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“I know what happened,” she says, her voice a rasp, as we move. “To Jayla. I… I was in there. I heard what that thing said.” Her voice catches. “I’m sorry, Laney. I’m so sorry.”
Don’t be sorry for me. Be sorry for Jayla.
I know what she means, though, and my eyes fill. Madison is not a child. She has said that again and again, and only now am I starting to see it—to see the woman she is becoming.
She will be the best of me. Certainly the best of Garrett. That is what I am protecting. Madison might insist she can look after herself, and maybe she can, but I’m protecting that precious seedling of infinite promise in her. I’m protecting her future.
We run to the side steps. Before we race down, I stop and peer into the night. I’d seen Sadie drag Kit to the right, but there’s no sign of them. There isn’t even a damn crow left. I hadn’t noticed that, but now when I look for them, I see nothing but the moonlit night.
“There!” Madison rasps, jabbing a finger at the forest beyond, and I catch a glimpse of Sadie’s blond hair.
Madison is already galloping down the stairs, and I have to fight the urge to tell her to go slower. She’s lost so much blood. But if she can run, then we must run.
I race after her and grab her hand. I expect her to resist, and there’s a flash of memory, of me taking her to the zoo and reaching for her hand and having her shove it into her pocket. Oh, even at eight, she’d been discreet, not wanting to offend me, but I’d understood. She was too old to hold hands with her auntie, and from that day forward, she would always be too old. Today, though, when I reach for her hand, she takes mine and holds it tight as we run across the rocks.
We lose sight of Sadie during that run. Madison had spotted her from the deck, but now we’re down in the low stretch with the beach on our left. With Jayla’s body on our left.
Don’t think of that. Don’t look and don’t think.
The rocks climb toward the forest, and when we are in that dip, we can’t see Sadie. Can’t track her pale hair. We run as fast as Madison can manage, steadying each other when we slip or stumble. Then we are scrabbling up the rock to the forest’s edge.
“Do you see her?” Madison says.
“No, but we know which way she went. And she’s dragging Kit. That’s going to leave a trail.”
We run faster, bearing down, both of us focused on the spot where we last saw Sadie. My heart gives a little leap of satisfaction. We’re moving so much faster than Sadie. Wherever she’s going, wherever she’s taking Kit, wherever the entity intends to kill him, Sadie will not get him there before us.
We reach the spot. I know it’s the right one because the downed tree I’d snuck around earlier is right in front of us.
Still holding hands, we search, our ears attuned for any sound.
“We should be able to see something, right?” Madison says. “She’sdragginghim.”
“She is.”
She was.
What else could she do? Carry him?
She could, with the entity’s strength.
“You look at the bushes,” I say. “I’ll look at the ground. It’s still damp from the storm.”
“Sadie’s only wearing one shoe,” Madison says quickly. “I noticed that. She lost a shoe.”
That’s something. Even if she is carrying Kit, the weight will press her bare footprints into the soft ground.
“Where would that thing take him?” Madison says as we scour the bushes and ground. “It didn’t kill him at the house. It wants him someplace. Where?”
“I don’t—”
I stop as everything in me screams an answer. I almost brush it off. Find a trail. Be certain.
There is no time for certain.
“The tree,” I say. “The oath. I made the oath—”
“—at the oak tree.”
