Chapter 1
Yellowstone was the kind of town that lived in whispers. Everyone knew everyone, yet no one truly knew anything. Secrets grew here like vines creeping along the fences of forgotten houses, tangling themselves into every family, every corner store, every heart.
For Shayna McClay—Shai to everyone except her mother—life in Yellowstone had always been uneventful. She walked the same cracked sidewalks to school, browsed the same dusty shelves in the library, and sat in the same booth at Miller’s Diner with her best friend, Tara. But things had changed in the last year. A shadow loomed over Yellowstone, one no one dared name aloud: the murders.
Three people were gone. Three bodies found in the woods surrounding the town. Each death stranger, more brutal than the last. The police had nothing. The people had rumors. And Shai had fear, though she tried not to show it.
That morning, when the autumn air bit against her cheeks and the trees shed their leaves like golden confetti, she first saw him. Nathaniel Andrews.
He was leaning against the gate by the school’s entrance, head tilted down as though he was too tall for the world to bear. His black hoodie shadowed his face, but when he lifted his eyes—stormy gray with flecks of blue—Shai swore the air stilled. He smiled, and a dimple appeared on his left cheek, softening the sharpness of his jaw.
Who’s that?” Shai asked Tara as they neared the gates.
“Transfer student,” Tara muttered. “Nathaniel something. Heard he moved here after his uncle died. Kinda tragic, I guess. But don’t even think about it, Shai.”
Shai raised a brow. “Think about what?”
“You know exactly what. He looks like trouble.”
Shai laughed but didn’t answer. Her eyes betrayed her, stealing one last glance at him before she slipped into the hallways.
Nathan showed up in her English class, of course. The seat beside hers was empty, and it felt as if fate had been waiting for him to claim it. He slid into the chair without asking, his presence so close that Shai could smell faint pine and smoke on his hoodie.
“Shayna McClay,” he said softly, as though testing the shape of her name on his tongue.
Her head snapped toward him. “How do you know my name?”
His lips curved. “It’s on the attendance list. I pay attention.”
She wanted to roll her eyes, but her pulse betrayed her, quickening.
Throughout class, she tried to focus on Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart, but Nathan’s occasional smirk or the way he tapped his pen in rhythm with her heartbeat made concentration impossible. She felt like she was being studied, and strangely, she didn’t mind.
By Friday, everyone in school knew Nathan. Not because he tried—he didn’t. He was quiet, aloof, but magnetic in a way people couldn’t resist. Shai learned that his parents lived abroad, leaving him with an uncle who had recently passed. He lived alone now, in the old Andrews’ estate near the woods—the same woods where the murders had taken place.
Creepy, right?” Tara said one afternoon, shoving fries into her mouth. “He’s either some broody novel hero or the prime suspect. Honestly, both.”
Shai laughed nervously. “You watch too many true crime shows.”
Still, the thought clung to her like smoke.
The first time Nathan spoke to her outside class was at Miller’s Diner. She was waiting for Tara, sketching idly in her notebook, when the bell above the door jingled. Nathan slid into the booth across from her without asking.
without asking.
“You draw,” he said, nodding at her sketch of a raven.
Shai blinked. “You just sit at random people’s tables?”
“Only yours.” His smile was lazy, confident.
She shook her head, but heat crept into her cheeks. “You’re strange.”
“I get that a lot.”
They talked until her soda went flat. About books, music, Yellowstone’s endless rain. He listened like her words were treasures, every detail etched into his mind. For someone so mysterious, he was surprisingly easy to talk to.
But when he reached for his drink, his sleeve slipped back, revealing a thin cut across his wrist. Fresh. Too neat to be an accident. Shai’s breath hitched.
“What happened?” she asked.
Nathan glanced at the cut, then pulled his sleeve down. “Nothing. Don’t worry about it.”
Her instincts prickled, but his dimpled smile disarmed her again. She let it go.
That night, Shai couldn’t sleep. The wind rattled her window, and every shadow felt like it hid something watching. She dreamed of the woods, of faceless figures, and woke with her heart hammering.
School felt heavier the next day. Police cars were stationed outside, their lights flashing like warnings. A fourth student was missing—a girl named Emily, last seen walking home after cheer practice.
Shai’s stomach knotted. Nathan wasn’t in class.
When the final bell rang, she hurried down the hall, hoping to shake the unease clawing at her chest. But as she reached her locker, she saw him. Nathan, leaning casually against the wall, as though nothing in the world was wrong.
“You look scared,” he murmured.
“Emily’s gone,” she whispered. “Doesn’t that scare you?”
For a moment, his expression shifted—something darker flashing in his eyes—then it was gone, replaced by that dimpled smile. “Fear doesn’t help. But if you need someone to walk you home, I’m here.”
Her heart fluttered despite the chill in her bones.
That weekend, Shai couldn’t resist curiosity. Nathan had left his jacket in the booth at Miller’s Diner when they’d bumped into each other again. She picked it up, planning to return it.
But when she reached into the pocket, her fingers brushed something cold—metal. She pulled it out.
A necklace.
Shai froze. She had seen it before. On Emily’s neck. The same delicate silver chain with the star pendant.
Her breath came fast, her hands trembling. She shoved it back into the pocket, heart slamming against her ribs. Maybe it wasn’t hers. Maybe Nathan had found it. Maybe—
“Find something?”
His voice was behind her. Smooth. Close.
She spun, the jacket clutched to her chest. Nathan stood in the doorway, shadows painting his face unreadable.
Shai forced a laugh. “Just… lint.”
His gaze lingered on her too long, before the corner of his mouth lifted into that devastatingly calm smile. “Good. Wouldn’t want y
ou finding anything you shouldn’t.”
For the first time since she met him, Shai’s blood ran cold.
