When I finally get back to Li’l Pass, there’s no Hart.
No Evie in the old dryer, either.
Nobody at all.
I long for the warmth of Zale’s electric touch. For the calm of his ice-blue eyes.
I turn in a slow circle to peer through the thickening dark.
But I’m utterly alone.
Then I see it. Sudden movement in a cluster of scrawny trees and twisting undergrowth on the other side of the Li’l Pass.
A floating ball of light.
An old fear claws at me.
Because now I’m hunting fifolet.
The water is way up in Li’l Pass, but it’s not flooded yet. I splash across and pull myself through the mud on the other side. Then I push into the thicket. Thorns tear at my arms and legs as I move deeper into the center.
And suddenly there they are. Trapped in my flashlight beam.
Hart is standing over Evie, and she’s the one he’s attacking, but I feel his hands around my neck, too. I know those hands so well. I’ve felt them on my skin. It isn’t hard to imagine them – rough and strong and familiar – Squeezing.
Choking.
Holding me down in the mud and the water while the last bit of life drains out of me.
“Hart!” I yell his name as loud as I can. Somehow I make myself heard over the raging of the storm. He lets go of Evie and looks back over his shoulder at me. His mouth falls open in surprise. And mine does, too. Because he isn’t human. Not any more.
His eyes glow with rage. They’re animal eyes.
His teeth are bared.
Sharp.
He’s panting.
All fangs and claws.
Wrynn was right all along. For just a second, I see him the way she must have seen him that night. In the moment he first became the rougarou.
And that’s when I know for sure. And knowing feels unsurvivable. Whatever he might do to me tonight – even if he kills me – it can’t be worse than this terrible knowing.
Then I hear the boat horn.
One blast.
One last chance.
I’d given up on anything that felt like hope.
“Run!” I’m yelling at Evie, but I don’t know if she can hear me. “Boat!” I’m pointing in the direction of the boardwalk and screaming my throat raw. “Go!”
She looks at me. Then at Hart. Hesitates. And I shriek at her again. “Evie! He killed Elora! You know that! Get out of here! Go!”
Hart is staring at me. He looks dazed. Like I hit him over the head.
Evie scrambles to her feet and gives Hart one last look, then she takes off. Running like the dickens. But I don’t move. And neither does Hart.
We’re holding each other hostage.
The wind is merciless. It’s like being hit with a two-by-four.
Over and over and over. I grab one of the spindly little trees and hang on. But I don’t take my eyes off him. I can’t. Because there’s nobody else left in the whole world now. It’s down to just the two of us.
Him.
And me.
A second blast of the boat horn cuts through the wind.
I hang on as long as I can, to give Evie a few more seconds’ head start, then I let go of the tree and take a few steps back. Away from Hart.
Because this is where everything ends. We both know it now. And that’s when the rain finally comes again.
The sky splits open and it comes all at once. It comes in buckets.
Rivers.
The kind of rain that washes away the blood and carries away the evidence.
No clue. No trace.
No goodbye.
All those visions. Those strange flashes.
I didn’t understand what I was seeing. I had it all confused. It was never Elora running through the storm.
It was always me.
How could I not have known that?
I freeze. Terrified. Struck by my own stupidity. Because I’ve seen all this play out before. I know what’s coming.
I just don’t know how it ends.
Not yet, anyway.
“Don’t, Greycie!” Hart shouts at me, and he picks up his flashlight. “Don’t run!” His voice is pleading. But I do it anyway. I turn and run. I run like I have someplace to run to. Even though I don’t. I run like there’s somewhere to go. Even though I know there isn’t. “Fuck!” I hear him howl. Then he takes off after me.
He’s tearing through the brush behind me. Breathing hard and calling my name. Even with the wind and the driving rain, he’s all I hear. So I push myself faster.
We break out on to the wide-open flats, and I feel him closing in on me. There’s nowhere left to hide, except inside the dark. So I turn off my flashlight and let the blackness eat me alive.