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I get out of the car and pause before closing the door. “I love you.”
Mom smiles. “I love you, too.”
I head inside Emerson Hall to exchange books at my locker. An ache forms in my chest as I wander down the halls I once shared with Lily, Thane, and Lennon. Two of the three might have ended up as my enemies, but for a time, I thought they were my friends.
The news doesn’t report Thane’s death, but instead calls it a disappearance. I asked Shy why, and he said his uncle wants it that way. The knowledge makes me uncomfortable, like he is expecting him to come back to life.
There is no word on Lennon, though she’s imprisoned at the Compound. If anyone asks, we're to say she has moved back to Pennsylvania with her grandmother. I'm not sure of the Order's plans for her. She assumes they will kill her. I assume they will want to learn everything about her power and her following.
I want to learn the extent of her power, too. I want to know how many half-human, half-Valryn are in existence.
Those are just a few things on my long to-do list, which includes other things like studying for Mr. Val's tests and preparing for his first lesson in all things Eurydice. He's told me weapons will come with time. I want them now.
Maybe I can convince Shy to train me early.
&nbs
p; Just thinking that makes my face flood with heat. I exhale, trying to shake the sudden warmth flushing my skin, but can’t manage it before he appears beside me.
“Hey,” he says.
“Hey,” I breathe.
“What are you doing tonight?”
“That depends—what do you have planned?”
I’m thinking he’s going to tell me about a patrol assignment. I haven’t officially been assigned anything yet, but instead he says, “I was hoping I could come over...before patrol.”
“I’m grounded—forever. Besides, I don’t think Mom’s forgiven you for bringing me home at three o’clock in the morning.”
“I’m sure she doesn’t believe we were watching movies,” he says. The reality of that night was much, much worse. “But I didn’t say she has to know I’m there.”
“I can't leave my house.” I warn. I am determined to do better moving forward. I came here with a goal to blend in, to live as normal a life as possible. I still want that, even if I am moonlighting as the Eurydice.
“We’re not leaving the house...this time,” he says, and a thrill rushes through me. The bell rings and Shy takes a step away, one side of his mouth quirks upward. As he retreats, he takes his warmth with him. If I were brave, I'd reach for him and draw him back to me. “Tonight. Eleven. Leave your window open.”
Eleven. That leaves us an hour before he has patrol.
The farther he walks away from me, the more my smile grows.
I run across campus, hoping I can make it to Walcourt before the second bell rings. I blow through the doors and slow to a walk as I stroll into Mr. Val's classroom just as the bell sounds.
“Miss Silby,” he says, a pink slip between his fingers, he holds it out to me. “So good of you to join us.”
I have yet to take my seat or catch my breath. “I was on time!” I argue.
“Running,” he says.
I take it back. I'm not looking forward to training.
***
I’m reading on my bed when Shy arrives at eleven. I’m trying to look chill, but in reality, I’ve reread the first line of this book fifty times since I picked it up. My heart’s been racing since he asked to come over, and my whole body is on fire, like I’m made of starlight.
“Hey,” he says, smiling.
“Hey.” I smile, too.
