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Red coat behind the wheel. Hair up. One hand lifting off the steering wheel to wave at me, friendly, the way you wave at a neighbor.

Lila drives past me toward my house, where Maren is, and where I’m not.

I get forty feet before I hit the brakes.

Then my phone lights up on the seat, and it's Cass, and all it says is:

Don't turn around. She's not why I'm texting.

26

MAREN

STILL FIVE DAYS UNTIL HALLOWEEN

Gage's taillights are still at the end of the road when Lila's car turns in behind them.

I'm on his porch with a mug of cider. Three of his wolves went with him. Three stayed, and they sorted themselves out in the yard without anybody telling them where to stand. One at the tree line. One along the north side of the house. Cass at the bottom of the steps with her hands in her jacket pockets, watching the road.

She doesn't turn when the headlights swing in.

"Friend of yours?"

"How do you know it isn't a stranger?"

"You stopped drinking."

I look down at the cider. She's right. I've been holding it like a prop for twenty minutes, ever since Gage said ask me tonight and then drove off to a barn full of people voting on what to do with me.

Sid comes up the rail and sits.

Interesting. She's early.

"Early for what?"

He doesn't answer that. He doesn't answer anything else for the rest of the night, which I don't notice until later, and which I'll think about for a long time after.

Lila parks crooked behind Cass's truck. She gets out in the red coat, the one she's had forever, with a foil-wrapped loaf balanced on one hand.

Cass moves into her path without hurrying.

"Ma'am."

"I'm not... " Lila's smile does something complicated. "I'm Maren's friend."

"Sure."

"It's fine," I say from the steps. "Cass. It's fine."

Cass doesn't look at me. "Is it?"

"She's been my best friend for three years."

"That's not a no."

Cass steps aside about eight inches. Lila has to turn sideways to get past her, and I watch my best friend's shoulders go up around her ears, and I don't help her.

That's interesting. I file it away to feel guilty about later.