Page 65 of Twelve Dark Hours

I lift Orla to her feet. “We need to move,” I whisper.

She’s shaking so badly—she might be going into shock. But she stumbles beside me as I follow the wall of the charnel house and around its corner.

Husshhhh. Husshhhh. A chill rakes down my spine.

On the other side of the charnel house, there is an aisle through the grave markers—a clear path toward the school. We just need to make it inside and find an empty classroom. Barricade the door.

HusshhhHusshhhHusshhh.

“We—we can’t make it,” Orla breathes.

HushHushHush.

“We’ve got to try.” I pull her to me, reaching to pick her up again.

“Wait,” she says. “That sound—”

“I know. I . . .” But I pause. I strain my ears for the sound . . . but there’s nothing.

We freeze, neither of us willing to move a muscle. Clinging to each other in the shadow of the charnel house. I scan the graveyard. My lungs are in my throat. My jaw trembles. Could Poppy have left?

I wet my lips. “What if—”

Orla’s good hand snaps over my mouth. And then I hear it. Softer than before. Close.

Slowly, I look up, the curl of every vertebra of my neck like a step closer to death. An arm’s length over my head, perched on top of the house’s roof, is the black silhouette of Poppy, crouched, orb eyes glowing in the night.

I wrench Orla forward, but I don’t make it two steps. Poppy shrieks and lunges down onto Orla, knocking her out of my grip. She holds Orla face down in the mud, hands gripped around Orla’s wrists, and she dives for her throat.

Orla screams, a sound quickly cut off as Poppy’s teeth pierce her throat. I rush them, shoving my shoulder into Poppy and knocking her away. She hisses, sprawled in the mud. I slip as I try to crawl on top of her, try to hold her down. Her growls are bestial. Blood and mud soak her green Solstice dress.

I don’t want to hurt her, but I have to stop her. I remember the way my cursed poetry affected Galvin, and I reach for the timepiece around my neck.

A verse. Think of a verse.

I rack my mind through my terror, grasping for one I’ve used before.

Boil