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Kate didn’t see how this carnival was supposed to make money for the senior class. The field was packed with rides and food kiosks, then lined with silly game stands. The lights and noise were overwhelming, a mash-up of neon and carnival music and the smell of popcorn and funnel cake.
Her senses couldn’t make heads or tails of anything.
Frustrating on a good day, but doubly so today.
Silver would be watching her every move tonight.
So she’d done a quick lap of the grounds and found the Merricks.
Nick was playing skeeball with that bitchy blond cheerleader.
Gabriel was with a dark-haired girl and a younger boy, throwing darts at balloons way at the end of the row of game stands.
Chris was sitting on a bench with the brunette who’d clung to Hunter in the hallway, and they were sharing a box of popcorn.
The crowds were giving her a headache, and she clung to the shadows between two tents, wondering which Merrick brother she should attach herself to.
“Looking for your friend?”
Kate turned. Hunter had found her.
And his eyes were full of suspicion.
Was Silver right? Did Hunter suspect what she was?
What they were?
But there was also a spark of challenge in his eye. If he knew they were Guides, wouldn’t he be doing something about it?
“What’s your problem?” she said. She slid a tube of gloss from her bag and ran it across her lips.
“Can’t figure out your angle.”
“My angle?”
“What’s with the little texts? Old boyfriend not doing it for you?”
She wanted to kill Silver for making it look like they were a couple. “Maybe I just like you.”
“Maybe I just like you back.”
His voice was quiet and intense, more sure than she was ready for. She turned away, suddenly flustered, heading into the darkness behind the tents. Even Silver couldn’t see in the dark.
“I don’t think that’s all,” Hunter said, following her. “I think you’re playing me for something.”
o;I don’t. The day before he died, he told me that the only reason he was with my mother was because he was using her. Their whole relationship was based on that. And she has no idea.”
“Wow.” A pause. “What do you think that means about your relationship with him?”
“He said I needed to learn to use people, that it would keep me safe because of what I am.”
“Well, that explains a lot.”
Hunter snapped his head around.
Michael put a hand up before he could say anything. “Take it easy. You don’t have to be on such a hair trigger, kid.” A pause. “But if you don’t mind me sharing one thing I learned when I was eighteen, something that’s bothered me since my parents struck that messed-up deal with the other Elementals in town . . .”
“What?”
