21. || i walked away from the wreck.

"You killed someone?"

The woman kept her back to River, but slowed to a stop. "I didn't have a choice."

And River didn't have to see her face to know she was telling the truth. That darkness they felt every time she was close was something familiar, something akin to their own, something sourced from this very mountain. It was no wonder the ancients were so drawn to her, and no wonder River felt so drawn to her.

"It was that Demon you're runnin' from, right? And I'm guessin' that's also who shot ya?"

"My ex." Turning around, she nodded and hugged the armful of blush dahlias closer to her body. "Every time I tried to leave, it would escalate. Believe me River, if I thought I could've gotten out any other way, I would've."

"You don't gotta say any more." River could see the relief in her eyes, like them saying it out loud released her in some kinda way, like it absolved her guilt. That was the difference between the two of them though. River never felt remorse for their kills. "You sure you're up for this?"

Her non-answer answered enough. "Will you bring your rifle?"

"If it'll make ya feel better." Their hand went to their belt where the bone knife was sheathed. A bullet would do nothing but piss a demon off in these woods. They'd have to get close enough to mark it for the ancients which more often than not got messy, and shared darkness or not, that wasn't a part of themself they wanted her to see. "We'll take Two Lick west, then cross the river. No need to climb down Devil's Elbow."

And risk gettin' caught, they wanted to add, but the woman had enough to worry about than knowing Sheriff Holden and his boys were searching for her. Like Blaire had mentioned, they probably weren't the only ones looking if this undead demon was still prowling around the mountain.

Together, they walked in silence back to the cabin to vase the flowers and prep for the excursion. River packed a lunch for the two of them and then grabbed that jagoff's phone from their nightstand to dispose of at the dam. It wouldn't be long before the sheriff found the abandoned car on the old logging road and it'd be wise to throw him and his crew a literal bone or two. But that would mean going back up to Vera's hemlock, and that other jagoff's body gone missing was a whole extra mess on top.

But that'd be tonight's problem.

Dragging out the old wooden rowboat from the barn, River struggled a little to hoist it up to the jeep because that gash in their ribs was still smarting like the devil for some reason, but then the boat lifted with ease as another set of arms and a dark head of hair appeared beneath it with them. She helped raise it up to the roof rack and they did-up the straps and fastened them down tight.

With a slight smile, the woman pushed the hair from her eyes, no longer too concerned about hiding behind her bangs. She had on one of their old white undershirts knotted at the midriff and a pair of athletic tights that Blaire had bought them some time back that looked absolutely ridiculous on them, but quite perfectly fit her curves. They'd be sure to dig the other pairs out from the bottom of the closet for her.

As she bent to pick up the oars from the ground, she caught them staring. "River, you've seen me all bruised up, strapped in gold fishing waders from the 70s, covered in mine crap, and now I just told you I killed someone, and you still got that look in your eye like when we met."

Smirking, River shrugged as they took the oars from her and slid them into the back of the jeep next to the rifle. "You want me to be scared of ya or somethin'? Shall I call the sheriff?"

She laughed a little and shook her head, keeping it bowed as she leaned against the side of the jeep. "No, I'm glad you're not. You don't pity me, you don't judge me, and you're not afraid. I'm just sorry I was. And still kinda am. Of you."

Hearing that still stung a bit, but it only justified them keeping their duty to the ancients quiet. "Well, to be fair, it's not every day you meet a hundred-some year old immortal hillbilly trapped on a mountain."

For a second, River caught her fleeting eyes and she too had that look in them like when they first met.

"That's not really it though. I mean, it was, but it wasn't. I was scared of trusting you."

"You don't gotta trust me, Boots. You just gotta trust yourself. But I'm gonna do everything I can to keep ya safe while you're here. I won't let nothin' or no one, demon, witch, or haunt, hurt ya again. Not in my woods."

Closing the tailgate, she nodded. "I know. That's what I'm scared of."

And there was that darkness again, drawing River closer. But before they could reach for her, she turned away and climbed into the jeep. River opened their door and sunk into the worn sheepskin cover of the driver's seat, curious to know what she meant, but the woman sat quiet, picking at her nails. Some Loretta Lynn ballad crooned through the scratchy speakers as they pulled around to the front of the cabin, click, click, click down the road and River hummed along.

Thick gray clouds veiled the sky above and the morning mountain mist clung to the evergreens as they made their way down the winding ridge along Triple 6 towards the backwaters of the dam. River pulled the jeep off the road, parking in front of a dark forgotten trailhead all overgrown with brush and saplings, but its bright scarlet blaze marked the mottled skin of an elder sycamore like fresh blood. Just beyond the dense copse of hardwoods, a shallow bank led down to Two Lick where they lowered the rowboat into its still dark waters.

