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She took a step toward us. Jack turned, booking it down the hallway and sliding around the corner, leaving Raquel and me with the faerie. The way her cobalt eyes tracked him, I wondered if maybe she really was after him.
Who was I kidding. With faeries it was always about me.
Raquel recovered faster than I did. She reached into her suit jacket and pulled out a small iron cylinder. With a neat flick of her wrist it telescoped out into a baton of sorts. "I suggest you leave. "
The faerie regarded her coolly, then backed through the wall and out of the Center. I looked wide-eyed at Raquel. "Holy bleep, Raquel, you were totally bad-"
"Please don't finish that phrase. " She slipped the baton back to its smallest size and tucked it into her jacket. "Now, do you have any idea what that was about?"
I shook my head. "Nope. Reth visited me the other night, but he didn't try and take me again. " Well, mostly he didn't try. Had he tried? Stupid Reth. "But that makes three now-the sylph, Reth, and that faerie. And it seems like there are a lot more weird paranormals turning up in town. " I remembered the frog woman in the housedress. It wasn't just that they were weird; it was that they were noticing me. Interested in me. I bit my lip, suddenly nervous. It was too much to be a coincidence. Something was going on.
"This complicates things. I'd thought we were past the faeries' interest in you. I'd feel safer if you stay here tonight. "
"I-oh, no. No. I don't want to stay here. Jack can take me home. " I turned, but Jack was still nowhere to be seen. Raquel smiled, and I was stuck in the Center.
Again.
Chapter Thirteen
Bite My Tongue
Look," Arianna snapped. She slammed to a stop in front of my school so fast I was nearly strangled by my seat belt. "If you don't want to hang out with me, fine. But don't just ditch me and then go stay with a friend for two days without even bothering to call. " Huge shades covered half her face, but I could read it well enough by now. She was hurt.
"I emailed," I said lamely.
"Yeah. Great. Just-whatever. Get out. "
I opened my door and stepped out onto the curb. "Thanks for the-" She peeled out, the forward momentum of the car slamming the door.
Fabulous. What a nice way to start my first morning back. I hadn't meant to abandon her-really. None of this was my fault. I'd practically been kidnapped by Jack, after all.
"Evie, are you okay?"
I looked up into Carlee's concerned face. I hadn't realized I was still standing on the curb, shoulders slumped and head down. "I'm just tired. "
That was an understatement. I'd barely slept at all the past two nights on Raquel's couch. Not only was I freaked out at being stuck in the Center, but for such a small woman, Raquel snores like a hippo. Go figure. Jack, the little fink, finally showed up this morning, and I barely made it back in time for first period. One stupid mission and I felt completely sucked back into IPCA-Raquel had even asked me to file reports on unaccounted-for elementals while we waited for Jack to wander back in. I had a sneaking suspicion that she loved every minute of it and that, if she had her way, I'd move back in.
The bleep I would.
"We have fitness testing today in gym-don't forget. " Carlee walked ahead of me, her step light and bouncy.
I jostled my way through the student throng. Faerie fears, sylph paranoia, and as always my increasing guilt over not telling Lend he was immortal twisted together in my stomach. Now I could add lying to him about working for IPCA again. That's what made this the hardest-not being able to talk to my best friend about everything.
I stood in front of my locker, hand on the lock. And, for the first time since I got it, I couldn't remember my combination. "Bleep," I muttered. Even my locker was losing its charm.
"I don't think Miss Lynn'll let you be sick again. She hates you," Carlee said.
"I know. "
"No, she, like, really hates you. "
"No, I, like, really know. Trust me. "
She sat down on the bench next to me, where I was still contemplating the pile of yellow and brown putridness that was my gym clothes.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
Carlee was my friend. Why not try being honest with her for once? "I'm worried that I'm dying, faeries might be launching another offensive to steal me, and also I can't get this strange tingling sensation out of my hands since I sucked some of the soul from a sylph, which I definitely should not have done. "
