Jem stopped, gave him a silent squeeze, and turned around.River moved back a pace, wiping her eyes and shaking her head—her expression now mixed anger and what might have been annoyance.Jem made sure to keep her in sight as he came around the SUV.
He hadn’t noticed until then that the hood was up, but that detail only registered at the edge of his awareness because his gaze was fixed on the writing on the side of River’s car—two rows of letters that ran across the windows and the doors.
DIE
BITCH
The words had been written in some rust-brown—
Oh.Shit.
“That’s blood,” Jem said.“Isn’t it?”
Tean didn’t answer.The harsh white of the fluorescents made his eyes bruised and sunken behind the glasses, and he was breathing hard through his nose.
Jem slipped into the parking stall and glanced under the hood.He didn’t know a ton about cars, but he knew if you cut enough hoses and belts and wires, you could make sure they weren’t going anywhere.
“It’s them,” Tean whispered.“They’re here.”
20
Tean was only vaguely aware of leaving River at the entrance to the lodge.He followed Jem along a corridor—impressions of brown, light blurring.He thought, distantly, that his glasses were smudged.
And at the same time, running on a parallel circuit:
The smell of drying blood in that little house.
The weight of a door with a body holding it closed.
The grunts and thuds of men trying to kill each other.
The basement, and the man in the wolf mask limping toward Tean.
The man lifting his head to howl.
Something reallywaswrong with the lights because black spots whizzed through Tean’s vision.His body prickled like it did with an adrenaline rush, but he felt cold instead of hot.The corridor was starting to tilt.
You’re not getting enough oxygen, a voice inside his head told him.
But that didn’t make any sense, because he wasbreathing: thin, shallow, rapid inhalations through his nose.Air that ended up high in his chest.
The corridor began to turn over.
Somehow, he sat without falling.He put his head between his knees.Even with his eyes closed, everything was still flipping upside down.
“Tean?”A moment later, Jem’s hand was on his back, his knee bumping Tean’s leg.“What’s going on?What’s wrong?It’s okay.Hey, deep breaths.Deep breaths.”He stroked Tean’s hair, and the movements were slow and meant to be soothing, but Tean registered the fingers stiff with panic.“You’re okay, but you have to breathe.”
Sitting helped.His head between his knees helped.As each breath got a little deeper, he could focus on pulling the air into his belly.
Everything level.Everything steady.Everything holding—for now.
He didn’t even remember taking off his glasses, but when he looked up, the world was blurry.Jem was crouched next to him, his hand still on Tean’s hair.The fear in Jem’s face was only there for a moment, and then it was gone, replaced by a smile.
“Hey,” Jem said softly.
“I’m sorry.”
Jem shook his head slowly.“Don’t be sorry.Are you okay?”
