Page 2 of Starlight

“Someone has been using the old mine, mining it and making things with the gold.” Patrick rummaged around in the bag at his feet and pulled out a bracelet, handing it back to him.

Cole turned it over in his hand. It looked like gold wire threaded with beads made of wood and precious stone. It was kind of weird-looking, not something he could imagine any of the girls at school wearing. “Did you take all their stuff?”

“Not all, and they’ll never know it was us. Besides, they shouldn’t have been there either. No one is supposed to be in the abandoned mines.”

Cole frowned as a cold, slippery feeling settled in his stomach. “That doesn’t make it right.” He handed the bracelet back to Patrick, not wanting to touch it any longer.

He wasn’t sure he believed all the stories about something being out in the woods, but when there were so many stories about so many different monsters…

What if they had stolen from a wolf shifter? That meant it wasn’t a wolf they’d shot. Maybe the wolf had seen them steal?

“I knew he’d be a prissy bitch about it,” Chuck laughed. “We’re going back there on the weekend to get the rest. If you come with us, we’ll give you a share.”

His cousin dangled the offer like it was irresistible. He’d been fucked over before by their promises, but he pretended to be interested. “What are you going to spend it on?”

“Dunno yet. Depends on what it’s worth. It might be a couple of grand. Then we can get a new car, and you can have this piece of shit. But only if you come with.” Chuck glanced at him in the rear-view mirror.

Cole didn’t even have his license yet. When he did, he wouldn’t need Patrick and Chuck to pick him up; he’d drive himself. “Can’t. I’ve got an away game.”

And a math assignment, and something for English. He couldn’t get behind on the reading. He’d learned the hard way last year that if he got behind, he’d be chasing his tail for the rest of the year. This year, he wasn’t going to let that happen.

“Come on, tell them you’re sick or something. You might even get enough to buy your own first car.”

“You’d split it three ways?” They wouldn’t. He knew how they worked.

“No, we found it.”

“You already took some.”

“Yeah, ’cause we found it.”

“You could have ten percent of the second lot,” Patrick said as if he were being generous.

“Not worth a missed game.” Not when he could make millions if he got drafted. If. He couldn’t think that far ahead.

Finish school and get the scholarship to college. That was as far as he let himself plan.

In the dark sky, something moved. A bird? He peered into the darkness. The clouds were blocking out all the starlight. Maybe it had just been a cloud. The unease turned in his gut. What if all that stolen stuff was cursed?

If he said that, they’d call him a baby.

He wound down the window, so the dirty glass wasn’t blocking his view.

“What the fuck are you doing? It’s raining.”

“It’s not raining much.” He’d trained and played in worse. “Besides, I thought I saw something.”

Chuck laughed. “You worried the wolf is going to hunt us down?”

Okay, that did sound unreasonable. “Wolves don’t fly.” He was about to wind up the window when he saw it again. “There, do you see it, Patrick?”

“Yeah…I saw something.” Patrick wound down his window and joined him in staring out into the night.

“What do you mean you saw something?” Chuck was no longer laughing.

“I don’t know. I saw something,” Patrick snapped.

“Like a bird?” Chuck asked.