Sometimes there was no stopping pain. There was justseeing how much you could swallow before it spilled out your throat.
Andrew tore free of the vulture who still had claws in his collar. “If you want Bryce, he’s in the art room. The forest ate his eyes. I-I-I need to talk to Dove. I’ll go get her.”
The boys all froze, expressions ranging from confusion to horror, but no one looked as stricken as Thomas in that moment.
“Andrew…” He stopped, his face naked and wretched and aching.
But Andrew had already turned away and run for the doors, for the night, for the forest’s fetid, terrible beckoning.
THIRTY-ONE
There wasn’t enough of Andrew to hold on to, so it was easy for him to slip away into the dark. The night air soothed his feverish skin, and when he wiped at his mouth, his palm came away smeared with thick, bloodied dirt. He wasn’t crying, but it probably looked like he was.
He stumbled along the outside of the school, his hand trailing across the ivy-covered bricks, while golden light poured from the arched windows as if promising only warmth and safety resided in there. He knew the truth. The monsters were everywhere now and all chance at escape had been lost.
“Dove.” His voice rose against the velvet dark. “I need you. DOVE.”
He wrapped his arms around his aching stomach and tried to ignore the way the forest writhed inside him. Get it out. That he could do. If he just took the box cutter from his pocket—
His next breath caught in a sob. Maybe hewascrying. He reached up to wipe his cheeks—but two cold hands pushed his away and brushed at his hot tears.
“Oh, Andrew.”
He looked up into Dove’s concerned face.
“Dove.” His voice cracked. “Everything is really, really screwed up right now and I-I-I need… I need you.”
Dove went still, and for a harrowed second, he thoughtshe’d walk away, tired of him and his riotous emotions that always spilled out in disarray when he should be put together, cool and clever and confident like her. He was sick of being the broken sibling, the incapable one, the slip of north wind more likely to fade away than deserve anyone’s affections.
Dove settled down on the path beside him and wrapped her arms around her legs. Of course she’d skipped the needless frivolity of the dance, remaining in her neat, pressed Wickwood uniform with her hair in a tight ponytail and a pencil still tucked behind her ear. Only Dove would choose studying over literally anything else. She had the future planned out, Ivy League colleges, internships, and the stars all within her grasp.
“Did Dad call you?” Andrew scrubbed at his face again, embarrassed at his running nose and reddened eyes. “They’re expelling me. But you can… stay here. You don’t have to leave because I’m a pathetic waste of space.” He couldn’t help but add in a wounded mutter, “You prefer studying to being around me, anyway.”
“I need to study,” Dove said. “I need… something to hold on to.”
“Butwhy—”
“Andrew, leave it.” She sounded firm then, and if he pushed, he knew she’d stand up and leave him. “Maybe they’re right, you know? That you need a mental health break. You know you’re dangerously thin, right? Not to mention… Well, you seem like you’re in your own world.”
He let out a shuddering breath. “I need to show you something. In the forest.”
Dove shot him an incredulous look. “Absolutely not. Didyou forget the whole reason you’re in trouble is because of sneaking into that forest? Plus, it’s pitch black out there. It’s totally not safe. Let’s go to the nurse and tell her you’re not feeling well.” She pushed to her feet and offered a hand. “Come on. I’ll take you.”
“Is that why you’re sick of me?” His jaw set, and he didn’t take her hand. “Because you’re done with having to babysit me and patch me up and fight my battles?”
Dove sighed, equal parts exasperated and fond. “Would you please get up?”
Slowly, his body throbbing with the effort, he climbed to his feet without help. “I’m going down there, with or without you.”
“You are not.”
He forced himself down the garden path that wound toward the sports field while Dove spluttered in disbelief behind him. If she stormed off, then whatever. Thomas had been right about the strength of Halloween, and it seemed unlikely the forest would stop after devouring one student. It still hungered.
He slipped a little on the mossy, dew-slick pavement and then startled as Dove appeared beside him. She folded her arms and glared, but she followed.
“I know you won’t believe me,” Andrew said. “But try, okay? Please? There are monsters in the woods. They crawl out of Thomas’s drawings, and every night we fight them, and every night we nearly die for it. They want a… a sacrifice from the prince.”
“Andrew.” She sounded careful. “Let me take you to the nurse. I promise I’ll stay with you.”
