“You stuck?”
I shake my head and wedge my foot into a cranny, forcing my way up. “It’s actually easier today. No books.” The Medusa’s branches are so wide and smooth you can lay stretched out on them like a couch. We used to spend days up here reading. One of the most thrilling discoveries I made about Everett after we got close is that he loves books as much as I do. I never would’ve guessed with the disinterested way he acted in school. But then again, the way I’ve acted has shielded a great many things about me, too.
“All clear,” he says when I reach the final branch. I shimmy around the tree trunk, then settle against it, breathing a sigh of relief.
“Look,” he says, pointing. From this high up we can see for a mile. It’s getting dark, summer dusk long but not eternal, the leaves so shaded they’re almost blue. A flock of starlings swoops low, circling in intricate patterns. We listen to the wind through the branches, to the crickets starting to chirp. This is where I belong. Alone in nature with him.
It’s what I’ll miss most when they send us to prison.
As if he can read my mind, Everett cups his mouth and howls into the forest, a deep and melancholy sound. I startle even though I’m used to it, and the flock of starlings breaks apart like a wrenched wishbone, birds streaking in different directions.
People at church used to swear they could hear werewolves howling in the woods at night, and it used to make me smile to know the truth, that we were what frightened them. Now, I don’t smile. Everett’s howl sounds too close to the feelings in my chest.
“Do you love him?” he asks suddenly.
The question surprises me, but I don’t have to ask who he means. “I think so,” I say softly. I don’t add that my heart has always been hungry to love, so maybe it isn’t such a surprise. Everett already knows.
He nods and moves his gaze far into the forest. I study his face. His dramatic cheekbones are not small-town Louisiana cheekbones. Nothing about his profile is. It’s too stark, too lovely. The kind of beauty that sinks ships and ruins lives, though that’s probably a line I lifted from a book. He hated it when I asked what it’s like to look the way he does. I meant beautiful, but he said I made him sound like an alien. The truth is, I’ve always thought he might be.
He doesn’t look at me when he speaks, keeping his voice deceptively light. “Did you even want me to come back? Now that you have him…”
“Of course I did.” The words are thick in my throat. “You’re my best friend. Always.”
He’s quiet for so long. Only the sounds of the forest stretch between us.
“Okay,” he says finally. He smiles, but I can tell it’s forced. “If he makes you happy, then okay.”
I let out my held breath. “We can ask Barry for details about the investigation. He’s bad at keeping secrets.”
Everett frowns. “Why would we ask him?”
Barry was only a year ahead of us in school, but sometimes I forget Everett hasn’t kept up with everyone like I have, on account of his moving away. “Barry’s a deputy now. He’s part of the investigation.”
Ever freezes. “What?”
I chip the tree bark with my nail. “He joined the sheriff’s office after old Beau Linnet retired. There’s still only three of them. Barry’s the rookie.”
Everett sits ramrod straight. “Ruth. What the hell are you playing at, dating a cop?”
“It gives us an advantage.” I kick his dangling legs, but he doesn’t smile. “You remember how Barry likes to talk. Being with him is a protection.”
The last rays of the sun slip over the horizon. The air shifts into deep purple, the effect like being plunged underwater. The woods at night scare most people, but I haven’t been scared of any wild places, not for years. Maybe it’s because of Everett, or maybe my instinct for danger is broken.
Ever slides closer, until our dangling feet touch, then closer still. Our knees hit, and he wraps his legs around mine, locking us together.
“Don’t worry,” I start to say, but fall quiet when he places his hands on either side of my face. He didn’t used to like touching. Not before me. After me—with me—he can’t stop, like he’s making up for lost time.
“Ruth.” His dark eyes cast such a spell that I can’t look away. In theirdepths he says a thousand things he would never say out loud. “You know I’ll always protect you.”
“I know.” In an instant, I see that bloody rock, smooth as an egg and big as a summer melon, coming down to meet Renard’s head.
Yes, Everett will always protect me. And I will protect him. Some days that’s what I’m most afraid of.
“But you’re right,” he says. “If we’re going to come up with a plan, we need to know as much as possible.” Everett still holds my face between his hands. “After the press conference today, the whole town will be gossiping about this. Do you think Barry will join them?”
I nod. “He can never resist.”
“Then we need to go and listen.”
