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I squinted into the dark, peering between the flashes of tangled trunks and ivy.

There was nothing but sporadic shafts of light barely piercing the thickest shadows. Nothing but the rustling of the branches in the summer breeze. It must have been that.

Kenny followed the pack with another sharp turn. Around us, the forest thinned, pale boulders and hard plots of soil puncturing the pine-riddled ground. More moss, more stars, less overgrowth. Nowhere to hide.

I whipped my head around, scanning the edge of the wood.

A flash of color. A howl. A wolf darted out. Then another and another, as the pack drew back together. Familiar brownish-blonde speckled fur darted to the front. Shanley. I blew out a sigh of relief.

A grove of redwoods rose up in an otherwise empty field. A temple of sorts, made of stone and bark. A white glow emanated from the heart of it, spearing back into the grass like fronds of the missing moonlight.

Crescent Rock—it must be. My shoulders slumped as we reached the hidden meeting place, but the aching fear curled around me.

I was now minutes from facing Chet on the stand.

From facing his fake tan, fake smile, fake charm.

“You ready?” Shanley took a hit of her vape, quickly stashing it in her pocket. She’d already changed: black jumper cinched at the waist; jacket draped over her shoulders; jowls replaced by high ivory cheekbones.

Booties hitting the ground, I smoothed out my navy slacks—a gift from her girlfriend, Mau. My whole outfit was, actually: the ribbed shirt, the bold lip, the bow in my hair, all of it styled by her. All of it too fashionable. Too itchy. But for tonight, I needed the armor.

Wolves trotted past me, speedy and silent. Several had shifted back to two legs. No one spared me a second glance.

Well, at least I blended in.

A lithe arm linked around Shanley’s. Mau effortlessly slid in beside her, looking radiant as ever in her human form. Red lips set in a thin line, she fidgeted with her tight knit dress. A slight tremor rocked her hands as she worked the fabric, then dragged a fingernail to sharpen the corner of her winged liner.

She was nervous. Shit.

Heat flared on the back of my neck.

Shanley ran her hand through her windswept hair. “Let’s go in. Opening remarks start in a few.”

The lump that’d formed in my throat kept me from answering.

“You got this, girlie,” Mau whispered, before she and Shanley disappeared.

I wished I had someone to link arms with. Someone to wholly lean on. Someone to fill the empty void in my heart.

I wished I had Javi. But he was still in a coma, recovering from the demon attack, and it was my secrets, my lies, my schemes that put him there.

If only I’d let him in on my life, as best friends do, he wouldn’t have snuck out after me.

If only I’d told him the honest truth, he wouldn’t have ended up atop the splintered wood and mangled metal as a pile of barely breathing, bloodied rags.

If only.

Willing my feet forward, I sucked in a breath and walked towards the open-air sanctum, alone. That feeling that someone was there, that someone was watching, never seeming to go away.