But I couldn’t do that. Not here in the middle of the quad with everyone watching us. The other kids would grab their own weapons and attack me, thinking that I had finally shown my true Reaper colors.
“Rory?” Lance asked. “Are you okay? You have a strange look on your face.”
I forced myself to smile at him. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just thinking about what you said. I hope it’s not true. I’m tired of monsters in the library.”
He squeezed my shoulder again. “Yeah. Me too.”
Lance dropped his hand from my shoulder and shifted on his feet, as though he was thinking about what to say next.
After a few seconds, he looked at me again. “I’m having a few friends over to my dad’s house tonight. Sort of a back-to-school bash. I did it last year, remember? You should come.”
I blinked. “Me? You want me to come to your party?”
He grinned, showing off his two perfect dimples. “Well, yeah. I was hoping you would be back at the academy this year. And now that you are, of course I want you to come to my party.”
I blinked again, totally surprised. Pumping me for information about the chimera attack was one thing. But actually inviting me to his party? Even after I had told him I didn’t know anything? What was up with that? Was Lance a Reaper or not? My head ached. I couldn’t tell. I just couldn’t tell anymore, and I couldn’t trust my own instincts one way or the other.
“Let me see your phone.” He held out his hand.
I was so confused that I did exactly what he wanted, digging my phone out of my jacket pocket and handing it over to him. Lance texted me a message, then handed the phone back to me.
“There. I sent you all the details. Party starts at eight tonight and goes until whenever. I hope you can make it, Rory.”
“Yeah. Sure. Thanks,” I replied, still in a daze.
Lance kept smiling at me, his eyes crinkling at the corners. I stared back at him, still trying to figure out what he was really up to—
“Hey, Rory,” a cool, familiar voice sounded. “Who’s your friend?”
Ian walked up to me, along with Zoe and Mateo. The three of them clutched their phones in one hand and their bags in the other like everyone else on the quad, as though they were regular students instead of Protectorate spies. They were taking this whole undercover gig very seriously.
And they weren’t very happy about my talking to Lance. At least, Ian wasn’t. He dropped his bag on the ground, making the battle axes attached to the sides clank-clank-clank together, almost in warning. Then he crossed his arms over his chest and alternated between glowering at me and at Lance. Maybe Ian wasn’t as good at this undercover spy thing as I’d thought.
“Aren’t you going to introduce us, Rory?” Lance asked.
“Um…sure.” As if I had any choice in the matter now. “This is Lance. Lance, this is Ian, and that’s Zoe and Mateo. They’re, um, well…”
Zoe stepped up and flashed Lance a smile. “We’re some new transfer students from the New York academy. Nice to meet you.” She looked him up and down, and her smile widened. “I have to say that so far, the guys here are a lot more interesting than the ones back home.”
He grinned at Zoe. Of course he did. The petite Valkyrie was as cute as cute could be and twice as charming.
Lance shook Zoe’s hand, then Mateo’s, and finally Ian’s. Lance started to drop the other guy’s hand, but instead of letting go, Ian tightened his grip, making Lance wince. I rolled my eyes. Vikings. Always thinking their superstrength made them so special.
Zoe cleared her throat in warning, and Ian finally dropped Lance’s hand.
“So what’s this party I heard you talking about?” Zoe asked in a fun, flirty voice.
She batted her eyelashes at Lance, which made her look even more adorable. A bit of jealousy spiked through me. If I’d tried to do that, I would have seemed like a complete idiot. And probably made myself dizzy.
“I’m throwing a little back-to-school party tonight,” Lance said. “You guys should come.”
“Oh! That sounds like so much fun!” Zoe squealed. “Tell me more.”
She drew him off to the side, and he took her phone and texted her the details like he had done with me. Mateo started fiddling with his own phone, while Ian crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me again.
I glared right back at him. He hadn’t wanted me on his precious Midgard last night, not even on a temporary basis, but now he thought he could barge in and interrupt my conversation with another guy? Okay, okay, so the guy in question might be a Reaper, but Ian didn’t have to be a grade A jerk about it. What was his problem with me?
“Great! Thanks so much!” Zoe said, favoring Lance with another dazzling smile. “We’ll totally be there tonight, won’t we, Rory?”
“Yeah. Sure.” My voice was far less enthusiastic than hers.
Lance grinned at Zoe, then turned to me. “Great. I’ll see you guys tonight. I’m looking forward to it. Hope you are too, Rory.”
He winked at me, still working his smooth charm, then hoisted his backpack a little higher on his shoulder and headed across the quad.
The four of us watched him go in silence. Ian opened his mouth, probably to make some snide remark, but I was all too aware of the other students still watching us, intensely interested in me and these three new kids. Lance had a lot of friends at the academy, and if he was a Reaper, then some of his friends might be Reapers too.
So I nudged Ian in the side with my elbow, hard enough to make him wince and cut off whatever he’d been about to say. Served him right for being so rude.
“Gotta go, guys. I have class, and so do you. We’ll talk more about the party at lunch, okay? Save me a seat, Viking.” I emphasized the last few words so he would realize that it wasn’t a request.
Ian gave me a stiff nod. “Sure, cupcake. We can talk all about the party and your new boyfriend then.”
“Yeah. Whatever.”
I glared at him one more time, then whipped around, trudged up the steps, and marched into the English-history building to get to my first class. A sour thought filled my mind.
So far, the second day of school wasn’t going any better than the first one had.
Chapter Ten
My morning classes dragged by, especially since all I could think about was my conversation with Lance. I replayed it over and over again in my mind, trying to figure out if he was a regular guy asking about a juicy rumor or a Reaper wanting to cover his tracks. The black-cloaked figure I’d seen in the library last night could have been Lance…or any other guy at the academy.
I didn’t know—I just didn’t know anything anymore.
Every minute of my morning classes seemed slower than the one before, but the bell finally rang, signaling that it was time for lunch, and I headed over to the dining hall. Aunt Rachel was once again working the dessert station at the end of the lunch line, and I stopped and talked to her.
“How are things going today?” she asked.
“Better, I think.” I glanced around the dining hall. “I’m supposed to meet up with my new friends so we can talk about…things.”