Page 40 of Slayer

“Dad. Stop. I’m scared,” Harper blurted, hugging her arms.

He swallowed hard and nodded. “Let’s get inside.”

“We’re supposed to be safe here” was a chilling thing to hear from a grown man. I had only known of this world for a day, but I gathered it was the only place where hunters felt protected.

Until now.

When we stepped inside, Professor Walters stood in the living room, not quite ready to let us out of his sight.

“I’ll be out here if you need anything. The headmistress is looking into the breach. We should know more in the morning,” he told us. “Try to get some sleep,” he added.

Harper walked down the hallway, and Luna followed her, so I followed them, my legs suddenly feeling heavy.

The second we were in her room and she shut the door, she spun, eyes wide.

“Son of a biscuit eater! Did that seriously just happen?” Harper screeched.

“An attack on campus?” Luna added.

“People died.” I felt sick, the words barely making it past my throat.

The room went silent then.

Harper started pulling weapons off the wall, metal clinking softly as she moved. She handed me a small dagger and a pair of stakes. Then she tossed Luna a stake and another dagger.

“Never again. We never go out unarmed again,” Harper said.

Both Luna and I nodded.

You didn’t need to tell me that twice.

Harper then looked to me, and a small smile pulled at her lips. “Asher broke formation to save you.”

I rolled my eyes. “So?”

Luna scoffed. “So we’ve been told since we were six years old to never break V formation, not even to save a fellow hunter, because it puts everyone at risk. I was ready to let you die.”

“Thanks.” I chuckled but my stomach flipped over. “Well, he doesn’t seem to follow the rules.”

“Asher Voss always follows hunter code.” Harper was grinning.

I waved her off, rolling my eyes. “Serious crap went down tonight. We don’t have time for romance theories.”

I knew where she was going with this.

Luna cocked her head to the side. “There’s always time for romance theories. What wafer did he give you? I saw him give you one.”

I shrugged. “Whatever it was, it did nothing. Ferro something.”

Harper and Luna shared a look and moved to the bookshelf.

Harper opened the rune codex book and flipped through it to the Ferro page.

“Which one was it?” she asked me.

I scanned the pictures and tapped the one that was like a stake busting through something.

Easy enough to memorize.