“I love these people,” I said. “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for them. Most of us have known each other since kindergarten. Small towns, you know?” I smiled at him as we walked the flight of stairs to the second floor. “And yes, you’re fitting in fine. Most of the girls think you’re hot.”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “I am, aren’t I? It’s the California tan.”
“Aiden ...” I was going to tell him he wasn’t as tanned as he thought. I decided against it. “Turn left. This is the chem classroom. It has the best view because it overlooks the wooded area.”
Once we were in the room, I pulled him over to the windows, so we could look outside as the rest of the kids filed in. When they were all sitting down, I started to turn around, but Aiden grabbed my sleeve.
“Hey, sorry about earlier. You know, with the phone number? I thought about it, and I think I understand what that looked like to you. So here.” He handed me a folded slip of paper, but his fingers pinched the edge of it, like he was being careful not to touch me. He kept ahold of the paper as I opened it and revealed his number.
“Oh! You didn’t have to do that,” I said, embarrassed. Why wasn’t he releasing the paper? Seemed odd to hang onto it like this. “I could’ve asked for it, too. And I had no right to get all weird about it.” What is wrong with me?
“Well, I also figured that since we live next door to each other, you should have it in case of emergencies or something. I bet Sarah would feel a lot more comfortable having the neighbor’s number.”
“Mr. Mors?” the instructor asked. We both glanced up.
“Yes?” Aiden replied, and then he smiled. “I’m here.” He looked back at me and dropped his eyes to the piece of paper in our hands. He quickly let go and took a step back. “Sorry. Um, I’ll just ... uh ... go.”
I took my seat, all the time watching Aiden as he talked with the instructor about the seating arrangements and the itinerary. He wouldn’t look at me, and I wondered what might be going through his head. I wasn’t quite sure what was going on in mine. Remember Shay? It’s not like I was pursuing Aiden or anything—far from it—but I guess it just felt good for him to connect with me. Every girl in school wanted to be near him, and he’d chosen to give me his phone number. Okay, I was second to get his digits. He was my neighbor, which meant it was almost a practical thing, but it still felt like something more. Like he thought I was special amongst all these sighing girls.
When the final bell rang and the last of the students took their seats, I caught Rena looking at me with questioning eyes. I was sure she’d noticed my expression, but I wasn’t sure if she had any idea why I looked like that.
“Class, I’m sure you know who this is by now.” The teacher waved her hand in Aiden’s direction. “Aiden will need a lab partner for the rest of the year. Who would like to volunteer?”
All the girls’ hands flew up, except for mine. I looked back at Rena to see if hers was raised, but she frowned at me.
“Rena,” the instructor said, choosing my friend. “Thank you for volunteering to be lab partners with Aiden.” She turned back to the teacher. “Rena will catch you up on things.”
“Thank you,” Aiden said.
“Rena,” I said, whispering loudly so I’d be heard over the groans of girls who had not been chosen. “What’s with the look?”
Her eyes went to Aiden as he made his way to a seat. “I saw you guys holding hands,” she whispered back.
What? “But I didn’t!” What was she talking about? “We weren’t holding hands. Anyway, just don’t tell Quinn you saw that.”
“What does Quinn have to do with you holding Aiden’s hand?”
I sighed. She didn’t believe me. “Because she likes him.”
“I didn’t see him holding Quinn’s hand,” she said, regarding me skeptically. “I saw him holding yours. Don’t you have a boyfriend?”
She turned away, and my stomach churned. She was mad at me. “But we didn’t.”
It didn’t matter. She wouldn’t even look at me.
“Okay,” the instructor said. “Let’s turn to page one fifty-three in the lab books and get started. Find your partner, then follow the instructions. If anyone gets stuck, please come to me for assistance.”
The instructor sat at her desk while the rest of us proceeded to the back of the classroom.
“Hey, lab buddy,” Aiden said to Rena. “You’re Quinn’s friend, right?”
“Yes.”
I smiled and tried to get Rena’s attention, but she still wouldn’t look at me. She actually turned her back to me.
