Prologue

Cassidy felt sick. Behind her lay everything she knew. Ahead of her lay an unknown world. She hunched her shoulders, feeling the backpack shift against her hot, damp dress: everything she now owned she carried on her back. The sun beat down as she blindly navigated the back roads, her hair sticking to her neck, her shoes already rubbing. Her feet moved by instinct. Her stomach ached. She did not know where she was going.

Her mind raced with furious words: the things she'd said, the things she should have said. The rage had sideswiped her with its suddenness. One minute she was quietly washing the breakfast dishes; the next, she was blowing up her entire life. She hadn't even been aware of the fury building within her, but now, as she marched grimly along the road, sweat beading on her brow, she could see the way its roots had spread throughout her life, angry tentacles that strangled everything in its path.

The counter-reaction had been swift and merciless.

Panting, she struggled up the incline and found herself at the edge of the highway. In one direction lay the Appalachian foothills; in the other…well, there was only one way to go. She dropped her backpack onto the path beside her and stared into the distance, where the asphalt seemed to wave and shimmer in the heat.

She took a swig of her water bottle and cursed herself as only a couple of drops fell into her dry mouth. Her arm dropped, the useless bottle mocking her thirst. The air around her was like breathing in hot soup. A truck appeared on the horizon and her decision was made. As if she'd done it a thousand times before, instead of never once having crossed the border of her tiny hometown, Cassidy extended her arm, her thumb raised.

The truck screeched to a halt ten feet past her, its engine idling, the window rolling down. A shot of fear ran through her, chased equally by a blaze of incandescent rage. This was what she'd been reduced to: a frightened girl, with no one left to turn to for help but a total stranger on a deserted strip of highway. If her body were to end up tossed on the side of the road, there was only one person to blame: Savannah Grace.