Serena Vanderwoodsen's Arc

Chapter 5 of 7

Serena walked out the front of the café with her hood down so he could see her hair. She crossed the square without looking back. Her phone buzzed twice in her pocket. She did not check it. She kept her pace steady, like a girl going shopping, and turned toward the ice castle on the far side of the woods. The castle rose out of the trees with clear walls and silver-blue trim, its glass bridge shining above a frozen pond. Tourists took photos of the front. Serena slipped around the side and found a small door behind one of the towers. She pushed it open and stepped into the cold blue quiet inside. Her phone buzzed again. Blocked number. I see you went in. I'll wait. She smiled. Waiting was fine. Waiting meant he was standing in the snow while the helicopter came for Blair on the other side of the woods. She climbed a short stair to a room with ice walls and a bench cut from the same block. She sat. She pulled off her gloves and warmed her hands under her arms. For the first time in three days, no one could see her. A boot scraped the stair. She stiffened. Then Nate came around the corner in his navy coat, snow melting on his shoulders. He had walked back for her. "Blair's on the helicopter," he said. "Pilot lifted two minutes ago. She wanted me to come get you." Serena let out a breath she had been holding since the café. "You shouldn't be here. He could have followed you." "He didn't. I checked twice." Nate sat down on the bench, not too close. "You've been running this whole thing alone." "Someone had to." "Yeah." He looked at the blue wall. "You did it well." She laughed, small and tired. Nate reached into his coat pocket and took out a silver box. He set it on the bench between them. "Not mine," he said. "My grandmother's. She told me to carry it on this trip in case I got brave." He shrugged. "I'm not asking you anything. I just wanted you to know I thought about it." Serena stared at the box. She did not open it. She put her hand over his on the bench and left it there. The ice room held the moment without sound. Her phone buzzed. Blocked number. Come out, Serena. I'm getting cold. She read it and put the phone face down. Let him stand out there. Blair was in the air. She was in a room he could not see into with a boy who had walked back for her. "Twenty more minutes," she said. "Then we walk out the back and find a car." Nate nodded once. He did not move his hand. Outside, the photographer watched the front door for a girl who would not come through it.