They kept coming, feeling their way across the carpets.
Hunting.
And if Thomas wasn’t here, it meant they wantedAndrew.
SEVENTEEN
Blood curled in a soft line from Andrew’s ear down to his jaw. Metallic and hot andfurious. The vines smelled it. He knew they did.
Andrew flung himself down the hall and crashed around a corner. Someone would see, someone would help him.
Unless, a tiny malevolent voice whispered in his ear,only you can see it. It’s all in your head, Andrew. It’s all in your—
He cast a glance over his shoulder at the floor covered in vines. They tangled in each other and grew with every pulsing heartbeat. More wallpaper shredded as brambles grew up to the ceiling. Roses cut free and wept blood up the walls.
Andrew backed up, terror shredding his chest until he couldn’t breathe. He turned to run around a corner—and he slammed into a body.
He flinched away, hands fluttering uselessly to cover his face, but there were no antlers and claws and bone knives snicking toward him.
Instead a hand clapped onto his shoulder and Clemens stared down mockingly, his lips quirked, as if finding Andrew sweaty and trembling was the highlight of his day.
“Ah, the exact person I wanted to see,” Clemens said.
Andrew stared in numb shock. If Clemens turned the corner, he’d see the vines unspooling from the walls. But insteadhe pulled something from his pocket and gave it a jaunty shake in Andrew’s face.
“Look what I happened to find in the forest today. Lost something, did we, Mr. Perrault?”
Clemens held up Andrew’s phone. Moss and mud caked the back of it, dirt ground into the case and beads of rainwater collected on the glass. He tried to stammer that it wasn’t his, but Clemens tapped it and the screen lit up.
That was impossible. It had been lying out in the forest forweeks. Even if the weather hadn’t killed it, the battery should be dead.
But with the screen glowing in his face, the evidence hit him like a brick to the jaw. Andrew’s lock screen was an old photo of him and Dove, their cheeks squished together to fit in the narrow frame. Dove had her hand on his chin, dragging him into the photo, and her smile was all mischief while his was wry reluctance. It was a rare moment of undiluted joy. No exam stress. No piles of homework. Just them together, twins and best friends.
A thousand emotions punched through his stomach. He felt dizzy. The forest was literally eating the school and Thomas had gone to get agoddamn axto stop the Antler King ripping out their hearts—and all Andrew wanted in that moment was for Dove to appear and talk him out of this mess.
“Considering the forest is strictly prohibited,” Clemens was saying, “I have to wonder how your phone ended up there.”
“But why were you out there?” Andrew’s chest moved raggedly, his voice too pitchy, and as soon as he said it, he wished he hadn’t. It only made him sound more guilty.
Clemens let out a cold laugh. “I know what you seniors getup to in the forest, as if that fence means anything. Beer cans and cigarette stubs galore out there. I thought I’d gather evidence.”
He wanted to get back at Andrew and Thomas for walking out of his class. It was a typical bully move—defy them once in front of an audience, and they’d circle back with hooked knives ready to exact revenge.
But Andrew knew the phone was all Clemens would have found. No seniors had been messing around in the forest this year. If they had, they’d be dead.
“You don’t understand.” Andrew tried to worm free. “There’s s-something in the hall. I need to get help—”
“What you need is a little trip up to the principal’s office.” Clemens dug his fingers into Andrew’s neck and propelled him forward. “I know boys like you. The soft, spoiled little brats who hide their manipulation under all these politically correctmental healthwoes to get out of studying. You want out of my class? Then you can leave this entire school.”
He frog-marched Andrew toward the stairs to the staff offices. Andrew glanced frantically over his shoulder, but vines hadn’t started exploding from other walls. Not yet. Outside the rain grew stronger, and it tapped on the windows loud enough to drown out everything else. But someone would see that hallway soon. Someone would see the Antler King prowling the halls.
Andrew tripped on the first step, and Clemens yanked him forward.
“You won’t wriggle out of this, Perrault,” he said. “But do tell me who you were with, or else I’ll name Rye anyway. I’ve seen his record.”
“Please, you don’t understand,” Andrew choked.
A scream cut through the thunder of rain.
