Sadie's POV
The next day, Marcus picked me up at seven-thirty despite my insistence that I would drive myself. He was standing by my car when I walked out of the cottage, leaning against the hood with the patience of a man who had been ordered to wait indefinitely and had accepted that as his reality.
"I'm driving," I said.
"I'll follow you."
"That's creepy, Marcus."
"That's protocol."
I drove. He followed. The three-mile road through the forest was different at night – darker, narrower, the trees pressing close on both sides like walls of black glass. My headlights cut through the darkness, and somewhere in the periphery of my vision, shapes moved that could have been deer or could have been something else entirely.
I didn't look. I kept my eyes on the road and my hands at ten and
