“Good morning,” Emma greeted. Perhaps a little too brightly if Margaux’s wince was any indication. “I have another mug if you would like some instant coffee.”
“I can’t. It doesn’t work with—” Margaux cut herself off. “Caffeine is not good for me.”
What would she have said if she hadn’t edited herself in that moment? “Sure, of course,” Emma smoothed over the awkward moment with a smile.
“But I will take a granola bar.” Margaux reached into her own backpack and produced a wrapped bar. She tore into it, bit off a chunk, and crunched loudly.
The nice quiet start to the morning was officially over. Although Emma supposed that was inevitable. She wanted to get to the end of this journey, even though she worried about what she’d find. Losing two of their traveling companions ratcheted up the paranoia she’d been slowly inundated with since arriving at camp.
“Do you ever think your life has been wasted because of a lie?” Margaux said between bites.
Emma drew back her chin on instinct, looking to Daniel. He shared her blank look and seemed equally perplexed by the question. “Is that a rhetorical question? Or are you genuinely asking the two of us?”
“No, I’m asking you, Emma,” Margaux said. “You could’ve done anything. Chased your dreams. Didn’t you want to be a Rockette at one point?”
Emma forced a laugh. Her body hadn’t danced in years. After a childhood spent devoted to lessons, she packed up her dance shoes, following Liz’s funeral, and never looked back. “I haven’t thought about that for a long time. Add it to the list, I suppose.”
Daniel flashed a warm smile.
Emma spotted the shift to wariness in his gaze when he glanced from her to Margaux.
“I remember everything,” Margaux muttered under her breath.
Emma pulled her mug off the fire and gingerly stuck her pinky finger into the water and coffee granules. It was just above lukewarm. She stirred before taking a sip. What was the lie? Liz’s death? Why was Margaux saying that? They’d never discussed it. Had she been eavesdropping on moments alone between Emma and Daniel?
A sudden flash of lightning appeared in Emma’s mind’s eye.
The deep roar of thunder rattled the single pane windows of the cabin.
“I won’t be gone long. Just one more practice,” Liz said. “Stay here with the girls.”
“Don’t go. You’ll get drenched and catch a cold. You’re no good to us if you’re sick,” Emma protested, blocking the door.
“But you’d have a chance to be on your own. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“I don’t think you’re going to rehearse for the talent show. I think you’re going to make a bad choice.”
“If I was, I wouldn’t tell you. Culpable deniability.”
The past flooded Emma’s present, her blood chilling as she recalled scraps of their last conversation. Liz had flounced into the cabin waving a paper.
“I never wanted to dance on my own,” Emma said slowly, coming out of the memory and back to the campsite. “Liz had grand plans about us living in New York City together. But I couldn’t perform without her. It wasn’t my dream. It was a shared dream. I wanted a degree and space first. We were set to start different colleges in the fall. She told me that night that she’d been accepted and was transferring to my school. I was mad. I yelled.”
“Oh?” Margaux gasped. “But you were so talented. What a waste. You’re just helping kids now.”
The frantic, desperate energy rolling off Margaux in waves was like the first warning before a tsunami when the tide went the wrong way. What did this woman who had become a stranger in their adult years care about Emma’s life and her choices?
A memory tickled the back of Emma’s mind. Although she wasn’t sure if it was real or a dream fragment. Margaux yelling at Owen, acting berserk and flailing wildly, during that final summer. But that wouldn’t make sense. Why would they interact like that? Why would those two ever speak?
“This is my path,” Emma said slowly, as if speaking to a child. “I’m doing good work that I was called to do. It doesn’t matter how I was lead here. I don’t regret serving others.”
“But still, I?—”
A snap, pop, and crunch erupted simultaneously, cutting off the reply.
The loud crack and subsequent burst of flames, as one of the larger branches caught on fire, spooked Daniel. He jumped back slightly. The timing played a role in setting him on edge, he reasoned. Daniel didn’t like the interrogation of Emma. She was perhaps the only one truly blameless in everything that had happened.
He glanced around the fireside. Emma shrank back, away from the flames. Margaux sat unmoving, like she hadn’t even flinched.
