Page 43 of Moon Kissed

“All right, man, I get it,” Badr said. “She got in your head, because that’s what she does. It’s what all psychos do. They lieand manipulate and use to get what they want, and what she wants is to divide us... and then kill us.”

I heard footsteps. They were moving away.

“He’s right,” Nyx said. “She told all of Wolf Nation that we won’t be cooking up any super babies in her magic womb. She killed Castor to prove it. She’ll kill all of us too.”

“Next time she pulls something, you—”

A door slammed and cut off Badr’s sentence.

It was a weird and silent trip back to my dorm room. Even though I told her multiple times to scram, Nia followed me back as ordered.

Relief was too small a word for what I felt when I finally closed and locked my door behind me. I was sliding down onto the floor when a thought occurred to me.

“Oh, shit!” Sprinting across the room, I seized the bag under my bed, rescued my second phone and turned it on.

Lucia: Two Missed Calls

My phone lit up again that second, flashing her name. I answered it immediately. That was our system. If she called me three times and I didn’t answer, she’d hit the doomsday button.

“Lucia, it’s cool,” I cried. “Badr broke my other phone, but I’m fine now. The psycho’s loose.”

“That’s a pity,” she drawled. “Fuck’s sake. What’s it going to take for them to kill you already? Knowing you for five minutes should’ve proved that the wrath of the fae is worth shutting you up for good.”

“Will you shut the hell up, please! Five minutes with you and Badr would know I’ve been punished enough for a lifetime!”

Lucia laughed unrepentantly. “So how’d it go? Is Warren Hall dead?”

My scowl wiped away in a blink. Moving to the vanity, I flipped the revolving mirror and turned my grin to the paper taped to its side. “Oh, yeah, he’s dead,” I said, laughing as coldand unrepentant as Lucia. “And it wasn’t even a challenge. Not like the others will be.”

“Did you make sure to secure an alibi?”

The blush rose unbidden to my cheeks. “I had to result to drastic measures, but yes. My alibi was secure and, surprisingly, held up. No one will ever suspect it was me.”

“Except for absolutely everyone who suspects it was you.”

I shrugged, searching for a pen. “Correction: no one will ever prove it was me.” I found one in the top drawer. “Look, all that matters is that except for the alpha council, there’s one down”—I crossed out Hall’s name—“and only six more to go.”

Chapter Four

“Was Hall really murdered?”

“Yeah. There were signs of a struggle on the roof. Plus, the killer left a creep-ass note behind saying they were just getting started.”

“That’s awful. It had to be Volana, right? She’s the only psycho killer running around.”

“Nah. She was in the detention hall getting fucked.”

I glared at Nia through slitted eyes. She had the decency to look sheepish.

“She wasn’t anywhere near the guy when it happened,” the rumor mill continued.

“Does that mean there aretwokillers in this school?! What the hell is going on!”

Everyone was asking that, and everyone was talking about the night before.

Nia and I sat at our breakfast table in the back, scarfing down eggs Benedict with mint fruit salad and bellinis. The drinking age in Wolf Nation was eighteen, and I was appreciating that big-time right then. I needed a drink more than anyone.

I had to go after the next person on the list with the school on high alert, and everyone looking harder at me because I couldn’t resist leaving that note. I made an impossible task even harder, but I had my reasons.

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