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“Oh, shit, my bad.” Gray Yoo picked up the book and attempted to hand it back to me. “Hey, I haven’t seen you in a while. Did you do anything for your birthday?”
I didn’t get a chance to respond to him or take back what was mine, because as I stared into his pitch-black pupils—a hazy, flickering image appeared in my mind.
A vision.
Transported to another time and place, I saw Gray standing at the edge of a cliff above a steamy waterfall. I was behind him, and when he turned around to meet me, I saw the tears rolling down his cheeks and his now messy hair falling over one of his eyes. Then I saw his lips, his smile that was so wistful under the warm sun and his mouth whispering something in the wind. And finally, before I could register a word from this gaunt version of him, he fell off the cliff.
Gray tapped on my shoulder, his mere touch jolting me back to reality.
“Earth to small bean? Are you okay? Here.” His eyes surveyed me as one of his hands steadied my swaying body. “You don’t look okay,” he said, stating the obvious.
I couldn’t say a word. I tried to meet his gaze to make sure I wasn’t mistaking him for someone else, but the skull-splitting pain wasn’t fading with the vision this time. I screwed my eyes shut as Gray maintained his grip on my arm.
Moments later, I recovered and pushed his hands off me. I abandoned my beloved book in his hands and dashed toward the exit, sending him a brief backward glance—one long enough for me to spot the confusion crawling across his face as he watched me flee like my life was at stake.
Out in the corridor, I rubbed my eyes, the images of Gray replaying in my head. I forced them shut, hoping the vision would stop as I tried to catch my breath.
It didn’t help. My disbelief lingered along with the sharp pain shooting up my chest, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. After all, it was the first time someone I knew emerged in my visions.
Only to die.
King of Pretending
“Is there something on my face?”I poked Rainer’s shoulder. He was the only one in my group rocking stubble and also regularly excluded from our antics—by choice.
“I don’t know.” Rainer’s words were accompanied with a lazy sigh as he planted himself on the edge of the lunch table.
The rest of the guys were too engrossed in eating or laughing about our homeroom teacher’s reaction to finding a spider in his briefcase. Rainer had no interest in either.
“But maybe she saw a crazy woman hanging on your back,” he added. “You know, the one with the long, black hair, deep bags under her eyes, and dry, pale skin—with blood dripping from her mouth.”
His sardonic tone told me he was itching for a fight again.
“Very funny, Rainer.” I rolled my eyes and turned my head sideways, only to catch Aera glancing back at me in a strangedon’t-look-back-but-I’m-looking-back-anywayway before exiting the crowded cafeteria.
By the time she was gone, I found myself bristling at the sight of Cole laughing with his newfound hunter friends. I couldn’t help but think about how their breakup must have hurt Aera more than she let on.
“Damnit,” I muttered through clenched teeth, sensing the need to dispel the seething feeling in my gut as I stared at the book Aera might have accidentally left with me. “I could really use a run at breakneck speed.”
* * *
After school,I stepped out of the gate and sprinted through the traffic into the woods. As soon as I found a secluded area in the preserve, I squeezed my eyes shut and slowly opened them to behold my surroundings in red.
It started with a slowsnap, followed by the rapid breaking of every bone in my body, tearing my clothes and contorting my limbs until I was on all fours. I stared at my hands on the ground, my nails extending into crescent moons as my fur—white and heavy as snow—began sprouting from my skin. This was my other identity: a werewolf, the one thing I could be no matter where or when.
Then I ran.
The rough padding of extra paws joined me in the woods. I caught a glimpse of black and brown fur, Huxley and Gretta, both a blur as their speed matched mine. We ran through the thick fog of the forest, racing past rows of towering trees.
My own snow white fur was a stark contrast to theirs as I sped up, daring them to race me with one devious glance. No words were spoken in that moment, as no wordscouldbe spoken, but they unleashed a playful growl and chased after me.
The sharp twigs on the ground were less painful than running in my human form, but I still steadied myself as I skidded in the mud. Determined to beat them, my paws found purchase in the earth, balancing my body so I can move faster.
Despite their figures being distorted from their speed, I could see Huxley and Gretta sprinting from the corner of my eye.
I doubted any hunter could catch us, and even if they did, they would most likely mistake us for a passing breeze or a spontaneous gust of wind.
I released a bark, and they responded in unison as we dodged every tree in our path. Finally, we emerged out of the other side, running clear through the forest. Our tongues hung out of our mouths as we panted, saliva dripping on to the ground.
