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fingers went to the side of her neck, searching in vain for a pulse. My breath was coming in rapid gasps now, and the world spun as I automatically resumed CPR. She couldn’t be. It wasn’t possible. It was a joke, just some sick joke where I was supposed to drag my sorry ass to the front gate and walk home. She wasn’t supposed to be—
    “Help!” I yelled as loudly as I could as hot tears streamed down my face. “Somebody help! ”

CHAPTER 4
THE STRANGER
    Sobbing, I thrust my hands against Ava’s abdomen. She couldn’t be dead. Two minutes ago, she’d been telling me off for…for what? It didn’t matter. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hand, taking a deep, shuddering breath. No. Not possible. This wasn’t happening.
    “Help!” I cried, looking around wildly, hoping for some sign of life. But all I saw on either side of us were trees, and the only sound I heard was the flowing river. If anyone lived on the property, they could’ve been miles away.
    I looked back at Ava, her face swimming as my eyes filled with tears again. What was I supposed to do?
    My shoulders shook, and my body was useless. I stumbled backward, falling into a sitting position as I stared at Ava. Her eyes were wide open, unblinking and lifeless, and she was still as blood trickled from her head. It was useless.
    I drew my knees to my chest, unable to tear my eyes away. What would happen now? Who would find us? I couldn’t leave her. I had to stay here until someone found us. Oh, God, my poor mother—what would everyone say? Would they think Ikilled Ava? Hadn’t I, in a way? If I hadn’t agreed to go with her, then she would’ve never jumped headfirst into a river.
    “May I help you?”
    My heart skipped a beat. Standing beside me was a man—a boy? I couldn’t tell, as his face was partially obscured by the darkness. But what I could see of him made my breath hitch in my throat. His hair was dark, and the jacket he wore was long and black, flapping in the cold breeze.
    I hadn’t imagined him after all.
    “She’s—” I couldn’t finish.
    He knelt next to Ava and examined her. He had to see the same things I saw—the bloody head, the too-still body, the angle of her neck. But instead of panicking, he looked up at me, and a jolt ran down my spine. His eyes were the color of moonlight.
    I heard rustling a few feet away. Startled, I twisted around, only to see a black Great Dane approach us, tail wagging. The dog sat next to him, and he scratched the dog behind his ears.
    “What’s your name?” he said evenly.
    With trembling hands, I tucked my wet hair behind my ears. “K-Kate.”
    “Hello, Kate.” There was a calming quality to his voice, almost melodic. “I’m Henry, and this is Cerberus.”
    I could see his face clearly now that he was closer, and something about it looked off. He couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me, twenty-two at the most, but even that was pushing it. And he was too beautiful to be out in the middle of the woods like this. He should’ve been on magazine covers, not spending his time hidden away in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
    But his eyes drew my attention. Even in the darkness, they shone brightly, and I had a hard time tearing myself away from his gaze.
    “M-my friend,” I said, my voice trembling. “She’s—”
    “She’s dead.”
    He spoke with such a matter-of-fact tone that my stomach turned inside out. I threw up what little dinner I’d eaten, the horror of the evening hitting me so hard I felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me.
    Finally, once I’d finished, I turned back into a sitting position and wiped my mouth. Henry had arranged Ava so she looked as if she were sleeping, and now he was staring at me like I was some strange animal he didn’t want to scare off. I looked away.
    “So she is your friend?”
    I coughed weakly, struggling to keep the sob bubbling up inside of me from bursting. Was she? Of course not. “Y-yes,” I managed to say.