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She tried to shake her head, to deny it, to recite an oath that shaped her entire life. But as that singular eye drilled into her, held her, truly saw her, she was quiet. In the burning fire of Lizbeth’s beliefs, she could not lie to herself.

She was burning too. Layers upon layers of vitriol trying to push their way out of her pores. Injustice was a single word for an eternity’s worth of experience that words could never fully express. It wasn’t just Sheriff Malis’s arrogance or Deputy Gunson’s violence. All the criminals she’d known, that she put away and watched walk away, were just one part of the perverse whole. A whole picture she was always too terrified to look in the eye. It was decades of being looked over, being passed for promotions, or having her ass grabbed, and sticking her keys between her fingers as she walked to her car with her head on a swivel. It was a cult leader who’d stolen the lives of children and tried to take hers too. It was the weight of men’s gaze on her as she traversed the world, making her feel unsafe in a place she had an equal share of.

With a flick of her wrist, Lizbeth sliced through the rope binding Vera’s wrists and placed something in her hand.

The edge of the knife glistened as if to say hello. Its handle was warm.

A slow knowing smile lifted the visible side of her face. “Maybe you’re not so afraid after all.”

Chapter 40

Teddi

“Wake the hell up!” Teddi jerked awake, blinking hard as someone slapped her.

Before she could cut through the blurriness of her eyes, she was gagging. “Shit, don’t throw up. Here.” Someone smacked her back, forcing her gag to turn to coughing.

“Stop, stop.” She forced out the words, trying to quell the waves of nausea tingling her jaw. Flipping onto her knees, she rested her head on the ground, breathing slowly. The throbbing behind her eyes grew exponentially. A sharp ringing in her ears made her wince as she clenched the ends of her sleeves in her fingers. Hissing an exhale, she tried to stop the whooshing in her ears.

“Where am I?” Her throat burned with the words.

“In the forest, unfortunately.” It was a woman or a girl, she couldn’t tell as she hacked another cough.

“Who are you?” The spinning was slowing but saliva pooled beneath her tongue and she willed the bile back down.

“Sam.” Sam… Sam. She knew Sam. Her thoughts were soft-edged shapes sliding across her mind.

“Who?”

“Jesus, what did they give you? I’m Sam. I know Vera, your partner or whatever.”

Sam. The drifter teen who found Alex. Alex’s body. The bodies. The call with J and the clotheslines.

Like a swarm of irritated bees, the memories unfolded. There’d been a strange smell outside the Malis home and then nothing. Knocked on her ass once again. With a moan, she lifted her head, cracking her eyes open to find the girl.

She sat next to her, hands and ankles bound as she looked back with a mix of annoyance and concern. Visible behind her was the unending black of night, the tops of trees meeting the sky. Hundreds more of them filled the land broken up by thick shrubbery. Shifting, she relieved the stabbing pain from a fallen branch digging into her knee. That’s when she noticed the pale rope looped around her hands. Looking down she found the same thing around both ankles.

“What’s going on?” She tried to pull at the ropes only for them to synch down tighter.

“We're somewhere in the forest, not sure exactly. You don’t look so good.” Teddi tried not to roll her eyes as a fresh sheen of sweat broke out. She hated being nauseous but this was a new level. This wasn't the feeling of an alcohol hangover but something much worse like she’d been drugged. Teddi tried to breathe through it slowly.

“Did you see any trail markers? People? Signs of life?”

“Oh yeah, there’s a cabin just right behind us full of food and warm clothing so we won’t freeze to death tonight,” Sam replied drily.

“Aren’t you just a ray of fucking sunshine.” She couldn’t stop the eye roll at the teen this time as she stood shakily. Whatever she’d been given was potent. Her knees threatened to buckle. Reaching for a tree limb, she held on as she got a better look around.

The full moon glowed brightly, a neon pale orb in the obsidian sea. Trees. Endless land was all she could see as she scanned left to right. No lights from town, no human voices, no sound at all. She waited. No bird songs, not the scurrying of critters across dry leaves or the howls of wildlife. Not even the wind dared whistle between the leaves.

Her pulse was a pounding beat beneath her skin.

There was something there. In the silence, in the lack of all else Teddi could feel something fill the space.

“Sam,” she breathed.

Teddi found her wide-eyed and trembling. But she wasn’t looking at her, her eyes were on something behind Teddi. Fearing what she would find, she forced herself to turn to see.

The air split with the blood-curdling scream.