Not sure how to respond, she placed a chaste kiss on his lips. What could she say to something like that? He nuzzled her hair, and they lay there for a few more minutes before he turned to look at the clock and sighed.

“I need to get going. I don’t want your parents to find me here, and I don’t want to worry mine.” He sat up slowly, letting her adjust the blanket to keep her modesty. He went to her window and picked up his clothes from the floor.

“Mind if I wear these home? Mine are still wet.” He gestured at the sweatpants and T-shirt.

“Yeah, no problem.” She shrugged, figuring her father wouldn’t notice they were gone.

He moved back to where she sat on the bed and leaned down, kissing her forehead. She couldn’t help the smile that curved the corners of her mouth as she looked up at him. “I’ll see you at school.”

That last sentence made her smile wilt a little. She was not looking forward to going back to school.

Chapter 5

Melanie honked the horn of her small two-door coupe at seven forty-five. Ree was out the door immediately and climbed into the back seat behind Juliette. Students weren’t supposed to drive to school; they were supposed to walk or ride the bus, but those that lived close always drove in bad weather and parked in the garages near the school. Most of the staff knew the kids did this, but it seemed to fall under the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ category.

“Hey, girl.” Melanie smiled at her, but it still looked a little tense after yesterday.

“Hey, Mel, Jules,” Ree said. She pulled the seat belt around her body, adjusting the plaid skirt of her school uniform so that it wasn’t riding up around her legs. The uniform was the one thing Ree really hated about the private school, but at least she was able to wear shoes she liked. The school code called for black, brown, or blue shoes. It didn’t say anything about what type of blue or that they couldn’t have any embellishments. She looked at her bright blue Mary Janes and made sure the little flowers on the clasps hadn’t gotten dirty on her way to the car.

Jules turned around in her seat and looked at Ree with a mischievous smile. “So, how’d you sleep last night?”

“What do you mean?” Heat rushed to Ree’s cheeks and she didn’t look up at Jules, instead continuing to play with the flower on her shoe.

“I’d say from the color you’re turning you know exactly what I mean.” Jules laughed and even Melanie giggled. “Come on, Ree! Spill! I heard Roland throwing a fit because Paden was at your house.”

“Roland threw a fit? Really?” A sick feeling twisted Ree’s stomach. Why do I feel guilty? she wondered.

“I was with Sophie when Roland called about Paden showing up at your house. Apparently they had heated words when Paden told him he planned on staying the night.” Jules turned back to face the front of the car. “She cut my lesson short and went to your house to relieve Roland.”

It had come as a shock to Ree after waking up from her injury that the flashes of light she had seen that terrible night had not come from Sophie. Apparently Juliette had also inherited a gift from her patron goddess, Amaterasu, allowing her to cause flashes of sunlight when under great stress. She was working with Sophie to try and learn a little more about her power, often late at night.

“Anyways, the how isn’t as important as the what. As in what happened last night.” Melanie wiggled her eyebrows in the rearview mirror at Ree.

“Nothing happened.” Her friends’ expressions didn’t change and Ree realized that answer wasn’t going to work. “Okay. Fine. We talked.”

“You know what that’s code for, don’t you, Mel?” Juliette asked, laughing.

“What? No. We didn’t do anything. Okay, we kissed, but that’s it! I swear!” Melanie and Juliette both gave a loud whoop and Ree couldn’t help but laugh at their excitement.

“About time!” Juliette turned around and smiled at Ree.

“Well, he kissed me on the island, but then got all weird afterward,” Ree said.

“By the way, I’m still ticked you didn’t tell me about it. Mel had to explain why you and Paden were arguing or I wouldn’t have known.” Juliette stuck her tongue out at Ree.

“Aw, Jules! I didn’t have time to tell you!”

“Whatever. Don’t let it happen again.” Jules smiled at her to show she wasn’t really mad.

Thankfully the rain had let up some after last night, and it was only drizzling after Melanie picked a spot in the parking garage. The girls hurried across the green square that was between the garage and the school, past the giant monument, and into the old brown brick building that housed most of the classrooms. Ree took off her checkered rain jacket and shook it over the rug near the door. The other girls waved goodbye as they headed toward their lockers in the senior wing.

