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I’m sure I caught sight of a figure stepping behind the trees.
It’s almost dark now, and I peer into the expanse of woodland beyond the university’s perimeter. It seems endless, and I have a sudden strange sense of claustrophobia, as though the trees are all pressing in on me. My pulse is too fast, and my palms have grown sweaty, though they have nothing to do with the cup I’m holding.
“I—I’m not sure.”
I’d swear I sense the weight of someone else’s gaze on me.
“It was probably deer,” she says. “Or even a bear, but don’t worry, they can’t get through the fencing.”
I draw a breath and nod. “Sure, of course. Just my imagination playing tricks on me.”
We keep walking, but I can’t get the thought of the shape of the person slipping behind one of the trees out of my mind. Though I should be focusing on Camile, I find my head turning in the direction of the fence, studying the rapidly darkening forest behind. Do careful footsteps echo ours?
There are guards who patrol this place with dogs, but the perimeter goes for miles. They’re probably right across the other side of the grounds right now. If anyone is out there, the dogs will scent them, won’t they? A person would have to be an idiot to go up against big, scary dogs.
A part of me wants to move away from the outskirts and head deeper into the sanctuary of Verona Falls, but I’m worried if I do that, I’ll miss something important. Maybe another glimpse of the figure. Or a sound. I want to run, but I also am desperately trying to find the bravery to stay and keep on peeking into those dark trees in a vain attempt to see something.
“Are you okay?” Camile asks. “You’ve gone quiet.”
I can’t tell Camile my true fears. She doesn’t know I tried to kill a man, and that now there’s a good chance he’s out there somewhere, looking to take his revenge on me. Maybe I should confess. She’s my friend, isn’t she? Don’t friends share things? I think how upset she would be if she found out that the Devils knew and she didn’t. Our friendship might not come back from that.
I draw to a halt once more, and then turn to face her and take her free hand in mine. “I have something I need to tell you.”
Her expression drops, and she lets out a groan. “It’s not about them again, is it?”
I know exactly who she means by ‘them.’
I shake my head. “No, it’s not. It’s about something that happened before I even got to Verona Falls.”
She raises her eyebrows. “Tell me.”
I know doing so is a huge risk, but Camile is from a criminal family. I doubt she’d go running to law enforcement with this information. So, I fill her in on all the sordid, twisted details of my life before I came here, watching her expression morph and warp with each new turn of the story. I imagine she’ll see me in a new light after hearing all this. I’m not some innocent princess the Devils decided to corrupt. I had a history before I came here. I’d conducted an affair with an older man for a year, and then, when he tried to push me too far, I stabbed him in the neck. Maybe I’d been naïve to a lot of things, but I’m not completely innocent either. Like Mom pointed out, I’d been lying to everyone for a very long time.
Camile’s dark eyes are round. “Oh, my God, Zee. I can’t believe you’ve never told me this before.”
I scuff my foot on the ground. “It’s hardly something you lead with when you’re meeting new people. Besides, I’d been hoping it was all in my past, and I could leave it there. Now that I know Paxton is still alive, he’s very much in my present.”
She peers over my shoulder, toward the fence line. “Is that why you were so jumpy just now? You thought it might have been him?”
I shrug. “I guess. I was just overreacting. There’s no way he can find me here, and besides…” I pause and take a deep breath. She’s going to hate what I say next, but if I am laying my cards on the table, I have to be fully honest. “I’ve got the Devils protecting me.”
She stares at me, her lips pinching in that way she does when she disapproves of something, particularly related to them. “Is that what they’ve promised you? That they’ll protect you? They put you in the hospital.”
“They didn’t mean to. That was an accident, and it was partly my fault for not telling them the truth about my condition. You told me I should tell more people, and you were right.”
Her expression is still mutinous.
I sigh. “Look, Camile. I know they aren’t nice men.”
She scoffs. “To say the least.”
“I get they’re bad people, and emotionally, they may not be the healthiest choice, but I promise you, I can handle them. I think I’m figuring out ways to deal with them, and in the meantime, if they offer me protection, I have to take it. My choices are to stay here or leave. Staying means they won’t leave me alone. I can’t leave. So why not … why not turn it to my advantage? But knowing they aren’t nice guys who are going to give me a picket fence, a Labrador, and two kids.” I straighten my shoulders and lift my chin to show I mean business. “I’ve got my eyes wide open, Camile. I’m using them as much as they are using me.”
This seems to placate her, and we start walking again.
On the other side of the fence comes the crack of a foot hitting a twig. Despite what I’ve said, my heartrate skyrockets, and I suck in a breath.
It’s nothing, it’s nothing, it’s nothing.
