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CHAPTER37
Evie
Someone grabs my arm. I’m so convinced it’s Owen that I lean into the touch without taking my eyes off the bell tower.
“I found Willow,” Kat says in a hollow voice.
I grab her arm, holding onto her as tightly as she’s holding onto me. The tower is so high, it’s difficult to make out much except Willow’s pale pink dress, and her hair blowing in the wind.
“What do we do?” I whisper. Now that the music has stopped and everyone around is silent, staring up at the tower like we are, a surreal hush has fallen over the Firefly Ball.
“There’s nothing we can do. I heard someone call the sheriff’s department, but it will take them a few minutes to get here.”
That’s when my eyes catch sight of movement in one of the bell tower’s windows, slightly below where Willow’s standing. From what I remember when I was up there, the security mesh on one of those windows was coming loose. Willow must have wrenched it off in order to climb out.
People closer to the base of the tower start yelling. I squint, Kat and I both leaning forward to get a better look at what’s happening.
“Oh, my God… is that…?”
“Well, I’ll be damned,” Kat murmurs. “If it isn’t Mr. Dalton, trying to save the fucking day.”
My heart shoots into my throat. “He’s going to die!”
“Strange,” Kat says, giving me a sidelong glance. “You didn’t sound nearly so concerned about Willow a minute ago.”
I let out an indignant gasp and punch Kat’s arm. She snickers, but neither of us can take our eyes off the tower.
It looks like Owen has slipped out of one of the much smaller windows interspaced along the inside of the stairwell leading up to the tower. I remember them being very narrow—I don’t know how he managed to get his body through that gap.
“He’s going to die,” I say again, my voice heavy with dread.
“Yeah… I’d love to know what the hell he was thinking. He seems as suicidal as Willow right now.”
My heart aches at Kat’s comment. I wouldn’t dare to think I’m that important to Owen… but what if it was something I said? I called him out for doing what he did to Willow… what if he thought doing something as stupidly brave as this was the only way he could make up for it?
Everyone around us gasps when Owen leans out of the window, only his feet and a single hand keeping him attached to the windowsill. We’re close enough to the base of the tower to hear him speak.
“Willow! Hey, it’s me. Can you hear me?”
Willow’s body jerks, and the crowd gasps again. She grabs onto the inside of the window and carefully peers down. When she sees Owen below her, she turns to the side and clings desperately onto the side of the window. If she says something, I can’t hear it. All that reaches us are broken sobs.
“Willow, I need you to open the door.”
My heart clenches. “Oh, fuck, the door!”
“What door?”
I glance at Kat before tilting my face up again. “There’s a door at the top of the stairs. She must have found a way to block it. That’s why he can’t get into the tower.”
“And you know this how?”
“I… I’ve been up there. With him.” I canfeelKat staring at me, demanding more, but fuck it if there aren’t more important things to deal with right now.
“Well, if she’s locked herself inside, I don’t know how he’s going to help her.”
“He can talk her down.”
Kat snorts.“Owen?Have you forgotten he’s the reason she’s up there to begin with?”
