Page 184 of Dare To Fall

I can’t go through that again.

I can’t lose her as well as Kellan.

I push the doors open and step inside. My eyes immediately go to the altar, and a relieved breath escapes me. It’s empty.

“Ari?” I call her name softly and walk down the center until I reach the front of the chapel. I avoid the red stain on the altar and keep my attention on places where she could be hidden.

I don’t know how long I search, covering the same ground over and over before I admit to myself that she’s not here.

Where else?

I walk outside and find Garrett waiting for me. “The police have taken Evan away. Security is searching inside the school for Arabella.”

I shake my head. “She’s not in there.”

“How do you know?”

“I just do.” I retrace my steps to the cemetery gates.

“We’d hear her if—”

My eyes cut to him. “Don’t fucking say it.” I step through the gates and into the cemetery, my gaze sweeping over the stones and plaques. A flash of white catches my eye, and I frown.

“What’s that?” We walk over the dirt and come to a stop in front of Zoey’s plaque. A bouquet of white flowers is in front of it. Reaching down, I pluck out the card.

It was never meant to end this way. I’m going to fix it. We will be together.

Evan x

“Did he ever talk about Zoey to you?” My fingers rub at the card as I look around.

“Not after she died. But he asked her out before then, and she said no.”

“How did he seem?”

“He didn’t really react at all.”

My gaze moves over Churchill Bradley’s tomb, then swings back. “The door is open.”

“What?”

“On the tomb.” I stride across to it and move down the steps.

“Ari?” My voice echoes around the interior.

I step through and stop abruptly. The place is covered in the same flowers as the bouquet outside. A sleeping bag is laid out beside the coffin, and beer bottles, cans, and food remnants are scattered around.

“I guess this is where he was hiding out.” I turn in a slow circle. “Ari?”

Garrett moves around, nudging trash aside with his foot. “She’s not in here, Eli. There’s nowhere to hide.”

But something is nagging at me. My tongue creeps out to touch my lip ring. Something isn’t right. Closing my eyes, I visualize the interior of the tomb, building it up in my mind.

Wait.

My eyes snap open and I step across to the coffin. One hand brushes over the top.

“There are stone fragments.”

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