Page 96 of Winter’s Teeth

“Broken? Not at all. I sprained it a week ago though. And then...re-sprained a few times along the way...”

Shira’s eyes rolled up, her expression dry.

“What?”

“Don’t what me.” She clucked her tongue and set my foot back on the ground. “Corbin, can you get Aunt Crystal’s first aid kit from the bathroom? Rae’s gonna need her whole damn leg wrapped. And Fox, get me an ice pack from the freezer. We’re going to the hospital first thing tomorrow to get this properly looked at. You’ll be lucky if all you need is a cast or a boot.”

“I’m fine—”

Fox appeared before us, ice pack in one hand and a granola bar in the other that he promptly shoved in my mouth to shut me up. “Should we get her leg elevated?”

“Good thinking.” Shira pushed against my forehead, forcing me back into the couch’s pillows, my protests muffled around the granola bar. For a sixteen-or-something-year-old girl, she had the authority and grit of a sixty-year-old. Normally, I would admire that in someone so young, but I didn’t appreciate it directed at me.

“Got the first aid kit!” Corbin called from down the hall.

The next hour was spent fussing over me, which I hated. We were supposed to be fussing over Everly. As soon as I saw her face, though, I realized this was for the best. The last thing she needed was the spotlight on her. Every time focus shifted back to her, she retreated into herself, eyes growing vacant, but whenever it was about me, she chimed in like her old self, a touch bossy and every bit concerned.

Fox carried me to the master bedroom after I elevated and iced my swollen leg long enough to appease nurse-in-training Shira. Everly followed, shuffling along to join me in bed.

“Where’s everyone else sleeping?” I complained. I hated to take up a whole bed.

“Everly will bunk with you,” he said, knowing that would put me at ease. “Corbin and Shira have the pull-out couch in the office. I’ll take the sofa in the living room.”

“Okay... Do you want a pillow though? More blankets?”

He laid me down and shook his head. “I’m good. I don’t know if I can sleep tonight anyway. I might just watch some TV. See if there are any good movies on.”

My heart squeezed. “Maybe one you haven’t seen before.”

“Fat chance of that.”

His hand lingered on my arm for just a moment before he pulled away, taking his warmth with him. I would have crawled after him to curl up on the couch together, but...

Everly needed me first and foremost tonight, and I wasn’t sure Fox wanted me clinging to him either after everything that happened in the woods.

Maybe he needed a break from me.

Maybe he needed to process what I’d done.

When the lights went out, I watched the flickering glow of the TV on the ceiling coming from the living room through the crack in the door. The soft, crackling voices of a show with a laugh track drowned out everything else—no creaks or groans of the house, no whistling wind, no tapping branches on the window. Just the TV. Just Everly’s soft snores.

I curled into my sister, wrapping my arms around her.

Alive. Whole. With me.

I blew out a slow, deep breath. Then another. And one more.

On the fifth exhale, after the fifth repeat of my mantra, I finally fell asleep.

Chapter 38

The mobile home was deathly quiet when I woke the following morning after sleeping a mere four hours. Everly slumbered deeply beside me, curled in a tight ball with the covers pulled up to her chin. I looked her over, making sure she was breathing and not clenching her teeth too tightly, then inched to the edge of the bed as quietly as I dared.

She didn’t stir until I placed my feet upon the carpeted floor. That first small amount of weight applied to my bad leg had me falling forward with a bit back cry of pain. I grabbed onto the nearest piece of furniture, fingers slipping off the edge of the nightstand, then grappled for the curtains to keep me upright. The little stumble and muffled curses of pain elicited a tiny reaction from my sister. She curled up tighter, groaning under her breath at the disturbance.

So much for my plan to quietly slip away...

As the sharp stabs of pain abated to a dull throb, the blinding blur obscuring my vision faded, too. Between the curtains I nearly ripped in my attempt to stay upright, there was a sky of washed-out gray. Tufted snowflakes fluttered to the ground—not enough to stick to anything, but enough to coat the field and hills beyond in a white, gauzy haze during their descent.