Page 28

28

I LURCHED AWAKE .

Night had fallen completely while I was out, the only light coming from the streetlamps overhead. My back hurt from where I’d fallen onto the bridge planks, and my stomach bubbled with nausea.

Mateo stood over me, his head haloed by the artificial lights, his features obscured in shadow.

“Cam?” he said hesitantly. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t think, and—” He continued to speak, but my hearing fuzzed out, and my muscles seized in terror. He reached down and I flinched, spurring myself into motion, scrambling away on my elbows, my feet kicking out to propel myself backward. He paused. “Cam?” he said again. “What’s wrong?”

“Don’t come near me,” I said, my voice a rasp.

Mateo had been the one who’d touched me in the hallway during the fight. Mateo had triggered my first glimpse. Mateo had held the knife as his cousin had cried in the meadow, blood-smeared and dying.

I heaved to my feet, staggered to the other side of the footbridge, and promptly threw up over the side. My back arched and my stomach cramped as the images of the glimpse assaulted my mind’s eye in a gruesome loop, along with the fact that it was Mateo. Mateo.

“Cam?”

My mouth tasted like bile and coffee. My heart thundered in my temples. I was alone with two werewolves in an unfamiliar park. My phone had no signal, and the sun had set.

I trembled as I gripped the bridge railing.

“Cam,” Mateo said again, his tone hard. “What did you see?”

He sounded almost sinister, and for the first time since I’d bumped into Mateo in the hallway freshman year, I felt something other than infatuation. I was afraid.

I didn’t answer. He had to know, right? What I’d seen? What I had planned to see from Juana’s point of view that night but unwittingly saw again from his? There was no way he didn’t know.

I spat out the lingering taste of vomit into the river, then dragged my sleeve over my mouth. My body trembled with fatigue and fear.

But I had only one choice.

Pushing myself away from the edge, I turned and ran across to the other side of the river. It was a dumb move, running from a werewolf. Mateo could easily catch me if he wanted, but maybe he’d be too stunned to follow quickly. Maybe my phone would pick up a signal, and maybe Al and the others would come to my rescue.

The lights overhead illuminated the paved walking path as I ran as fast as I could. Mateo shouted behind me, his voice echoing from the bridge. I was unsure if he followed me, because I couldn’t hear his footsteps over the pounding of my shoes against the asphalt and the thump of my pulse in my ears.

One thing was certain, though—I needed to get off this path. The river was on my left, but to my right was a wooded area, a dense growth of trees.

I took a sharp turn and pushed through a small gap between two spindly saplings. Branches whipped and stung my skin as I stumbled into the bracken, but I didn’t stop plowing ahead, snapping twigs with each step, panting as sweat dampened every inch of my skin. Maybe I should’ve stayed on the path because plunging into a forest was noisy, but I’d made the choice, and I couldn’t turn back now. I kept going, cursing the sprites as lush bushes and sharp thorns snagged my jeans, biting into the skin beneath. Breathing harshly, I bumped into trees, disturbed nests of small woodland creatures, and ran through spiderwebs, which was a horror I didn’t need to add to my already lengthy list of things that had gone wrong that evening.

Note to self: I was not made for fleeing.

The farther I ran, the darker it became underneath the canopy of leaves. Every noise, every rustle, every step brought with it a potential new danger. My heart thudded so fast, I thought I might pass out. But I kept going, spurred on by pure panic. Without the lights from the paved path, my way was dark, and I ran blindly until I took one misstep. My foot twisted on a loose branch, and I fell to my hands and knees.

A pinecone bit into my palm. My ankle throbbed as I lay sprawled on the forest floor. It hurt, but it made me take a moment to pause, to reassess. I strained to hear evidence of a pursuer, but for the moment I heard nothing other than my own stuttered breathing.

I scurried to the base of a large tree, pushed my back against it, and pulled out my phone. I drew my knees to my chest and cupped my hands around it, huddled over it, just in case the light might give me away.

I slid my thumb over the screen and, oh thank fuck, I had a bar.

My text to Al had gone through, and I had responses from the rest of the group, wondering where we were, what was happening, and if I was okay.

I was far from okay.

My hands shook as I pressed the button to call Al.

They picked up on the first ring.

“Where the hell are you?” The connection popped and crackled, but it went through, and there was no mistaking their annoyance.

“I don’t know,” I said, whispering, my voice shaky with adrenaline and panic. “In a forest, somewhere, by a river park in sprite territory.”

“What? I can barely hear you. Can you speak up?”

“No,” I answered. “Something has happened.”

There was a murmur of voices on the other end, and then Al responded. “Cam, you’re scaring me. What is going on?”

“Mateo kissed my cheek,” I blurted out, whisper-harsh. “And I glimpsed. And it was him! It was Mateo!” I pressed my forehead to my knees. A tear slipped down my flushed cheek, following the line of my jaw, mixing with the sweat already on my skin.

There was a beat of silence. “It was Mateo what? Who kissed you?”

I shook my head, then realized they couldn’t see it. I ran my hand through my hair, smearing blood and mud into the sweat-damp strands. “No. I mean, yes. Mateo kissed me, and I saw…” I swallowed around the lump in my throat. “I saw the glimpse again. It was him the whole time, Al.”

Al sucked in a sharp breath. “Where are you?”

