God, he was strong. She regretted trying to hit him. Her arm burned like he was pressing the cigarette between his hand and her skin. Quinn was gasping before she could stop it. Part of her wished she’d stayed in the apartment and tried her odds against her brother.

“Go ahead,” Tyler said. “Scream. I’ll tell them I caught you trying to break in.”

“Let me go,” she whimpered. The pain was immobilizing. He was pulling tears out of her, and she wanted to kill him for that. “Let me go.”

“You think this is bad?” he said. “This is nothing. Just wait until you spend more time with them. Wait until you see what they do to you. They are killers.”

Sweat bloomed on her forehead. “Okay. I get it. Lemme go. Please.”

“I want to know what’s going on. You hear me? I want to know what really happened at that carnival, and I want to know what happened to the Guide that came to town to take care of it. You tell them I want answers. Got it?”

“Got it,” she whispered. The grip on her arm was the only thing holding her on her feet. She was going to pee her pants in a second.

“Good.” He let her go. Shoved her, really. She hit the ground, the impact jarring. She was lying where concrete met a bed of large, smooth stones surrounding the streetlamp. She’d probably have sixteen bruises tomorrow, just from this landing.

“Idiot,” he sneered.

She seized a rock and punched him in the side of the knee with it, throwing every ounce of strength into the motion. He swore as his leg gave out. He dropped like—well, like a rock. Quinn swung her elbow around to jab him in the face.

His hand shot out to grab her, but Quinn was already running. Full out, as fast as her feet would go. Trees stretched along Ritchie Highway up ahead, a gaping pit of darkness full of unseen dangers. Quinn scrambled through the underbrush, not caring about staying silent. She just ran.

Branches whipped her legs, but she didn’t slow. She stumbled twice. Then a third time, almost falling. Another branch whipped across her face, followed by a cloud of spiderwebs. Quinn screamed and beat at her face.

Then she shut up. Oxygen whistled into her chest, and she told her lungs to knock it off so she could hear.

Silence.

Darkness swelled around her, and she couldn’t see anything. Quinn yanked her phone out of her pocket and dialed. Third wheel or not, she didn’t know if Tyler would come after her out here.

“Come on,” she muttered, bouncing from one foot to another while it rang.

“Hello?”

“Nick,” she said as quietly as she could muster. “I need you.”