FABLE

Chapter Thirty One

"I'm not buying it," Kitty says as she drags me between moss-drenched oak trees and ferns, over the faint path snaking through the forest. "Why are you really here?"

She's holding my hand so hard that I can feel her nails biting into the flesh of my palm. Even though she doesn't turn around as she asks the question, I can imagine her expression. There's a growl in her voice, something almost feral.

She pulls me along behind her at a steady march, further and further away from the cabin, deeper and deeper into the forest.

My skin prickles with goose bumps as the space between the trees lessens, and the woods seem to close in, ever so slightly. The overgrowth seems thicker, the path more difficult to see than I remember it.

Is this the way I came earlier?

Then I see it. Just a few feet away, an impossibly dark shape streaks through the trees to my left, skittering away into the gloom. Too big to be a stray cat or a raccoon, but too quick to be human. The space it passed through looks somehow different, the gaps between the trees tinged with shadow. Like an imprint of passing darkness. The scar on my ribcage sears with momentary pain, and I halt dead in my tracks, eyes darting from tree to tree.

I'm about to ask Kitty if she saw it too, when she abruptly whirls around on her heel, grabs my free hand and shoves me against the trunk of a tree. I'm pinned against the tree trunk with Kitty holding my wrists above me. She leans in close, her face just inches from my own. I fight back the urge to scream, the chilling shadow all but forgotten as Kitty pushes her body up against mine.

"Listen up," she says. "This is how it's going to go. You're going to follow this path all the way to the main trail and then the car park without looking back. Once you get home, you're going to send Felix a text saying that you are not interested in the band's little proposal. You'll tell him you never want to talk to him ever again. Then you'll delete and block his number. If you ever try to contact my brother again, if you ever try to see him, if you so much as tweet him, godamit, I will literally rip your face off and have it made into a bloody handbag. Do you understand?"

Her eyes bore into my own, challenging me to try and wriggle free, scream for help, do anything other than give in.

She's holding my wrists above my head so hard it feels like she's shoved hot needles under my skin. She tightens her grip, and I cry out in pain, but she only reacts by squeezing tighter.

I'm tempted to nod just so she'll let me go, but some deep-seated instinct to fight takes over.

I whip my head forward, head-butting her.

There's a moment of searing pain in my forehead, a flash of white.

She lets go of me immediately, and drops down onto her knees, groaning as she cradles her head in her hands.

I'm sure my own head must still hurt right now but I'm oddly numb. All I can feel is cold all over my body, like I've been plunged into icy water.

"Why?" Is all I can say.

"You know why," Kitty says, rising slowly from the ground still holding her head and wincing. "You might have the boys wrapped around your little finger, but I see right through you. The whole fragile clueless princess act isn't fooling me. I've dealt with girls like you before. I know what you want."

"What I want?" I say, feeling the first tears prickle behind my eyelids and roll down my cheeks. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Kitty just shakes her head, and crosses her arms in front of her as she turns her back to me.