His name is Kyle Turner.

This was the sentence that I stumbled over every time. To me, it seemed like it contradicted the first line. It was too much information to come from a girl who had already given up.

Instead, it seemed like a plea to use this knowledge to help, to look for her, but at the same time it was only a bread crumb and the forest remained as infinite and impenetrable as it would have been without it.

“We thought it’d be better if we go out and look for her ourselves first,” Jasper said, sounding as uncertain as I felt. “The police don’t go out looking right away, right?”

“No, it’s kind of a complicated procedure.” Like every time he talked about these things, Seth’s voice was unbelievably calm.

“They’ll ask for a detailed report first and then they’ll assess what risk level she is, but I’m not too sure where they would put her if they see the note—she’s a Black, queer, teenage girl, but it looks like she went willingly and with someone she seems to know, so . . . I don’t know. Does she have a history of running away?”

“No, but a history of hiding,” Jasper said. “In the first few weeks of her being here, we constantly had to go looking for her. She was always in the attic with Mrs. Whitworth’s cat, or somewhere outside where she could see the stars.”

“Police will probably tear up the entire castle before they search anywhere else then,” Seth said. “Until they decide to send out search teams, a few hours will probably have passed, and we’ve already lost at least the one hour it took me to get back.”

We were all silent for a moment. Then, Seth asked, “Did you google him already?”

“Yes.” Jasper leaned against my desk. “But there are tens of thousands of results.”

“And no one here saw him?”

Jasper shook his head. “I asked around, but no one noticed anything out of the ordinary. It’s like she just disappeared into thin—”

Before he could finish his sentence, the phone in my lap suddenly vibrated, making all of us jump. The call was from a number I didn’t know. I answered immediately, even though my stomach swooped as I did, and put it on speaker.

At the other end of the line, everything was silent.

“Hello?” I quietly asked. “Noelle?”

There was some rustling, a muffled male voice. Then, “Evelyn.”

Hearing her voice, even though it was hoarse and shaky, felt like getting my first breath of air after being underwater for too long.

“Elle, are you okay? Are you hurt? Do you—”

“I’m fine,” she quickly said. She’s lying, Jasper mouthed. “Listen, I . . . I don’t have a lot of time. I’m just calling to let you know that I . . . I’m so grateful for the time I got to spend with you.”

She paused. “No matter what happens, I’ll always remember.”