Ree blew her bangs out of her face and headed toward the junior wing to unload some of the books from her bag. It started almost immediately as she walked through the school. People stopping and staring at her, whispering behind their hands, or worse yet, offering small smiles of sympathy. She took a deep breath and tried to not stare at the tiles as she made the trek to the second floor. Now that Ree had lost another person close to her, there was no way people were going to treat her normally.

“Ree.” The deep voice combined with a slight accent caused her to stop and look around. Roland was leaning against the wall next to the office door. Immediately she noticed he wasn’t wearing the school uniform. Instead, dark jeans clung to his hips and a dark T-shirt wrapped itself around his chest, tucked under his black leather jacket. His usual smirk grew a little and she realized she was staring at him.

“Hey, Roland.” Her feet seemed to have minds of their own and before she realized it, she was moving closer to him. “You signing up for classes?”

“That’s me. The diligent student.” He reached out to tuck some of her hair out of her face.

“Hm. Diligent students wear their uniforms and bring backpacks full of paper and pens.” She pointed at his outfit and smiled. “I think your forgot the rest of your ‘Diligent Student’ disguise.”

“Don’t let my bad-boy good looks fool you. I came prepared.” He pulled a pen out of his jacket pocket with a flourish and Ree laughed.

“I think you still might be ill-equipped.” Arching one eyebrow, Ree couldn’t help but smile.

“Trust me, that definitely isn’t a problem.” Roland winked at her as heat rushed into her cheeks. “Besides, I’ll just have to sit next to you and borrow whatever else I need.” He smiled devilishly and Ree saw some of the girls at lockers near the office make swooning motions.

Shaking her head, Ree jerked her head in the direction of the girls. “I think you’ll have plenty of people wanting to sit near you that would be happy to loan you paper and a pencil. Or whatever else they can think of.”

“Yeah, but I want to sit near you.” He smiled at her, causing her heart to skip a beat.

“Um, you realize you’re making enemies for me right now, right?”

His eyebrows rose in confusion and his smile grew. “What are you talking about, little Ree?”

“Look. I’m a freak at this school. People treat me like I have the plague. The guys you met last week are the only ones that treat me like I’m normal. If you start playing nice with me, then the girls are going to treat me even worse. They aren’t going to understand why you would want to hang out with me.” Leaning forward, she lowered her voice, trying to make her point.

“It could work the other way around. Maybe if I hang out with you, they will start to realize how cool you are.” He pulled on her ponytail and she rolled her eyes.

“Right. More likely I’ll get lynched. Girls used to leave nasty notes in my locker just because Paden would ask how I was in the hallway.” Ree realized her mistake as soon as she closed her mouth. The moment she uttered Paden’s name, Roland’s eyes flashed with fire. She swallowed as a wave of his jealousy flashed through the hallway, making it hard to breathe.

“I’m not Paden,” Roland said with a clenched jaw. “Maybe if he hadn’t been stringing you along over the years the other girls wouldn’t have treated you that way.”

“It wasn’t like that.” The door to the office opened and the secretary stuck her head out. “I’ll see you later, Roland.” She hurried down the hallway as the older woman told Roland to come in and take a seat. When she looked over her shoulder, she saw him staring at her as she made her retreat, and the secretary had to tell him to step inside again.

Ree made it to her locker with just enough time to shove a couple of her books in and hightail it to her first period. Grabbing a seat toward the back, she pulled out her Algebra II book and her notebook. As she dug in the front pocket of her green backpack looking for a pencil that still had an eraser, she didn’t notice the people standing in the doorway until the cold tendrils of wrong slid down her spine. She looked up to see Shannon and her boyfriend, Michael, talking quietly. After a quick kiss on the cheek, the dark-haired Shannon turned to saunter into the classroom. She smiled at Ree and wiggled her fingers in a mocking wave.

Ree dug her fingernails into the palm of her hand and tried to keep the anger that flashed through her body from escaping. Taking a deep breath through her nose, she let go of the pencil she was gripping in her right hand and tried to control the shaking that accompanied the wrath running through her veins. She had known she would have to see Shannon and Michael, but nothing could have prepared her for the rage that hit her like a semitruck.

