I think about Lainey and her glowing eyes.
A dead body in Ivy Winslow’s Halloween costume.
The prisoners around the pond.
The clock on the plinth.
The tomb and the vials and a constellation branded into my wrist.
I brush my finger along the glittering dots.
Vorat needs two more.
And me.
But why?
What does he want with us?
My phone vibrates, a loud rattle against my nightstand.
Twig’s number lights up the screen.
I answer in a voice that is shaky and weak.
“Selah?” Twig says, a note of panic in his own.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, my stomach flooding with nausea.
“It’s Kate.” There’s a breath. A pause. A single pounding heartbeat. “She’s missing.”
I crash through the woods.
I push aside branches.
I hurdle fallen limbs.
My breath, clouding.
My heart, racing.
Kate didn’t show up for rehearsals forInto the Woodsthis morning. Neither did Harrison. Both of them, leads. Neither flaky. Neither irresponsible. They wouldn’t forget. They wouldn’t ditch. If something had come up, they would have notified the director. Knowing this, Harper, who has the part of Little Red Riding Hood, texted Twig. And the ball of panic began to roll.
I take the path around the Water Garden, cold air nipping at my face, urgency biting at my heels, Twig’s voice in my ear.
“You’re almost there,” he says, tracking my location from his bedroom as I close in on the spot Kate’s phone last registered.
Here, on the grounds.
In the woods.
Near the Water Garden.
According to Harrison’s parents, his phone is showing the exact same spot.
This is what we know: Harrison picked up Kate at the Calloways earlier this morning. They stopped at Hollowed Grounds Cafe and got coffeesfrom the barista. Two others happened to be getting coffees at the same time.
Lainey Sikes and Griffin Tate.
