Page 20 of Winter’s Teeth

Her motherly kindness was the ice pick that decimated my emotional dams. I fell to pieces, lower lip wobbling in warning before I threw myself on the desk with my arms around my head.

“Oh, honey!” Angie was the first to drape herself over me, squeezing affectionately. Then Ben and Riss each laid a hand on my shoulders.

With the three of them shielding me from the rest of the library, I managed to sit up and blubber, “The wedding never happened because Everly disappeared in the morning during setup. No one knows anything, and authorities have been searching the woods all weekend.”

They all shared looks of stunned disbelief, and Riss was the first to recover to ask the sensible questions. “So, why were you researching folklore myths?”

I twisted the ends of my sweater sleeves, eyes darting around the public place as I tried to blink away my tearful outburst. Angie continued clinging to me for support as I explained, “Because I saw something tall and weird in the woods the night I got there. Then I smelled it again in the woods when I was searching with Fox.”

Riss put up a hand to stop me, her eyes pinching shut as she pieced it all together. “Hold up. Creek Boy Fox? Why was he there? And what happened to your ankle?” She pointed to the old brace I had dug out of my car trunk. (Sometimes it was handy to be a packrat.)

“Okay,” I breathed. “Sit down. I’ll start from the beginning.”

***

THEY ALL SKIPPED THEIR morning classes without hesitation so I could tell them my tale of woe. I didn’t know why I doubted their concern earlier, because they made it abundantly clear they were going to see me through this to the end.

Angie cried for me through the whole recount, Riss asked a million questions to try to help, and after Ben’s bewildered stare faded, he said, “Just tell us how we can help. I’ll go out and search anywhere, anytime for you.”

My heart gushed with fresh love for them. “Thank you,” I croaked. “But I’m supposed to sit tight and wait for word from the authorities right now.”

“That’s a load of bull.” Riss slammed her fist on the desk, and the monitor rattled.

“Riss,” Angie chastised softly, earning a glare from Riss that instantly melted into a blush. Angie was the only one allowed to tell Riss off, a liberty that not even I had as her roommate. I could try, but I wouldn’t walk away unscathed.

“I bet you want to get back to the venue to look around some more,” Ben guessed. Spot on.

I nodded, wrapping my arms around myself to ward off the chill that had stuck with me for almost two weeks. Ever since pulling Fox out of the creek. I couldn’t escape it.

“Okay, so we’ll all go,” Ben said matter-of-factly. “Is your ankle up for it?”

My jaw fell open, but Ben was dead serious, his dark blue eyes sternly set on me. Neither Angie nor Riss balked at his volunteering either, though I had fully expected Riss to complain about her attendance record and notes she might miss. I could have cried anew in the face of their loyalty, but I had cried plenty already.

“My ankle is doing better. Just slows me down,” I admitted, glancing down at the useless thing under the table.

If you hadn’t twisted it that night and kept going, would you have found something?

I bit into my lower lip sharply, trying to banish the infuriating thought before it could take root. Judging by my frustration levels though, it was probably too late for that.

“I want to keep going on the path I found with Fox,” I said as Ben pulled out his car keys, twirling them on his finger.

“Where you smelled that creature?” Riss asked. At my wince, she waved her hand in the air to dismiss my embarrassment. “I would never question your nose. You’re a bloodhound, Rae.”

“She’s right!” Angie echoed. “Remember when you listed every ingredient in my Nan’s super complicated stew I made? You hadn’t even tasted it yet and knew it all by smell.”

Ben added, “And anytime I open a candy bar in the library, you know it even if you’re a floor away.”

All true. My snout was sensitive.

“All that to say,” Riss interrupted, “if you smelled something unusual twice in those woods, it’s a lead worth looking into. What are we waiting for?”

Chapter 9

“Bing had the most recent aerial map, and you can see new trails on the property that Google’s maps didn’t show,” Riss explained on the drive back to Winter’s Teeth. When she even found the time to research and print maps escaped me. We headed out right after we made the decision to search for Everly that morning.

But god... I loved how over prepared Riss was. She had three compass apps on her phone. Three.

My lips creased into a half smile before I refocused on the road in the passenger seat with a beagle in my lap. The beagle—Maple—yawned sleepily, but she would be a ball of energy when we got into the woods, her nose as sharp as mine to lead us.