Page 21 of The Hunting Moon
Luck favored her, for when Winnie traced the first secret message to the library, she found that Dad’s hidden drawing was still intact. If anyone had found the image in the last four years, they hadn’t understood what they were looking at. Winnie herself was barely able to solve the various codes and ciphers. It was only right after nearly dying on her third trial and then being told her family would likely be Luminaries again that shefinallydecoded what Dad’s messages were trying to say.
I was framed.
At first, Winnie was too shocked to fully process that message.I was framed.Did that mean another Diana had framed him? Or did it mean a Luminary had? And why would anyone do that—for what purpose? How did Dad evenknow?
However, the more Winnie stewed over those questions, the more her fear of being caught by the Tuesday Lambdas transmuted into ire.
Incandescent, volcanic ire that suffused every drop of her being. Because if Dad was framed, then why did he run away? If he wasinnocent,then why did he leave behind a convoluted set of clues for histwelve-year-old daughterto follow?
Who does that? What innocent man abandons his wife to pick up the broken pieces of his family and then makes his child solve the crime he was allegedly framed for?
The longer the rage simmered and stewed, turning Winnie into a miniature Pompeii just waiting to blow, the more she realized that there was no reason at all to follow Dad’s map into the forest. Now that she and herfamily were essentially Luminaries again, nothing in Winnie’s life would change by proving his innocence. All she would do was prove he was a coward.
And that was why Winnie shoved the memories, the clues, and the fury, into a lockbox and stuffed it deep, deep into the pit of her intestines. It’s why she threw away the key and scarcely glanced in that box’s direction for a full nine days.
Because screw that guy. Screw him and whatever vehicle he rode out on four years ago. She doesn’t need her dad. Her family has made a new life for themselves without him. And whatever he wanted her to find in the forest can stay hidden there for the rest of time.
Except now…
Now, that unknownthingmight actually be found by someone. Now, the magmatic tide has turned against Winnie, and she can’t just ignore the secret map from the library. There’s too much at risk for her family again.
She will have to unlock the box markedDadand let everything inside free.
Winnie just hopes she survives the eruption.
HEMLOCK FALLS TESTING PORTAL
MONDAY, APRIL 8
TEST RESULTS for PREVIOUS DAY:
Tests Administered: 19
Positive Results: 0
AVAILABLE TESTING LOCATIONS:
Monday hospital,by appointment only
Sunday estate auditorium,under age 18 only
Floating Carnival,coming soon
DO YOUR CIVIC DUTY AND GET TESTED AS SOON AS A SITE IS AVAILABLE NEAR YOU!
CHAPTER11
Sunday corpse duty runs differently from Wednesday corpse duty, and it’s jarring to Winnie at first. It’s not merely the fact that the participants meet in a different place—at theSundayestate instead of in the forest directly—but the person in charge is also scattered and inefficient.
Finn Sunday, fourteen and recently in charge of the operation, fumbles with a tablet that has all the nightmare corpse coordinates from the night before. No non bodies this time; Winnie is surprised how relieved she is over that fact. She never used to think about nons or worry over their deaths…
Which she now realizes makes her an unfeeling monster. Although it’s not like she was born this way. She wastrainedto feel nothing over nons since the day she was born. Culture runs thicker than blood, and all that. Even now, Winnie can remember exactly how Chad Wednesday sounded on her first morning of corpse duty:Death is a part of life,he laughed at her.Get used to it, Little Win-Win, or you won’t last a week inside the forest.
“Uh,” Finn says, swiping at the tablet. The sun has barely begun its ascent; the map glowing on the screen lights his babyish face up like a ghost. “I guess we can start by the parking lot where this… uh, this sylphid is. And then there’s a bunch of manticores by the shore… We’ll loop over to get ’em. Oh wait, there’s a droll arm over here too.”
Winnie has to bite her tongue not to interfere.
Or to point out that Finn is mispronouncing the word “droll.”The “o”is long. Have you never paid attention in class before?This is actually a silly question, because she is in class with him, thanks to her demotion to eighth grade at the Sunday estate, so she can say with great certainty he doesn’t pay attention.
