Page 79

Their boots crunch softly against the wet forest floor as they venture deeper and deeper into the dark, leaving the highway and Noah’s death site far behind.

As I stalk behind them, my boots still silent on the wet needles, a sudden shift in the air catches my attention.

The wind drops, and the fog thickens into a pale wall that swallows the trees whole.

Up ahead, the stranger stumbles over a slick, rotted log, dropping his flashlight into the mud.

“Dammit,” the nepo baby mutters, scrambling down onto his knees to hunt for the light.

Harmony stops two paces ahead, her back turned to him, staring into the impenetrable blackness.

Her voice suddenly takes on a sharp, nervous edge. “Xander, hurry up. We can’t be out here. Something feels... wrong.”

Harmony scans the area, looking for some hidden danger in the dark.

After Xander wipes the mud off the glass of his phone, it only reveals a dim, flickering beam.

He stands up, brushing off his designer jeans, entirely oblivious to the fact that I’m crouched less than five yards behind him in the mist.

“I’m right here,” Xander reassures her, stepping closer and reaching out to lay a heavy, comforting hand on her shoulder. “We can turn back whenever you want, Harmony. I don’t need to see where you and Blaire used to party on Halloween night that badly.”

The moment his fingers make contact with the fabric of her sweater, a visceral, blinding rage snaps in my brain.

My jaw wrenches tight, teeth grinding together as every nerve in my body screams for blood.

Get your fucking hands off her.

Harmony flinches at his touch, pulling her shoulder away from his grip, but she doesn’t run. She turns her head, her gaze sweeping back over the dark terrain toward the tree line where I’m submerged in shadow.

For a heartbeat, her rich butterscotch eyes lock directly onto the space where I stand.

She can’t see me through the fog, but the subtle tremor in her bottom lip tells me everything I need to know.

She knows I’m here. She senses the tether snapping tight between us. Just as I do.

“No.” Harmony’s voice shakes as she turns back toward the heart of the woods. “We keep going. The old stone well is just past this clearing. That’s where we used to hang out wherever things got to be too much. I owe it to her, especially now that she’s no longer here.”

My pulse stutters in my chest.

The old stone well.

She knows about Blaire. How? When did she have time to talk to the cops?

I frown.

I haven’t heard anything over the police scanners, and I’ve been driving around in a damn cruiser for thirty minutes now.

My mind continues to spin on all the ways she could’ve found out about her best friend.

I clench my jaw as a knot forms in my stomach at the fact that I wasn’t there to see her reaction at the news.

Xander frowns, holding up his failing light. “A well? Harmony, there’s nothing out here but rotted timber and sinkholes. Why do you need to visit the old well now, at three in the morning? Can’t I just drop you at Blaire’s mom’s house?”

“Because this was our spot,” she rasps, taking another decisive step forward into the gloom.

Frozen, my body stays motionless, maintaining its hunting stance beneath the oaks tree’s shadow.

What the fuck is happening?