Page 49 of Faun Over Me

“No, I wasn’t in the meeting, and yes, I’m sure!”

“Okay, fine, calm down.”

“Avery …” Cricket clenched her eyes, seething through her teeth. “He saw me through the upstairs window when they left to go to lunch with you. He smiled at me.”

“Smiled at you.”

“You wouldn’t understand.” She dropped her head back, rubbing her temples with two fingers. “It was a creepy smile … a predator’s smile.”

The silence on the other end of the line stretched a little too long before Avery sighed in a way that Cricket could see her shudder. “No, I think I understand. It felt like that whenever he looked at me during lunch.”

That anyone would ever make Avery feel less than the amazing person she was, that anyone could make her feel as small and vulnerable as a faun did when sighted by prey … if Cricket hadn’t already been panicked and angry, that alone would have made her furious.

“The guy is a major douchebag.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Avery sighed again.

“There’s something else,” Cricket added. “A scent on the papers.”

“We’re back on the paperwork?”

“It’s super faint; I don’t know if a human could smell it, but when he walked in, the smell smacked me in the face, like it was his scent.”

“It makes sense if he’s the one that’s been filing the papers.”

“Aves,” she lowered her voice to a whisper. Why? No idea. Marlinton was abandoned this close to dinnertime, all the humans and inhumans safely in their homes. Still, she whispered. Who knew what was listening from the trees? “It was the same scent I caught on the monster. Musk and lavender and—”

“Wintergreen,” she finished. It wasn’t a question, more a confirmation. Like Avery had already known. “Crick, are you suggesting that Troy, the Georgia Man, is the monster? The one that chased you over the ridge and has been stalking the camp?”

“I know it sounds crazy, but scents are unique to the inhuman. It was the exact same scent from the papers and the monster, I swear.”

“It doesn’t sound crazy,” Avery stated in a flat voice. “My cabin was destroyed. All my clothes, my mattress … that’s why Mac was such a mess. I forgot to clean up the rags and cotton balls you used on my leg, and I must have bled on the floor. The monster smelled me, and, ugh, Crick, the whole cabin stunk of Obsession for Men. If Sanoya were in the cabin, he would have—”

“Please insert twenty-five cents to continue your call,” the robotic voice chirped.

“Shit.” Cricket dug in her pocket and scanned the ground for coins. “Avery, I don’t have any more coins.”

“—it doesn’t come back tonight. The last thing Mac needs is a monster running around while the investors are here. It took us all day to—”

“Aves, I don’t have much time. The man, Troy, he said Green Bank wouldn’t be a problem in another day. That everyone would fall in line. Like he had a plan and—”

“Please insert twenty-five cents to continue your call.”

“Cricket, you’re cutting out.”

“You need to leave,” she rushed out. Her pulse was pounding so hard she could feel it in her fingers, worry and fear warring for dominance as little dots connected.

“I can’t leave; the dinner.”

“I know!” she shouted, slamming her hand against the payphone. The dinner. The Georgia Man, the way he had smiled at Cricket, making sure she heard him ask about the drive to Elkwater. “I know, Avery; you need to leave or hide or something. Don’t go to that dinner.”

“What! Why not?”

“Lunar Asset Management! It’s the Georgia Men, whatever is happening, it’s happening—”

“Your call has been disconnected.”

“Tonight.” Cricket slammed the receiver down, again and again, until the plastic cracked, and she was panting heavily, caught somewhere between wanting to cry and needing to scream. So she did both. “Fuck.”

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