“Come on, I have to get you out of here.” I grabbed her hand and took off into a sprint. Together, we weaved between trees toward my cabin. I couldn’t think about anything aside from replaying Clarice’s memories, trying to find a loophole. Something that wouldn’t link Fallon to my curse. Something that could have been misinterpreted, mistaken. But I’d read the pages from her eyes. I’d seen the same words she’d seen. I saw the same mark in the book as the one that marked Fallon’s skin.
Fallon kept up with me, trusting me when she shouldn’t. If she knew what I knew, she wouldn’t.
We came upon my cabin. “Wait here,” I told her, then ran up the porch steps and entered the cabin. Standing in front of the wall beside the front door, I fumbled, grabbing a set of keys off the wall. I flew back down the steps, pointed toward the black GS-R. “Get in the car.”
“Julian, you’re freaking me out,” her body was shaking as she darted her eyes around in the dark at the bottom of the steps, “Tell me what’s happening, please!”
“I’m taking you back to—” Then I froze. A standstill. It had hit me. I couldn’t leave, not until the following night. I was arrested to the woods as punishment for saving her from the coffin.“Dammit!”I screamed, slamming my fist over the hood. My entire body was on fire. I pinched the bridge of my nose, squeezed my eyes closed.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, staring at me. She wasn’t afraid of me. She was afraid for me. “Julian!”
I stepped toward her, took her hands and put the keys in them. “You have to get out of here. You have to go back to the Morgan property. I’m bound to the woods. I can’t leave.”
“That doesn’t make any sense! Why not?”
“Fallon, please. Listen to me. You cannot be here, you have to go back. Please, trust me on this. Take the car and go.” I needed to tell Zeph and them what happened, but I had to keep Fallon out of it or they would ask questions. I needed to convince them to help me, to get Clarice’s body to The Wicker Man for me to restore balance for her wrong-doings. For the town.
“What if something happens to you?”
“I’ll be fine, but you need to go,” I dragged her to the driver’s side, opened the door.
Fallon got in. I leaned in between the opened door and her, drumming my fingers over the roof of the car.
“Julian, if they take you—” Black streaks stained her cheeks, around her glassy eyes. The moon cried black tears. Who knew? If love cut me open, would I bleed black too? “I can’t—not without you.” She shook her head, sniffling. “Don’t leave—” she hiccupped “—me. Don’t let them take you.”
My face fell, still unable to comprehend this way she felt about me after the things I’d done. She was the freak who was always alone, and she never knew that everyone died so she could live. And I was the monster who was always alone, and I wanted to die so everyone could live.
We were different, but the same, with a love so strange.
“Tomorrow night,” I promised, dropping my head to hers. “After the ball, I’ll find you. I need you to trust me.” Fallon closed her eyes, nodded against my head. “Now go.”
I closed the door, tapped the hood.
Then I watched her drive away.
The red taillights faded just as three Heathens stepped foot onto my property.
“Something you want to tell us, Blackwell?” Zephyr seethed, green eyes whirling.
Beck and Phoenix appeared from the trees behind him.
I rolled my shoulders back, dragging my gaze across all three of them. “We need to talk.”
Chapter 43
Fallon
“Breaking news!A fire was reported from the Wicker Man early this morning at Crescent Point. We haven’t seen the Wicker Man’s flames in over twelve years, and my sources say it could be an All Hallows Eve prank. But conspiracy theories are already flying around that a secret sacrifice has been executed. Whatever it is, the truth will come to light. Nothing in Weeping Hollow is buried forever,”Freddy gathered a solemn breath,“Regardless, the Pruitt Ball is still on for tonight. Tomorrow is the start of Samhain. This is Freddy in the Mournin’, and these are your Friday morning Hollow Headlines. I’ll see you at midnight, witches, and remember, no one is safe after three a.m.”
The headlines streamed through my blank dream, waking me. I popped from the kitchen chair, ran across the living room, and pushed my way through the back door. My stride didn’t stop until the tip of my toes touched the edge of the cliff, and I leaned back for leverage.
I threw my hand over my squinted eyes to see a shade of smoke billowed in the distance, clouding the morning sky at the far end of town where The Wicker Man stood. My heart shuddered, but I could not bring myself to believe something happened to Julian.
No, he said he would find me. Tonight.Maybe it was a prank like Freddy said. A prank…or Carrie Driscoll.
Carrie Driscoll’s dead, my brain reminded me.Yes, it was a possibility the Heathens helped Julian burn Carrie in The Wicker Man. For Balance. Julian found a way for balance.Because of what she made him do.
My heart calmed, and I released a nervous exhale, but it still didn’t erase memories from last night.
