Page 32 of The Hunting Moon
“So… burn the cards.”
“That won’t help if Lambdas interrogate her. You know my family is incapable of telling a lie.”
He winces. “Okay, but Winnie, do yourealizewhat could happen if there’s a Diana living here? That dampener was empty, which means there’s a witch somewhere in Hemlock Falls walking around with alivesource. And in case you don’t remember from Intro to Dianas in third grade,” he continues, “that means they can cast spells. Like, anywhere they want to on anyone they want to.”
Winnie rolls her eyes. “I do remember,” she mutters, even though she has actually forgotten almost everything she learned from Professor Nasreen. “But we don’t know there’s a Diana with a live source out there. Maybe the dampener held mydad’ssource, and he wasn’t actually framed at all.”
“And that’s better how?” Jay opens his hands. “I don’t think you want your dad out there with a live source either.” He pulls in his legs to stand,but Winnie beats him to it, springing off the bed and stalking five steps toward the bear on her door. It glares in disapproval now.
Despite what Jay might believe about her, Winnie does understand the dangers of a loose Diana with a live source. It’s just not as intense or immediate as the dangers to her family from the Tuesdays.
Jay wasn’t there when the Lambdas descended on her house like harpies on a kill, dragging herliterallyout of bed and putting her in handcuffs.
Actual handcuffs.
Jay wasn’t there when Jeremiah Tuesday shut Winnie in a holding cell for six hours all by herself and grilled her with endless questions.Were there burn marks on your dad’s fingers? Did you ever smell strange things in the house? Did he have any small wooden coins in his possession?
And Jay wasn’t there when Winnie got home to discover her dad was gone for good and no one in Hemlock Falls would speak to her again.
Clothes rustle behind her, but Winnie doesn’t turn around to face Jay, still on the bed. So he speaks to her back: “You don’t have to implicate yourself, Win. Or your mom. Just give me the dampener, and I’ll say I found it on the hunt.”
Winnie swallows. Her teeth want to chatter, but she resists—and second by second, tension builds in her jaw. Today has been such a long day. Almost as long as the day that ended in her jumping off a waterfall. Certainly as long as the day of her first trial, except this time there’s no possible redemption waiting for her when the mist rises. Only possible damnation for her and Mom and Darian.
The last Diana caught in Hemlock Falls was Winnie’s dad, so where will the Lambdas go if Jay hands them an empty dampener? Who will Jeremiah Tuesday blame? And what punishment will the Council dole out this time?
Winnie can’t go through that again. Shecan’t.
“No,” Winnie says. Quiet at first, then louder as her eyes lock on the wordLoyaltywritten beneath the bear. “No. You can’t have the dampener, Jay.”
More squeaking bedsprings. Then soft footsteps before body heat and bergamot close in on Winnie’s back. He says her name quietly: “Winnie.”
She tips her face sideways until she finds the edges of him.
“I get why you’re afraid.”
No. You really don’t.
“But we have to take your dad at his word here and assume he was framed.” Jay moves until he’s right against Winnie’s shoulder and she can more clearly see him. The lamp flickers gold into his eyes. “And if he was framed, then that means the real Diana has been evading detection for four years. We can’t let someone like that run free all over Hemlock Falls.”
A witch. A werewolf. A Whisperer. So manyW’s to hit Hemlock Falls all at once and that have all, somehow, become Winnie’s problem—the girl who still isn’t even officially a Luminary.It’s like these nightmares only show up when you’re around,Mario said yesterday.Or like you’ve got some special power that only letsyousee them.
“Jay.” Now Winnie is the one to say his name quietly. She turns to face him. His eyes glitter golden as a droll’s hoard in this light. “As much as I want Dad’s clues to… to mean something, as much as Iwantthat last message to be true so that I can say, once and for all, me and Mom and Darian were never wrong about what Dad was doing… I can’t take that risk.
“Turning in the dampener will unleash fresh hell onto my family—rightwhen we’re getting back to normal. I know your integrity compels you to tell the Tuesdays, but my loyalty”—she waves to the bear—“compels me to protect my family.”
A pause. A long breath expands in Jay’s chest. Then departs again. “Crap,” he mutters eventually, twisting away from the door. He stalks back to the bed. “Crap.” He scrubs with both hands at his damp hair, an unusually expressive display for Jay. Unusually mobile and wound up. Winnie can practically see the deliberation warring inside him.
Until he rounds toward her, his hair shooting out at all angles. “Fine, Winnie. You win. For now. But we need to figure out what message your dad was trying to leave with that dampener, and we need to figure it out fast. Even if this witch hasn’t done anything yet, it doesn’t mean they won’t. They removed that source for a reason, so what is it they’re planning to do to Hemlock Falls? And who else are they going to hurt in the process?”
CHAPTER17
We,Winnie thinks. That is what Jay just said: Weneed to figure out what message your dad was trying to leave.Not “you,” not “I,” but “we.”
And it is like two tectonic plates grinding together—one that’s labeledFour Years Agoand one that’s labeledTonight.Two events that, from afar, might look the same. But once you’re up close, you can see that the jagged, stony edges don’t align. The earth is still shifting and moving and magma is still boiling within.
Four years ago, Winnie went to Jay. “Help me,” she said, standing at his bedroom door in the Friday estate while he stared at her with bloodshot eyes on the other side. “I know my dad isn’t a Diana. Jay, please help me.”
“I can’t.” Those were the only words he said to her.I. Can’t.Then he shut the door in her face, and Winnie was left alone. Erica had already said no too; the triangle was broken; Winnie was a hypotenuse cast adrift.
