Page 45 of The Chosen Fae

"And you're a risk taker."

"Right. And truthfully, so is he. And I guess you are too."

Tasha smiled. "Yeah, how did you guess? So is your friend going to hit on a human, or is he just going to watch what you're up to?"

"He's concerned for me."

"Nice."

"I'm sure he'll do whatever he needs when he decides what he's going to do."

Then Tasha glanced at some of the fae on the same mission. "More of your friends?"

"No, not at all. They're competitors, but they're not visible. Don't look in their direction."

Tasha waved at someone behind them, and the fae turned around and looked to see if she was waving at them or someone else. The person walked right through the fae and hurried over to her.

Rune wasn't ready to meet up with more humans; this one was not a fae seer. But Rune was amused that Tasha was so bold as to wave at her friend as if she couldn't see the fae. The fae headed off to approach humans to target.

Lockers lined the hall in dented rows, their painted surfaces mapped with stickers, scratched initials, and the ghost-outlines of tape long since peeled away.

Between classes, the corridor fills with a current of bodies—backpacks swinging, phones raised, a few kids pressed flat against the wall like they’re waiting for a flood to pass.

Through the art room’s narrow window, canvases lean in uneven stacks, and a dried brushstroke of cadmium yellow marks the floor like a scar no one bothered to clean.

"So what's the competition you're in?" Tasha asked Rune before her human friend joined them.

"We're wolf shifters. Whoever wins the most competitions will be the pack leader of two rival wolf packs."

"Oh, wow, I’ve never heard of wolf shifters. And that doesn't sound like fun. It sounds more like work."

"I don't plan on running the wolf packs," Rune said. "I'm just here to show the others that a lone wolf can beat them at the games."

"What about the guy who has the hots for you?"

"Stone? Same. He's a lone wolf also, but he wants to win and keeps telling me he will. We've shared a win a time or two."

"What about the others?" Tasha's girlfriend had stopped and was talking to one of the male fae competitors. "Oh, no."

"Oh, great. Of course it has to be Vesper," Rune said. "He has been a thorn in Stone's and my side since we started this competition."

"Can you help me help my friend, Lizzie? I can get my fae seer friends to take him hostage, but if that's not possible, do you have any ideas of what else we can do?"

"Typically, the fae will just act like he has found the girl he loves most of all, and when she's all giddy and telling all her friends about it, he'll tell her he was just joking, and he wouldn't go out with a dog like her for anything. At least, that’s what I suspect.” Rune shrugged. “Something like that. Now, Stone and I have never been to the human world. So we've never played pranks on humans."

"Oh."

"So I don't know what he will do for sure, but I'm all for thwarting Vesper."

Tasha took a deep breath and let it out. "I'm so glad that I didn't out you to my fae seer friends. As long as you're being truthful with me."

"I am. Believe me. No way would I want that guy to lead the two packs, though Stone and I are on our own and don't belong to either."

"What about the other competitors?"

"They belong to one of the two packs. So they're all vying to be top wolf."

"So you aren't friends with any of them?"