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“Just think about how many ghosts are down there now, how still the water stays, no matter how much we feed it.”

Cade laughed.“Okay, Poe.” He clapped Rook on the shoulder. “You paint one hell of a picture.”

I let them talk, slipping my hand into my pocket for my phone so that I could check the time. When I unlocked the screen, a few unread messages waited. Only one mattered right then.

Sass

Goodnight.

My thumb hovered over the word, brushing the screen like I could reach through it and feel her on the other side. I texted her back and then looked out at the water. It was a fitting end in the same place she kissed me all those months ago. One kiss turned into many soft and sudden, born from some stupid online challenge.

She hadn’t expected me to kiss her back.

She definitely hadn’t expected me to take control.

I remembered the way her breath hitched when my hand slid to her jaw. The way her lips parted like she was about to say my name, then didn’t.

Fuck, how I wanted her.

I wanted to drag her over the console, press her down until the only thing she could feel was me, and she forgot the world outside my truck. She had wound up on my lap instead.

I could’ve done whatever I wanted to her, but it always came down to knowing the timing wasn’t right, and I refused to risk her even attempting to mistake what we were because of that moment. I let her pull away, laughing it off and pretending I didn’t see her trying not to panic like it wasn’t gutting me. I’d replayed that moment more times than I’d ever admit. Sometimes I drove out here late at night just to sit where it happened, thinking and remembering. I could see why she loved this place, the way the sky made everything else feel small, and starlight danced across the lake below. When she was with me, I didn’t watch the stars. I watched her. Always her.

“We’re really doing The Hunt this year,” Nick’s voice broke through my reverie with a grim edge of amusement as he stared out across the quarry with the rest of us.

“Yep,” Cade replied simply.

“We’ve been ready for this,” Rook added.

That was true. We’d known about The Hunt for years. You couldn’t grow up in Hemlock Heights and not hear about it. Most people didn’t pay attention to the stories buried in its bones, the rules, the whispers, the names that disappeared without a trace. It was never meant to get bloody, at least not in the open.

And this year, we were in it.

So were the girls we loved, thrown into a gauntlet meant to break the weak and test the rest. It was hyped as some big tradition, but at the end of the day, it was still a game. We might as well enjoy ourselves while we played.

I glanced back at the Genesis and jerked my chin toward it. “Let’s clean this up and head home. I’m ready to get some sleep.”

We turned and moved as one, the night stretching wide and silent around us.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

SANJANA

I blinked, disoriented, as my alarm blared from the nightstand, drilling straight into my skull like some twisted form of punishment.

“Shit,” I rasped, reaching for my phone to shut it up.

There was sunlight streaming through the window. That meant I’d already slept through the first two alarms I had set last night. I couldn’t fall asleep and came up with a vague plan to study before school. So much for that. This is what I got for being a procrastination queen. I groaned and shifted under the covers.

As I lay there, my thoughts drifted back to the night before—the car that had followed us, the dead crow tied to the rock that shattered my bathroom window, and that awful, taunting note. I was not looking forward to the day knowing I’d been guaranteed a slot in the freaking Hunt. There wasn’t much I could do about it, though. I stretched, arms overhead, wishing I could just stay in bed where everything still felt soft and warm. The house was quiet, and I wondered if everyone was gone, including Layla, since the other side of the bed was cool and empty.

It was probably best I got my ass in gear to somewhat uphold the promise of leaving right after them. I was surprised they hadn’t woken me up before leaving. With a tired yawn, I rolled onto my side and reached for my phone. The screen flared to life, way too bright for my barely functioning eyes.

I squinted, scrolling through notifications until one name made my stomach do that stupid thing it always did.

The first message came in well after midnight in response to me telling him goodnight.

He was probably up gaming or finishing an assignment. Ryder wasn’t exactly the king to my queen when it came to procrastinating. If it wasn’t either of those things, then he might’ve gone on a drive like he initially planned. I’d gone with him on those late-night excursions before. They were quiet and calming, a way to breathe again when everything else felt like too much. I hated that he likely needed one because of me.

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