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"Like a mile from the dorms, in the middle of a field," Theo said grimly, shrugging out of his jacket and wrapping it around my shoulders. "You wouldn't wake up. You just kept walking."
I suddenly felt as though I might pass out. "I need to sit down.”
"Don't fall over. Here." Theo helped me maneuver into a sitting position, and I pulled my knees up and rested my forehead against them. What was going on?
"You've never sleepwalked before," Theo said, echoing my thoughts so precisely that I jerked my head up and stared at him. "Don't look at me like that," he added, and his words were cross but his tone wasn't. "I'm not the one wandering around barefoot at two in the morning."
I stared at my feet, which were, indeed, bare and caked with mud and grass. "What the fuck," I said, almost conversationally, "is going on lately."
"Lately?" Theo said. "Has this happened before?"
"Maybe." I grimaced. "I told you about the dirt on my feet the other day, right? Well, there was a…thing…with my boots last night too."
He moved to kneel in front of me, taking my face between his hands. "Have you been having any other symptoms? Headaches? Vision problems?"
I wrinkled my nose and wrenched my head out of his grasp. "You're not that kind of doctor," I reminded him. "And I don't have a brain problem. I have a sleeping problem. Or something like that."
He caught my chin between his thumb and forefinger, turning me toward him again. "Just let me check your eyes.”
"I really don't think—"
I broke off. Theo's brow creased. "What—" he started to say, before his gaze dropped to my hand, and he broke off, too. "River," he whispered. "What happened?"
I held my hands up, turning them over in the moonlight, hoping against hope that my eyes were playing tricks on me. That what I was seeing was dirt, or paint, or one of Vanessa's myriad cosmetics. But no. There was no mistaking it.
My hands were covered in blood.
“It's not mine," I said quickly. Like that made it better. Like I was even sure it was true.
I looked down, patting at my torso as though looking for a lost key. My feet were scraped up, but nothing else hurt. "It's not mine," I said more firmly. "I'm okay." But where could the blood have come from? What was happening?
Theo pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned on the flashlight. He shone it on my face, my arms, my torso. "You're not bleeding," he said at last, sounding unconvinced. "But—“
The light from his phone found a dark spot on the ground: more blood, splashed on the grass. "Stay here," he instructed.
"Can't do much else," I muttered, rubbing my forehead.
He moved slowly through the grass, bent at the waist, examining the ground with his light. "There's more."
I grimaced. "Great."
"It's just—oh, okay. Okay." Theo straightened up fast, taking two quick steps backwards.
"What?" I managed to make it to all fours before my head started spinning. I sat down again. "Theo, what is it?"
He was coming toward me, walking quickly, his face completely in shadow. "Nothing," he said tightly.
"Theo."
"You don't want to know." He put a hand under my elbow. "Can you walk?"
"Of course I can walk," I said, letting him hoist me up, although my legs were admittedly not one hundred percent on board with the plan. I swayed. He caught me at once, his hands closing around my waist to keep me from toppling onto the grass.
"Right," he said briskly. He let go just enough to turn partially away from me. "Hop on."
"Uh." I stared at his broad back. "What?"
He glanced over his shoulder, one eyebrow raised. "You almost hit the ground," he said, "and we both know what happened the last time you tried to wear my shoes. So hop on, unless you want me to fireman-carry you for the next twenty minutes."
