The Hunt by Megan Shepherd Page A

name?”
    â€œLeave her alone,” Lucky said.
    Dane tossed Lucky a searing look, eyeing him up and down. “Friend of yours? Ah, the one you were asking Pika about. She must be. Not too many blondes around here. You must have someone powerful looking out for you, songbird, or they would have already sold your hair. I bet it was that Warden who brought you here.”
    â€œHe’s no friend of mine,” Cora said.
    Dane raised an eyebrow. “That’s too bad. You’d do well to have powerful friends. A Warden on the outside, me on the inside.”
    Cora pushed to her feet, dusting grime off her hands. “How’d you get out of your cell, anyway?”
    â€œWithin these walls, I’ve got the power.”
    â€œThe most powerful of the powerless,” Lucky muttered.
    Dane shot him another look, this one darker. “Not powerless. Not at all. The Kindred have entrusted me with all kinds of power you know nothing about.” He threw the yo-yo again and snapped it back. “I’m Head Ward, which means I run this place after hours. I’ve been here the longest and the Kindred grant me privileges, like a key to my cell that can override the lightlocks, in return for keeping things nice and peaceful backstage. Let me introduce you to our ensemble cast.” He swept an arm out toward the other shadowy faces. “Directly above you, we have the other new girl, Mali.” He leaned in close and dropped his voice. “A strange one, talks funny, but it seems you already know each other. I saw you whispering together in the lodge. I let it slide because you’re new, but I’d better not catch you chatting in public again.” His hooded eyes flashed with warning, before he grinned again suddenly and turned back to the wall of cages.
    â€œNext to Mali is the hyena, and then there’s Makayla, from Vancouver, who you’ll be sharing the stage with.” In the faint light, Cora barely made out the dancing girl with the bandage on her knee giving her a wave, and then twisting her hand around to shoot Dane the bird behind his back. Cora barely hid her smile.
    â€œThen the two giraffes in the tall cell in the corner,” Dane continued, “and that’s Pika next to Roger, the bobcat. Pika runs the show back here during the day.” A dirty girl chewing on her braid paused in stroking the bobcat’s tail to wave vigorously. “And our three antelope in the other tall cage, and the kangaroo and lioness along the top row. Shoukry’s there on the bottom next to the zebra; he’s from Cairo. He bartends with me, as you saw today. Jenny and Christopher are on the bottom too—siblings from Australia. They work out on the savanna, leading the expeditions. And then there’s our other new addition, this pretty boy with an attitude.” His eyes lingered on Lucky’s cage, one corner of his mouth turned up in a cryptic smile. “And between you two is our arctic fox. From Canada, I believe. It likes to chew on anything it can get its teeth around. And then there’s you. And me, of course, in the cell between Makayla and the hyena. I was rescued five years ago from Cape Town.”
    Cora raised an eyebrow. “Rescued? That’s what you call being abducted?”
    â€œPrecisely. I’ve been running this place ever since,” he added.
    â€œEver since you failed out of one of the enclosures,” Makayla muttered loud enough to be heard across the room. Dane snapped his yo-yo back sharply and tossed her a look.
    â€œSo here’s how it works.” He pointed to a clock above the doorway. It looked like the industrial clocks that had beenscattered throughout Bay Pines, except there was only one hand, and instead of having twelve numbers, this clock was divided into four uneven slices. “That’s how the Kindred keep time for us. Right now it’s on Night—the longest block of time. That little sliver