AllFreeNovel
Share Us
On to the next tree.
I’m halfway there when the sky opens. Rain slams down with such sudden force that I gasp. It’s like falling into the lake this morning.I’m soaked in the blink of an eye, the bitter rain making me shiver, as I’m mentally plunged back into the icy lake.
I’mnotin the lake. Not drowning. Not fighting the waves. I’m on land, and I’m wet, but I’m fine.
I look past the tree.
There’s no sign of Kit. There’s no sign of anything. It’s like being caught in a downpour in the car, the windshield suddenly as useless as leaded glass. I can make out blurred shapes, but they’re all dark.
I stand there, at the side of the tree, rain pummeling me. It runs off my brows and into my mouth and even my nose when I breathe. I wipe a hand over my face. Useless. I blink. Still nothing but trees.
Kit’s there. He must be.
A blur to my right. A pale shape running at me. I turn to meet him, and Sadie barrels into my side so hard we go down in a tumble of limbs and drenched fabric. I scramble up, ready to fight, only to see her looming over me, her eyes wide.
There’s something wrong with her eyes.
I catch only a glimpse of them before they’re hidden by the pelting rain, and all I can tell is that they’re wide. So wide. Fear pulses off her, making my own heart race.
“Sadie,” I say, as loud as I dare. “You’re hurt—”
Her face lowers to mine, and I brace myself. Her cheek hangs open. Oh God, the skin just flaps there, bloodless, and I see her jawbone and teeth.
“Help me.” Her lips form the words. “Please.”
She’s on top of me. Pinning me to the ground, but I don’t think she realizes it. She’s barreled into me and knocked me over, and now she’s over me, her eyes wild and empty at the same time. Her pupils are blown. That’s what I’d noticed earlier. They are impossibly huge, the blue irises barely a ring.
Head injury. Traumatic head injury.
No shit, Sherlock.
“Laney,” she says.
She recognizes me. Thank God. Recognizes me and somehow, deep in that damaged brain, perceives that I’m not a threat. That however angry she’s been with me for half our lives, I still care about her. She can still count on me.
“I’m here,” I say. “I’m going to help you.”
I reach up, tentatively. My fingers wrap around her good arm, and she seems to slump in relief.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “Whatever happened to you, I’m sorry. We need to get you inside. Kit will help.”
“Kit?” She pulls back, wrenching from my grip. “No.”
“Kit will—”
“No, no, no.” Her voice rises until I can hear it over the wind and rain. “He did this. Kit did this.”
“What?”
“Help me. Stop him.”
I open my mouth to argue and then shut it. She’s confused. The last thing she must remember is being angry with Kit, and her brain has twisted that into thinking it’s because he’s the one who did this to her.
“Okay,” I say. “Forget Kit. I’ll get you back—”
Another blur appears in the rain, and this time, it materializes into Kit. When he sees Sadie over me, his eyes widen in alarm and he rushes forward. I start to say I’m fine, but she rolls off me. Her one arm shoots out, hand palm-up to ward off Kit, the other twisted and drooping.
At first, I see only her expression. The undeniable terror in her eyes. There is a moment when my gut twists, when the most bruised part of my heart screams that Kit has done something to her, that I have misjudged him, because deep inside me, that battered cornerwantsto have misjudged him, to be able to tell myself I didn’t lose a good man.
