“David Eaton, blond athlete and exchange student from England.”

“Oh, come on,” Mia admitted in amazement and reached for the nachos Larissa had stashed around her.

“I thought he was the love of my life, but then he slept with the popular girl.”

“Oh, shit.”

Mady showed her clenched teeth.

Larissa just groaned. “Olivia McConnell, that little bitch. She's been snatching up my ex-boyfriends too.”

I was glad that Olivia was now studying in Boston. Law, if I remembered correctly.

“What about your family?” Mady looked at Larissa with interest. “They must miss you terribly.”

I watched my best friend closely because I knew that was her sore spot. But she had already shared half the bottle of champagne with Mady, so she just started talking.

“I grew up as an orphan in a children's home and was later thrown out of the house for causing too much trouble.” No one said anything. “My mum was a drug junkie, and my father left her dying when I was born.”

Mady and Mia looked at Larissa, stunned. They probably couldn't imagine what Larissa had been through. And the fact that my best friend talked about it as if it was just a point in her biography didn't make it any better.

I let my gaze wander out of the window toward the dancing treetops. But it remained fixed on the road. My breath hitched.

“But it's only half as bad. The Adams were good hosts.”

I could no longer concentrate on the conversation. My attention was gone. Because in front of me, just twenty meters away, in the middle of the street, stood a man. He was dressed completely in black, wore a slightly longer coat, and didn't move at all.

I swallowed. Because he was staring up at me. With red glowing eyes.

“Bayla, are you all right?”

I jerked my head around to the girls. To be more precise, to Mady, who blinked at me with a worried look.

I turned to look out of the window again.

The man had disappeared.

Now, fear and confusion spread through me.

If the guy was no longer standing there. Where was he now?

“There was someone in the street...” I stuttered, almost breathlessly.

“My brother, maybe. He always goes running at this time of day.”

What? Julian was out there? On his own?

“He should be home by now if he doesn't want to get in trouble with Dad.”

I knew that hadn't been Julian there.

I couldn't take my eyes off the road.

What if Mady had a stalker? What if there were other crazy people up to mischief in Blairville besides the wolves and witches. What if there really was a murderer in Blairville?

“We should enjoy the evening now and listen to some decent music. Otherwise, I'll fall asleep!”

Larissa had jumped up and run to the music box, which she turned up again before opening a second bottle with Mady. The two of them giggled so sweetly that it completely distracted me, and then they were already dancing around Mady's big room, singing loudly to the song Easily by Fort Lean. Mia pulled me up, and reluctantly I followed her until we were all dancing through the 2000s together.

It was one of those moments where you forgot about the world around you because the music and the people were right. Everything felt good. For a moment. The present was what made the past and the future relative. And even if I hadn't consumed anything, I felt high.

We talked all night, and I felt more and more sorry for Mady. She had been friends with Grace and Vivienna before they had excluded her because of her relationship with Nash. And it was all because of this supernatural stuff.

Larissa talked a lot about her burglary stories and showed off her tattoos, just like she had always done with the guys when she had dragged me to one of the many clubs. She ignored the questions about the date under the knot tattoo next to her breast. She hadn't even told me what it was all about.

We played truth or dare, I had a drink after all, which I immediately regretted as my headache returned, and Mady and Larissa were so drunk at one point that they convinced us to play hide and seek in the house.

But the feeling of being watched wouldn't leave me, so I woke up in the middle of the night from a dream in which the shadow of the dark man had followed me through the woods. But every time I turned around, no one had been there.

Breathing heavily, I sat up and looked at the other girls, who all seemed to be deep asleep. I rose as quiet as possible, trying not to stumble over Mia's legs as I made my way to the window to check the street.

Without the music, everything seemed so strange, like I was in a less beautiful version of the present. The part they called reality.

Holding my breath, I pushed aside Mady's rose curtains and looked at the Victorian lantern in front of our house. The street was empty. Only a few leaves swept across the sidewalk, branches flew through our front garden and the letterbox squeaked in the wind. A black raven was sitting on the box, as if it was waiting for me to get the post so it could attack me again.

I looked over to the forest into the dark thicket that swayed threateningly back and forth.

It was as if I was looking for the red eyes. But they had disappeared.

After the little party at Mady's, I had returned home, where Mum had welcomed me with concern.

It wasn't as if she had left me in this witch temple only a week ago, and anyway, as if this wasn't all her fault.

I tried to concentrate on the book in front of me, the one Alarik Copeland had given me, but my eyes kept falling on the three new boxes of pills on my bedside table.

There was something about them that worried me, which was why I had started to stop taking these pills for my attacks a week ago. And sure enough, I had had no more outbreaks, no more strange veins on my arms and even the itching had stopped.

I had decided to observe my body's reaction for a while before confronting my mother.

What if I had been taking the wrong pills for years and the doctors had just thought something was wrong with me?

“Bayla!” I heard Mum call from downstairs. “Dinner's ready!”

I slammed the book shut and decided to take it downstairs with me.

I looked out of the window one last time at the street, which was covered in colorful autumn leaves that were whirled up by the wind every few seconds.

I actually liked fall. But Blairville was in a doomsday mood because of all the thunderstorm warnings and there were ravens everywhere you looked, which scared me more than the massive Halloween decorations in the streets of this little neighborhood.