“What?” he asked, staring distantly at all of them. “I’m here—Hey, where is everybody?”
Justin flinched, while Harper looked deeply uncomfortable.
“I see you got a head start,” May said, stepping forward and steering him into the clearing. “Maybe you should sit down.”
“Don’t tell me what to do.” He shook her off and ambled toward the cooler. His eyes lit on the stumps at the other side of the clearing, nails half hammered in. “Hey—let’s play Monster in the Gray.”
Violet could feel the tension pulsating through the clearing, all of it centered on Isaac. He was wheeling out of control, a car screaming off the road, and yet she did not know how to stop him. She’d thought the Sullivans were dangerous because they destroyed the world around them. Now she understood the real danger was just how easily they destroyed themselves.
“Fuck it.” Justin’s voice was low and gravelly. “It’s a party, isn’t it? May, turn up the music. I’m getting a refill. Let’s play.”
Harper Carlisle had never really been drunk before. Once or twice, she’d stolen a little of her parents’ whiskey just to try it, but that was it. She’d decided the moment Violet shoved a red Solo cup in her hand that she would pour most of it out on the grass and nurse the rest. She was vulnerable enough at Justin Hawthorne’s birthday party as it was. Getting sloppy would only make this whole thing even more likely to end in disaster.
Although disaster seemed imminent anyway. It had been bad enough when she and Violet were the only party guests, but Isaac’s presence had set her on edge. He was in no condition to play a drinking game. She didn’t understand what Justin and Violet were thinking, enabling him like that, and she watched with apprehension as they herded him across the clearing, arguing loudly about the rules.
Harper was about to walk over and give them all a piece of her mind when she felt May’s spindly fingers close around her shoulder.
“Harper.” Her voice was not hostile, but it was stern. “We should talk.”
Harper turned, a tiny bit sad that she had set her sword down on a nearby log. May’s hair shone white-blond in the lantern light, the veins in her neck standing out against her pale skin.
“Well, that’s a first,” she said shortly.
May clenched her perfectly manicured hand into a fist. “Excuse me?”
“Don’t play nice.” Harper shook her head. “You ignored me right up until I was a threat to you. All that time when Justin was trying to help Violet, and even Isaac was polite to me—you wouldn’t even make eye contact.”
May flushed. “I didn’t think we could trust you. And I was right. You were working for the Church, which everyone else here seems to have conveniently forgotten.”
Two could play at that line of logic. “The same way they’ve forgotten how you betrayed all of us for your mother?”
“You turned my tree to stone.”
“You’ve allowed your mother to run this town into the ground.”
“I didn’t have any other choice.” May’s voice trembled, her hand unclenching, and Harper saw something she’d never expected: tears glimmering in the corners of the other girl’s eyes. May tipped her cup to her mouth and took a long, emphatic swallow, then shook her head. Her next words were so soft, Harper could barely hear them. “You think my mother is hard on Justin? Please. Justin gets to misbehave. Justin gets to rebel. And he still gets to come back home, because he’s always been her favorite. Some of us don’t have the luxury of messing up.”
“But you’re the one with powers,” Harper said.
“Doesn’t matter,” May said bitterly. “Augusta only pays attention to me now because she needs me. But she watches me in a way she’s never watched Justin, and she always finds a way to blame me when something goes wrong.”
“Then why listen to her at all, if you’re never going to make her happy?”
May’s gaze traveled above Harper’s head to somewhere far away, and Harper knew she was remembering things she did not want to talk about.
“I don’t,” she said finally. “Not anymore.”
“Oh.” Harper paused. “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“The Gray.” May’s voice was soft, almost breathy. “Is it true the corruption is in there, too?”
Harper nodded. She was tired of telling the story over and over again, but perhaps the Justin Shot had loosened her tongue. “I don’t think the Beast is causing it,” she said. “It seemed like the corruption was attacking it, too, just as much as it’s attacking the town.”
May’s brow furrowed. “That can’t be right.”
“I know what I saw,” Harper said, tensing. But before either of them could say anything more, Justin’s voice broke through the clearing.
“Hey!” Harper turned to see him just a few feet away, looking puzzled. “You two coming or what? We have a game to play.”
“Just need to get a refill,” May said, shaking her head and heading toward the cooler. Whatever had just happened between her and Harper had passed, but Harper knew something had shifted between them.
She stared at the stump, at Isaac, who was swaying softly, at Justin’s earnest face as he waited for her answer.
Saying yes was a bad idea. She nodded anyway.
The drinking game was called Monster in the Gray. Nails lined the edge of a tree stump in an uneven circle, their tips driven into the wood. The object of the game, Justin explained, was to take a hammer, throw it up in the air, catch it, and drive the nail deeper into the tree. If you didn’t touch the nail, you drank.
“Well, that seems like a great way to send your friends to the hospital,” Violet said, eyeing the stump with concern.
“I can’t believe you made a big deal out of the sword and then wanted us to play this,” said Harper.
“Isaac,” May stage-whispered. “I think they’re scared.”
Isaac’s grin was too wide. “I think they are.” He grabbed the hammer, tossed it, caught it, and drove the nearest nail deep into the splintered wood in one quick, fluid motion. May and Justin nodded appreciatively. Even Harper had to admit that she was begrudgingly impressed.
“See?” he said, handing it to Violet. “You’re the founders, guarding the town border, and if you drive all the nails in—”
“The Beast doesn’t get out, yeah, yeah, I get it.” Violet hefted the tool, looking anxious. “I’m not sure how to do this—”
“Here.” Isaac reached over and adjusted Violet’s fingers, shifting her grip. “So you don’t hurt yourself.” His hands lingered over hers, and Harper wondered if it was the alcohol or something entirely different that made them both pull away from each other a bit too slowly.
“Thanks,” Violet said softly.
Harper glanced around at Justin and May to see that both of them were watching this, too, May still sober enough to look bored by it, Justin too drunk to pretend his focus was anywhere else.
“Okay,” Violet said, tossing the hammer up in the air. She caught it, but her swing went wild, completely missing the nail, and her laughter washed the moment away.