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SANJANA

We spent the rest of the afternoon at home.

I'd been texting a little with Ryder, mostly casual check-ins. I had messaged Ashton too, along with a few of the cheer girls, but our main group chat with the guys had still been oddly quiet. Even with their classes and lives outside of us, we never went this long without so much as a meme or funny reel being shared. There wasn’t even a mention of meeting up at the diner later.

It was always a given, but someone still brought it up.

Ari was cross-legged on the floor with her tablet, knee-deep in Hunt research.

Roxxi was muttering to herself at the dining table, typing an essay like her life depended on it, and Cloe was upstairs, pacing her room while trying to contact her ghosting project partner.

The vibe had shifted from us eating together earlier.

I sat curled on the couch with my laptop open, trying to organize my notes for my online elective—Digital Ethics, of all things—but I wasn’t really retaining anything.

The lack of noise in the house was peaceful, but the silence of the guys wasn’t, especially when all of us had been with one of them at some point today.

Ryder had walked me to class and sent flowers.

Roxxi had seen Nick and Xander this morning.

Ari had seen Cade and spent most of the day bouncing between buildings, so there was no way she hadn’t crossed paths with at least one of them again.

So why had no one said a word about The Hunt?

No sarcastic comments. No casual teasing. No, we know jabs. Nothing.

“How mad do you think they are?” Ari asked suddenly, her thoughts aligning with mine.

Roxxi didn’t look up from her screen. “Why do they get to be mad? If they’re Marked too, they’ve been keeping it quiet just like we have. Communication goes both ways; if they want to play it silent, so can we.”

Ari hesitated, voice softer. “I get your point, but that doesn’t seem like the best way to handle this. You know how they are.”

Roxxi sighed, finally closing her laptop and tossing her pen onto the table.

“I do know how they are. And we all know how easy it is for them to find out something when they want to. After thinking about it a little more, there’s no doubt in my mind they know we’re Marked.

It might’ve started with Sanj, but as soon as Ryder got a hint of what was happening? You know damn well he told the others.”

Ari nodded slowly. “So, they’re waiting for us to admit it. They obviously don’t know about the bird because our home would have been invaded by them in caveman mode by now.”

I shifted on the couch, pulling my knees closer. “If I ease into the confession about the bird. It should be okay… Hopefully.” I paused. “I can’t picture them being Marked, too. What would that even look like?”

“I bet two or three Huntsmen try to screw with them, max. Then they’re going to learn a hard lesson because those boys never play fair,” Roxxi replied. “We’re the easy targets. Or at least, they’ll think so.”

My phone started ringing, disrupting our talk. I glanced at the screen—Ashton. I sighed and set my laptop aside. “I’ll take this upstairs. I need to start getting ready anyway.”

I answered as I was climbing the stairs two at a time.

“Hey,” Ashton’s voice came through, a little quieter than usual.

I stepped into my room and tossed my phone onto the bed after putting it on speaker mode so I could move around, going to my closet and grabbing my cheer uniform to change into.

“Are you okay?” I asked, sensing something was off.

“A bit weirded out, but yes. I was Marked today.”

“You were?”

“Yeah. I thought it was a joke at first because I didn’t know the girl who handed me the note. The text that followed it up confirmed this is actually happening.” There was a crinkle of paper, and then he read aloud: “Some sins take time to catch up. Consider this as your countdown.”

“What do you think that means?”

He huffed. “Hell if I know. I’ve never committed any sins.”

“We’ve all sinned, some more than others.”

“Well,” he amended, “I might be a little gluttonous, and I’ve fucked before marriage, but you knew that.”

I ignored his last comment. I hadn’t even considered him a possibility to be Marked. Guilt seeped into my consciousness. “You’re okay, though?”

He laughed. “It’s a silly tradition, sweetheart. I’m kinda looking forward to it.”

His answer surprised me. I wouldn’t have expected him to want to do this.

Then again, he did have a bit of an adrenaline junkie in him. “That makes one of us at least,” I murmured, then winced. “Shit.”

There was a beat of silence before he chuckled. “I heard that going around.”

“From who?”

“Kellan mentioned it. Wouldn’t say how. Actually, he slipped up like you just did.”

I silently cursed Kellan—and myself. “Well, it happened. I’m Marked.”

