Page 101 of Let Us Prey

“We’ll be here, I imagine,” Aubrey sayswith a frown. “Why?”

Fitz blinks, looking at me as he finally catches on. “He’s worried about Dolly. She might have to go home to the nuthouse, right?”

I nod, my expression grim as I remember what the dragon shared about her parents and their behavior at the meeting. “It concerns me, yes.”

“Hell yeah, big bro is on the D train now!” He grabs Chess, spinning him around crazily before he gives us a bright smile. “Now we have to get you to quit swallowing your tongue around her and the Flying Fartknockers to dig their heads out of their asses. Then we can all do the bunny hop together!”

Every time I think Fitz is maturing, he follows it with something like this. Sigh.

“What have you found out about the prey tunnels and the symbols on that door? We haven’t talked about it since you belched fire at everyone,” I ask as I pick up a stack of clean dishes to put in the cabinets.

The dragon gives me a murderous look and, despite his frilly attire, I feel it in my bones. “I am having difficulty locating the information we need. Renard is talking with the prey about the inside of the tunnels, but we are hitting brick walls.”

“Baby Girl found some map things in a book. Has she asked you?” Fitz flips a knife across the room and I catch it with an irritated growl.

Aubrey whirls around, looking at each of us until he hits the guilty expression on his Tower mate’s face. “She asked you and not me?”

This kitchen might turn into an Easy Bake oven if he doesn’t give the answer our friend wants.

“Yes. But she planned to ask you since she found the clues in one of the archive books she’s been working on for you.” He grins a little, winking at the angry librarian. “I’m fairly certain the dead body at the school party distracted her, Flames.”

Just like that, Aubrey lets out a slow breath and nods. “You may be right. I’ll speak to her after and together we can try to piece together what she believes she found.”

“You have the fucking coolest lair, Lizard of Oz. I nearly pissed my sweats because our bad bunny didn’t warn me, but I definitely want to ride it again.”

And then the dragon puffs up again, wings and all.

I always knew my brother was going to be the death of me.

Under Pressure

Delores

My head is poundingas I walk out of my last exam of the semester. I should be excited because I’m finally free, but to be honest, I feel like I might keel over on the spot.

The weeks after Thanksgiving were a blur—mostly because every professor in the entire fucking school piled the students with projects, papers, and study guides that could double as bludgeons. I don’t know why they were intent on making us study twenty-four hours a day, besides seeing if we’d crack, but it's been the most intense two weeks of school work I’ve ever experienced. I haven’t even had a sleepover with Fitz lately, because I was so buried in work.

That would have helped me let off some steam…

I spent most of my nights in either Rufus or Cori’s dorm room, all of us wearing headphones while we stuff our faces with pizza and clack away at keyboards. I wanted to work upstairs, but to be honest, this time of year is about cramming knowledge and bitching about your professors… over half of which are my boyfriends, so it seemed prudent to hunker in downstairs with my friends instead.

Lucille will definitely check on my grades, and although I’m not permitted to come home during Yule break, I’ll surely receive a not-so-vaguely threatening phone call if my marks aren’t up to snuff. I wouldn’t put it past her to send Bruiser to ‘remind’ me how important it is to still positively represent the very family I’ve been shunned from, so the bags under my eyes and my shuffling gait of a zombie have been earned. I don’t know if I’ve slept more than ten hours since Friday, to be honest.

I’m still a hundred percent likely to flunk my fucking Shifter History exam.

That shitty asshole Professor Abel changed the test—again—without notice, so everything I spent the weekend memorizing was damn near useless. The professor’s smirk at my dismay, and that no one else in class seemed to freak out, makes me wonder if I’m not being given completely different material than everyone else.

My DiePhone vibrates in my pocket, and I pull it out, smiling for the first time in hours when I see who it is. “Hi Cori! I just got out. I’m headed to your room to—oh. I see.” I stop in my tracks, looking across the campus in fear. The Honeywell Admissions building looms across the lake, and I can’t repress the shiver that shoots down my spine as I listen to my friend explain why she and Rufus think I need to join them in the cafeteria.

“... besides, Dolly, you can’t avoid the building entirely for the next three and a half years! Rufus and I are already inside, headed to claim a table. No one will mess with you when we’re together; I promise. They have fish tacos tonight, and we want to spend the whole dinner giggling like idiots. Pleeeeeease?”

Swallowing hard, I put my free hand on my chest, feeling the rapid thump of my heart as the prey animal inside of me remembers the last time I was in there. Rufus and Cori don’t understand how that chase made me feel—they can’t.

They’ll never be able to comprehend the desperation I felt trying to get to the infirmary before some dickwad dingoes I didn’t even know tried to attack me. It’s not something I can explain, becauseit’s so far out of their experience as preds, especially ones who can hold their own. The invitation is still tempting because I don’t want to keep running forever.

Chin up, Dolly. It’s time to face your fears and kick their ass. That’s what your guys would do.

Ugh. It’s definitely what they’d do, while also encouraging me to do the same. “Okay, Coco. But no one gets to make fun of me if I’m a little jumpy at first. Tell Rufus not to be a bitch about it.” Her laugh tinkles through the line, and before I know it, we’ve said goodbye.

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