Page 111 of Hell Bent

What if this wasn’t a punishment or a trial? What if, for once, luck was running in her direction instead of away? What if this was her prize for so much hurt? What if, this time, magic had worked the way it was supposed to, the way it did in stories?

“I don’t understand,” she said as they sank onto a bench beneath the tree. She smoothed the silky blond hair back from Hellie’s suntanned face, marveling at her freckles, her nearly white lashes, the chip in her front tooth from when she’d careened off her skateboard in Balboa Park. “How?”

“I don’t know,” whispered Hellie. “I was … I don’t know where I was. And now I’m…” She looked around in confusion. “Here.”

“Yale.”

“What?”

Alex laughed. “Yale University. I go here. I’m a student.”

“Bullshit.”

“I know, I know.”

“You holding?”

Alex shook her head. “I don’t … I’m not really into that anymore.”

“Right,” Hellie said with a laugh. “College girl. But I need something. Just to take the edge off.”

Alex wasn’t going to say no. Not when Hellie was here in front of her. Alive. Golden and perfect. “I’ll figure something out.”

“Okay.”

“You don’t have to whisper,” Alex said, rubbing Hellie’s arms. “We’re safe here.”

Hellie glanced over her shoulder, then past Alex, as if she was expecting something to come lurching out of the dusk. “Alex,” she said, still whispering, “I don’t think we are.”

“I’ve got you. I promise. I’m stronger now, Hellie. I can do things.”

“Len—”

“Don’t worry about him.”

“He misses you.”

Alex felt something cold slide through her. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

“You should give him another chance.”

“He’s dead. I killed him. We killed him together.”

“I was dead too, wasn’t I?”

“Yeah,” Alex said, and now she was whispering too. “You were. And I missed you every day.”

“You should have come for me,” Hellie said, her eyes dark in the gloom, gleaming with tears. “You should have helped me.”

“I didn’t know I could.” Alex didn’t want to cry, but it was pointless to fight the tears. “It’s okay. I promise. I can protect you.”

Hellie’s look of disbelief stung. “You couldn’t protect me before.”

It was true. Only Alex had survived Ground Zero, Len, Ariel.

“Things are different now.”

“Len can help us.”