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“Until he’s tired.”

“He looks tired now.”

“Then it won’t be long, will it?”

They laugh again. The blue lights drift away together, slipping between the trees until the forest goes dark around me.

I stay exactly where I am, shivering so hard the leaves against my cheek tremble with me.

Was that even Ash messaging me? Maybe he doesn’t know where I am. Maybe he never sent that car. Or maybe this is still his game, and I’m ruining it because I got scared.

No. Ash would never leave me out here with strangers. Would he?

I pull my knees tighter against my chest, trying to stop my teeth from knocking together. The ground beneath me is soaked through, cold working its way into my clothes while I listen for more footsteps.

Nothing. Perhaps that’s worse, because there’s nowhere left to go, and they know it too.

27

ASH

Ten minutes’ head start, puppy.

I give him ten, watching the last seconds disappear before I lower my visor and take the treeline at a walk.

The forest closes over me, everything green and gray and beautiful, and I feel something in my chest come loose that’s been wound tight since the terrace. He’s in here somewhere, up that slope with his heart going, and no fucking idea that I already know which way he ran.

He’ll have gone northwest, uphill, off the trail, onto ground nobody sensible would choose. He always goes the way the map doesn’t.

Fuck, I love that about him.

I’ve always liked the Hunt. That’s the ugly truth. The tracking, the terrain, knowing where someone would turn before they did. Even the sorting afterward, matching candidates to Houses and deciding who might be worth a sponsorship and who probably wasn’t. It was normal because it had always been. I never wondered what any of it felt like from down here until Jade.

Tonight, I only have one person to find.

I pick up his trail within three minutes. He’s good. I’ll give it to him. Careful about the obvious things, careless about the ones he doesn’t know I know. Following him up the flank of the first rise, I feel my heart beating faster.

There’s no hurry. After all, you let them get tired. You let them get lost. Only then do you follow.

Ahead of me, a broken pine shoot hangs where he shouldered through it, pale wood wet in the dark.

You scared yet, puppy?

I hope so. Just enough that when I catch him, he lets me.

Standing perfectly still, I let another minute drift by.

I can’t fucking wait to get my hands on him. Right here on the wet ground, pinning him beneath me until he’s looking up at no one else.

He said he liked it. He wanted me to surprise him, wanted me to come after him, wanted me to hunt him.

The chase was never going to be the surprise for me. I already know I like this part. What I didn’t expect was wanting everything that comes after it, too. Getting him warm. Feeding him. Putting him in my bed and waking up with him still there. I know what to do when I want to catch something. Wanting to keep him is new.

A branch snaps somewhere north of me, stopping me mid-step.

There you are.

Is he making noise on purpose? I grin inside the visor, letting him think I’m taking the bait while I angle to come in behind him.