Let's Hunt Her (Book #2)

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We all sit in Rosé's living room and I unzip my backpack, pulling out the branch. I run my fingers over it, humming with anxious anticipation. It was four pinecones, all identical and all superglued to the branch. I take my knife from a boot and begin to cut the glue, easily popping off the first cone.

I examine the bottom of it, pulling at the remaining glue. I inspect each of the scales for anomalies and look at the branch, but there is nothing there but pinecone and wood. So I start on the next one, which proves much the same.

"Anything?" Rosé asks impatiently.

I shake my head, removing the third pinecone and examining it carefully. But once again, there is nothing special about it, and no message from appa. What if I got it wrong? What if it wasn't table number ten, of if it was, but the clue wasn't the pinecones? I hold the fourth cone in my hand, knife poised to cut it off.

"I would move faster if I were you," Rosé says. "Or the Ferryman might very well kill your father while you're being precious about those pinecones."

Sehun gives Rosé a sharp look and Lisa shakes her head.

"What? I'm only stating the obvious," Rosé continues.

"If it's obvious, then you don't need to state it," Sehun says.

But Rosé only shrugs. "Testy, testy."

I cut the fourth pinecone off, turning it over. The wood beneath it is smooth and normal. But as I pull off the superglue on the base of the cone, my face lights up. The bottom of the pinecone is hollowed out and inside is a small rolled-up piece of paper.

I tip it into my palm and immediately unroll it. Written on the paper is appa' handwriting is a message. I read aloud:

We're taking to the streets in treason

Welcome to the first Death SeasonIt's time to make a change, and we've picked a dayThe head Tiger we will slay

My mind races. "A rhyme?" I say, confused.

I'm silent for a moment and Rosé taps her fingers on the armchair. "Out loud, Suzy, say what you're thinking out loud."

I shake my head. "I'm just . . . I've never heard appa recite a rhyme in my life, much less write one."

Sehun looks at the paper with me.

"Your non-rhyming father aside, we need to decipher the meaning," Rosé says, and leans forward with a curious look, like she would take the paper from my hand if she could. "It's threat to Taecyeon, that's for certain. But clearly that's not all. If it matches the other clues he's left, then you should be able to understand it."

"Suzy?" Sehun says.

I stare at the paper, hyperaware of the small time window and the insurmountable pressure. Nothing immediately jumps out at me, and so I read it again, but the words just swim on the page like nonsense. I huff. "Why is he making me chase clues about him over to damn provinces?" I say, more to myself than to them. "Here I am trying to understand some absurd rhyme when I should be warning him that the Ferryman is closing in."

Rosé grunts. "Are you kidding? If it were my father, it would have been five continents, only to end back up where I started . . . annoyed."

"My appa isn't like most Strategia," I say reflexively.

"Are you sure?" Rosé says in a tone that tells me she has her doubts. "Because testing children in frustrating and uncomfortable ways is about as Strategia-like as a parent gets. And I'm sorry to burst your rosy bubble, but he sent you to Tiger property and into a celebration hosted by Taecyeon, of all people. He's not exactly trying to keep you safe."