Chapter Forty-Nine Willa

Chapter Forty-Nine

Willa

Now: Monday, 6:45 a.m.

Delaney Moss has never looked so fragile, so vulnerable. Giddy triumph bubbles in my belly. Ding, dong, the witch is dead.

Not quite. She's out cold, though. I can see her chest rising and falling—barely, but still.

"What did you do?" Liam wails, already on his knees beside Delaney, tending to the wound. The sheets that once bound her wrists are dappled red with blood.

"You're welcome," Piper says through a wheeze. Then she hisses, clutching at her shoulder. "That's gonna leave a mark," she half jokes under her breath.

I wish I were in the mood for a joke, but right now? I'm really angry. "Fucking hell, Liam. Don't you care at all that she trapped us on a mountain and killed all our friends? She's evil. And Piper saved us."

"You don't actually want her dead, do you?" He searches my face accusingly.

The question stabs me in the gut, which roils at the sick micro impulse to say, whisper-soft, yes. But my heart thumps louder. No, no, no. It's been brutal enough living with the guilt of one person's death all these years, accidental or not. And this is what separates me from Delaney. I couldn't take such glee in, be so nonchalant about, causing so many deaths. I will not allow her to ruin me. She can't win.

So I shake my head, and Liam eases into himself again. "We need to get help up here ASAP to give her the best chance," Liam says somberly. We leave Delaney on the living room floor and join Piper pacing in the foyer. "Though can we get on the Wi-Fi without the password? Maybe if we brainstorm, we can guess it."

Piper waves him off. "Don't worry. I already called. Well, not the authorities. Delaney was right. We're really far up this freaking mountain. You need someone with money and pull to ensure a speedy private rescue. So I called your parents, Liam."

"H-how?" he sputters.

Piper retrieves something from her pocket. A phone. "Silva used the Wi-Fi earlier, and it saved the password. She had all our parents' numbers in here too."

"Did you tell them about the others?" I ask, thinking about all the other parents. Who will tell them their children are dead?

Piper shakes her head. "I just said it was really bad. But that Liam was okay, and we needed their help."

"What are we going to do about…" I incline my head in Delaney's direction. She's still slumped on the living room floor. "It's her word against ours. And I'm afraid she'll tell everyone about what I did with Noah, and sending that video to Yale…. Sorry, I know that's selfish."

Piper smiles, brighter than the situation warrants.

"What?"

"So about that." She fishes her hand back into the pocket of her hoodie and produces another phone. A much older model. "I recorded the whole thing. I had a bad feeling, and the MurderGals have taught me nothing if not to document everything. So I have Delaney's entire villain monologue on here. Colorado is a one-party consent state, too, so it should be admissible and everything."

Liam and I stare at her in disbelief. It's absolutely bonkers, but also utterly brilliant. Before we can thank her, Piper shushesus.

And then we hear it too, and never have I been assaulted by such a beautiful noise. "A helicopter," I breathe.

Thank god for beautiful boys and their rich parents. We step out into the snow, and just like the fresh flakes under my feet, I feel brand-new. Not cursed, or weak, or a victim. I am strong, and I think I always have been.

We wade farther out, shivering and happy. Piper pushes through the snow to wave down the pilot, let them know they're in the right place. I reach for Liam's hand. He takes it, squeezes my fingers between his.

Finally, I've won.

"I'm cold," I say after a moment. The helicopter is looking for a place to land. "Let's go inside, grab our coats and—"

I turn into the front hall and stop dead in my tracks.

The patio doors are wide open, frigid air blowing snowdrifts into the room. The fire is dead in the grate; a blood-spattered pile of sheets is strewn on the floor.

And Delaney is gone.