Iteration no. 7 [Emily Pope & Logan Anderson]
“Let’s hope Estevez is at the monitoring station tonight,” Emily comments while speeding up on their way to Bright Falls. “And if she’s not, I will bring you back to the Oldest House and call Jesse.”
“No!” Logan protests beside her. “We’re gonna lose time skipping cities because of this stupid bureaucracy—”
“Logan! Please!” She glances at the teenager in a scold. “It’s not bureaucracy. It’s your safety. Everyone will be very worried about you, and your mother would not approve of it if you went to the Dark Place unsupervised like you’re planning to.” And Emily swallows, exhaling deeply, flexing her fingers as she’d do with her prototypes of Black Rock knives. Logan does the same, but with the handle of her backpack. Eventually, she gives up. “I’m sorry for that.”
Above them, striped clouds flush in and out of a darkening blue sky. This road seems endless. The amount of trees increases by the driven mile. It’s not a good or safe place, Logan knows; she remembers the stories Saga told her after the nightmare.
Dusk ends when they arrive before a metal fence hidden by bushes of leaves, the breeze not as gentle as an hour ago. The lack of light poles and the beginning of a mist gives it a different feeling. Logan shivers at whichever would lie beyond.
“We should get in,” Emily tells her. They’re sided before its entrance and worry is clear on Logan’s face.
“And if something goes wrong?”
Emily hesitates—but taps Logan’s shoulder and shows the two prototypes beneath her gray coat. “If something goes wrong, we will find a way out,” and Emily winks at her, “I’ve got plenty of training for those situations.”
Logan sees the enthusiastic but careful look on Emily’s eyes, and breathes, fiddling with the bracelet she shares with her mother. She gathers courage. They get in.