Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
I’m not sure if it’s the looming darkness or the eclipse-viewing glasses making it impossible to see anything except the sun, but Ryker was right. Not a single person has looked my way since I removed my shirt.
It probably helped that seconds after leaving the shore, Ryker bet my brother he couldn’t climb an oak tree and cannonball into the deepest part of the water without breaking a leg. Never one to back down from a challenge, Noah sprinted for the tree while their friends cheered him on. He drunkenly snapped almost every single branch on his way up and belly flopped with a loud slap when he hit the rushing creek below, but the dangerous distraction at least allowed me to swim with Isabel unbothered.
Now that we’re nearing the peak of the eclipse, almost everyone’s face is tilted upward, except for a few stragglers still playing cornhole on the shore or throwing a ball around in the water. I slipped my shirt back on when a pouty Isabel left for work about twenty minutes ago, but I no longer feel guilty about wearing it. And since I moved a borrowed chair into the creek, I’m also no longer overheated .
The water comes up to my belly, ice cold and refreshing as classic rock plays from the speakers someone finally managed to sync together. Overall, I’m feeling pretty damn good about today. I can’t believe I spent so many summers hiding?—
A football lands in the water next to me, the impact sending a shock of icy droplets onto my arms and cheek.
“My bad,” an all-too-familiar voice barks out.
A sinking feeling fills my stomach when I’m hit by a potent whiff of Axe body spray, and my dread only amplifies as sloshing footsteps head my way.
“Oh. It’s you,” Cooper Blackthorne says with dark amusement. “I didn’t think your kind were allowed out in the sun.”
“That’s funny, I didn’t think you had enough brain cells to form a full sentence.”
I don’t bother turning to look at him, not when I already know what I’d find. Nutmeg-brown hair that’s been cropped way too short on the sides, cruel hazel eyes, a slightly crooked nose, and the tanned body of a narcissistic god.
Cooper leans into my line of sight, flexing like the pretentious asshole he is as he tucks the football under his arm. Lowering his voice so only I can hear, he says, “Thanks for putting your shirt back on. Some of us were trying to enjoy the day and it was a little difficult to keep our booze down with you making us all sick.”
Balling my fists, I stand so abruptly I knock my chair over in the process.
Maybe I should get the whole punching-him-in-the-mouth thing over with now. Checking off two bucket list items in one day would be pretty spectacular. The eclipse is also about to reach the point of totality. I could use the darkness to make a quick escape…
“You know what, Cooper?—”
Heavy footsteps splash through the water behind me a moment before a hard, smoky voice says, “Is there a problem?” Ryker’s arm brushes my elbow as he steps to my side, the sky steadily darkening around us .
My brother arrives half a second later, strategically positioning himself between Cooper and the shore. Judging by his telltale squint, he’s three sheets to the wind and rearing for a fight.
“Wills, go wait for us by the car,” Noah says, taking a wobbly step closer.
“Noah, I’ve got this. Please , just let it go,” I plead, eyeing Cooper’s equally drunk friends down the creek who are slowly inching their way over.
“What’s the problem, Blackthorne?” Noah taunts, swaying slightly and completely ignoring my request.
Cooper doesn’t respond. He just stands there, staring at something behind me until his twisted sneer slowly flattens into a pronounced frown.
“What?” Noah laughs. “Nothing to say now that she has backup? Come on, Coop, we both know what this is really about. Get the fuck outta here.”
“Just shut up for a minute and turn around,” Cooper snaps, eyes wide and head tilted to the side as he takes a tentative step backward. “Who the hell is that?”
The sky darkens further, and an eerie stillness falls over the party as people stop what they’re doing to point behind me.
“Dude, that’s creepy as shit,” one of Cooper’s friends shouts from a few feet away.
“What the fuck is that guy doing?” another says.
Turning, I follow their gazes to the top of the cliff, goose bumps erupting over my flesh at the sight of a hooded figure skulking near the ledge.
A fierce wind rips through the Springs, making the fabric of the figure’s billowing black robe undulate like a sea of maggots on roadkill. And when they crouch down, the gnarled branches behind them suddenly look like twisted antlers or horns.
My blood chills.
“Oh my God, I think he’s poisoning the water!” a feminine voice shrieks .
My head whips to Mandy Cromwell for that ridiculous declaration, but when I glance back at the top of the waterfall, the hunched figure is indeed pouring some sort of liquid into the Springs.
Stomach shrinking in on itself, I step backward as dark-red streaks spill over the cliff’s edge into the churning water below, filling the air with the metallic scent of iron and decay.
