Chapter 5

A blonde girl came through the passage into the clearing wearing a sundress and a mask, and the crowd lost their minds. The cheering hit so loud I actually flinched. Girls around me were standing on their toes trying to get a better look, some of them had their hands pressed to their chests like they were watching something sacred.

"hmmph, bitch," Priya said under her breath, her lips barely moving, her eyes fixed on the stage with an expression that could strip paint off a wall.

I turned to look at her. "you don't seem to like his choice of Luna, or are you jealous," I said nudging her shoulder with mine, genuinely entertained by the look on her face.

"Ewwww never, that guy is so disgusting and she is worse, they are a match made in heaven," she said, her nose wrinkling like the thought alone had a smell.

"I thought you were his fan girl, you were excited to see him when we got here, what happened your mood just nose dived," I said watching her face curiously, trying to figure out what I was missing.

"I just don't li..."

"WHATTT!"

The word tore out of me before I could stop it. I was on my feet without knowing when I stood up, my eyes locked on the stage where the girl had just pulled off her mask and I felt the blood drain from my face.

The people sitting closest to me turned to stare.

"Zara sit down," Priya said through her teeth, grabbing at my wrist.

I couldn't move. Every single pair of eyes in my immediate vicinity had swung to me including hers, the girl on the stage, my tormentor, my bully, standing up there in her sundress with that wide creepy smile stretched across her face aimed directly at me. A cold chill ran through my whole body starting from my spine.

I pulled my wrist from Priya's hand and walked.

"Zara," she called behind me.

I kept walking. Through the crowd, past the fire, past the lights, not caring about direction just needing distance between me and that face.

I thought I had buried this in the last year of high school. I thought I had grown out of it, gotten past it, become someone who did not feel small the moment Bella's eyes found her. Four years and one supernatural werewolf town later and my hands were still shaking.

She is a werewolf. That hit me somewhere between the crowd and the tree line. No wonder she was so strong back then. And Priya knew. Priya had always known.

"why did you walk out like that," Priya said, slightly out of breath, catching up to me at the edge of the clearing.

I turned to face her and the look on my face must have said enough because she stopped walking.

"you knew Bella was a werewolf, obviously, and you knew she was going to be here and you still brought me here knowing how much I hate her, knowing everything she put me through in high school." My voice came out louder than I planned and I didn't lower it. "I have been looking at you like a stranger since I got here and I keep finding out new things and I can't help but ask myself if I even know you at all."

"I am sorry, I didn't know she was going to be here," she said, her hands coming up slightly like she was trying to steady something invisible between us. "I knew she was a werewolf, that was why I tried to protect you back then..."

"but you couldn't, and now you have brought me straight to her." I cut her off. "I saw her face when she saw me, that smile, it was like she was expecting me." Something moved across Priya's face when I said that, something fast and gone before I could read it properly. "What else are you hiding from me that I need to know?"

"Nothing, okay? I brought you here because you needed it." She stepped forward and placed her hands on my shoulders, squeezing gently. "Look at you, you have not thought about that bastard Marcus once since you got here."

She was right about that part and I hated that she was right.

"I want to go home," I said quietly.

"there is nobody there, okay, let me tell my mom and we can leave here right now." She said already looking back toward the clearing.

"No." I stepped back. "I mean back to the city. To my house. I cannot be in the same town as her."

"she can't do anything to hurt you here you are safe, and you can't leave right now anyway the road is still blocked, I don't know when it will open up." She said, her voice dropping to something softer. "But I promise the moment it clears we go back, okay?"

I looked at her and said nothing. The memories were already moving behind my eyes without permission, the hallways, the laughter, the specific kind of cruelty that only seventeen year olds can produce with real precision, and for the first time in a very long time I felt that old familiar fear sitting in my chest like it had never left.

My eyes felt hot.

"I am sorry Zara," Priya said, looking at me with that pitying expression I cannot stand.

"Don't." I looked away from her. "I want to stay here for a while. Alone. I will meet you back at the house."

She opened her mouth.

"Alone Priya."

She closed it. Exhaled slowly. "don't stay too long, it's getting dark and the forest is not safe at night."

"okay," I said.

She looked at me for another second then turned and walked back toward the clearing. I watched until she disappeared into the crowd.

I let out a long breath and felt my shoulders drop about three inches.

I did not realize I had walked into the forest until the light from the clearing was already behind me filtered through tree trunks. The air was cooler in here, quieter, the sounds of the ceremony muffled by distance and leaves.

"do you think she would let you go home."

The voice came from directly behind me and I spun around so fast I nearly lost my footing, my hand flying to my chest.

Dark blue eyes. Standing between two trees like he had grown there.

"You again." I stared at him. "I cannot believe this."