“No! N-no. I’m fine. Everything’s fine. Except reception. That’s been . . . well, shit.”
“You don’t sound too good. Are you sick?”
“Have you heard anything else about Noelle? You sounded so worried the last time we talked. Did you go to the police about the necklace?”
She was aware of Cal’s gaze as if it were a blade digging into her throat. “No,” she said, desperately trying to keep her voice level. “Nothing came of that. Nobody knows where she is. I think—”she was burned“—I think—”ashes, dead deer, dead Noelle, blood dripping“—she ran away,” Nadine finished hoarsely.
Cal held up a finger.One minute, he mouthed.
She closed her eyes, tears spilling down her cheeks.
“It’s really nice here. I think I’ll stay for a little while. Maybe . . . explore the woods.”
Maybe get fucked in them.
“Well, okay,” her aunt said doubtfully. “If that’s what you want to do. But don’t push yourself if you’re not feeling well. Make sure you stay on the trails.” She paused. “Are yousureyou’re all right?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. Well, call me soon, all right? Or I’ll worry.”
“I love you so much,” Nadine whispered. “I love you, Aunt Nikki.”
“I love you, too, kiddo. Stay safe.”
She hung up. Nadine felt that click all the way in the bottom of her heart. Blinking rapidly, she watched Cal drop it back in the drawer and lock it.
“Thank you,” she said, in a thick, clotted voice.
He nodded distractedly, picking up his files. But this time, he didn’t seem to be reading them. She watched him hesitantly, wondering if he was going to have her do something else, but he just silently thumbed the edges of those papers until she turned away and went back to her room.
Safe, her aunt had said.
Nadine had never felt less safe in her life.
???????
It had been so long since she had gone into town that it was almost a shock to find that people were still out there living normal lives. Maybe that was what isolation and a lack of technology did to you; it made you feel as if the world had stopped turning for you. That everything was stagnant and unchanging. Inevitable.
Doomed.
RUNNING OF THE DEER was printed on a large banner that was hanging over the main street. Bordering the letters on each side was a cartoonish illustration of a prancing deer.
So thrilled to be murdered. The image disturbed her.
Someone had festooned the statue of Caledon Cullraven with pagan-looking wreaths of flowers, pinecones, and ferns. Cal snorted when they went by it and rolled his eyes. “Odessa,” he said, like that explained it. Nadine thought it was almost like deity worship. A throwback to the times when people left offerings for powerful beings, whose protections and blessings they craved. Even—especially—if they were feared or despised. It was folly to piss off the gods.
Argentum was caught in the thrall of this family just as much as she was.
Unlike her, however, they just didn’t know it.
The air was heavy with pollen and the scent of the sunscreen she had applied to her arms and legs. She had deliberated on what to wear, but in the end the thought of Cal peeling her clothes from her layer by layer had intimidated her more than the thought of wearing less had, so she had gone with the shirtdress she slept in, belted at the waist, and her hooded sweatshirt.
She kept catching him looking at it, when he thought she wasn’t watching.
The civic center had been decorated with garlands that looked like laurels but turned out to be fake when Nadine reached out to touch one curiously. Some school children had been enlisted to produce drawings of the wildlife available for being murdered, apparently, because several youthfully scrawled deer and quail and rabbits had been framed on the walls with plaques naming their young artists.
“Nadine!” Deena exited her office just as Nadine was bending to study a purple and green deer. Her smile dimmed a little, though, when Cal walked in through the door behind her and wrapped his arm around her waist, the other hand casually shoved into his pocket.
