The bathroom is empty.
I tear through the house, checking Fiona’s room, the kitchen, the sunporch, the downstairs bath.
But it’s no use.
Davy’s gone.
My breaths are shallow in my chest, and there are spots at the edge of my vision. This can’t be happening, maybe I’m still dreaming, a nightmare made of everything I’ve gone through the past few weeks, maybe I can just shut my eyes and it won’t be real—
My phone buzzes in my pocket.
Of course, maybe Davy just ran out to get bagels, or— I tear out my phone.
But it’s a number I don’t know.
“Hello?” I sound frantic.
“Addie? It’s Kendall.”
I deflate. “Hi, I can’t talk, I have to—”
“Davy’s missing, isn’t he?”
My body floods with relief. Of course. He’s at Marion’s, he must have snuck out early this morning. “Oh thank God, is he at your house?”
“No, I’m calling because Marion’s missing, too.”
My heart stops. “What—what do you mean, when did she—”
“I think you’d better get over here. Now.”
—
Nothing stirs outside the Montgomery mansion as I approach through the trees.
I went through the woods, running as fast as I could. The house is silent in the hazy morning. The sun filters in weakly through the clouds overhead.
I knock on the kitchen door. “Kendall?”
No answer, so I let myself in. No one in the kitchen or anywhere I can see.
“Kendall?” I call again. And then: “Seth?”
I hear footsteps on the stairs. A moment later, Kendall bursts into the kitchen, wearing leggings and a crop top, a leather bag slung over her shoulder and a worried look on her face.
“They’re in the woods,” she reports.
“What?”
“Follow me—I’ll explain on the way.”
With no other choice, I follow her back out the kitchen door.
She’s talking as she jogs into the backyard. “Marion left a note saying she couldn’t be here anymore and she and Davy were running away together, she was sorry, and not to worry about her.”
I exhale.
Relief—Davy hasn’t been hurt, or kidnapped, or anything like that.
Fear—now he’s out there on his own, with no one but Marion for protection against whoever is threatening him.
If she’d even protect him. If she, too, hasn’t been a part of this all along.
I pull out my phone again. I tried calling Davy half a dozen times on the way over here—then curse. It’s dead. I didn’t bring my Seth phone with me at all.
“Did you try calling Marion—”
“Yeah!” Kendall shouts back at me. We’re passing the pool house now. “No answer. But then I saw them from my window—they’re heading into the woods. Backpacks on. They must think they’re going to get on the Appalachian Trail or something, live off the land.” She shakes her head. “Marion’s never even been camping.”
I take a deep breath. Davy’s safe. He’s just ahead of us in the woods. All I have to do is catch up to him and then not let him leave my side until we go talk to Carter.
Kendall and I make it to the clearing. I scramble up the wall, Kendall right after. We pause at the bottom, listening, but there’s nothing save the sounds of Bier’s End: insects buzzing, birdcalls, the rustling of the wind. The sky overhead is gray, getting darker by the second. “Which way did they go?”
She points. “Toward the ravine.”
That doesn’t really make sense—the easiest way to get to the Appalachian Trail is through the woods, then on through the state park. But it’s not like Davy has the best sense of direction. We turn toward the ravine.
“Where’s Seth?” I ask as we run along. “And the rest of your family?”