The figure soars upright, splaying their arms out wide at the exact moment the eclipse reaches the point of totality and the world is plunged into darkness.
People scream, splashing and falling over themselves to flee, but all I can do is stare into the darkness above the falls. It might’ve been a trick of the low light, but it almost looked like an animal skull was peeking out from under the hood where a face should’ve been…
Someone grabs my arm, and my brother’s familiar sage-and-cedarwood scent hits my nostrils a second before he starts dragging me through the water.
“What the hell, Noah. Let go,” I squeal, struggling against his hold while everyone around us continues to panic. It’s dark enough that it almost feels like night, except, of course, for the black orb in the sky surrounded by a bright fiery ring of white light.
“We need to go. Now ,” my brother hisses. “Ryker, grab the cooler and the bags.”
“On it.”
Noah slips on a wet rock, giving me just enough time to glance over my shoulder to the spring as another robed figure joins the first. I do a double take.
“Who are those people?” I whisper, struggling to free myself from Noah’s grip while simultaneously trying to keep him from falling again.
“People? What do you mean people ? It was one guy.” He drags me out of the water and down the path toward the Blazer, not stopping for anything. Which is why he never sees the flickering flame appear at the top of the falls …
Or the shadows that crawl out from the woods.
The sky is slowly returning to normal, but the three of us haven’t said a word since we got in the Blazer—the combination of Ryker’s silent brooding and my brother’s agitated fidgeting leaving my brain wide open to tussle over a million things at once while I drive us home.
Who the hell was that hooded person at the falls? And why did they look like a creature right out of one of Mrs. Crowe’s stories…
Turning onto our road, I glance to the passenger seat where Noah is leaning his sunburnt forehead against the window. He’s definitely buzzed, which is expected after a day of guzzling Shiner Bock in the sun, but he’s never this quiet. Maybe the robed figure unsettled him as much as it did me?
I nudge him with my elbow. “You good?”
His gaze briefly darts to the rearview mirror. “I’m fine.”
Keeping my face forward and my hands on the wheel, I check the mirror for myself.
Ryker’s eyes meet mine for a fraction of a second before he looks away and clears his throat to say, “What was that shit back there?”
“Who knows,” Noah sighs. “But it ruined a once-in-a-lifetime party.”
I scoff. He wasn’t even going to the Springs until Isabel mentioned our plans.
“Who said the party had to end?” Ryker chirps from behind me. “I’ll be heading back to Denton as soon as my truck’s fixed and I’ve talked to Kane. We should round up the rest of the old crew tonight while I’m still in town.”
Noah sits up abruptly, barely catching himself on the dashboard as I pull into our driveway and slam on the brakes. “Fuck yeah, we should,” he says excitedly after a snarky scowl in my direction. “Everybody is off work for the holiday tomorrow. We could drink here, or Willa can drop us off and pick us up if we go out. She never has plans.”
Ouch.
I cut the engine, frowning when Noah rips the keys from my hand. “Don’t you think you guys have had enough to drink today?”
“Don’t you think you should loosen up a bit and let your brother live his life?” Ryker scoffs from the back seat.
There’s the Ryker I know and despise. I knew the sunscreen thing had to be a fluke.
Noah opens his door with a goofy grin. “Yeah, Wills. Let me live ,” he says , slamming it closed and chuckling to himself as he stumbles up the porch steps.
The second he disappears inside the house, I turn in my seat. “Seriously?”
“Relax, Princess. I won’t let anything happen to him. Your brother deserves to blow off a little steam every now and then.”
My chest tightens, anger roiling through my veins. “You have a record of returning him in worse condition than he left in. Noah’s still in the probationary period on the rig. Don’t you dare get him into trouble, or I’ll make sure you regret it.”
Ryker’s brow quirks. “Is that a promise?”
Slightly flushed from the sudden dark shift in his tone, I scrunch my nose up and turn away without bothering to respond. What’s the point when he’ll only find a way to throw whatever I say back in my face?
Locking eyes with me in the rearview mirror, Ryker leans over the center console. My entire body shudders when his breath ghosts across the shell of my ear.
“Come on, don’t back down now, Princess. Not when we’re just starting to have a little fun.” He makes a tsking sound of disapproval that drops my attention to his mouth. “You know, it really is a shame you’re Noah’s baby sister.”
Every surface of my skin tingles from the heat in his voice and the pouty curve of his lower lip. No matter how badly I want to look away, I force myself to meet his gaze. “And why’s that?”
The corner of his mouth kicks up into a smirk. “Because I think you might enjoy a lesson on letting loose just as much as I’d enjoy giving you one.”