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I swallow hard, feeling much like I did earlier—feverish and scared. Of all the days Mom might choose to settle this war, why today?
“Thanks, Mom.” I try to smile, but my mouth is coated in a thick, sour layer of saliva.
Her smile falters. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” I take my seat at the table, trying to keep my voice light, but I’ve already ruined what she is trying to do here. She looks away before I finish speaking, tightening her jaw as she starts serving food.
Since the day I told Mom I could see the dead, things haven’t been the same. She watches me more than ever and scrutinizes every word I speak. I know she chose Nacoma Knight Academy for a fresh start because they have highly trained counselors on staff. That was the second biggest fight we’d ever had—the first being the fight over the dead.
Strained silence falls between us as Mom sits down. I work around my food, only eating plain pasta.
Finally, she asks, “I didn’t get to ask you how school went today.”
“It was great. There’s a football game Friday. I think it might be considered sacrilege if I don’t go.”
“So, you made friends?”
“Yeah. I met a really cool girl named Lennon and the quarterback of the football team.”
“The quarterback? That wasn’t the boy you were talking to when I came to pick you up, was it?”
“No,” I hesitate. “He—the quarterback—was at practice.”
“I was going to say...it might be hard for him to run and keep up his smoking habit.”
My face drains of color. I should have known that wouldn’t go unnoticed. “It’s not like...we’re not friends, Mom.”
“Who is he?”
“His name is Thane. I think...I think he’s sad.” I didn’t think that—I knew that, but at my comment, my mom looks up.
“Don’t make someone your project, Anora. You can’t change people.”
Well, this is definitely awkward, and while I know the words that come out of my mouth might begin World War III, I say them anyway.
“Is that what happened with Dad?” I ask. “Did you think you could change him?”
We don’t talk about Dad. What I know of him isn’t much. He had a lot of problems and left Mom when I was two. She says I have his eyes.
Mom halts mid-bite, but she doesn’t look at me as she replies with a simple, “No.”
CHAPTER SIX – SHY & THE HELLHOUNDS
I stand outside on the highest tier of the Compound, a five-story, obsidian tower and the headquarters for our branch of the Order. There are four in the United States: Oklahoma, New York, California, South Dakota, and one in every country across the world. Compound sites were chosen based on where the Adamantine Gates once stood. Our capitol is in New York. That’s where Maximum DuPont is dying and where his son Roth will come into power.
At this height, I can see for miles—over the tops of trees, to the horizon, painted blue with sky and gray by the lake. The wind is harsh and I have to hide my wings just to stand in place. Knife-like pinnacles surround me, descending in a spiral like a dizzying set of mechanical teeth. A wall of the same glossy, black stone cuts through the woods around our fortress, covering ten acres and measuring twenty-six feet high. It’s a smooth, impenetrable shield—a reminder of the Valryn’s violent past.
Usually, I hang out and wait for Jacobi, but I’m still feeling the effects of my conversation with Elite Cain. Something about the appointment as Roth’s guard doesn’t feel right. Maybe I’m just worried about Council being called. Still, any Valryn can guess what they might discuss: the growing number of lost souls on Earth feeding darklings, creating new ones every day. It has been impossible to keep up. There are Valryn in the field, discovering, cataloging, and capturing them to test their skills and figure out how they die before we die.
I spread my arms wide, step off the edge of the roof and fall until the wind is blocked by the trees and I’m able to shift into my raven form. It might not be my favorite, but it allows me to move easily between the thick trees surrounding the Compound and offers the best disguise when I don’t want to be seen.
I fly until I find my Jeep in the clearing where I left it after school. As I land, I change into my human form. I peel off my sweat-soaked shirt, toss it into the back of my Jeep, and retrieve a fresh one from my bag. Before I’m clothed, feet thud on the ground behind me. I don’t have to turn to know who’s there—I sensed her following me the moment I left the Compound.
“I’m not sure why you bother driving. It’s not like you need to.”
Unlike me, Natalie prefers to fly everywhere she goes, and she tends to forget that she uses my Jeep as a way to explain how she gets from place to place.
I sigh. “What do you want, Natalie?”
