RIOT HOUSE (Crooked Sinners #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,171

out in Dashiell’s arms.

I didn’t see his injuries back at the cave. I was so focused on Carina, and now it looks like he’s…it looks like he’s gonna…

He ran.

He ran through that forest to save Carina, and the entire time he was bleeding out, too. I cover my hands with my mouth, stifling back a sob. This isn’t fucking happening. It can’t be.

Dash manhandles him into the front seat of the car and finally acknowledges our presence. “Are you two okay? Can you get back to the academy from here?”

I nod, even though I don’t know if it’s true. “Go, Dash. Run every red light. Just don’t let them fucking die.”

53

ELODIE

The police office murmurs into her radio, all business, as yet another cruiser tears up the driveway toward Wolf Hall Academy with its lights and sirens blaring. There are five patrol cars here now, though most of the cops who arrived with them are gone. They ran into the forest, heading south for the craggy knuckle of rock that can now be seen above the treetops in the early morning light, looking for the cave.

“And that’s it? That’s the whole story?” the officer asks, narrowing serious eyes at us, as she clips the radio back onto her belt. She introduced herself as Officer Haynes Hartung, but told us to call her Amy. “A teacher did this? Your English teacher? Because of a student?”

Mercy’s in shock. She nods dumbly, staring at the steps in front of us. “Yeah. My brother. He carried Carina, but he—she—”

“I’ve just heard from one of the officers down at the hospital,” Amy says. “Both the boy and the girl are in rough shape but they’re stable. The girl would have died if she’d gotten there any later. Whatever your brother did, young lady, he saved her life.”

Something inside me snaps in two. I haven’t been able to breathe until now. Getting coherent words to form and come out of my mouth has been close to impossible, but hearing this news—both Wren and Carina are going to be okay—pushes me into hysteria.

I start crying, and I can’t fucking stop.

Mercy puts her arm around me, and the two of us sob.

One by one, disheveled students in frightful looking costumes begin to appear on the road, walking back up to the academy. Dean Harcourt ushers them each inside, telling them to go and wait in the cafeteria for someone to come and talk to them.

At nine in the morning, a crew of police officers emerge from the forest with Doctor Fitzpatrick hanging limp like a rag-doll between them. I hear the words ‘resisting arrest,’ and ‘psych hold’ but I don’t really process much after that. Around midday, a bunch of guys in white coveralls that look like HAZMAT suits load a blue body bag into the back of a coroner’s van.

That’s when the detective arrives and begins asking us questions that I’m too numb to answer. Mercy does most of the talking. She knows more than I do about Mara anyway.

After that, we’re taken to the hospital to be checked out. Aside from a few cuts and scratches, as well as the soles of my feet being in a sorry state, there’s nothing really wrong with me. I don’t fight them on it, though.

I want to see Wren.

WREN

I felt bad when they loaded me onto the gurney and rushed me into the urgent care. I feel just fine now, though. Whatever drugs they’ve given me must have been potent as hell, because I feel like I’m floating on a cloud and my bones are made out of cotton candy. The police question me until I’ve answered the same set of questions fifteen times over. Someone comes to tell me that Carina’s improving, which I’m man enough to say makes my eyes sting like crazy. I find out Fitz has been taken into custody shortly after that, and everything gets a little hazy.

I sleep like the almost dead.

At four, they bring me meds that make me a little more alert, and Elodie creeps into the room. She smiles a small smile, leaning her back against the wall on the far side of the room, picking at her fingernails.

“When I bought you that dress, I didn’t think you were gonna treat it so badly.” She’s covered in blood. Carina’s. Her’s. Perhaps there’s a bit of mine staining the fabric for good measure, too. The skirt’s torn to shreds and half of the crystals that were sewn onto the bodice are missing