Page 97 of Our Darkest Summer

A voice in my head whispered,You’re too late.I clenched my jaw, silencing it.

No. She was okay. She had to be. My heart was still beating—hers had to be, too.

The dot on the screen merged with mine. I looked up, twisting in the dark, my pulse hammering.

Where are you, Sage?

A muffled sound came from right ahead of me, and I moved. A man stood in the middle of the clearing. A girl lay crumpled at his feet. For a second, my stomach dropped.

Then—

A cry. Shattered. Guttural.My name.My fucking name.The girl on the ground wasn’t mine.

The one in his hands was.

Chapter Forty-Four

Thomas

I didn’t think.I launched myself at him, and we hit the ground. The impact rattled through me, but I used it to keep him down, to pin him beneath my weight.

My fist drove into his face. A satisfying crunch. I hit him again.

Harder. Again. Harder.

Blood sprayed across my knuckles, hot and slick. His face caved under each impact, skin splitting, bones giving.

But I didn’t stop. Couldn’t. Wouldn’t. The rage wasn’t mine anymore. It had a mind of its own, something old and starving that had been waiting for a reason to be let loose.

His hoodie bunched in my grip. My breath came out ragged, shaking with fury.

“You touch her again,” I gritted, my voice so low it barely felt like mine, “and I break your fucking skull.”

His bloody lips curled. “The golden boy,” he wheezed, spitting red onto the dirt.

I froze.Golden boy?

What the hell?

I slammed his head against the dirt, just long enough to look up. Kinsley. She was beside Cora now, flushed, breathing, alive. Relief slammed into me so hard I thought I’d collapse under it.

She was alive.

I turned back to the guy beneath me, and that’s when recognition hit. I knew him. The guy from the electronics shop. The one who told me they were out of cameras. The theater mask smiled up at me from the dirt beside his head.

What the fuck?

Kinsley words echoed in my head—What if we’re looking for a team?.

“Who the fuck are you?”

His grin widened, and I raised my fist again.

“Kinsley—” Braxton’s voice died, and my hand froze. “Shit, what happened?” His shoes halted beside me, but I didn’t look up. My attention stayed fixated on the guy.

“Call Kevin,” I gritted again, barely keeping my voice level.

We had him. Now we had to do this the right way.