Author/Uploaded by Dana Claire
HUNTERLAND DANA CLAIRE CONTENTS 1. Olivia 2. Liam 3. Olivia 4. Liam 5. Liam 6....
HUNTERLAND DANA CLAIRE CONTENTS 1. Olivia 2. Liam 3. Olivia 4. Liam 5. Liam 6. Olivia 7. Olivia 8. Liam 9. Olivia 10. Liam 11. Olivia 12. Liam 13. Olivia 14. Liam 15. Liam 16. Olivia 17. Liam 18. Olivia 19. Liam 20. Pepper 21. Olivia 22. Olivia 23. Liam 24. Olivia 25. Liam 26. Olivia 27. Pepper 28. Liam 29. Olivia 30. Liam 31. Olivia Acknowledgments About the Author More from CamCat Books Our Vengeful Souls More Young Adult Titles from CamCat Books CamCat Books CamCat Publishing, LLC Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 camcatpublishing.com This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. © 2023 by Dana Claire All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address CamCat Publishing, 101 Creekside Crossing Suite 280, Brentwood, TN 37027. Hardcover ISBN 9780744307344 Paperback ISBN 9780744307351 Large-Print Paperback ISBN 9780744307368 eBook ISBN 9780744307375 Audiobook ISBN 9780744307382 Library of Congress Control Number: 2022941967 Cover and book design by Maryann Appel 5 3 1 2 4 For my husband, your support and unconditional love gives me wings. 1 OLIVIA Yet another teacher dead. High-pitched screams and the blare of fire alarms echoed through the school’s hallways. The student body stood paralyzed, crammed arm to arm in the main lobby, gaping at our athletic advisor’s corpse suspended from the ceiling, the hefty rope used for climbing in gym class snaked around his broken neck. His cognac-colored shoes dangled several feet from my face. His open eyes, glassy and lifeless, stared at the wall. Bruises dotted his collarbone, and fragmented black-and-blue splotches spread up toward his chin. Another hanging. Jessica whimpered as she trembled in my arms. “Your dad, Liv. Call him.” I shook my head. I had no doubt he was already on his way, so I didn’t even jump when my cell phone rang in my pocket. I swiped to answer. “Livy, where are you? Where’s Pepper?” my dad asked through the speaker. He tried to hide it, but I could hear the concern in his voice. “School,” I answered, pulling myself together with a calming breath and rubbing my amethyst stone resting inside my coat pocket. Principal McKenna and several other teachers had come onto the scene, ushering all the students out the front and side doors. But I just stood there, with Jessica’s arm looped through mine, her other hand holding my forearm in a death grip. “Another teacher’s dead, Dad. What the hell is going on? There’s no way these are all suicides.” “Language, Livy. Language,” he said, robotically, as if now was the perfect time to impart life lessons. Three deaths. The first death, Mr. Camber, our health teacher, had been deemed a suicide. The second, Mrs. Dreyfuss, our school nurse, was still under investigation. And now, here we were, back from winter break, ready for a fresh start, and . . . this. Mr. Kline. Why would anyone target the teachers of Falkville Falls High School? “Ms. Davis, Ms. Packey, please exit the building,” Principal McKenna said. The creases around her lips and eyes belied her calm, in-charge tone. “I have to find Pepper.” My voice finally caught up with my brain. My sister was challenging, but she and Dad were all I had. I was four when Mom died giving birth to Pepper. Dad rarely talked about Mom, and my memories of her were fuzzy. “All the students have been asked to exit the school. You can find her outside,” Principal McKenna said through clenched jaws. I’d almost forgotten I was on the phone until I heard my father’s command. “Go outside. I’m one block away. I’ll find Pepper.” Directions given, he hung up. Jessica hauled me by the elbow. “Come on, Liv. Let’s look for her outside.” I slipped out of Jessica’s grasp, zipped up my jacket, and shoved through the herd of students pushing out the front doors we’d entered minutes earlier. Falkville Falls High School hosted less than five hundred students, but with everyone crammed on the lawn, it resembled a rock-concert venue. I played with my soothing stone, flipping it between my fingers, as I searched the crowd for Pepper. Amethyst was supposed to relieve stress and bring balance to my mind and body, but when it came to my little sister, no crystal or stone would help. I’d saged her room so many times, the strong earthy scent had been absorbed into the furniture. I heaved a sigh of relief when I found her, glued to Dustin’s towering frame. Once I’d woven my way through the crowd, I let my backpack drop to the snow-dusted ground at their feet. “I got her,” Dustin said, squeezing Pepper into his side. I released the breath I had been holding and stopped rubbing my stone.