by Kaitlin Ward
Harper and the girl in this root cellar—both were tragic accidents. It’s easy to sweep in from outside the situation and try to assign blame, but I wasn’t here. I don’t know what everyone was doing when this girl got trapped, how far away they might have been at the time.
And I don’t know what to say, so I reach out and give Alexa’s forearm a comforting squeeze.
“Thank you.” She smiles tremblingly. “Ugh, I can’t believe I turned your tour of the grounds into such a mess. Let’s just get back up into the sunlight.”
“It’s totally fine. I’m glad you told me.”
But I can be understanding and creeped out at the same time, and I make sure I’m the first one up the ladder. She definitely notices, but it doesn’t seem to bother her.
Cara and the guys and I leave shortly after that. I can’t stop thinking about the scratched-up trapdoor, how sad it is. I can’t decide if I should tell everyone or not. Cara’s in such a good mood, and she’s easily triggered by tragedy. I’ll wait, I decide, and tell Gavin later, when Cara’s not nearby.
“That was pretty fun, right?” Cara says as we’re driving back along the mountain path.
I exchange a glance with Gavin, and smile knowingly. “It had its moments,” I say.
“Not as bad as I expected,” adds Jackson, which is pretty high praise, coming from him.
“I’d rather castrate a bull by myself than go back,” says Gavin.
All of us laugh at that.
I am eternally grateful to:
Sarah LaPolla, my tireless agent.
Amanda Maciel, my brilliant editor.
Everyone at Scholastic who worked on this book and helped make it the polished, beautiful product you see before you.
My endlessly supportive family.
And my friends. Friendships—good and bad—are such a huge theme in this book, and I’m lucky to have some truly great friends in my life. From the hags to the hen house, I have definitely found my people.
Kaitlin Ward grew up on a dairy farm in a tiny New Hampshire town, the same town where she lives now with her husband and son. She studied animal science at Cornell University and cofounded the well-known blog YA Highway. She is also the author of Where She Fell, Girl in a Bad Place, and Bleeding Earth. Find her on Twitter at @Kaitlin_Ward.
Also by Kaitlin Ward
Girl in a Bad Place
Bleeding Earth
Copyright © 2018 by Kaitlin Ward
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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available
First edition, November 2018
Photography © 2018 by Michael Frost
Jacket art © 2018 by Michael Frost
Jacket design by Maeve Norton and Yaffa Jaskoll
e-ISBN 978-1-338-23009-3
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