“What?” The ground suddenly felt uneven under my feet. “They found him at the dojo?” Our dojo? “Did he say who did it?”
“He’s totally unconscious. Might even be in a coma. But Julie Pullman is the one who saw Pete first. She said that the letters S and K were spray painted next to him.”
The Shadow Kings! Was this some kind of warning to Talbot and me to back off? Was this why Jude texted me? Had the Shadow Kings been following us all along when we thought we were tracking them down? Had they seen me at the club with Pete and decided to use him to send a message? I swung my backpack around in front of me and started digging for my cell phone. I needed to call Talbot and warn him that the SKs were definitely on to us.
“The Rock Canyon people called an ambulance and then sent us all back here,” April said. “But when we realized you were missing, Pastor Saint Moon completely freaked out. He called your dad, and the police came, and … and … I’m sorry. I was really worried about you, so I told him. I’m sorry.”
“Told who what?”
“Grace!” It was Gabriel’s voice, mixed with reassurance and something else I’d never heard from him—anger. He filled the open doorway of the rec center.
“I’m sorry,” April said. “I told him about you and Talbot.”
“How could you?” I snarled at April. “I trusted you.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “I thought I was helping you.”
“Come with me, now,” Gabriel demanded.
IN THE REC CENTER
I followed Gabriel through the lobby and past the receptionist who tried to stop us. But Gabriel just held up his hand to quiet her, and we kept on walking. He opened the door of a room that seemed designed for conference meetings and motioned me inside.
The second the door clicked shut, Gabriel reeled on me. “Are you okay?” he practically yelled.
“Yes.”
“Were you kidnapped, threatened, or otherwise coerced into doing something against your will?”
“What? No.”
“Then I want you to tell me what your friend meant when she told me that you’ve been sneaking off alone with some boy during the project. And why, if you weren’t even there, was your scent all over the inside of that dojo!” He grabbed my arm. “And then explain to me why I smell demon blood on your clothes”—he wrenched my jacket off my shoulders, exposing the bloody tear in my sleeve and the three bright pink scars on my arm—“and how you got this.”
You don’t have to tell him anything, something said inside my head. It was a mixture of my voice, Talbot’s, and the new voice I’d heard before. It was right.
I yanked my arm out of Gabriel’s grasp. “I don’t have to tell you anything,” I said. “You’re not my father. You’re certainly not my brother. You’re not even really my teacher.”
He’s nothing compared to you, the voice said.
“I’m your friend, Grace. I may not be your brother, but I care for you like I am.”
“You’re nothing to me.”
“So that’s how you regard your friends, as ‘nothing’? I understand that boy who was attacked was your friend. Is he nothing to you, too?”
“Pete Bradshaw isn’t my friend!” He’s a son of a bitch who deserves everything that happened to him. The voice was right; Pete had it coming to him. “He deserved it.”
“What?” Gabriel took a step back, rubbing his ringless fingers. “Did you do this, Grace?” He looked afraid, like he thought I was going to pounce on him.
Gabriel is a coward.
“No. I didn’t attack Pete. He’s not worth my time.” I pulled my jacket back up over my shoulders. “I have more important things to do.”
“Then why was your scent at that dojo?”
“Because that’s where I’ve been training.”
“Training? Daniel told me you two weren’t training anymore.”