As River rowed, the woman remained quiet, which by now wasn't unusual for her. She always seemed to be thinking and River didn't mind her silence, but it seemed as soon as they left the hollow her back went a little more rigid, ears a little more alert like a lone doe in an open field, just listening. So River listened too. Bullfrogs belching in the mud. The hum of winged insects and crickets rubbing legs. And a rhythmic whirl as the oars glided through the water.

The current picked up as they neared the mouth that emptied into the river. Remnants of the old Stonebraker sawmill laid camouflaged along the bank and just farther out stretched the thornberry peninsula where a century ago Vera had pocketed all the riverstones she could carry and waded out to let the current take her anywhere else but here.

"That's where the miller's wife found me." River pointed to the farthermost thornberry on the bank.

The woman twisted her head to look over her shoulder. "Beneath a hawthorn tree along the river," she murmured. "And she just brought you home? Didn't you have family?"

"I really don't remember. All I recall is wakin' up and seein' her up to her waist here in the river, tryin' to figure out how to sink herself. She was young, no more than twenty. She told me much later that her husband kept puttin' babies in her, but she had to bury every one of 'em. Even had to smother one her own self 'cause it shoulda never been born alive the way it was. So she had them baby blues real bad. But bein' the lil nebnose I am, I started followin' behind her, tryin' to sneak without a splash—and not well, mind you, but she finally turned around. Annoyed little smile on her face."

"You saved her," the woman said.

River dipped the oars back into the water and continued to row. "Maybe that time."

A hundred years worth of guilt started pushing down on River, collecting all heavy in their chest. They were Vera's debt to the ancients and she had refused to give them up, refused to send them back to whatever crevice in the earth they'd crawled out of to the extreme of using her dark magic to ignite the mine—and worse, if the other rumors of her disastrous wake were true. The collapse of the old dam nearby being one of them. River had let the village call her a demon, a whore, and they'd let her become that burnt up witch bound to the hemlock. They owed it to her to find a different way to free her.

The woman cupped River's knee, thumbing over the hole in their trousers. All around them, stray beams of sunlight found their way through the clouds, lighting the fog that rolled along the water's surface in a fiery glow. The blood red garnet on her finger gleamed as the light caught its facets.

Vera's red garnet.

She'd said she ventured into the mine to fetch it from Bela, thinking he'd stolen it when really it'd been River who'd taken the ring for this strange, cursed woman's great great granny so she could flee with her unborn baby from the mine's foreman. If Vera had gone to the depths of this dark mountain to retrieve the ring, then she must've especially needed it for something. And maybe her trying to drown this woman's granny had less to do with catching River kissing her, and more with Vera just wanting the ring back.

The woman's hand fell away from their knee and she brought it to her stomach where the garnet no longer caught the sunlight, but still burned ember red. Her back and shoulders tensed again, the soft curve of her jaw hardened. Her eyes fixed straight over their shoulder.

As River glanced behind, the bottom of Devil's Elbow came into view from around the bend and mangled metal laid scattered along the riverbank. Balancing on the jagged edge of a river boulder, what was left of the white Mercedes hung on the precipice of the mountain's border.

River docked the rowboat along the eroded bank, tying its rope to a root and then slung the rifle over their shoulder. The woman still hadn't moved from her bench.

"How 'bout you just sit tight and I'll take a look around?"

"No, no I'm all right. I'm good. I promise."

River gave her their hand and helped her up the muddy bank to the edge of slate that rimmed the river. Splintered hemlocks laid flat against the incline where the car had hit once, then twice, then rolled down the cliff. The entire front end was gone; its wheels and axle strewn off to the side where its engine laid in pieces with the hood. Bloodied handprints covered the outside of the twisted white passenger door and a trail of iron red dripped to dried puddles along the slate.

As River neared the vehicle, the mountain's boundary burned their insides with a warning. "This your little fender-bender, Boots?"

"Guess it's a little worse than I remember."

"A little?"

"Honestly, I don't remember a thing after we went airborne."

River followed the line of blood to the first puddle where another trail met it. "But you weren't drivin?"

She shook her head. "I jerked the wheel from the Demon right before the sharp bend."

A rustle in the leaves made River twist around. Their hand went to the rifle strap as they scanned the hemlocks along the ravine for movement, but these ancients barely swayed in the breeze. The woman inched closer, keeping her back to theirs to look out the other way. After River was sure it was just some pesky red squirrel, they relaxed their hand and let it fall to the woman's back as they turned towards the car again.

