Page 67 of The Hunting Moon
Then Erica exits the alley, a fairy flickering off into the swamp fires. One more light lost in the cold night.
CHAPTER35
It is not merely Winnie’s curiosity that drives her back into Joe Squared.You’ll have to let me know what you think when you hear it.It’s the music too, the pump and boom of each bouncing note.
This is a song Winnie has heard twice before. First, when she saw the Forgotten perform at Joe Squared two and a half weeks ago, then again at the twins’ birthday party a few days later. It was before she was a Luminary again. Before Jay was Lead Hunter and Grayson Friday was dead.
Winnie’s glasses fog as soon as she steps inside and rejoins the twins and Fatima. The coffee shop has become a sauna of body heat and sound. And it’s like some infectious virus has taken hold—a nightmare mutation that jolts from one person to the next. Winnie feels it in her spine, her chest cavity, along the base of her skull. The hairs on her arms stand up, a rippling sensation as energy swells into the rafters.
Andnow,Winnie discovers she actually gets it. She actuallyfeelsit, the light, the fire, the shadows running away.
The Luminaries really are lanterns burning bright and alive, because what other choice is there? The forest is right there. It takes their families and friends and futures, but it cannot take this too.
It can’t. And neither can the Dianas, neither can the Whisperer. This moment istheirs,and right now, they are all alive.
The song closes and the Forgotten slide into the next. At some point, Winnie finds herself dancing. No one howls at her, no one calls her “WolfGirl.” There is only listening and dancing and smiling against the darkness that swallows the rest of the world.
And Jay—Jay transforms up on that stage. The pallor of his skin flushes into the warmth of a living boy. Like L.A. and Trevor too, he has become a beacon guiding everyone in this room out of the mist and back into the light.We are the Forgotten, but we will never forget.
Winnie has no idea how many songs pump through the coffee shop. She has no idea how much time passes with her and Bretta banging against each other or Emma hopping around on crutches or Fatima locking arms and shouting at the fairy lights “More, more, more!” every time one song ends and another begins. Jo and her husband dance too, behind the counter where coffee brews and nightmares can’t reach.
And Winnie knows thatthisis what Grandpa Frank was really talking about. Her life might be a clusterfuck, there might be a monster out there who has killed and will kill again, who might be a Diana spell at the heart of her Venn diagram or might just turn out to be a nightmare living at the heart of the forest…
And there might also be a Diana who has ruined her family’s life and could easily ruin it all again…
But for now, Winnie can dance and compartmentalize. Eat the pizza and burn so bright. Because there is always time for the pain tomorrow.
CHAPTER36
The Forgotten are winding down. It’s clear they are getting tired. L.A. is on her fifth bottle of water, and she’s pausing more and more often to gulp it back. Both Trevor and Jay have peeled off layers—Trevor with his coveralls pulled down to his waist and Jay with his flannel mysteriously vanished somewhere in the crowd. Sweat glistens on all three, and it is a testament to their hunter fitness that they are still moving with so much spring and passion after what has been at least forty-five minutes of intense performing.
As the last beats of a song echo away, L.A. says softly, “This next song is our last. It’s called ‘Backlit.’” Then, to Winnie’s shock, she puts the mic into a stand and steps aside…
So Jay can walk up to it.
Everyone loses it. Emma, Fatima, Bretta, Katie. Wyatt, Astrid, Shaunielle, Xavier. Literally every person Winnie’s eyes find in the darkness is clapping and jumping and screaming. Clearly this is a song the entirety of Hemlock Falls knows… but one that Winnie herself has never heard before.
Likethisis the secret Jay always keeps tucked away, and she is the last to find out.
There’s one song in particular,Erica said.You’ll have to let me know what you think when you hear it.
Trevor kicks off a low, electric beat—more restless throb than actualpercussion—and L.A. leans into the harmony mic that Trevor typically uses. Then comes Jay’s bass line, a slow thrum that pulses over Trevor’s beat before both Trevor and L.A. lean into the harmony mic and hum.
It is one of the most haunting sounds Winnie has ever heard in her life. She stops moving, though her friends swing and sway around her, Bretta with her eyes closed and Emma with a look of intense concentration—a look not so different from the one Jay must wear.
Winnie can’t see his face from here, pushed as she is to the back of the shop, but his whole body is a taut bowstring until he finally looses his voice.
He does not sound like Winnie expects. The boy she once knew never sang beyond the occasional “Happy Birthday.” The Disney songs were left to Erica and Winnie while he rolled his eyes and acted like he was above it.
Yet here he is, his voice low and gruff and, even now, tucked deep inside. As if yes, he will baresomesecrets, but only a tantalizing hint. The rest must remain forever trapped away.
Winnie is so stunned by Jay’s singing—actualsinging—that she loses track of the song. It takes her a full verse before the words finally settle in.
The more I forget you, the deeper you sink in
Fangs at the neck and red paint on a lost cabin
Ten dollars to kiss, a bet I can never win
