Page 26 of Tag

“There’s a masked person in the courtyard,” I mumbled, nodding toward the window.

She leaned forward, peeking past me. “Where?”

I shifted to give her a clear view—the person had vanished.

The students who had been pointing at them were now walking away, glancing back as if trying to figure out the same thing I was.Where the hell did they go?

“Please say this is your sleep-deprived mind seeing things.”

“I wish that were the case.”

Her brow furrowed. “What is going on?”

“That's the million-dollar question.”

"If it's not related to the party, then it has to be because of The Hunt," she whispered.

I wasn’t sure if her words were meant to reassure me, but they didn't. I sat back a bit, my arms folded. “If it's the latter, am I Marked?”

“No, I don't think so. If you were Marked, you'd definitely know. I haven’t heard of anyone being notified their playing yet.”

I wanted to trust the process, but earlier, she mentioned that our tradition had an honor code, which had obviously been breached. She leaned closer, speaking quietly. “Don’t overthink. We can't be sure they're targeting you specifically. Those people down there nearly ran away in fear. It could be a collective thing.”

That made sense, but it didn't clarify last night's encounter, which brought us back to the main problem. Like she said, this was either happening due to The Hunt or because people were getting caught up in the excitement of the fall celebrations.Either way it went, Crowsfell had its share of assholes who would revel in this kind of thing.

Cloe gave me a gentle squeeze. “We'll figure it out, Sanj.”

I nodded, acknowledging her good intentions as I reached into my bag. I pulled out my phone and ensured it was set to silent before placing it on my lap. I opened the conversation with Ryder and sent him a text first.

Seen anything else weird?

Rye????

Other than you?

What a dick. I suppressed a smile.

Ha. Asshole.

Rye????

I’m kidding.

You know you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen, right?

I doubted that was true.

I thought back to my moment in the locker room the night before, when I looked at myself in the mirror under those harsh fluorescent lights and felt a familiar wave of self-doubt creeping in, whispering comparisons between me and Brooke. But I still smiled at my phone like a fool, ignoring the knowing sound Cloe made beside me.

Aw, stop. You’ll make me blush.

His reply came so quickly, I was starting to wonder if he’d gone to class.

Rye????

I can make you do a lot more than that.

What the hell?

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