My heart beat a solidthump, thump, thump.
Eva took my hand and flipped it palm up. “You keep tapping on the side of your leg,” she said, her blue eyes studying my face. “He’s still in there, isn’t he?”
A shiver of warmth rolled through me, reaching past the monster’s ice.
She saw.
It didn’t matter that I was hidden away; the bee girlsawme, just as she always had.
The monster’s disbelief filled every hollow where our wills entwined. It yanked my hand out of hers, an instant loss of summer heat.“He’s not your puzzle to solve, Eva.”
When the monster stepped back, Eva followed as well as shecould, leaning on her walking stick. Bug hopped along behind her, meowing. “He’s not yours either,” she snapped.
Am I not?
I didn’t know where or to whom I belonged. For a long time, I’d been a tetherless creature, as unbound as the air that carried a flock of migrating birds overhead, craving the very roots that my mother had seemed to fear so desperately.
“No.”The monster’s voice took on an edge.“But I am his.”
Eva’s eyes blew wide.
“And I am taking him home.”The monster turned and stomped in the direction of the shed. Its resolve settled inside my chest, but whatever it was thinking, whatever it was planning, was lost to me. I couldn’t see the details of its thoughts anymore. I could only feel the way its intent manifested in the body we shared.
Eva followed close behind. “You’re running again?”
Those words cut to the bone. I wanted to tell her,No, I am here! I want to stay!But the monster ignored her, stomping up over the crest of the hill and back into the meadow. The flowers seemed almost too brilliant now, a sickening sway of sugary cereal held in the meadow’s bowl.
There was something else different too. I couldn’t put my finger on it as the monster stomped up to the door of the shed, Eva puffing in close pursuit. I hated that it could be so petty as to leave her behind when it knew she was hurt.
I was so consumed with my thoughts that I almost missed the moment the monster brought our body to a rough halt. We stared, shocked, at the shadowed form sitting on the cot in the shed.
He cut a figure like a knife, his presence instantly ringingalarm bells inside me. The man sat on the edge of the cot, legs spread, his forearms resting on his thighs. One hand hung loosely over his knees, holding a gun.
The monster’s disbelief bled into my own.
“Lenny?”
Chapter 35
Arthur,
Before
Eva knelt in a pool of Dane Walker’s blood, sobbing as she begged him to keep breathing. But her touch made the vines in his body twist deeper.
“Ev, stop.”
“I can help him!” Her eyes were shot with a terror I’d never seen.
Jack must have followed Dane in, because he was suddenly there, peeling his daughter’s grip off the dying man. “Get her out of here,” he commanded. The chapel’s front door creaked and Izzy stepped in. “Lock the door!”
“What’s going on?” Izzy looked alarmed.
Little sprouts pushed from Jack’s scalp. He cornered me with a hard look, eyes green with wildness. “Go out the back,” he said. “Take the truck. Get Eva far away from this.”
“No!” Eva wept openly. “No, we can fix this.” She turned to me, desperate. “You can fix it!”
My eyes popped wide. “What?”
