The Prey Read Free Page A

life. You’ve never seen them rip your parents to shreds. You’ve never seen them tear the limbs off your sister or brother right in front of you. You don’t know them the way we do.”
    “I know them better than you think,” I say. My voice is low and even-keeled, but bunched, ready to be unleashed at a split second’s notice. “Trust me on that one. I mean, what do you really know of them? They’ve been little more than your doting nannies, feeding you, clothing you, baking you birthday cakes—”
    Epap comes at me, his finger pointing like a talon. “Why you—”
    Sissy pulls his arm down. “Enough, Epap!”
    “There you go again,” he cries. “Why are you always so quick to side with him? Enough Epap, stop Epap. What is he to you? Why do you … oh, forget it!” He tears his arm away from her. “You want to go hungry together, go ahead. But if we get sick, if we starve, it’s on you, don’t you forget that.”
    “Quit with the melodrama, Epap.” Her chest heaves up and down.
    He casts his eyes away, doesn’t say anything. Then suddenly leaps at me, his momentum catching me and sending our bodies crashing hard against the deck. The wooden boards drum hollow on our impact.
    A curious, deep thump rumbles beneath me. As if I’ve jarred something loose under the boat.
    Epap is cursing and swinging on top of me, and it’s all I can do to deflect his blows. Then Sissy is prying him off me, her face a furious red.
    “We’ve got enough to deal with!” she shouts. “We need to focus on fighting them, not each other!”
    Epap spins around, stares at the riverbank. He runs a hand through his hair, his breathing ragged. But I’m not paying attention to him. All my focus is on the deck under me. I knock on it. The same hollow thump reverberates back. I knock the deck a yard away, and a thump of a different timbre sounds back.
    “What is it?” David asks. Now they’re all turning to look at me.
    I thump the deck with all my might. And I hear it again, the sound of dislodgment. Of something secreted under the boat, hidden from unwanted eyes. A lump suddenly forms in my throat as I realize something.
    “Gene?” Sissy says. “What’s going on?”
    I look at her with dazed eyes.
    “Gene?”
    “I think something is under this boat,” I say. And now everyone’s staring at me. “It’s been under our noses this whole time.”
    Ben studies the deck, confused. “Where? I don’t see anything.”
    “The only place a hunter wouldn’t think—wouldn’t dare—look,” I say. “Underwater.”
    *   *   *
    Diving into the river is like cracking through the face of a mirror. And as welcoming; it’s all shards of cold that slash and cut my bare skin. My lungs contract to the size of marbles. I surface, gasping for air. The current is a beast. Although a rope is looped around my chest in the off chance—not so off, I now realize—that I might get swept away, it offers little comfort. I immediately grab the side of the boat. I allow myself a few seconds to get used to the cold, then duck under.
    For grip, I wedge my fingers between the wooden planks of the deck. My legs go flying with the current, pulling me parallel with the boat. I’m like a flag flailing in high wind. Sunlight pours between the planks, thin slats of light cutting downward in the murky waters. It’s eerily quiet down here, just a deep mournful humming broken up by the occasional swishing sound. My eyes dart around, trying to find something, anything, out of the ordinary.
    There. A boxed compartment, jutting from the boat’s dead center. Carefully, I allow my body to drift toward it until I’m wrapping my arms around it, thankful for the support. A metal latch, rusted over, hangs on the underside. It doesn’t give on my initial pull. I yank it and the whole underside swings open.
    A large slab of stone tumbles out, hitting me on the back of the head. The pain is numbing and disorienting. I make a quick, blind grab for the tablet