Page 45 of The Order of the Bitter Hunt

“You can’t keep surprising me like that.” I scold him, my eyes narrowed. “You were supposed to wait outside. We never discussed you coming in.”

“We didn’t?”

“No!”

“Huh. Guess I forgot.”

“You could have ruined everything. My father isn’t always so trusting.”

Little does Jun know, he likely kept me from ruining it all myself. I won’t be the one to tell him I nearly slipped up. I almost showed my fear.

“Well, he trusted me pretty damn fast.” He lifts a brow. “That might be a sign he knows Strode, and he knows I’m his son. What do you think?”

“I think…” I grit my teeth together. “You may be right.”

It’s getting harder to say each time he’s correct, and I would love for him to be wrong. Just once.

He nudges me with his elbow. “I usually am.”

“But I have a feeling he’s being nice to you because of… well, because ofme.”

Us. Jun and I are a duo now, whether I like it or not—and I don’t.

“The reason doesn’t matter. Look at the information we got. I told you there’s something about a secret society—the Order of whatever.”

“The bitter hunt.”

“Yeah. That.”

“Yes, but how did you know about that?”

Jun hasn’t given me any insight into where he gets his information. There’s no way all of this came from one dream with his father—it’s likely all Amelia, like Tobey said, but he won’t admit it. Maybe it doesn’t matter. If he’s right, he’s right, but I can’t follow him into the darkness without knowing which map he’s looking at.

“Stop worrying about how and focus on what happened in there.” He stands in front of me, effectively stopping me in my tracks. “Knowing any supernatural can be immortal is fucking huge.”

“But you already knew that, didn’t you?”

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have barged in and demanded immortality. He must have had some idea it was possible.

He shrugs. “Now we have a confirmation.”

“Then youdidknow.”

“Who fucking cares?”

“I care. I’m already processing that my father is lying to me, and now I have to work with someone else who evades the truth like it’s a sport.”

His expression shifts. It’s subtle, the slightest flinch. “Sorry. Won’t happen again.”

I’m unsure of what to do with his apology, swiftly moving on rather than accepting it.

“How is it that no one else knows about this? It doesn’t make any sense. This should be big supernatural news.”

“Because it’s exclusive to this university. When I found out, I asked around, interviewed some other schools. No one elseknows anything about it—at least, not anyone who was willing to talk to me. They looked at me like I was crazy. This proves my father is involved.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Strode is the demon of the afterlife,” Jun says. “Of the dead and the undead. Of ghosts. Spirits. This is within his domain.”