When I saw him climb the stairs to the front porch, I’d just finished braiding the hair on Olivia’s doll. Racing out of the room without a word, I threw the front door open, almost plowing it to him. He stood, one hand outstretched and eyes wide.

Phoebe was behind him, a carryout box in her manicured hand.

“Hey,” I gasped out, ignoring Phoebe’s curious stare.

Hayden took a step back. “Hey.”

“Can we talk?”

His lips pursed. “I have some things I”

“Please.” I knew how I sounded and I didn’t care.

Phoebe glanced between us, and then she slinked past Hayden. “I’ll put this in the fridge for you.”

“Thanks,” Hayden answered, staring down at me. He inhaled and let it out slowly. “Okay, but I don’t have long. Walk?”

I nodded, following him down the steps and toward the tree line. I couldn’t believe it’d only been two days since I’d talked to him. It felt like years. Spending time with Olivia had been okay, but I missed Hayden. The moment we cleared the house, I opened my mouth.

“Are you mad at me?” I hadn’t wanted to say that.

He stared straight ahead. “Is that why you wanted to talk to me?”

Okay. His voice sounded differentmaybe even coldbut no big deal. “No, that’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Then what?”

My brain sort of emptied that moment. Hayden stopped walking, turned and faced me. His arms were folded across his chest and he waited. Waited for me to say whatever I wanted to say so… so he could leave. Well, this wasn’t going as planned. Not that I had a plan.

“Did you go have lunch with Phoebe?” I stalled.

Hayden nodded.

A hollow feeling opened up in my chest. Stupid, but all I could think was that he never took me to lunch. Not when we were out of school.

“Ember?”

I swallowed. “I wanted to talk about what I told you in the cabin.”

“The thing about your parents knowing about Olivia’s gift?” He stared above my head.

“Yes. I’ve been thinking about it. A lot actually, and I know what I heard.” I saw the moment he decided he didn’t want to talk about this. It was in his eyesthey went all dark. I plunged ahead. “These things have to be connected. You believe someone caused the accident to get to Olivia. Now, someone is sticking stuff in my locker. Like… like they want me to leave or something.”

“There’s no way of knowing if those two things are related.”

“You can’t be serious! You know the two things are connected.”

“What are you getting at, Ember? That my family is not only behind cutting up dead animals and leaving them in your locker, but also caused your car accident?”

“Yes.”