Cora burst out of the shed, her lungs burning, her pulse hammering in her ears. The footsteps behind her hadn’t stopped—soft, deliberate, closing the distance between her and the shadowy figure that had cornered her.
Her flashlight beam jittered wildly across the trees, illuminating nothing but gnarled branches and underbrush.
The woods seemed endless, suffocating, until she collided with something solid.
Suddenly, she slammed into something solid, the impact knocking her off balance.
“Cora?” Milo’s voice. She stumbled back, gasping, and he grabbed her arms to steady her.
“Milo,” she gasped, grabbing the front of his jacket to steady herself. “T-there’s someone... in there.”
Milo's hands came up instinctively, his fingers gripping her shoulders firmly but gently. His touch was steadying, grounding her even as her heart continued to hammer in her chest. “It’s okay,” he said, his voice low and calm. “I’ve got you. Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” she stammered, though her voice shook. She tried to pull away, but his hands lingered a moment longer than necessary, his dark eyes locking with hers.
“Come on,” Milo said, his voice steady but urgent. He took her arm, guiding her toward the car parked just beyond the edge of the woods. “We need to get out of here now.”
He slid his arm around her back, guiding her out of the woods toward his car. Cora didn’t protest.
The drive to her house passed in tense silence. Every set of headlights in the rearview mirror made Cora's heart jump. She kept Jaden's journal pressed against her chest like a shield.
Milo kept glancing at her as he drove, concern etched into his face.
“Who was it?” he asked finally.
“I don’t know,” Cora said, staring out the window. Her voice felt distant, even to herself. “They said, ‘You were warned.’ Then there was glass breaking. I didn’t stay long enough to figure out who they were.”
"I can't go home," she said when Milo pulled into her driveway. "Not yet. We need to figure this out."
Milo hesitated, then nodded. "My parents are out of town. We can go to my place."
His house was big and empty, their footsteps echoing on hardwood floors. He led her into his room, an unexpectedly cozy space with dark wood furniture and stacks of books crowding his shelves.
Cora sat cross-legged on the floor, flipping through Jaden’s journal while Milo brewed a cup of tea for her in the kitchen.
When he returned, he handed her the mug without a word, sitting down beside her. His knee brushed against hers briefly, and neither of them moved away.
“Thank you,” she said, her voice soft as she wrapped her hands around the warm cup.
He studied her for a moment, his dark eyes lingering on her face. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, glancing down at the journal in her lap. “It feels like everything’s falling apart. But... I’ll survive.”
“You better,” Milo said quietly, a small smirk tugging at his lips. “I didn’t just haul you out of the woods for nothing.”
Despite herself, Cora laughed. It was a small laugh, short and shaky, but it felt like the first time she’d taken a real breath in hours.
They pieced together Jaden's notes like a puzzle. He'd documented everything—meetings he'd observed, snippets of conversations he'd overheard, rituals he'd witnessed from hiding places.
“This place keeps coming up,” Cora said, tapping the sketch. “Jaden wrote about it over and over—‘rites of passage,’ ‘warnings,’ ‘secrets.’ It has to be connected to The Circle.”
Milo leaned back against his bed, his eyes distant.
“Evan—my older brother—he used to talk about the lighthouse. Said it was his ‘safe place.’ But now that I’m thinking about it, maybe it wasn’t just about clearing his head. Maybe it was where they
Cora looked up sharply. "Your brother was involved?"
Milo nodded, not meeting her eyes. "Evan. He and Emily both. Before..."
"Before what?"
"Before he left town and disappeared. Right before Emily died."
Cora set down the journal and looked at him. “Did he ever tell you anything else? About The Circle?
“Not really.” Milo hesitated, his fingers brushing the edge of the journal absently.
“But once, he said the lighthouse held more than memories. Like it carried something he didn’t want to leave behind.” Milo's fingers traced the edge of a page. "He said it held more than just his anxious thoughts. I didn't understand what he meant then."
"And now?"
"Now I think he was trying to tell me something. About The Circle, about what really happened to Emily." Milo looked up, determination replacing the fear in his eyes. "We need to go there."
"To the lighthouse? Now?"
"They won't expect us to go back so soon after the shed. Not in the dark."
Cora thought of the shadowy figure, of the burning shed, of her name on that list.
"Okay," she said. "But we need to be careful."