“Thank you for staying with me,” she whispered before daring to trace one finger along the curve of a toe. Then she brushed over his claws and jerked away, tightening her hand into a fist.
“Greer!” a voice shouted, breaking the moment. Both of them snapped their heads toward the Stones, instantly alert. “Greer, where are you?”
The guard’s ears flattened.
It was the boy.
“I have to go,” she apologized, pushing herself from the ground, pushing herself from the guard.
He wanted to call out to her, to stop her, to keep her here with him. “Stay!” he wanted to cry.
But she crossed the clearing, returning once more to the hateful Stone, caressing its surface as she passed by. Her fingers brushed along its luster in unconscious routine, and Finn closed his eyes, imagining it was him she touched instead.
34
They set offat sunrise, Finn leading the way.
Greer had expected him to follow the winding riverbank, but he plunged straight into the forest, without even a glance at her map. Heeding his internal compass, Finn roamed the terrain with ease, and it was all Greer could do to keep up. He slipped through the tangled undergrowth with preternatural grace, always a dozen or so steps ahead of her, making any attempt at conversation impossible.
If she was being honest, the grueling pace was a bit of relief. Her head was muddy with thoughts and worries, and Finn’s clip stamped at least some of them into an exhausted silence.
Still, all the hiking in the world couldn’t make her forget the way he’d looked at her last night before slipping into the woods. It couldn’t erase the dream, and the way it kept repeating through her mind. She’d felt so connected to him in it. Not just in the physical way the dream had played out, but in the familiar intimacy of their conversation. They’d been two people well acquainted with each other, comfortable and at ease, and Greer was surprised to find how much she wished for that now.
Ellis,she reminded herself.You have that ease with Ellis.
But…did she?
Before the Hunt, before this journey, she wouldn’t have hesitated tosay yes, to shout it from Barrenman’s Hill, to let the entire cove know that she loved Ellis Beaufort with all her heart and always would.
And she still did.
But her heart…
She knew things now about that heart, about the blood it pumped, that would certainly give Ellis reason to wonder about—if not outright question—her loyalty. She wasn’t the girl he’d fallen in love with. In truth, that girl had never existed. Not even mostly.
What would Ellis think of all of this, of her new self? What would his family, his mother, Louise? Louise would be horrified, her best friend become the very monster she didn’t believe in.
It was all too terrible to bear.
When Greer began her journey, she hadn’t thought about the Beauforts. She’d only envisioned Ellis and herself, armed with their beaded charms and dizzyingly in love, heading out into the world for adventure and exploration. She wanted to laugh at how naïve she’d been.
Ellis was a good and responsible man. He cared deeply for his family and would never let them come to harm. That he was out here now, wandering through the wilderness as a sacrifice for the town, was proof of it. He was trying to appease the Benevolence, offering himself so that they would continue to hold back the Bright-Eyeds.
Greer stopped in her tracks, as a new thought seized hold of her.
Bright-Eyed blood ran through her veins. She wasn’t one of them, not exactly, but would the Benevolence note such a distinction?
Her eyes, now so sharp and keen, flickered through the trees surrounding them, searching, searching for any sign that they might be near.
“Greer?”
She glanced up the hill. Finn had noticed she’d paused; half a dozen yards from her, he looked back with concern.
“We’re almost to the top of the ridge.”
“Yes.” She swept her gaze over the forest again, certain one of the Benevolence was about to step out from the shadows and tear her to bits.
“Are you all right?”
