Chapter 16 · The Hunt Starts Early

My phone buzzes at three in the morning.

I don't move. Just stare at the ceiling and count the seconds between vibrations. One. Two. Three more messages.

Then the emergency alert goes off.

I grab the phone. The screen's too bright and my eyes burn but I see it anyway. A map. Red dots scattered across campus like blood drops. And right in the center, pulsing—my location.

The hunt's supposed to start Friday. It's Tuesday.

Someone changed the rules.

I sit up. My roommate's still asleep, face buried in her pillow. Lucky her. I swipe through the messages. They're all from the academy alert system. No sender name. Just coordinates and a single line of text:

*Pretty Prey is live. First target marked. Good luck.*

I zoom in on the map. The red dots are other students. Most of them in the dorms, a few in the training halls. Night owls or insomniacs. They're all moving now, converging.

Toward me.

I pull on my jacket and shove my feet into my boots. No time to lace them.