Chapter 10: Alder Road

"Where did you hear that song?" I said.

He didn't answer.

He stood by the microphone with the cloth in his hand, and the light from my desk lamp lay across his wet hair.

I could have said it.

"I'm Moth, and I know you're Nightcrawler, and I know what you did."

The words were right there in my mouth.

But if I said them, it would all end in this room.

I wanted to hear what he would say when he thought he was safe.

"I heard it somewhere," he said. "A few weeks ago. It stuck."

"I wrote it in June. I have sung it once, in public."

"Then I heard that once."

"Where?"

"Maisy." His voice was low. "Please. Just sing."

I looked at him, and I could not say no.

I sat on the edge of my bed with my knees together.

I sang the lighthouse song with no mask and no microphone, soft enough that no neighbor could hear.

It was a plain little song about a light that stays on for ships that never come.

When I got to the high note, my voice cracked, the way it always did.

Drake made a sound.

I stopped and looked up.

He was standing very still with tears running down his face, and he wasn't wiping them.

"Don't stop," he said.

"Drake."

"Please don't stop."

I finished it.

The last note faded into the dark room.

He crossed the floor in two steps and knelt on the rug in front of me.

He put his forehead against my knees.

His shoulders shook.

I didn't know what to do with my hands. Then I put them in his hair.

"I'm so sorry," he said into my knees. "For all of it."

"I know."

"You don't know. You don't know the half."

"Then tell me."

He lifted his face. His eyes were red and wild and wet, and he looked about to say it. Everything.

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