"I can't get too close, but it seems you climbed out through the window," River pointed, showing her the trail, "but there was a scuffle here at the edge. It looks like your e—the Demon, tried to drag ya back beyond the boundary..." Whoever this ex was knew to try to kill her outside the mountain, knowing exactly where the lines were. "But you uh, musta broke away. The points of your heels track through the blood and you stumble a little here, but you continue headin' east towards the holler."

"There..." She swallowed her words, hesitant. "There was blood beneath my fingernails. And my dress."

"I saw." River nodded. "If I had to guess, ya killed the Demon right on the edge."

She clutched her belly like she might vomit, like maybe that wasn't the truth she wanted to hear.

"It was self-defense, Boots. You're not some vile, soulless killer, not like—" Me. They walked as close to the car as they dared and peered into the backseat. "Is there anything in there ya need? Any clothes? I'm sure we could bust open the trunk."

"The Demon burnt all my clothes when it caught me trying to leave." The woman's brows knotted and she rubbed her forehead. "No, I'm sorry," she whispered, "that was last time. My memory is all foggy. I don't think I packed a bag. But my..."

She didn't finish her thought and instead hurried over to the car and leaned in through the broken out window. She winced as she reached farther inside and River tried to tug her back, but the scorch of the mountain sent white hot heat through their body, forcing them away.

"You're gonna cut up your bare belly leanin' like that."

But the woman ignored them and finally emerged with her hand cupped to a fist. She held it out to River and dropped in their hand the biggest, sparklingest diamond ring they'd ever seen.

"It's dumb, but if I was gonna die, I didn't wanna die with it on."

"Gods above..." They stretched out their palm, scared to let the stone rub against their unclean skin. "How much this obnoxious thing cost? Couple grand?"

"Forty maybe? We might be able to get close to thirty if we pawn it."

"Forty thousand," River echoed with a whisper. "For a rock."

"It wasn't exactly my first choice." She shuddered as the wind slipped between them. "You know, the only women's shelter near my place told me I should forgive my ex. They said marriage was sacred and maybe it was God's way of punishing us both. So I tried forgiveness and went back and it almost seemed to work, things were better for a while. But I think I just got used to the smell of smoke."

"And ya couldn't tell you was smolderin'," River murmured, looking up from the diamond to meet her eyes. They understood that all too well.

"Will you hang onto it for me? I really don't want it anywhere near my body again."

"Course. I'll uh, just..." River unbuttoned their breast pocket, but the idea of a forty grand rock rolling around with half a joint and a cinnamon stick just didn't sit too well. Unlatching their corded necklace, they slid the ring down to the front and secured it twice with a knot before tying the cord up and around their neck again and tucking it beneath their shirt.

"River, if I killed the Demon on the edge of the boundary, which side would it have ended up on?"

"I wish I knew that answer, Boots. But if we look at the blood, there's no tracks leading away other than yours. However, there's also no sign of a body far as I can tell. I can't go beyond this point, but if you wanna look on the other side of the car, maybe you'll see somethin' I can't."

The woman crept towards the rear of the car, but stopped. "Let's just go." She started to turn around, but something seemed to pull her back. Her hands balled to fists and she began pounding them against the dented frame, smashing out what remained of the rear glass panel. As fresh red blood began to drip down her arms, the slate beneath their feet rumbled. Hurrying over the burning boundary, River wrapped their arms around her stomach and lifted her back.

She didn't try to fight them and turned in towards their body, breathing heavy against their chest. But the ground continued to tremble as roots burst through the layers of shale all around them. River pulled the hatchet from their belt, keeping the woman close, backing them up to the edge of the slate, the river right below. Three roots snaked along the rock surface, branching out in another three to multiply. Ready to swing, River tightened their grip on the handle. But instead of wrapping their ankles, them roots slithered past uninterested as they found their target.

They climbed up the twisted white frame, spreading out over the length of the car. As tips of the root crossed the boundary, they burst into the same writhing worms River had seen last night with Vera, shriveling along the rocky ledge, but the thicker roots began to pull. With a grating shriek, they dragged the car against the slate, compressing it with such force it folded in half, then half again. The woman jumped down to the riverbank to clear their path with River close behind, watching as the roots returned to the earth, swallowing up the car.

"It's like they understood ya." River clasped the woman's wrist and raised it to look at the heel of her palm, all wet with blood as red as the garnet glowing on her finger. "Or ya commanded them."

Like Vera.

The woman pulled her hand back and clutched it to her chest, fiddling some with the garnet on her finger. "You were right. About the talismans, I mean. There's nothing here." She had this wild, worried look wrinkling up her face. "Can we go back to the holler?"