Page 31 of Mate Night Snack
He didn’t speak. Just looked at her.
Her dark curls were pulled into a messy knot, one of her vintage band tees slung off one shoulder. There was ink on her thumb, dried smudges on the side of her palm. Her hazel eyes were sharp, but tired. Determined.
Alive.
Emmett stepped in and shut the door behind him.
That made her blink. “Uh. Okay.”
“You been out today?” he asked.
“Just the attic,” she said, watching him now with the alert stillness she wore when she sensed something big was about to land. “Found more of those journals.”
He nodded once. His mouth felt dry.
She crossed her arms. “You gonna tell me what’s going on, or is this another round of ‘let me grunt near you and expect you to figure it out’?”
He moved to the window and stared out toward the woods.
“The perimeter’s been breached.”
Katniss stilled. “Breached?”
He looked back. “There was a scent. A sign. A threat.”
She tilted her head. “You say that like you were expecting it.”
“I was,” he said quietly. “Just not this soon.”
“Is this about those missing girls?” she asked. “Because I’ve got a journal from ’94 that makes it sound like this town has been tiptoeing around something fordecades.”
He turned back toward her. “It’s not just the town,” he said. “It’s theVeil.It’s everything past what you see.”
Katniss scoffed. “You’re doing it again. Talking like I’m supposed to know what that means.”
“I’m trying toexplain it now.”
His voice came out sharper than he meant.
She went quiet, lips pressed together.
He took a breath. “There’s magic here,” he said, steady now. “Real magic. Not parlor tricks. Not ghost stories. The kind that grows into the trees. That shapes bloodlines. Thatbinds fate.You stepped into it without knowing but the Veil saw you. That’s what it does. Itchooses.”
Katniss stared at him. “You’re telling me ghosts aren’t the strangest thing in this town?”
He gave a short laugh. “They’re barely on the list.”
She sank onto the edge of her bed, notebook sliding off her lap.
He stayed standing, he couldn’t sit.
“I’ve tried to keep you out of it. I didn’t want you to carry it and honestly, we are all here because it’s protected and we understand each other and the supernatural, no gawking from tourists or prejudices,” he said. “But now you’re in the thick of it, whether you believe it or not. Seer or not even. And I think they’re coming for you.”
“Who?” she asked, quiet now.
“Ashwin,” he said. “He’s the reason I don’t wear another pack’s mark. The reason I live on the edge of town and not insideit. His pack was violent. Trained to erase threats. To consume. We disbanded them years ago. But he’s back.”
Katniss stood up slowly, like the ground under her feet wasn’t entirely trustworthy. Her hand fell away from the edge of the bed.