“Have you done this lab before?” she whispered to him, but loud enough for me to hear.
He looked the lab over and nodded. “Yeah. I um ... I did it a few months ago. I guess my old school was a little further ahead of you guys.” He browsed through the book. “We had a different book, but most of the labs are similar.”
“If you don’t want to do the lab again, I can do this one alone.”
“No way. You’re the lucky one who got me as your lab partner since I’ve done most of these before. You’ll get all the answers correct.”
I worked in silence with my lab partner, Heather, measuring out various chemicals and dumping them into vials, glasses, and flasks. We watched how chemicals reacted differently when mixed with other liquids, changing when heated or cooled. The room was filled with chatter, laughing, and glasses clanking together. It almost sounded like a party. Aiden and Rena were the first to complete the assignment. They handed in their papers and sat back in their regular seats, waiting for the rest of the class to finish. I felt eyes on me and looked up. Rena watched me while she chatted with Aiden. What’s going on?
The bell rang, and we all walked to gym class, though no one spoke to me. Once we were all there, Coach blew her whistle, and we quickly assembled around the grass center of the track. I stood next to Cali.
“Whoa. Get a look at Aiden,” someone exclaimed in a noisy whisper. “He must work out, like, all the time!”
We all gawked. Yes, I’ll admit it. My mouth dropped open, too.
Aiden wore all black, with an Under Armour muscle shirt and shorts that showed off his tanned and muscular arms and legs. But my eyes had gone directly to the tattoo on his right upper arm.
A Triquetra symbol with red wings.
I was right.
None of this had been a coincidence.
“Okay, class,” Coach said. “Today, we’ll work on our golf game. Go on over and grab a putter appropriate for your height, and go to it.” She held up one hand. “Now, please be mindful that this is putting and not driving, boys!”
She blew the whistle, and we went to the golf bag holding the many putters. We each randomly selected one.
“Hey—Cali, is it?” Aiden asked, stopping by us.
“Hi.”
“Do you play golf?” he asked smoothly. Could the guy even help himself? “I play a wicked game of mini golf. We should go sometime.”
She lifted one eyebrow. “Maybe we can double sometime with my boyfriend, Vash.”
“Nice tattoo.” I pointed at his arm. “Does it mean anything special?”
It did to me.
All Enlightens received a tattoo like that when they turned eighteen. It marked them as a fighter for God. If Aiden was evil, he wouldn’t have one, would he? I wished Kieran were there to see. He’d have all the answers.
Aiden had the good sense to look thrown off guard. “Uh, well, the wings symbolize ... um ... being free. And well, the triangle ... well, you probably don’t know the technical name—”
“It’s a Triquetra symbol.” I shocked him into silence. “Does that mean something to you?” I asked again, looking directly into his eyes.
He hesitated. “No. It’s just something I had the artist mix with the wings. It sort of reminds me of the Celtic symbols.”
“Oh, I see. I’m curious. Why did you pick red for the wings? That’s an interesting color choice.”
He shrugged. “I thought most people would choose black or gray. There were some drawing samples of them. I wanted something unique to me, so I chose red.”
Coach walked up behind us, clearing her throat. “Less talking and more putting, please,” she said.
The rest of the students were practicing, but some were talking, too. They were also watching us being chewed out. To get out of the spotlight, we walked out toward an open area of the track and field area and started practicing. Cali, Luke, and Caden hit the golf balls as a threesome, which was fine. What wasn’t fine was when Caden and Luke thought it would be funny to hit our golf balls with theirs. We ended up joining with them after a few strokes.
“How’s your first day going, Aiden?” Cali asked.
“Great. I’ve met almost everyone in our grade, and all the teachers seem nice.” He looked at me and smiled. As a result, everyone else looked at me, too. “I have to say, I don’t think it would’ve been the same if I hadn’t had the best babysitter ever to show me around.”
I rolled my eyes. “Well, I sort of had to be the babysitter today since we have all the same classes.”
“Hey, dude,” Caden asked. “What’s with you and Quinn?”
