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Typically, people would laugh if you snored in class, but not when Gray spewed it out so beautifully. Boys seemed to respect him, and girls fell head over heels for him no matter how loud he was. Everyone except that nerdy girl in the front row and Krystal, who kept themselves busy by taking notes and glaring at the teacher’s birthmark.
Even during Spanish class, the last torture before lunch time, Gray took his time to nap some more. Shortly after a last-minute quiz, Gray rose and stretched his arms in the air. Why was he so tired? I needed to find out what kept him up at night, in case it had something to do with my vision. So, I followed him up the stairs.
Only to catch him rejecting a girl’s advances on the rooftop.
When the girl cried and plonked down on her knees, I suddenly had the urge to scold him. Given Gray’s history of serial dating, flat out turning this blonde junior down without even a first date seemed … out of character. Maybe his lack of romantic urges and sleep had something to do with his attitude.
Gray turned his back on her and headed for the door where I was hiding like a villain. My knees buckled and I recoiled. I took one step away when a shooting, pounding pain stopped me short. It attacked the side of my head, blurring my sight momentarily as Gray spotted me standing at the back door on wobbly legs.
“Aera?” A genuine smile crawled up his face. “Hey, small bean. You’re not stalking me, are you?”
I froze, begging my brain to pick the right and less cynical words to say. I faked a gasp and said, “Omo(oh my God), what are you doing here?”
“Well, if you’re stalking me, then I can’t tell you. That would spoil the surprise, wouldn’t it?” I saw him smirk through the haze, his confidence overwhelming me.
With the pain spiking, I couldn’t grasp the next words that came out of his mouth. He sounded like he was underwater, like his teeth were gnashing against each other. My head was heavy. So heavy. His voice pummeled me without mercy, intensifying as I tried to push through the throbbing in my head.
“Stop, stop, stop!” I extended my right arm with my palm facing forward.
“What’s wrong with you?” he asked, his forehead wrinkling.
“Quiet!” I yelled, barely managing to restrain myself as I pressed my temples.
Our eyes bored into each other, and for a short moment, the pain in my head ceased as another vision flashed through my eyes.
A black wolf whose eyes glowed like the sunset sprinted and growled, crouched, and in an instant, leapt at me. When I dodged it, Gray was standing before me. But not Gray from school—Gray from the cliff, ankle-deep in frothing water.
Then he was gone.
I yelped, returning to reality as my body tilted, the back of my foot slipping off the top step, the air behind me all too empty. While waiting for my body to roll and dip itself on a bed of bloody roses, a pair of strong arms pulled me back to safety before my head could hit the floor.
“That was close,” Gray muttered, his annoying yet appealing smile, naturally long lashes, and sexy voice killing me softly as my eyes zeroed in on him.
That was smooth.I almost said it out loud before tossing my head from side to side. “You …” I didn’t know what to say, so I said whatever my frizzled brain came up with as the heat between us grew stronger and worrisome. “Where are you holding me?”
“Your waist,” he replied, his voice soft and distracting. The fact that he sounded rather innocent gave me goosebumps. “Where areyouholding me?” he asked. “Are you my very own koala?” Even in this moment, he had the audacity to tease the way I was holding on for my dear life by wrapping my arms around his neck. He was lucky I wasn’t acrobatic enough to have all four of my limbs around him.
“Do you want to die?” I retorted.
He scoffed. “What? You’re the one clinging onto me like I’m a life raft. You wouldn’t want me to let you go now, would you?” He pursed his lips. “It doesn’t look safe down there.”
“What do you mean?” I craned my neck, eyes widening as I looked down the stairs. “Dear me.” For real, it could’ve been a tragic fall.
A sudden realization zonked me with the truth: I, Aera Song, seventeen, almost had my own gory death and funeral after stalking a supposedly dying boy.
It all seemed like a warning from Hell, as if the Grim Reaper was telling me to stop following Gray or trying so hard to make sense of his nonsensical death. I thought maybe, just maybe, Mom was right. If I ended up saving Gray somehow, if it was even possible, someone else would have to take his place in the coffin. Like me.
“Heol,” I shuddered at my own theory.
Scared out of my wits, I unfurled myself from Gray and ran, unable to keep my sassiness from withering.
Only One Survives
“Again?”I mumbled. Aera scurried away from me. The horror in her eyes was irrefutable as she left me frozen at the stairway to the rooftop, feeling oddly amused.
I saw her again next period, and the next, then the next. By the end of school, she vanished from her seat faster than Harry Potter and his invisibility cloak. I followed her scent through the packed hallway and almost managed to catch up to her in the courtyard, but the strong fragrance of beef somewhere down the road dominated my senses. Thenpoof. I’d lost her.
So, I went looking for the beef skewers instead, because life without meat would be as crazy as the life of a ravenous werewolf, right? I hated my inner wolf’s priorities.
