Hands of Chaos: Book 3 in the Shady Woods series - a fun, easy to read paranormal by J Mercer

Author:J Mercer [Mercer, J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bare Ink
Published: 2022-11-22T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter ten

Bonfire and Ice

Riah grabbed Jeremy, Stella, and Ethan. The five of us left right away.

The snow had been cleared from a section of frozen lake in Nora’s backyard, and half our grade was already there. The moon was bright and the sky clear, plus the huge bonfire at the shore lent enough light to find your way around.

By the time Stella and I had changed into warmer clothes and winter layers, Aster was standing with Riah, Ethan, and Jeremy.

“Christian went home,” she told me. “Said he’s over high school.”

I frowned.

“Don’t worry. He smelled okay. I’ll check on him tomorrow.”

Stella squeezed my shoulder, then led Ethan down to the ice.

“You tell Kiara you were leaving the dance?” Aster asked Riah.

His mouth dropped open as if he were going to say something, but nothing came out.

She rolled her eyes. “You’re as bad as Jeremy.”

“Hey.” Jeremy sidled up next to me. “I’ve been an excellent date this time around. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

Riah pulled his phone out to text Kiara, and we left him for the roasting table. Marshmallows, chocolate bars, peanut butter cups, graham crackers, and roasting sticks sat next to jars of red lumps floating in a pink liquid.

Aster plucked one of the lumps out and popped it in her mouth. I wrinkled my nose. “Some kind of tongue,” she reported.

“Hopefully not human,” Jeremy muttered, lifting the jar to sniff it.

She wobbled her head back and forth as if thinking about it, then swallowed. “Pretty sure it’s badger, though I haven’t had much badger in my life.”

“Why would you think it could be human?” I asked.

They turned to me.

“There was a bunch in the cooler,” Aster said, very quietly.

The cooler was a special wolf section at the grocery store that held all sorts of fresh meat. “There was a shipment of human meat?”

Aster made an I’m-very-sorry-to-be-the-one-to-tell-you-this face, and Jeremy reached a hand out to steady me. Pushing him away, I stumbled to the nearest chair. It squeaked as it settled in the snow, and I tucked my boots under it, resting my elbows on my knees and trying to get my head to stop spinning. Jeremy crouched down next to me. “You okay?”

I waved him away and shook my head. Not okay, but I needed a moment. He nodded and returned to Aster. I could feel them watching me.

A little later, Riah set a chair in front of me and sat down so his knees touched mine. “Rough night, huh?”

I heard the catch in his voice and looked up into his eyes. He was sad, but his face lacked the righteous indignation that usually came on the heels of something like this, which meant he’d known about it and already grappled with his disgust.

It felt like we were two steps closer to chaos—vampires drinking fresh from willing participants in public and werewolves buying human meat as a delicacy. I was having a hard time swallowing, like I had a marshmallow stuck in my throat. Choose this town and you will die at the hands of chaos, Samuel had said.

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