Page 23 of Tag

She offered a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Yeah. Just got a lot on my mind.”

“Oh, I get that more than you know.”

“You know you can talk to us about anything, Lay,” Ashton chimed in, his tone easy as he caught up to us.

I saw Roxxi and Cloe exchange a glance. Arianna gave a subtle shake of her head. A silent warning for them not to say anything. I knew exactly what that look was about. Roxxi had been the first to mention that Ashton was too nice to Layla. Cloe had agreed without hesitation. Ari hadn’t said much, but her silence told me about her opinion on the matter loud and clear.

I didn’t get it. Ashton was genuinely kind. Him being nice to a girl did not mean something was going on. It was possible to have platonic friendships. Weren’t we proof of that? We kept walking, and I picked up on footsteps behind us. At first, I ignored them, thinking it was other students headed in the same direction, but then Ryder’s hand suddenly wrapped around my arm.

Before I could ask anything, he shifted our bodies, moving me in front of him with a quiet, calculated urgency that made my breath catch.

“What’s wrong?”

I turned slightly towards him and finally saw why he grabbed me. A person had stopped just a few feet away. They wore a dark hoodie pulled low over their face and a mask. Not the funny or ironic kind, but blank, smooth plastic with hollow black eyeholes. They were holding up a phone aimed directly at us. Filming? Or taking pictures?

Roxxi spun as soon as I did, locking onto the weirdo, her brows rising. “What the fuck are you doing?”

The person didn’t move.

They stood there, the phone still raised, head tilted like they were studying us until the others started to turn too. Then they stepped back. Once. Twice, before they bolted, vanishing into a group of students on the other side of the bridge, who scattered with startled gasps as the person cut straight through them.

Ryder’s gaze met mine.

He didn’t speak, but he didn’t need to. I knew him well enough to recognize what was happening behind those icy eyes. He was working the angles, flipping through every variable and comparing it against the person I’d told him about last night.

On the bright side, I now knew he hadn’t found them and committed a life-sentence worthy crime. At least not yet, he hadn’t.

“So, what was that about?” Cloe asked, still facing the direction the person had gone.

Ashton let out a breath of laughter, glancing at Nick. “Did you make this happen? Starting early on host fun?”

My brow furrowed. “Why would—?”

Then it clicked.

Ryder had just referenced it the night before. Nick was hosting theCrowsfell Annual Fall Soirée, one of the biggest events on the university’s social calendar. Every year, a selected host tried to outdo the last in extravagance. The previous year had been wild, and I almost feared what our party boy would come up with to outdo it. Thesoiréeitself was infamous, but what just happened wasn’t part of that whole ordeal. It was more aligned to a tradition with cult-like status, and from what little I knew, it got far more fucked-up than anyone cared to admit.

The Hunt.

I couldn’t believe I’d let it slip from my mind. It was only a matter of time before the flyers showed up and the campus buzz turned to full-on fanfare.

“Nick wouldn’t do that to us,” I said firmly.

“Never,” he echoed, clearly offended. “I had nothing to do with whatever that bullshit was. And if I did, why the fuck would I targetmygirls?”

“Yeah,” Ryder added, “Scaring the shit out of our friends with petty stunts isn’t exactly on the roster this year.”

A brief silence followed, but he didn’t backtrack.

“But he does have a roster?” I asked.

He grinned at me, and that was all the answer I needed. I would absolutely be grilling him later.

Layla crossed her arms, frowning. “It’s nice to know you’re not out to traumatize us, but they looked like they were recording or something. Why?”

Nick shrugged, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his jacket. “You know it’s not just thesoiréecoming up.”

Ari looked at him. “You mean The Hunt?”

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