Page 27 of Her Wicked Knights (Their Hallowed Queen #3)

Marley

Family dinner got canceled when dad called to say he was working late, so it's a girl's night after all. I love my dad, but a girl's night feels like just what my soul has been missing.

I'm on the couch, tucked between Hadley and mom, who's shaking her head at the TV screen, where the friends are refusing to become lovers despite the fact that we've watched an entire hour of how fucking perfect they are for each other.

It's actually kind of maddening. Hadley claimed the movie was boring, and while I don't agree, mom's pick has been my least favorite.

I chose Jaws because shark movies are elite, Hadley put on Friday the Thirteenth, and whatever this is that mom chose doesn't match with our thriller theme, but it's a pretty perfect reflection of who Ginny Lavigne is.

When they finally kiss in the last frame of the film, mom squeals with her excitement and Hadley springs off the couch for more popcorn.

It's late, but none of us are tired. I wonder if I get to pick another movie, and I'm already debating between Freddy Vs.

Jason or going off the script with a comedy like Zombieland when the chime of the doorbell goes off, alerting us that someone is on the step.

Dad had a security system put in a few months ago, despite the fact we definitely used to sleep with the doors unlocked when I was younger.

I assume that was accidental, because my dad's pretty preachy about safety, which I guess is fair, since that's kind of his job.

The key in the lock tells us dad's finally home a minute before he gets the door open.

"Daddy!" Hadley says excitedly. I'd make fun of her for calling him that, except I can't imagine going months in between seeing him or mom.

I'd probably call him that too, if it made me feel like a kid again.

I'm almost an adult, so I think I'm supposed to want to escape my parents, but the truth is, some days I wish I could be a kid again, when my mom's kisses and my dad's hugs and maybe an ice cream cone made everything better.

Dad wraps her in his arms gratefully, but I watch his face fail to turn into a smile, and my stomach twists.

"What's wrong?" I ask as Hadley pulls away, and mom grabs the lighter to start burning candles. Even I can tell his energy is heavy, so I can't blame mom for wanting to try and ease it a little.

"Tough day at work." He admits, shaking his head before his eyes find mine. "There's something I have to tell you."

The sinking feeling in my gut deepens until I'm pretty sure my organs are at my feet. But also, my heart feels like it's in my throat somehow.

"Daniel..." Mom says hesitantly.

"I don't want to tell you, but you're going to hear it. I'd rather you hear it from me."

"Hear what?" There's definitely panic in my voice; it sounds oddly shrill. Hadley puts an arm around me and pulls me close, but I don't feel any comfort because my head is spinning with possibilities.

"I worked late tonight because there was a homicide."

"Okay," I agree, because I need him to get to the part where this connects to me. Maybe it's selfish, but my heart can't take the anticipation.

"She was a girl in your class."

A girl in my class.

So, the boys are okay. If it was Audrey, I assume dad would have told me that instead of beating around the bush.

I blink.

"Who?"

Dad scrubs a hand over his face. "We haven't released it to the media. Her family's been notified, but this is privileged information, okay, Mars? I need you to keep it to yourself. You can't mention it to anyone."

"Of course." I nod, because gossip is the last thing on my mind.

A murder.

Here? In Serenity Hollow? I assume it would have to be, otherwise dad wouldn't have been on the case, right?

"Her name was Jenny Clark." Dad swallows.

"Her mother reported her missing yesterday, which is why I've been gone all day.

We were out searching for her, everywhere.

I thought she'd show up, that maybe she was just having a little fun somewhere, but her mother said there was no way.

She said something was wrong, so we kept looking and.

.. we found her." His voice breaks, and mom rushes in to wrap him in her arms.

I watch him hug her back, even as he struggles to hold it all together. Watching my father cry feels wrong, especially because he didn't know Jenny Clark.

"You found her... dead?"

"I'm sorry, Mars." Dad says, shaking his head as mom takes a step back to give him some space. "Yes, we found her body."

I have questions, but I can't think of how to ask them. Nothing makes sense.

I just saw Mrs. Clark earlier... it couldn't have been more than four hours ago.

She said Jenny was supposed to meet her for dinner before.

There's no way she went from missing to dead just like that, is there?

Of course, somewhere inside me, I know that of course it could work like that.

She was missing because she was dead. She didn't go to dinner with her mother, because somebody killed her.

Not an accident, because she was murdered. That's what homicide means.

"I don't understand. Everybody likes Jenny. She's nice and funny and she leant me a hair tie once..."

"Maybe we should sit down?" Hadley suggests, but I don't really understand what she says. I also don't really care.

"Everyone I've spoken to has had nothing but good things to say about her.

" Dad agrees. "I don't understand what happened, but we're going to get to the bottom of it.

I'm going to find whoever did this. But I…

" His voice breaks off and mom rushes to hold him again, easing away a moment later when he raises his head.

They work so effortlessly together, like they can read each other's minds.

"I'm going back out now, but I just needed to see you. "

That, after all the rest of it, is what breaks me.

Dad needed to rush home to see me, in the middle of an investigation.

Because Jenny was just a teenager who was quiet but well-liked.

She was smart and pretty and just living her life, just like me.

And now she's gone, and my dad is here, because all he could think about when he looked at her was that it could have been anyone. It could have been me.

I rush at him, burying my face in his chest like that might keep the tears from coming.

It feels wrong, to cry for Jenny when I barely knew her.

It feels like maybe I'm too dramatic, like I should hold it together because if it feels like this for me, imagine how awful Mrs. Clark must feel.

Imagine how her world just splintered into five million pieces that scattered in the wind, and she'll never be able to recover them all to try and piece everything back together.

Jenny was a child. We're all children, despite how much we play at being grown up on the weekends or holidays with drinking and sex.

Only a monster kills children, and I don't know what that means for the rest of us.

Is Serenity Hollow no longer safe? Is there a serial killer, or did someone have a reason to go after her specifically?

"It's okay." Dad promises. "I'm going to catch whoever is responsible and bring them to justice. I'll make sure they pay for what they did to her."

What they did to her.

The words send a chill through me as I wonder what exactly that was. It could be something as detached as a bullet to the back of the skull. It could also mean so much more. I pull away from dad to ask, "How was she killed?"

"Medical examiner will have to determine that." He frowns. "But I can tell you, it was no accident. It was cruel, what they did to her."

"They?"

Dad grimaces a little at the fact I picked up on that word. "We don't know, Mars. I'm not ruling out anything as far as gender of the killer, or how many there were."

"Dad..."

I don't have anything to say, and he recognizes as much. "I know, Marley."

That's all he can say. It's all I can say. There aren't any words for something like this, because something like this has never happened here. And the fact that it did is only made more disturbing by the fact that it happened to someone with seemingly no motive attached.

He just presses a kiss to the top of my head, wraps Hadley in his arms again for a minute, and then plants one on mom's forehead. Then he takes the coffee I didn't even see mom make for him, tells us he loves us, and walks out the door.

A second after he does, I hear the chime of the alarm system, telling us that he armed it from his phone.

I guess that answers whether we should be worried.