“How’d they tell you? Was it just you, or your roommates too?”

Roommates? That was certainly one way to reduce what the girls were to me. No way was I answering the how. Everyone else was getting ominous notes and vague threats. I got a justifiable reason for trauma and a stalker who thought we could have a connection.

“Can you keep it between us for now? I know it’s floating around, but I’d like it to stay that way for a little longer.”

“I take it Voss isn’t aware of this, then?”

I didn’t answer fast enough, and he laughed. “No shit he doesn’t.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I heard he sent you flowers during class, and was wondering if you two were at odds about something. That explains why he doesn’t know.”

How loud and wrong he was, proudly too. I wondered if it was widespread that he sent me flowers as some sort of an apology, or if this was solely Ashton’s theory. Ryder wouldn’t use floral arrangements to apologize.

“I’m not sure what you heard, but we’re not having any issues.”

“That’s good, I guess. For a minute, I was glad you didn’t tell him first, but I wasn’t the first person you told either.”

I double-checked that I had everything I needed, then zipped my duffel shut, staring down at my phone. The ever-present guilt threaded itself through everything lately—my relationships, my choices, my silence.

“Are we okay, Sanj? I feel like you’ve been a little off lately.”

I wasn’t sure how he picked up on it. It had only been a day or two since we last saw each other.

Maybe he just sensed it, the unraveling, the quiet drift he didn’t want to acknowledge.

I pressed my hand to my temple, dragging my fingers through my hair, trying to piece together the right words.

The truth was simple and cruel. Ashton had always been good to me.

Not perfect— no one ever was—but he tried.

And even with Sarah aside, he never gave me a reason to doubt his intentions.

None of that changed anything.

I couldn’t keep reaching for something that was never really there. Delaying the inevitable would only end up hurting us both. Deep down, I’d always known he would make a better friend than anything else. But I couldn’t say any of that over the phone. He deserved more than that.

Worse still, he didn’t stop.

“Tell me what I can do so we’re in a good place again? I know the other night I was late getting back to you, and talking to Sarah was a stupid thing to do. I really am sorry. I’m trying, I swear. I just… I don’t know if that’s ever going to be enough for you.”

His voice dripped with enough sadness to make sure I was the villain here. The problem. The antihero ready to rip out a heart I’d never really held properly in my hands.

All because I had loved someone else long before him.

I closed my eyes. “I know you care, Ash.”

“I hope you mean that, Sanj.”

I walked to my vanity, opened the top drawer, and grabbed a scrunchie, pulling my hair up like the motion might help me keep everything else together too. “I do mean it, but honestly, I don’t know where we stand right now.”

“Then I’ll have to do a better job of showing you,” he finally said.

Inside my head, a voice wailed no . This was exactly why I should’ve ended our relationship the day it started. Now look at the mess I’d made. Though, to be fair, I’d never broken up with anyone before. My phone lit up with a text, and I glanced at the screen.

1031

The number I’d blocked.

My brows pinched as I caught half the preview box before it went away. I tapped into my inbox, reading the rest.

You leave your window unlocked at night.

That makes it easier to come visit you.

“What?” I whispered to myself, too quiet for Ashton to hear.

I didn’t leave my windows unlocked. Phone in hand, I turned toward the bathroom again, trying to make sure I wasn’t imagining things, half-listening to Ashton talking in the background.

Something about me staying over tonight after we left the diner.

I poked my head in and saw the trash bag was still in place over the broken window with no signs of tampering.

I’d have to ask Cloe if she’d gotten in touch with whoever was supposed to replace the glass.

I stepped back into my room and cut Ashton off. “Hey, Roxxi needs help with something,” I lied. “I’ll see you in a few, okay?”

“Oh, yeah, of course.”

“Bye,” I chirped with all the pep I could muster, hanging up before the next wave of guilt could slam into me any harder.

I put my phone down on the bed and crossed the room to the only window I had.

It was beside my bed and overlooked the side of the house.

I was sure I’d locked it over a week ago when it started to drizzle.

I could envision the day perfectly. I had been sitting on there doing a lit assignment, and crawled over my textbook to shut the window once the rain started.

I peeled my curtain back and pressed my fingers to the bottom edge of the pane where the lip was.

It slid up without resistance.

“No fucking way.”