Chapter 59 Elle
ELLE
The forest is definitely watching me suffer.
As the sky darkens with rain clouds, it feels like the trees might even be laughing.
“Sutton!” My scream bounces off the leaves and dirt, carrying across the mountain air. Still, we’re met with silence, ascending to the quarry as the stillness of the forest fills me with dread.
Where is he?
The sensation intensifies as we crest the hill, the ground turning to rock from soft grass and moss under our feet.
A lone shadow lies near the quarry’s edge—so close to tumbling into Lake Lerna below that breathing too hard might knock them over.
We freeze, staring from several yards away. My stomach cramps, disbelief coloring my entire being.
No.
This isn’t possible.
It can’t be fucking real, but no matter how long we stare, nothing evaporates into thin air. A part of me is hesitant still, considering Percy’s apparent survival, but neither Lexington nor Sabrina seem shocked by this revelation.
“Is that—”
I don’t wait for Lexington to finish his question before I’m limping over, my heart pounding, vomit teasing the back of my throat. My skull feels like it’s about to implode, and the closer I get, the louder the white noise rushing between my ears sounds.
“Sutton,” I sob, tears blurring my vision as I launch myself at the figure’s side, barely noting before I’m on my knees that he’s not wearing the sweater and slacks he left the house in.
Blood pools around the prone body, and from this vantage point, I can see black hair, but my body doesn’t believe it yet.
With shaky hands, I grab the person’s shoulders and pull, rolling them onto their back.
Blue eyes, cold and unseeing, stare up at the sky.
Similar to Sutton’s—but not his.
It’s not him.
Relief washes over me, followed very quickly by the realization of who this is.
Beckett Dupont.
I glance at his stomach, where several holes have been shredded through his shirt and skin beneath. Pulling my hands back, I settle them in my lap, unable to look away from his eyes.
Sabrina lets out a strangled noise as she gets closer, covering her mouth with her fingers. Lexington crouches down, feeling Beckett’s neck for a pulse.
He sighs. As if there was any doubt.
“What do we do?” Sabrina chokes out.
But my focus shifts. A gun lies close to Beckett’s body.
Beckett wasn’t shot though.
I lean forward over the edge of the quarry. The lake water is still below, calm and unmoving but as dark and opaque as ever.
If someone fell in, you’d never know. Lake Lerna consumes its victims. She doesn’t reveal them or give them back.
Except once.
Panic surges in my chest, and I abandon the three of them, starting back down the side of the quarry. All I can think about is the water—and the green eyes that might have disappeared inside it.
Bile burns my esophagus as I begin shucking off my sweater and tights, breathing hard. Lexington wraps his arms around me at the exact moment I aim to enter the lake, squeezing so tight I can barely breathe.
“Let go!” I scream, thrashing against him. “He could be in there!”
“What are you going to do, Elle? You’re injured yourself. Diving in after him when you can’t even swim properly will just ensure you die too.”
“I don’t fucking care,” I sob, the tears falling, soaking my face.
I punch at his chest, my rage boiling over, making me see red.
“I can’t—this cannot be how things end. I didn’t even get to tell him I love him or have a real relationship, and this isn’t…
it’s not fair! He thinks I saved him, but that’s not true.
He saved me, and I have to tell him. I–I—”
Lexington goes down with me when I crumple, the weight of my fear and anger shoving me to the ground. I cling to his shirt, my cries incinerating my throat as they rip through the lining, obliterating any other noise in the forest.
It’s all my fault.
Everything. From eight years ago to this.
I really am the problem. The common denominator. The fuckup.
Maybe Quincy was right not to have any faith when all I do is destroy anything I touch.
“We’ll get the police,” Lexington offers softly. “They’ll be able to bring in search and rescue, and—”
“He’s not in the water.”
The two of us freeze at the sound of that voice.
A painfully familiar voice—one we’ve spent the entire semester listening to three times a week, minimum.
My heart skips a beat. I open my eyes, peering over Lexington’s shoulder as Sutton stumbles forward. He’s soaked from head to toe but not enough that it feels like he just got out of the lake. More like he’s been out, but God only knows where he’s been.
His gaze—dark green, alive but distant—falls to Lexington’s back. I shove at my friend, staggering to my feet, and ignore the blistering agony that shoots up my spine as I sprint to him.
He doesn’t open his arms, but I wrap mine around him anyway. His stiff, rigid posture and wet clothes send a prick of unease through my heart, but I press my head into his chest and try to pretend I don’t notice.
His pulse is there, and that’s all that matters.
“Beckett’s dead,” he announces in a monotone voice.
Easing back, I glance up at him. “I know. I’m sorry.”
He shakes his head. “Not your fault…none of this was. I wanted to save him, but we went over before I could. The fall knocked me out briefly. I’m not sure how I got ashore, in truth.”
Tears well up in my eyes again, and I bury my face against him. Red stains the collar of his sweater, disappearing beneath the material. I pull back, my stomach twisting.
“You’re bleeding,” I say, moving my hands up to inspect the damage.
Slowly, he grabs my wrists, removing me. He stares into my eyes, swallowing hard, and shakes his head again. “That’s not mine.”
“Sutton? You said we. Who else was out here?”
“Jean-Louis.”
Terror seizes my heart. “Where did he go?”
Maintaining eye contact, he brings my knuckles to his lips. His hands on me are as cold as ever, and the temperature of his mouth matches. As he kisses me there, he lets his gaze float up above my head, toward the lake.
“Your guess is as good as mine.”