16

Something large and heavy whooshed through the air. Levi turned toward the sound just as the slab of granite hit him in the head. His body made surprisingly little sound as it hit the snow.

A shadow separated itself from a nearby obelisk, lunging straight toward me. Even in the low light, there was no mistaking that hulking build—that bristly hair—those overgrown eyebrows—that square head, the snaggle teeth, the jutting chin.

I whirled and ran, feet scrabbling in the loose-packed snow. I wove frantically through the headstones. As much as it went against my instincts to leave Levi, my only hope to save him—and all of Birchardville, I could only assume—was to give Johnson a reason to chase me.

Because it was Mitchell Charles David Johnson who had attacked us.

Of course it was.

Who knows how long he’d huddled in the graveyard, no doubt delighting in the opportune moment as he’d snatched up a fragment of granite from that crumbling obelisk and bashed in Levi’s head.

I wanted to throw up, but I couldn’t stop. He was right behind me.

If only I had longer legs, a longer stride.

One of Johnson’s hands caught hold. I felt a tremendous yank, but his cry of victory turned to a howl of frustration as the ridiculous bobble hat fell away behind me—along with what felt like an entire hank of hair.

I was off, dashing through snow sweeping flat across Route 267, pounding past The Olde Birchardville Store, and finding my stride as I hit the incline that led up, up, up.

Up Birchardville Hill.

Johnson blundered and snorted behind me, charging fast.

My boots scrabbled and my breath rasped. My panic gave way to a grim internal stillness.

Everything slowed.

Levi would be alive, probably, but not conscious. Not after a blow like that. Johnson had hit him hard.

He wouldn’t lie in the cemetery for long, though. Reed would not wait patiently in the church, letting the minutes tick by. He would trail us into the cemetery, find his uncle. With cell service available right there, he’d know whom to call. At the very least, he’d get Levi into the church before he froze to death.

I felt a deep, calming relief. Which helped.

I would need every ounce of calm I could muster.

Because I was on my own.