“Where do you want the chair?” Guilliame was carrying one from across the room.
“A few yards from the statue,” Jessica said.
He put the chair where she’d indicated and hurried out of the room.
Jessica sat down and held out her arms. “Put Cassie on my lap, Travis.”
“I can hold her.”
“ No.”
“She trusts me.”
“But I’m the one who’s been trying to persuade her to come back. You’ve just been a security blanket. I want her to realize that everything’s different now.”
He placed Cassie on Jessica’s lap, facing the Wind Dancer. “Now what?”
“We sit and we wait.” She pulled Cassie closer. “Open your eyes, sweetheart. He’s here. He’s so beautiful, it almost makes my heart stop. I can see why you love him so much. Please open your eyes. . . .”
“He’s here!” Cassie’s cry of joy tore through the haze surrounding Melissa. “I’ve found him. She keeps saying I have to open my eyes to see him, but I know he’s here. You come and we’ll see him together.”
Darkness. Haze. Lethargy.
“We can stay here. He’ll keep us safe. She wants me to come out, but we don’t have to. We’ll go deeper. He took me away once. He can do it again. And he’ll come with us. I know he will.”
She should say something. But she couldn’t think. Why couldn’t she think? The mist was deep and heavy as molasses. “What are you talking about?”
“The Wind Dancer, silly.”
Fear jolted through Melissa, tearing the fog. “What?”
“I told you. He’s here. I’ve found him.”
Her heart was starting to beat like a jackhammer. “Where?”
“Jessica brought me to him.”
Jessica.
The coffee.
No!
“Melissa, come on. I’ve found him, but I don’t want to leave you here. Come with me.”
She had to open her eyes.
“Melissa.”
“Don’t go with him, Cassie.”
Open your eyes. Open your eyes. Open your eyes.
Finally her heavy lids lifted. Blue curtains. The apartment. Hazy. Everything was hazy.
Sit up. Move.
Too hard.
Move.
It took her five minutes to sit up and another five to get to her feet.
One thing at a time. Get to the door.
What if she couldn’t make it? She had to stop Jessica.
“Melissa, where are you?”
“I’m coming. Wait for me.”
She fumbled in her pants pocket for the number she’d copied from Jessica’s phone book. Now get to the phone.
Jesus, she couldn’t see the numbers on the phone. It took her three tries before she dialed the number correctly.
“Hello,” Andreas said.
“Cassie . . . Jessica. Museum d’Andreas.”
“ What? Who is this?”
“Melissa. Now. Go now.” She hung up. They might not get there in time. They might not get there at all.
Take the purse; it had the gun Galen had given her. Get to the street. The museum was only four blocks away. She could do it.
One step at a time.
“Melissa, I’m going to open my eyes. I have to see him again. He’s so beautiful.”
Panic shot through Melissa. If Cassie saw those emerald-green eyes, then Melissa would see them. She didn’t know if that would make any difference, but she couldn’t chance it.
“No. Don’t open your eyes. Wait for me.”
“I’ll try. Hurry.”
One block.
She couldn’t make it. Too tired.
“I can’t wait any longer, Melissa.”
“Yes, you can. You can do anything you want to do.”
Two blocks.
She lurched and fell against the brick wall of the building next to her.
Straighten. Go on.
“I’m opening my eyes.”
“No!”
“I have to do it.”
And then Melissa saw it.
Emerald eyes staring out at the world with ancient wisdom. The statue was standing on a beat-up wooden worktable in a huge, cluttered room. A catwalk. Paintings. Travis was standing to one side of the worktable beside an Egyptian sarcophagus.
“I told you.” Cassie’s excitement was swirling around both of them like a cloud of static electricity. “He’s here. He’s here.”
One more block. The museum was just up ahead.
The emerald eyes, but no pool of blood. It could be different. It had to be different.
She turned down the alley.
“Jessica is happy. She thinks because I opened my eyes that I’m coming back. She’s talking to me, telling me the Wind Dancer would want me to do that.”
“She’s right, Cassie.”
“How do you know? He took me away. It’s safe here.”
“But you can’t see the Wind Dancer as you’re doing now.” Was she making sense? She was so scared, she couldn’t think. All she could see were those emerald eyes.