel to you?"
Baz frowned, narrowing his eyes at the screen. "Yeah, I guess. Why?"
"Nothing," Sadie bit her lip. "I just...what if Etta wasn't the only one in Eseran against their will? And Avel was just trying to get back home this whole time?"
"What's your point?"
"I'm just not sure it's a good idea," Sadie said. "Tricking him into going back. Maybe we shouldn't do this."
"Frankly, I don't give a fuck about Avel's sob story," Baz said. "Did you forget that he's the reason Etta's been trapped in Eseran for three years?"
"I know, but..."
"I don't believe this. Etta's your best friend. You're gonna give up on bringing her back home, just for some guy you met like a week ago?"
Sadie let out a sigh. It was so hard to talk to him sometimes. She could care about Etta and be worried for Avel at the same time. But in Baz's mind, there were the only two options. Either she was committed to this plan, or she was turning her back on them.
"I'm not saying give up on trying to get her back," she said. "I'm just saying maybe we should find another way, one that doesn't involve Avel. Why can't we try and get her through the Gate, like we wanted to at the start?"
"Because we don't know where it is, genius," Baz said. "Why the fuck do you care about this guy so much, anyway?"
"Because..."
Because, if she was right about all this, then she understood. She got what it felt like, to feel like your life was out of control. To find solace in creating things, in expressing yourself after years of feeling like you couldn't. To grasp for a chance for freedom, whatever it took.
"Come on, Baz," Sadie said. "We've still got a day until the blue moon. We can plan something else out."
"We don't know anything about the Gate. We've already got a plan, and its way less risky. We're doing it like we planned, and that's final."
That's final. She hated those words. It was the nail in the coffin, the two-word mantra that her parents always used to shut her down. The reason Sadie could never have a conversation with them, or persuade them to change their mind, no matter how unreasonable their demands were.
Do what I say, and that's final.
Defiance lit a familiar fire in her chest. She wasn't that kid anymore.
Sadie looked up at him. "Yeah? What if I told him what we were planning?"
"What the fuck is wrong with you, Sadie?"
"I'm just asking you to listen to me, without getting emotional about it for once," Sadie said. "I want Etta to come back home. You know I do. But if it's true, I don't want to do it like that. I want to do this the right way, without screwing anyone else over."
"And I want my friend back," Baz said. He looked at her, eyes narrowing, and added: "Both of them."
"What do you mean?"
"You really have changed," Baz said. "I thought I was wrong about it earlier. But the Sadie I know would never put a virtual stranger over someone she's known for years. And if that's what you're like now, if you'd really throw away everything we've planned just to protect some shitty little artist after everything he's put us through...then I don't want you in here."
Sadie stared at him. "Are you serious?"
"Dead," Baz said. Sadie opened her mouth to speak, to protest, but he'd already turned away from her. "Get out of my house, Sadie."
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