Chapter 8. Empty

Tessa’s POV

By Wednesday morning, the post has four thousand views.

Cadston Howl is the campus gossip account, run by someone nobody has ever identified. It posts parties, breakups, and who was seen leaving whose dorm at six in the morning. In two years, it has never once posted my name.

Today, I’m the top post.

I knew before I opened the app. I knew from the walk across the quad this morning, when I counted twenty-three people turning to look at me between my dorm and the dining hall. Twenty-three in six minutes. That’s almost four a minute. On a normal day, the number is zero.

A she-wolf by the fountain actually stopped and breathed in as I passed, slow and deliberate, like she was trying to catch Wyatt on me. Her friend laughed. I kept walking with my chin up and my hands in the jacket pockets, because if I took them out, they would have been fists.

It’s a photo from the library. Wyatt leaning over my chair, his jacket on my shoulders, h