The May Queen Murders by Sarah Jude

the bleachers. “You’re all
    worked up over nothing.”
    “Will you please listen?” I begged.
    “You know what your problem is, Ivy?” she snapped. “If it were
    up to you, everybody’d only listen. Wel , I can’t listen anymore. Some
    things I gotta do. ”
    “Can you at least be careful?”
    “I’m with someone who makes me feel safe.”
    A lump formed in my throat. Who always kept an eye on us? Who
    was always the protective boy-next-door? And if Rook knew she’d
    gone back to Milo for more weed, he’d be hurt.
    I was hurt.
    “I’ll be fine, Ivy,” she promised.
    She stepped out from the bleachers and into the grass, the jingling
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    of her necklace of found things loud against the stillness of the park-
    ing lot.
    I prayed what I saw was nothing. Because I couldn’t save her.
    "
    After school, I’d been at the clinic only a few minutes when Papa
    finished checking a coydog named Ratter for ear mites. Papa waited
    until Ratter’s owner left before he placed his palm against my fore-
    head, then untucked his stethoscope from his col ar, pressing it to
    my back while I breathed for him.
    “You feel okay? You’re pale,” he said.
    I didn’t get pale. Not with my mother’s Mexican blood in me. “I’m
    fine.”
    I reached for the jar of dog treats on the counter and knocked off
    a pair of scissors. Papa eyed the metal blades, open with one point-
    ing toward the entrance and the other pointing at me. Neither of us
    could retrieve them. It had to wait until a guest arrived. Otherwise,
    bad luck would come.
    “I’ll have my next appointment get them,” Papa said. “You go
    home. Get some rest. I can walk you there.”
    “I’ll go by myself,” I said, brushing away his hand as he attempted
    to usher me out from behind the counter.
    Papa frowned, but I pushed past him. I sensed him still frowning
    as I exited, walking past the weathered lost dog signs. There was
    no escape, not at the clinic, at school, not anywhere. It didn’t matter
    where I went, dread followed, wraithlike.
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    Death’s a-comin’, Ivy. Watch the signs.
    I shook Mamie’s voice from my head. Superstitions weren’t worth
    a dime if the person they meant to warn didn’t heed them.
    I started on the path and looked back once to see Papa waiting
    by the door. He’d built his practice close to the road to attract farm-
    ers and the occasional townie who liked the idea of the country vet.
    The distance wasn’t long to the heart of the Glen, where the home-
    steads lay, and the dirt road was well-beaten by hillfolks’ boots, their
    carts and horses. But I didn’t stop once I reached my house; I went
    deeper into the fields, until the road crumbled away, overtaken by
    patchy grass. Above me, the sky held its breath, turning dark blues
    and grays, spring storm colors that made the trees’ new buds seem
    all that much greener, the red of the barns that much more vivid.
    I reached the horse paddock and peeled away a pernicious vine
    rooting near the rusted gate, and then I nickered at the horses. Be-
    tween a sorrel and bay, Whimsy lifted her dark head, ears forward.
    She plodded forth and met me. My hands stroked the sides of her
    muscular neck and the silken coat as she warmed me.
    “I’m gonna ride you today,” I told her. “I’m gonna forget every-
    thing. We’ll trample the ground. I’ll take you down to the river, and
    we can go as deep as you want.”
    Her big nostrils puffed, her whiskery lips loose. I had reached
    for her when she reared three steps. Whipping around, I glimpsed
    brown trousers and dark hair disappearing behind a cart loaded with
    hay. I left Whimsy’s side and rounded the cart, covering my mouth
    in surprise.
    Rook didn’t look right. Stubble scruffed his cheeks. Some curious
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    part of me wanted to run my hand over him, his roughness. By the
    gray light, his skin was pasty, the natural flush of his lips even redder.
    He was handsome and spooked.
    “I haven’t seen you in days,” he