Wicked Hungry

But I ignore him, looking at Karen.

“You need to watch out,” she says to me. “They have the house surrounded.”

“Whose house?” I ask.

“Blaine’s. And your friends — I can’t find them.”

“They’re not in the house?” Blaine asks.

She shakes her head. “No one’s in there, except one of my kind.”

“Morgaine,” Blaine says.

“I don’t understand,” Connor says. “Who’s got the house surrounded?”

“Riders,” Karen says. “At least a dozen.”

“You’re kidding,” Blaine says. “I don’t believe you.”

Another horn sounds, off in the distance.

“I don’t kid,” Karen says, and she’s off, a red blur.

“Wow,” Carver says. “She’s fast.”

“The younger ones are the fastest,” Blaine says. “The old are the most deadly.”

“We need to go,” I say. “But we can’t leave Frumberg here alone, as much as I hate him.”

Carver nods. “We’ll leave Thomas, Mark, and Jason. They can carry him to safety,” he says, nodding toward three of the tall seniors behind him. “Me and Andres will follow you guys.”

“What about us?” Blaine asks.

“You can run ahead,” Carver says. “I really wouldn’t want you at our backs.”

“You bet your life you wouldn’t,” says Connor.

Blaine chortles.

Jonathan growls, fox musk filling the air.

But my mind is on Meredith. Where is she? And what’s she up to? We need to find her, and Carolina, but then what? Hope Max has run home?

“Okay,” Blaine says. “Enough talk. Can you all run fast without changing?”

Me and Enrique nod, and Jonathan shrugs. “I haven’t really tried yet,” he says. “But I think I can keep up. If not, I can follow your scent trail.”

Blaine sniffs an armpit. “We are kind of rank,” he says. “Ready, set, go!”

Blaine and Connor set off running through the night, with me and Jonathan right behind. Blaine is faster than I imagined, and glancing at Jonathan, I have to admit he is one fast fox. Just behind me is Enrique; there’s no need to look back, I can feel him there, running in great, loping strides as we dodge our way through the trees.

But we’ve left Andres and Carver in the dust, and that scares me a little. What are Blaine and Connor’s intentions? How do we know they aren’t leading us into a trap?

I need to think, but I’m running full speed. Ahead of us, there is... a house. Surrounded by horsemen. Or are they really men? Their skin is weirdly luminescent.

Blaine stops short in front of us, and Jonathan and I do everything we can to not plow into him as Enrique runs into our backs.

“Unseelie Court,” Blaine says, gesturing to the house.