Rogue Queen ➵ 2.0

➵ XLIII. The Scavenger Hunt

"Alright," she says slowly, studying me worriedly.

"Rei, I'm fine," I say. "Now, who's clue is next?"

"Scott's," she says, pulling the paper out of her coat pocket and handing it to me.

Hell on Earth.

That's it. Nothing else, just those three words.

"Wow," I say, "That's very detailed."

"We're horrible at poems, especially riddle poems," Raiden replies. "What did you expect?"

"More effort," I say bluntly. "Come on, off to the high school. Let's run."

Rei and Raiden nod, all of us shifting into wolf form, clothes disappearing because of the enchanted chain necklaces (I got mine back, the ring was just temporary). I crouch down to let Chase climb up onto my back, while Rhea climbs onto Rei. Once I'm sure Chase is ready, his fingers fisted in my fur, I start running, the two black wolves following me.

Snow kicks up behind us as we run, weaving through the trees. Chase and Rhea whoop and cheer happily as we go, enjoying the ride.

It doesn't take long to get to the high school. Being Wednesday, there is still school today, so the parking lot is full. Smelling the air, I catch Scott's scent, following it to find him at the edge of the trees, eyes fogged over, mind-linking.

Blinking, he gives us a smile. "So you found me."

"It wasn't that hard," I reply, shifting back, Chase's arms going around my neck, legs, wrapped around my waist, my arms around behind me to help support him as he clings to me like a monkey. "Why the school?"

"It's not my favourite place on earth but we have a lot of good memories here," Scott says, giving me a quick hug, patting Chase's head and ruffling his hair, making him whine.

Pulling away, Scott hands me the next clue.

"I'm guessing it's Winchester's?" I say, unfolding the slip of paper as Scott nods.

I read the words out loud for Chase and Rhea, both of them still excited and full of energy.

Children all over metal heaps,
Paths of trees, this place also keeps.

"See, that's better," I say, looking at Scott, Rei and Raiden. "He doesn't just flat out say where or make it extremely obvious."

"Yeah yeah," Raiden says, waving one hand dismissively, "We suck, now get to it."

I roll my eyes, looking back at the paper and thinking.

Metal heaps. They can't be heaps of scrap metal like what I first thought of; children wouldn't be allowed to play on them, assuming it means children are playing on them. They play on play structures and those are metal, right? And paths of trees... If it means trees lining a path, then that would be the park in town.

"It's the park," I say, looking to Scott to see if I'm right.

"What're you looking at me for?" he says, raising his hands.

"He's your mate, I'm assuming you know the answer."

"Nope," Scott says. "I only know where Changeling is and that's because he needed help and I was the closest to him. Other than that, we just decided the order, gave our papers to the right person and went to wait at our spots."

I give him a deadpan look, "Seriously?" Rei and Raiden both nod and I sigh. "Alright, to the park it is."

Nothing really exciting happens as we walk to the park, so I won't bore you or myself with the details.