Logan grimaced. No, she didn’t think Tristan was alive. But stranger things had happened in this town. She hardly knew who she was anymore—hardly knew what being alive even meant. Who was she to say Tristan was gone for good?
“I just don’t know anymore,” Logan said finally. “When I got here, I thought people were alive or dead. I thought you remembered things or you didn’t.” She traced the veins along her wrist. “I don’t know if we’re ever gonna figure out what’s going on. Every time I think I’m getting there, it gets more confusing.”
“I made it worse,” Ashley said. “I don’t know what I thought it would fix. I’m so sorry.”
Logan grimaced but said nothing. For a long time, Alejo had been the glue holding their family together. Without him, Logan understood how alone she truly was. How many days she could go without speaking, without leaving her room, without doing anything. “They’ll realize he didn’t do it soon, and then they have to let him go. But I wanted to solve this for me. I just wanted to understand.”
Ashley ran her thumb along the picnic table, considering. “What if you didn’t solve it?”
“I don’t know,” Logan said. “I’ll keep trying, but—”
“No, I mean what if you didn’t try to solve it?” Ashley shifted to face Logan, eyes wide with either fear or excitement. “What if we just gave up?”
Logan narrowed her eyes. The breeze off the lake was warm now. The suggestion sounded like nonsense, but Ashley seemed genuine. Something small and hopeful sparked in Logan’s chest. “What do you mean?”
“I could go to Paris and tell him Alejo didn’t do it,” Ashley said. “It’s the least I can do. I know we keep thinking we have to fix Snakebite, but what if we just … didn’t? What if we just left?”
“I…” Logan wiped rainwater from her cheek. “Are you serious?”
Ashley nodded.
Logan stared into her face—really stared—and tried not to cry. Because, for the first time since she’d been dropped into this hellscape, there was a way out. She wanted to understand everything happening here, but more than that, she wanted out. She wanted to breathe again. She didn’t want to be alone.
“Yeah…” Logan breathed. She laughed and dabbed at the hot tears welling in her eyes. “I think I’d like that.”
Ashley’s gaze fluttered to Logan’s lips. With surprising force, she leaned across the table and pulled Logan into her. The kiss was only a guess; it was a gentle hand reaching through the dark, wondering what it might meet on the other side. It was careful and quiet and unassuming. Logan held still, because this wasn’t the way it ever went. She was the black hole, the one always reaching, the one always starving. She wasn’t wanted—not in a real way. She wasn’t kissed in a way she felt.
She pulled away, eyes still closed. Her lips tingled in the cool wind.
“Was that…？” Ashley trailed off. Logan didn’t need to see her face to know it was contorted in panic. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”
Logan cupped the back of Ashley’s neck with both hands and pulled her into another kiss. Unlike the first, this one was purposeful. It was shaking hands and ragged breath. It was Ashley’s fingers knotting in the back of Logan’s sweater. It was Ashley’s lips that tasted like freshwater and hibiscus tea. Logan pushed a loose strand of Ashley’s blond hair out of her face just to brush knuckles over her skin. Her fingertips left a gray smear of dirt on Ashley’s cheek, but it didn’t matter. Ashley’s lips parted and Logan sank into her, kissing her like it was more important than breathing.
Ashley put her hands on Logan’s shoulders and shifted to straddle her waist. Her lips moved against Logan’s frantically, desperately, like it was all she knew. She kissed like someone who’d never meant it before. Logan wrapped her arms around Ashley’s back and held her closer. She snaked a hand under Ashley’s T-shirt, raked fingernails over the hot skin of Ashley’s back, and her heart raced too fast. The world raced too fast.