We all stopped what we were doing and stared. This could get interesting.
Aiden looked genuinely surprised. “Nothing. Why do you ask?”
“Well, I heard that you and her hit it off in your poly-sci class. And if I heard about it, I bet Morgan has, too. I’m warning you, dude. She has a mean streak—and by mean, I mean crazy. The last guy who broke up with her had his car keyed.”
Aiden shrugged. “I met Quinn in class, but nothing else happened.”
Caden stopped putting and leaned casually on his club. “So you didn’t give her your phone number?”
“Oh. That.”
“Yes, that.”
Aiden waved his hand, as if it really didn’t mean anything. “Sure I did, but it’s not a big deal. She asked if I was doing anything this weekend, and I told her I didn’t have any plans yet. She told me to call her if I wanted to hang out or something.”
Caden’s gaze hardened. “You know she and I are dating, right?”
“No, I didn’t, but I do now. She didn’t say anything about it.”
“We’re going to prom together.”
“Sorry, man.” He shrugged.
Cali shook her head. “She’d better not get hurt by either of you, or else you’ll be answering to us,” she said. “We’ll all be gunning for you, right, Zoe?” She elbowed me in the stomach to get my attention.
“Uh, yeah. So be nice to her.”
After the final school bell rang, Kieran and I waited by my locker for Sidelle, Cali, and Vash.
“Going someplace fun for the night?” Aiden asked, sauntering over.
“Maybe. We always meet here after school,” I told him. His gaze was suspicious. What’s that about? I didn’t need his permission to go anywhere. I didn’t answer to him—or to anyone.
“We have plans,” Kieran said.
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were busy. You didn’t mention it last night.”
Something about his tone made me bristle. “Yeah, well, I didn’t exactly think you needed to know. Besides, I’d just met you.” I looked away, uncomfortable. “Maybe you can ask Quinn to hang out with you or something. I’m sure she’d love it.”
Whoa, where had that come from? I liked Quinn. This wasn’t her fault.
“Okay. Maybe I will,” Aiden fired back.
“Kids, kids, kids. There’s no need to fight,” Sidelle scolded, glancing between us. “You guys can hang out another time. After all, you live next to each other. We’ve had this girls’ night planned for a while. No boys allowed.” She yanked my arm and whispered, “What’s going on with you?”
“Kieran. Vash. Are you ready to go?” I asked, impatient. “We’re waiting on you.”
“I thought Sidelle just said ‘no boys allowed,’” Aiden objected.
“Who, Kieran?” Sidelle giggled. “He’s one of the girls.”
He stared at Kieran, wide eyed. “Wow. Tough to be you. And Vash?”
Vash grinned. “Yeah, well, I’ll be hanging around a bunch of beautiful women, and I plan to be the only man in the group.” He draped one arm around my shoulder and the other around Cali’s, and then he ushered us away. I didn’t dare glance back, but I could feel Aiden’s eyes on me the whole time.
Chapter Seventeen
Zoe
Kieran, Sidelle, Vash, Cali, Jackson, and I gathered in Kieran’s living room. A smile crept onto my face when I saw a Silico had been installed, just like the one at Vash’s house. That meant Cali and I could continue our training.
Since I’d been busy as Aiden’s babysitter, the day had gone by in a blur. I hadn’t gotten the chance to ask Vash or Jackson how they were holding up, though I suspected they would both say they were fine and that I shouldn’t worry. But still, I’d be a basket case. It’d be hard to lose a parent, never mind both at the same time. They were my friends. And friends were always there for each other.
“Sidelle came up with a brilliant plan for this weekend, including the two days off this Thursday and Friday,” Kieran said, grinning. “She’s even managed to cancel school by putting together a”—he curled his fingers into air quotes—“‘teachers conference’ in the Twin Cities. Smart move, Sid.”
