the lion stalks through the night,
to sit beneath the hawthorn tree.
“Well, shit. What the hell does that mean?” Tag glances at me, his forehead pinched.
“I don’t know. Um.” I tug my lower lip between my teeth, chewing thoughtfully. “These are the times I wish we’d been allowed to do freshman orientation.”
“You aren’t kidding.” He lets out a breath. “Fuck, I don’t know what to do. Some sort of path through trees.”
I grimace. “There are a ton of trees on campus.”
“Yep. And loads of paths.” He pauses, brow drawing together. “But actual hawthorn trees, I only know of in two spots.” Letting out a long audible exhale, he pinches the bridge of his nose. “I think we’re going to have to split up. We’ll be faster that way.” Wetting his lips. “If I tell you the two spots I’m thinking of, can we agree to text each other if we find the cards?”
I nod quickly. I don’t have any idea about the trees he’s talking about, so it would do me no good not to accept his help. “Yeah, okay. What are our options?”
“There are a bunch of hawthorn trees lining the common area at the center of campus. And then there are a couple within the garden behind Brandywine Hall.” He lets out a breath, taking my phone from me and shooting a text message from me to his number. “There. All set. Which one do you want to try? I’ll take the other one.”
“I guess I’ll go to the garden.” I hold out my hand, and he clasps his with mine. “Thank you.”
“Yep.” He stands up and takes off without another word.
I go in almost the exact opposite direction, adrenaline pumping through my veins as I push myself to run as fast as I can. When I reach Brandywine Hall, I skirt around the building, following a pebbled path—that’s promising. Every few feet, a large bronze-colored lion paw print is nestled among the stones. Hope surges within me. This has to be it. The lion’s path. I look up. A short distance away are the trees Taggart referred to. Picking up my pace I let my mind run through the rest of the clue… the lion stalks along the path tositamong the hawthorn trees. My head snaps to the side where a bench sits directly between two of the trees. There’s a plaque on the backrest of the bench, and when I look closely, I see it was donated by none other than Jeremiah Hawthorne. Kingston’s grandfather, maybe? And there, just waiting for anyone to see are the three cards. I whip my phone out of my back pocket and shoot Tag a text.
They’re here. Hurry.
As I’m about to pick up one of the cards to read the next clue, arms band around my biceps and chest, lifting me and dragging me backward.
“What the hell?” I shout, immediately attempting to break free by twisting this way and that.
Heaving, hot breaths infused with alcohol gust past my cheek. “What the hell, indeed.” The words are slightly slurred, and I know in that instant it’s Bridger.
And that can only mean trouble.
“You asshole! What’d you do, spot me running and follow because you’re too dumb to figure out the clues on your own?” I struggle against him, kicking my heels into his shins and thrashing my body around. At the same time, my mind races. No way did this deranged fuck find the clue at the stadium and make it here this quickly. Not when Taggart specifically told me he saw him heading to one of the science buildings. Taggart wouldn’t have lied to me. I just don’t see it.
“Calm down, you whore.” He stumbles forward, and both of us land facedown in the grass, him sprawled on top of me, a complete fucking dead weight that makes my breath punch hard from my lungs. Recovering semi-quickly, he sits up, straddled over my ass, definitely heavy enough that I can’t move. He slips his hand into the back pocket of my shorts, pulling out the two cards that’d been in there. He must realize he doesn’t need the first one, because it lands on the grass near my head as he murmurs, “Perfect.”
This overgrown asshole is about to steal my card from the stadium. My heart pumps wildly in my chest, thrumming hard.Oh, fuck no.I grit out, “You are such a cheating, lying,stealingfuckwad, Bridger.”
“Careful, baby, you’ll turn me on with a dirty fuckin’ mouth like that. And the rules said to make my way around campus gathering cards. It didn’t say by what means or where I had to find them.” He rocks against my backside with a sick chuckle. “Gotta say, though. This ass.Damn.Those guys must enjoy taking turns with you.” He pauses, huffing out a breath. “Except Kingston and Archer are totally gay. Didn’t see that coming. But maybe I should have, all things considered. Just a bunch of gay pussies around this house.”
I flinch hard at his comment, but grind out, “Shut up, Bridger. You’re drunk. And get the fuck off me.” I buck wildly beneath him, but all at once he grips my hair in his hand. My scalp stings and burns as he roughly pulls my head up. I grind my teeth against the searing pain, but tears form in my eyes anyway. “You’re the one who shut me in that closet, aren’t you?”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” he mutters gruffly before relaxing his grip on my hair and letting me drop back to the grass. “I’ll see you when you get back to the house. After you’ve lost.Again.”
His weight lifts from me as he wobbles to his feet.
I’m fast. And only a little buzzed after taking two shots. I roll to standing and fling myself at him, trying to dislodge my card from his hand.
Enraged, he huffs like a bull, then grips my upper arms and squeezes, his eyes making him seem crazy. He pulls me in close, so I ram my knee into that son of a bitch’s junk so hard it actually hurts my leg in the process. “Fuuuck,” he rages, eyes bulging out, cartoon style, as his jaw goes slack, and he drops to the ground, holding himself with both hands. I back away, and moving quickly, grab up all three of my cards. Then I look at the ones left. I take one and chuck it up into the branches of the tree, then grab the remaining one. I leave Bridger moaning and cussing on the ground under the hawthorn tree that now holds his card.
Finding another spot to hide, I duck into the alcove of one of the academic buildings and take a look at the third clue.
In a lion’s kingdom,
he sits inside his den.
Find the ruler where he reigns
