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CHAPTER 1

Hunter Garrity ducked behind a copse of trees and waited The last week of school, and those jerks were still pulling this crap

He held his breath and listened Nothing

But someone was still back there He could feel it He’d been feeling it the entire walk ho the last fifteen minutes, they’d drawn close

They’d never be able to wait him out He knew that from experience He had patience in spades and could sit here all night, letting the air and the earth feed hih to demand answers from the elements—yet—so he had to wait, to pay attention to what they illing to offer

But if he ain, his dad would be pissed

A branch snapped underfoot about twenty feet behind where he was hiding

Hunter eased out a breath and waited Another branch, a rustle of leaves

It see None of theuts to face him alone—not anymore, anyway Freshman year, sure, before he’d coht hiht

This year had started differently Jeremy Rasmussen had been the first one to find out the hard way On the second day of school, he’d walked into the boy’s bathroom and slammed Hunter face-first into the tile wall

Hunter had slammed him face-first into a mirror

Jeremy had earned a broken nose, stitches across one cheek, and a chipped tooth Hunter had earned two days’ suspension and soard from his classmates

But they didn’t leave hih they wouldn’t e A gauntlet They kept co up with more creative ways to screith him

He kept co up with more creative paths to travel

Like this afternoon He’d turned his walk froh the dairy far between fence boards until he reached the acre of corn that led to the woods backing his parents’ property