I stand before I see him and start gathering up our things. When he breaks through the brush, he nods his approval that I’m ready to go.
‘I found tracks, but whoever left them doubled back and was able to throw me,’ he says, his voice low and rough.
‘Raven?’ I ask hopefully.
Bo shakes his head and pulls me along with him quickly. ‘No. She’ll never shadow us again,’ he says with certainty. ‘And whoever it was weighed more than any of my brothers or sisters.’
‘Who, then?’ I ask, once we’re through the river.
Bo shrugs and hurries me along. We don’t talk. He glides over and through the brush, showing me where to step. He brings me most of the way through the forest and almost to town, but I stop him as the light shifts from the golden of late afternoon into the blue hue of evening.
‘Go,’ I say. ‘I’ll see you the day after tomorrow.’
He nods, his eyes still sharp and scanning for danger, and kisses me hard. ‘Be careful,’ he pleads. Then he turns and breaks into a run for home.
I do the same. I arrive at my grandparents’ at a sprint. Exhaustion has taken on a hallucinogenic quality at this point.
I see too many cars parked out front. I’m stumbling, and the light is nearly gone. I push my way inside with no thought about the parked cars or anything else, because I think I might literally faint, and I just need to get to the end of this marathon day of exertion and fear and love so I can sleep and wake and remember the way Bo feels and tastes and how he sounds when he breathes my name.
30 JULY. NIGHT
Liam, Taylor, and Aura-Blue are in my living room.
I can’t see them, but I hear their voices, chatting with my grandparents as I stumble inside. They are making polite conversation, a speciality of my family’s, but even for pros like Grandma and Grandpa, I can tell this is strained.
I hear my grandmother calling me.
My arm looks like I’ve been in a car crash, and my clothes are stained with deer blood. I don’t have a choice. I run upstairs.
‘I have to go to the bathroom so bad!’ I yell, forcing laughter into my voice so they think this is just a pee emergency.
I tear my clothes as I pull them off my sweaty limbs and throw them into the back of my closet. I run into the bathroom, step into the tub, and rinse off as best as I can. I smell like Bo – leaves, and rain, and that half-feminine, half-masculine smell of lavender and sage that always clings to him.
I choose a lightweight but long-sleeved shirt dress, swipe on some lipstick, and add a squirt of the perfume in the neon bottle to cover Bo’s scent before I run back downstairs.
‘You guys,’ I’m saying, grinning as I swoop into the room. ‘We didn’t make any plans . . .’ I break off as soon as I see their faces.
Liam, Taylor, and Aura-Blue are standing. They all look pale and wide-eyed. I hear the ice cubes in my grandfather’s glass clink as he finishes off his gin and tonic.
‘Have you seen Mila today?’ Aura-Blue asks.
‘No,’ I reply.
Liam swallows before he speaks. ‘Did you leave work yesterday with her?’ he asks. His voice is shaking.
‘Yeah,’ I breathe, blindsided. I look at Aura-Blue. ‘What happened?’
‘Did you go out after? Did you go to a party, maybe?’
‘No,’ I say immediately, then shake my head and scroll back, trying to remember. ‘Wait. We went for ice cream, but we didn’t stay long. Then she took me back to the shelter to get my bike. I got home . . .’ I stop and look at my grandmother. ‘When did I get home?’ I ask her.
‘Before four,’ she says anxiously.
They all share a look before Liam says, ‘You didn’t go out with her later?’ He glances at my grandmother apologetically. ‘You didn’t sneak out, maybe, and go hiking?’
‘Hiking at night?’ I laugh I’m so surprised. They aren’t joking. I change my tone to something more serious. ‘I didn’t go to a party, and I don’t go hiking at night,’ I say clearly. ‘What happened?’
‘Mila’s missing,’ Aura-Blue says in a tremulous voice. ‘It’s too soon for the police to get involved, but we know something’s wrong. No one’s seen her.’