Page 111 of Riot House
She twists to face me, anger in her eyes. “What thehellare you talking about? I did nothing wrong.”
“You meddled in my shit, Mercy, just like you always do. You told Fitz that I was seeing Mara when I wasn’t. You made out like we were serious and in a fucking relationship, when youknewhe was out of his fucking mind. Mara went missing because you said that. You mademeresponsible for what happened to her!”
“I was just trying to help,” she hisses, flicking her smoke into the undergrowth. She gets up and stalks toward me, jabbing at my chest with her finger. “And we don’t know what happened to Mara, okay. She’s probably in Cabo, drinking trailer park margaritas and blowing frat boys on the beach. She was always the type to‘Gone Girl’you morons.”
“You tell yourself that if it helps ease your conscience, Merce. But Fitz would never have screwed with Mara if you hadn’t told him I was with her. She was your friend. Whether you like it or not, you threw her under the bus.”
For the first time in years, tears shine in Mercy’s eyes. She’s never shown one ounce of remorse for what she did. And, real though it looks, I’m not about to believe that this display of emotion is real now. Mercy’s always turned on the waterworks to get what she wants. “You’re right. She was my friend. And yeah, I said something that I shouldn’t. But I was trying to help you extricate yourself from a situation that you should never have been dumb enough to get yourself into in the first place. Christ, Wren, you don’t evenlikeguys. What the fuck were you thinking?”
I shouldn’t have avoided her for this long. We should have hashed this out months ago, but I’ve been too angry to even look at her. I still feel that way. “Look, I can’t stand here arguing with you about my sexual orientation when Elodie’s in danger. Fitz is out here, and I think he’s looking for her. I have to find her first. If you’re not gonna help, then this is where I leave you.”
I charge off through the trees, heading to the north. My eyes are accustomed to the dark now. I’m surefooted and fast as I pick up the pace, my senses on high alert.
“Jesus, Wren! Wait!” Mercy calls behind me. I pause long enough to let her catch up. She’s panting and out of breath when she jumps down from a rock, arriving at my side. “Since you’ve never given me an opportunity to redeem myself, I s’pose I’ll help you find your silly little girlfriend.”
“This won’t make us even, Mercy. Not by a long shot.”
She pouts, rolling her eyes at me the way she’s always done since we were five. “Fine. Whatever, asshole. But you have to agree that it’s a start. Now lead the way. I knew there was a reason why I wore tennis shoes tonight.”
* * *
The minutes tick by. Then an hour. By one in the morning, I’ve reached the conclusion that it’s going to be fucking impossible to comb this entire area and find one girl. It’s insanity. Even with Mercy shrieking Elodie’s name at the top of her lungs, it’s unlikely that we’re just gonna stumble across her.
“She’s not out here, Wren,” Mercy says. “She’s tiny, and she can’t weigh a hundred pounds soaking wet. What business would she have participating in one of your dumb hunts anyway? I bet you a hundred bucks she’s at that atrocious café, drinking milkshakes and gorging on fries with Carrie Mendoza.”
“You don’t know a thing about Elodie, so how about you keep your mouth shut, huh? Iknowshe’s out here. I just do. And even if she isn’t, I’m still gonna crawl over every square inch of this forest to make damn sure. Fitz told me he was coming to ‘join in the fun.’If there’s a chance that he might hurt her, then I’m gonna fucking stop him.”
“Wow. You really are smitten. I’ve never seen you care this much about anything,” she says softly. For once, it doesn’t sound like she’s mocking me. She sounds genuinely surprised.
“Yeah. Well. At some point, you’ve gotta care about something, Mercy, or else what’s the fucking point?”
“The point in what?”
I look back at her. “In even being alive.”
Her eyes round out, flicking past me, her focus shifting up ahead. She grabs my wrist, tugging me to one side, behind a tree. “Shhhh. I heard something.”
“It was probably a squirrel, Merce. Come on, let’s go.” She hisses and sputters, slapping my back, trying to get me to stop, but I press on regardless. She follows, swearing with every step she takes. Fifteen seconds later, I hear something, too: a low, breathless moan.
“What the fuck?”
Mercy points over to the right, and I discover the source of the noise. Presley Adams is naked, pinned up against a tree, her tits bouncing up and down as a guy wearing a wolf mask fucks the living shit out of her. Naturally, it’s Pax. Unfortunately, I’ve seen his bare ass enough times that it’s easily recognizable, even without the Calvin Klein underwear.
“Gross,” is all Mercy has to say on the matter. I know for a fact that she’d fuck Pax if given half a chance, so her comment must be aimed at Pres. I give them a wide berth, skirting around a huge boulder in order to avoid walking right past them.
We’re almost at the boundary of the search area, bordering the academy grounds, when we find the cave. Set back into the rock at the foot of a large buttress that juts skyward above the trees’ canopy, Mercy takes one look at the gaping black maw and shakes her head. “Uh uh. No way. Not happening. I’m not going in there.”
“Fine. Then don’t.” I stand at the mouth of the cave, peering into the bottomless black. I can’t see a fucking thing. “ELODIE!!!” My shout echoes back to me, repeating itself, growing quieter as it gets further and further away. Sounds like it goes back a long way. I wait, listening for a response that never comes.
“We’re almost at the academy,” Mercy says. “Why don’t we just go and take a look there. She could already have gone back there.”
I chew the inside of my cheek, considering it for a second. This niggling worry won’t stop gnawing at me, though. The very idea of giving up the search and going back to the school fills me with such inexplicable dread that it’s simply not an option. “Wait here, Merce. Holler if anyone comes.”
“For god’s sake, Wren. This is stupid! Let’s just go back!”
I take a deep breath and I step inside.
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