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“I can take those.” He nodded to the few posters I still had.
My brows pinched together, and I hugged them to my chest. “That’s okay.” I took a step back.
Xander frowned, but then his expression cleared. “I’m not confiscating them or anything.” His mouth pulled up into an easy smile, his face softening. “I meant that I can put the rest up for you. It’s almost dark. I can take one back with me and have more copies made to put up around campus tomorrow.”
I blinked at him, my muscles relaxing. “Oh,” I breathed. “Okay.”
He let out a short, nervous laugh. “I’m…sorry. It’s been a rough few days.” He rested his hands on his hips. “I didn’t mean to come across like I was upset.”
“You’ve been dealing with a lot, I’m sure.”
He sighed. “You got that right.” He held out his hand again, and this time I gave him the thin stack of papers. He stared down at them, his eyes glued to Lily’s smiling face. “We should’ve been working harder to get the word out. I was afraid of being overrun with panicked calls from the locals and not having enough manpower to sift through all the leads, but that’s just something we need to deal with if we want to find her.”
I pressed my lips together. This Xander seemed so different from the one I remembered. That Xander had been young and a little wild. He’d been able to keep up with Thea, and that was saying something. But this Xander…this Xander seemed uptight, high-strung even. Like the loss of Thea still weighed him down.
“I hope we find her,” I said, putting those words out into the world.
Xander nodded. “I’m going to do everything I can.” His gaze shifted to something near my neck before bouncing back up. “It’s good to see you back in town again.”
I glanced down. My necklace, the half heart, was hanging outside of the jacket I’d zipped up all the way. It stood out against the black fabric.
“It’s…been an adjustment.” Before I looked back up at him, my phone went off. A series of beeps echoed in the quiet evening.
I assumed it was my mother again. “Sorry,” I murmured as I fished my phone out of my coat pocket. This had taken longer than I intended, so I wanted to make sure she was okay.
I frowned as a number I didn’t recognize flashed on the screen. My blood chilled as I read the text message:
Leave Ember Hollow for good, Lark. You don’t belong here anymore.
My breath caught in my lungs as I read it over again.
“Everything okay?”
My head jerked up as Xander stepped closer, his expression concerned. I stared at him, trying not to panic.
It was just a text. A stupid text. It didn’t necessarily mean anything.
I forced in a deep, calm breath. This wasn’t the first time threats had come my way. In the weeks after the tragedy on Halloween night, I was flooded with threatening messages. Mostly from anonymous fake social media accounts and emails. It wasn’t pleasant. Some people had been convinced it was my fault Thea and Delainey died, and they made it known.
I hadn’t gotten one of those messages in a very long time, though.
“Lark?” Xander took another step toward me, looking more alarmed.
Stuffing my phone back into my pocket, I cleared my throat. “Um, yeah. It’s fine,” I said, my voice breathy and sounding anything but fine. Xander was already dealing with so much right now, and the thought of piling one more thing on didn’t seem right.
Xander grimaced. “You sure?”
I nodded, almost too emphatically. “Yes, I just…I need to be getting home. My mom is expecting me.”
12
Reid
I pounded a fist on the door of Fox’s office. He was visible through the glass door, sitting in front of multiple large screen monitors with his headphones on. Either he had the noise canceling off or he’d been expecting me because he almost immediately turned and motioned me to come in.
Fox was August’s twin, but they really couldn’t have been more different. Where August was all brawn and physical strength, Fox was smart. Analytical. He took care of the cyber security at Hearthstone, and he did some freelance work on the side in programming.
“August said you wanted to talk to me?”