“Thanks,” Sidelle said, but she frowned, deep in thought. “I was thinking we should go visit my father in Fairyland. We may or may not need the extra time, but once we enter Fairyland, we won’t know how much time has passed until we get out. It could be a few days, or it could be a few weeks. We’ll deal with that if it happens, and come up with some sort of story.” She paced the large room. “We have to focus. We still don’t know how the demons got onto pack territory, but the borders into Fairyland are all guarded by glamour, so no one can simply stumble into it. You have to know your way, and the Marqs don’t. The DKs for sure won’t.”
“Cali,” Vash said. “I want you to stay at the compound with Jackson and Era. That way I’ll know you’re safer being with the rest of the pack. Jacks, you’ll be in charge while I’m gone, so you’ll have to continue to monitor the lands and watch for strange behavior. The demons shouldn’t have been able to penetrate the property but they succeeded. That means they had help. Find the traitor.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Jackson said gravely.
“Okay, Vash,” Cali said with reluctance. “I’ll go, but I need you to promise me something.”
“Anything.”
“You need to keep Zoe safe.”
“Of course.”
“Promise me, Vash. Say the words.”
“I promise I will keep Zoe safe.”
“Sidelle, Kieran. You need to do everything in your power to bring her back. She’s my girl, and if anything happens to her—”
“We promise, Cali,” Kieran said. “That’s been our job all along.”
“We need to come up with a story to tell your parents, Zoe,” said Sidelle. “You stayed at Kieran’s house last weekend, so maybe if you tell them you’re staying with me, it’ll be better. Let’s tell them we have a huge final project to do. That isn’t too much of a stretch, because the end of the school year is in six weeks. When we get back from the long weekend, the teachers are going to start piling on the homework and projects. I have it on good authority that we’ll get a ginormous English project soon, and it’ll require tons of research and writing. So you and I would be joined at the hip, even if we weren’t going to my real home.”
“That should work,” I said. “My parents take school seriously, so they won’t deny me study time, even if it’s at someone else’s house. Plus, they’ve met you a few times now. And if I bring Cali into the fold, the three of us can work on it together. That gives Cali an excuse, too. What do you think, Cali?”
“Yeah, but we have to come up with some sort of project, so we can describe it to them.”
“
Agreed,” I said. “So let’s think on it tonight and see what we come up with tomorrow. I’ll tell my parents we haven’t picked the topic yet. I’ll say we still need clarification from the teacher.” I smiled at Sidelle, already anticipating Fairyland. “Hey, Sid. What’s it like? Your home, I mean. I’ve never asked you about it.”
She shrugged. “Home is home. I live in Summer, which is like the weather in Minnesota during the summer months. Warm weather, flowers in bloom, rolling prairie grasses. We don’t actually have a concept of time, so we count sundowns. The sun rises and falls when it wants to, which is why time passes in unequal intervals—”
“Let’s talk about Aiden,” Kieran interrupted. “Who else thinks there’s something strange about him?”
“I will concede that there might be something a little bit off, but You just don’t like him, for whatever reason,” I said. “You’ve never liked him. I’m giving him a chance. Minnesota is far from California. A new person in a small town where everyone grew up knowing each other. I can imagine it’s hard being new.” I turned to Vash. “Right?”
“Zoe, it’s just a feeling I get when he’s around. Like he’s hiding something.”
“I don’t trust him either,” Sidelle added.
I shrugged. “So he hid the fact that he’s an Enlighten. That’s not enough to hate—”
They all stared at me. “Stop,” Kieran said. “What do you mean by that?”
“He has the Mark.”
“What? On his arm?”
“Yeah.” I pointed at my own arm. “Where the angels get it. Right, Cali? You saw it in gym class today, right?”
She nodded. “It’s a gold triangle with red wings around it.”
Kieran’s mouth snapped shut. “He’s not a Nephilim, that much I’m sure of.”
“He’s not?” I asked. “Then he’s an angel.”
Kieran looked concerned. He shook his head slowly. “No. He’s not that, either. Not as far as I can tell. And ... that’s what worries me.”
“What do you mean, he’s not an angel? If he’s not Nephilim or an angel, then what is he?”
“That’s what I can’t figure out, Zoe. And that’s why we shouldn’t trust him until we know for sure what he is.”
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