How many rooms total? The average room has 1.5 windows. So if there are?—
I can’t do the math. My brain has short-circuited.
A hundred hiding spots. A hundred places for a drugged girl to vanish.
I check my phone again. Her dot is still here. Still in this house somewhere.
How many times have I checked now? Twenty? Thirty? Lost count.
I try to count my breaths. Four in, hold four, four out.
Can’t hold for four. Can’t breathe right.
Try three. Three in, three out.
Odd number. Unlucky. But it’s all I can manage.
My hands won’t stop shaking. Thumb to index, index to middle, middle to ring, ring to pinky.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Four times. Even number.
Doesn’t help.
Nothing helps.
I have no plan. No map. No time. No system that works for this.
All my rules, all my counting, all my careful control?—
Useless.
But I have one thing: I’m not leaving without her.
Even if I have to tear this mansion apart brick by brick.
I sprint back into the house.
Hold on, Harper. I’m coming.
SEVENTEEN
Ten Minutes Earlier
HARPER
I’m in the water.The water eats the fire.
Finally.Finally.
It’s like the world takes a long, slow exhale and I just…drift. The burn in my skin dissolves, and everything turns electric blue.
And quiet.
The pool holds me like a return to the womb. The string lights above blur into golden streaks, sliding lazily across the surface.
Stars. Fireflies. Drunken angels with flashlights. Whatever—they’re beautiful.