“I don’t know.” I turned my head to look behind me, and all I could see were trees. “I ran from the path. Juana took us to the river park managed by the Sprite Alliance instead of taking us to the old pool park. I glimpsed, and then I ran.” I clutched the phone in my trembling fingers. “I don’t know what to do.”

There was a rustle of cloth and a flurry of movement on the other line. I heard a car door slam and then another voice, though I couldn’t make out what they said.

“Stay where you are,” Al said firmly. “Send me a pin of your location.” It took me a few tries because of how hard my hands shook, but I managed to hit the right buttons. It didn’t go through; the connection was too shoddy.

“Al,” I said, my voice cracking. “It won’t—”

“It’s okay. I have a spell for this. I’m sending help, and then I’ll be there, okay? We’re on our way.”

I hunched down, curled my shoulders, and made myself as small as possible. “Thank you,” I breathed.

“No worries. But look, Mateo has been blowing up Kaci’s phone, saying he’s worried.”

My body tensed in fear. “Don’t tell him where I am.”

“I’m not. It’s okay, Cam. Kaci is handling Mateo.”

I flinched. “Kaci needs to stay safe,” I said, a breathy whisper into the phone.

“She is. Don’t worry.”

I hoped she was, because if Mateo could do that to Juana… could he do that to Kaci too? His best friend? What about the others?

“Gemma, Val, and I are on our way to you. We’ll figure it out. Just trust me.”

I wanted to say that I did. But I had trusted Mateo. And he was… he was… Another wave of lightheadedness washed over me, and I screwed my eyes shut. My thoughts ran rampant as remnants of the horrifying glimpse replayed on a loop in my head.

I don’t know how long I stayed there, huddled on the forest floor, shaking. My screen dimmed as the battery ran low, but I didn’t want to cut the call with Al. The road sounds and the low radio from Val’s speakers offered surprising comfort with their familiarity. My fingers ached from the grip I had on my phone, and my head hurt from how tightly my teeth were clenched, but slowly—as I waited in the dark and the quiet, and the only sounds came from my phone—I allowed my body to relax.

I was lulled into a false sense of security, because at some indeterminable point later, there was movement above me.

I jerked my head up as my breath caught in a harsh wheeze. I quickly raised my phone, the light barely cutting a swath in the darkened wood, but a flash of purple-black feathers streaked across my vision, followed by an assuasive and recognizable caw.

“Lenore?” I whispered. “Is that you?”

The large raven floated down from the trees and landed at eye level with me on top of a shrub. She ruffled her feathers, hopped down, and approached. Once in reach, she nipped my fingers affectionately.

“Did Lenore make it?” Al’s voice came from my phone.

I jumped, forgetting the call was still connected.

“Yeah,” I said, my voice cracking with gratitude and relief. “She’s here.”

“Great. She’s going to lead you to the road. Follow her.”

Lenore croaked, then flew upward to a branch a few feet away. Using the tree trunk behind me, I creaked to my feet, my knees and back complaining from being huddled for so long. But once I had feeling in my legs, and my head didn’t feel like a balloon ready to float away from my shoulders, I took a tentative step, and then another, until I was under Lenore’s perch.

She flew to another tree, and I followed.

Dried sweat made the back of my neck itchy. My nice clothes were stiff with perspiration and torn from thorns and branches. My ankle was hot and swollen under my sock, and I felt awful, fatigued from stress and from the burden of the glimpse.

Despite Lenore offering a modicum of reassurance and having Al on the phone with me the whole time, I felt uneasy, like I was being watched. There was no sound in the forest other than my own trudging footsteps, and while I had taken that as a good sign when I had first run in and hadn’t heard anyone following, it now felt ominous. Shouldn’t there be animals scurrying about? Owls hooting? At the very least, frogs and bugs chirping? But there was nothing, as if the woodland itself had frozen in fear.

My head was muddled, a headache twisting right behind my eyes and in my temples, and I felt woozy, but I kept going, my gaze locked on Lenore.

It felt like I’d walked forever when there was finally a break in the trees, and a short distance farther I spied a road. A car idled to the side, and I hobbled faster until I broke through the tree line.

“Cam!”

Al hurried toward me and caught me as I stumbled into their arms. I was too tired for psychic blocks, but they didn’t touch my skin, merely gripped my waist and tugged me close.

“Wow, dude,” Val said from the other side of the vehicle. “You look rough.”

“Understatement of the year,” Gemma said, leaning forward from the back seat. “Are you okay, Cam?”

I shook my head. “No. Can we go, please?” I was proud to hear only a slight tremble in my voice.

“Yeah. Where are we going?” Val asked, spinning her keychain on her finger. “To the hospital?”

“No.” The suggestion wasn’t unwarranted—my ankle did feel like it was sprained in some way—but everything else probably looked worse than it was, so I declined.

“Our house,” Gemma said. “Mom won’t mind.”

Al tossed a treat to Lenore and brushed their fingers down her back. They whispered something to her, and she took off with a squawk and an impressive display of her wingspan.

Al slid into the back seat next to Gemma and pulled the front seat into position. I gratefully sank into it and closed the door behind me. I peered into the woods but didn’t spy anyone or anything.

Val threw the car into drive, and we moved away from the curb. I checked my phone for the time and couldn’t believe how late it was. I’d been in the forest for hours.

But at least now I was relatively safe, and I slumped into the seat and shut my eyes.