Shannon took a seat toward the front, surrounded by some of her obnoxious cronies. They all sat giggling and gossiping, occasionally darting looks in Ree’s direction. When the bell rang, Mr. Tomasino motioned for everyone to be quiet and started writing on the board.

“Mr. Tomasino?” Shannon’s arm shot into the air as everyone turned to look in her direction. Ree’s stomach tightened as she watched the other girl’s manicured hand wave back and forth. Shannon lived for attention, and Ree had a feeling she was about to get her wish met.

“Yes, Miss Duncan?” Mr. Tomasino turned around and adjusted his glasses.

“I think it would be nice if we had a moment of silence for the freshman that died over winter break. It might help us all get through the day a little easier.”

Ree stood up, her chair squeaking loudly as it scraped across the floor. Every eye in the room turned to look at her, but she didn’t care. Black creeped into her vision until she could only see straight ahead. All she could think about was beating that smug grin off Shannon’s face.

“Miss McKenna? Are you all right?” Mr. Tomasino asked her, concern filling his normally blank face.

For a moment Ree didn’t even realize the math teacher was speaking to her. The entire room had turned red and the only thing she could see was Shannon’s dark eyes laughing at her. Ree looked down at her desk to try and calm herself but the only thing that accomplished was adding panic to the rage in her chest. There was the faintest green glow around her fingers and she couldn’t seem to control it.

“No. Yes. I mean, I need to go to the bathroom. Please.” Ree curled her fingers into her palm and pressed her hands against her thighs.

“Go ahead.” The tall, bald man motioned toward the door.

Ree could barely think as she left her seat. She could hear the people in the room whispering, and as she neared Shannon’s desk, she heard someone giggle. Her foot caught on something heavy and she had to catch herself on the back of a chair. Ree looked down to see what had caused her to trip and ground her teeth in anger. Shannon slowly pulled her black boot back under her desk and smiled sweetly at Ree in mock concern.

“Are you okay, Alastriana? Did you trip on something?” One of the blond girls on the other side of Shannon giggled loudly.

Ree had never been a violent person. She didn’t see the point in beating someone senseless, but at that moment it took all of her willpower to not pummel Shannon’s worried face. Instead, she pushed herself off the chair and walked out of the classroom as quickly as she could without actually running.

By the time she got to the bathroom, she could barely see straight. She went straight to one of the large white sinks and splashed cold water on her face. Her eyes were swirling with silver, and she knew if she didn’t get herself under control quickly she was going to have all her friends, her Guardians, swarming the bathroom. Stepping away from the sink, she went to the opposite wall of the bathroom and leaned back against the yellow and white tiles. After a moment she slid down to the floor and wrapped her arms around her legs. Taking slow, quiet breaths, she pulled the power back into a little ball in her chest and tried to keep her mind blank. Unfortunately, she kept replaying the scene from the night Claire had died and the fake concern on Shannon’s face.

The bathroom door swung open and Ree laughed ruefully. Shannon sauntered in, not even looking in Ree’s direction. The short, dark-haired girl went straight to the mirrors and pulled a tube of lipstick from one of the deep pockets in her plaid skirt. After primping for a moment, she looked at Ree in the mirror.

“I volunteered to check and see if you were okay.”

“Wow. How nice of you.” The sarcasm was enough to choke a horse. Ree stayed where she was sitting and gripped her legs tightly in an effort to stay in control of herself.

“God, Alastriana. You’re so pathetic.” Shannon turned around and flipped her hair over her shoulder, revealing a bandage just under her ear.

The reminder of what Shannon was made Ree’s stomach twist. “Oh, I don’t know. I’m not letting people munch on my neck.”

“See, that’s because you don’t know what you’re missing out on.” Shannon smiled at Ree evilly. “It feels so good. I’ve never had anything like it.” Shannon almost purred, her hand running up to her neck and tracing the gauze taped there. “Usually Tristan is really careful, but we got a little carried away last night.”

Bile rose in Ree’s mouth as she thought about Tristan and Shannon being together after he had just murdered Claire. “God, you’re such a whore.” Shannon’s eyes flashed with anger, but Ree didn’t care if she pissed the other girl off. “Not only do you have a boyfriend, but you’re telling me about messing around with my brother—after he killed my friend. Who does that?” A sick chuckle slid out of Ree’s throat. “You’re nothing but a slut.”