CASSIE
I didn’t knowwhat I’d expected, but the room was small and awash in purple light. A purple digital clock glowed above a closed door, the duration of the Hunt frozen on its display: 24:00:00.
Twenty-four hours. That was how long I’d have to evade the teams of masked men standing on one side of the room.
That was how long I’d have to stay out of their clutches to win.
And I really, really needed to win.
Four girls stood on one side of the room in front of a small folding table piled with gauze, hydrogen peroxide, and Band-Aids. Above the table a written sign that had seen better days readFirst Aid.Next to the table, several cases of water were stacked against the stone wall.
And across from the girls were the men, although they didn’t look much like men right now. In the glow of the purple light, their masks made them look like monsters come to life.
Hulking, muscled, inked monsters.
There were way more of them than there were of us. A motley crew of demonic-looking birds, devils, bulls, hockey players,wolves, skeletons, even freaky-looking clowns that made my skin crawl.
Most of them were shirtless, their tattoos crawling over their skin like dark serpents, and all of them had knives tied in sheaths around their waists.
I swallowed the lump of dread that lodged in my throat and looked away, trying to get my head around what I was about to do.
“Hi,” a pretty brunette said next to me. She was about my age, her eyes wide, sweat beading on her hairline even though it was a little cold in the purple room.
I thought I recognized her but I couldn’t be sure. I saw so many people in the coffee shop it was hard to keep them all straight, and I’d pretty much resigned myself to feeling like everyone I came across in Blackwell Falls was at least vaguely familiar.
“Hi,” I said.
“Have you ever done this before?” She was in leggings and a long sleeve T-shirt, a sweatshirt tied around her waist.
I shook my head. “You?”
She shook her head. “My best friend did it last year. She lost.”
I nodded. “How was… how was that for her?”
Losing was a distinct possibility, but I’d calculated that it was worth the risk, that there might even be an upside to becoming a toy for the groups of men on the other side of the room.
But that didn’t mean I wanted to lose.
“It was…” She looked away. “She survived.”
Not a ringing endorsement, but I guessed it was better than the alternative.
Among the other three girls there were two blondes and a girl with hair as black as Maeve’s. I tried to find comfort in thinking about the woman my brother had hunted — the woman who’dended up being the love of his life, the love of Poe’s and Remy’s lives too — but it didn’t really work.
Maeve’s Hunts had been different.Maevewas different: powerful, badass, strong.
Maeve carried agun.
I was just Bram’s little sister, a wallflower who’d been locked in the ivory tower of the coffee shop, armed with nothing more than an espresso machine and a milk frother.
I just had something I wanted done. Two things actually.
Behind the girls, a purple neon sign glowed on the wall.
I consent to be hunted.
I consent to be stripped.