“Ah, sounds like fun. Don’t forget your dessert.” Aunt Rachel winked at me and placed a couple of items on my tray.
I stared down at the two jumbo chocolate-frosted chocolate cupcakes. Cupcakes were my absolute favorite dessert. Cake, filling, frosting. It all came together in one perfect package, whether it was some gourmet flavor or the classic chocolate ones on my tray now. Still, I grimaced.
“Is something wrong?” Aunt Rachel asked. “You love cupcakes.”
“Yeah,” I muttered. “And I know who’s going to remind me of that.”
She frowned, but I forced myself to smile at her.
“I’ll see you later.”
She nodded, winked at me again, and served the next person in line.
I paid for my food, grabbed my tray, and glanced around the dining hall, searching for my temporary teammates…or whatever they were. I spotted them sitting at the same table in the corner where Ian had been with Amanda yesterday. Sadness filled my heart, but I walked over to them anyway. They had actually saved me a seat, so I plopped my tray down on the table and joined them. Ian, Zoe, and Mateo all gave me blank looks, as if they were surprised that I’d shown up after all.
“Cheer up, guys,” I drawled. “You all look like you’re about to face down a bunch of Reapers or something.”
Zoe snorted out a laugh, while Ian huffed at my sarcasm. Mateo grinned, but he focused on his phone again, his fingers flying over the screen. I looked around the dining hall, searching for Takeda, but I didn’t see him sitting with any of the other coaches or professors.
“Where’s the team leader?” I asked. “Why isn’t he around to keep an eye on you guys?”
“Takeda has his own cover to maintain,” Ian said. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
“Oh, I think you made it my business with that little scene on the quad this morning,” I said. “What were you thinking, coming up and acting like you were my new best friends? All the other kids hate me. You guys should too.”
“Who says we don’t?” Ian muttered.
I sighed. “You know what I mean. It looks suspicious.”
Zoe waved her hand, making blue sparks of magic flicker in the air all over the table. “You worry too much. Trust me, everyone else is busy thinking about their own problems. If their hair looks okay, if anyone realizes that their purse is a designer knockoff instead of the real thing, if they have a shot at hooking up with that cute guy or girl at the party tonight. Nobody cares about you, Spartan. Not really. So chill.”
I eyed her, but her tone was more matter-of-fact than snarky. Zoe shrugged, telling me that it was just the way things were.
“Well, I’m guessing that Lance cares,” I said. “Especially since he asked me about some girl getting attacked by a monster in the library last night.”
Ian’s hand tightened around his fork, and he glared at Lance, who was sitting in the middle of the dining hall, surrounded by his adoring friends and fans like usual. Lance threw his hands out wide, telling some story, and everyone around him howled with laughter, particularly the girls, who giggled like he’d just said the funniest thing ever.
“I should break his face,” Ian muttered. “He’s the one who summoned those chimeras. He’s the one who killed Amanda.”
“Relax, Viking,” I said. “You’ll have your chance to avenge Amanda. But Takeda wants to get Sisyphus and all the other Reapers at the same time. So you’ll have to wait until tonight and see if any of them show up at Lance’s party.”
“Are you finally ready to admit that your boyfriend is a Reaper?” Ian asked.
I stared at Lance, who was grinning at the girl sitting next to him the same way he’d grinned at me on the quad this morning. A tiny blade of jealousy stabbed my heart. “My judgment isn’t the best when it comes to Reapers. I don’t know what he is, but I want to find out.”
I looked at Ian. Grudging respect filled his eyes, and he nodded at me. Then his gaze dropped to my tray and the two desserts sitting there.
Ian arched an eyebrow. “Cupcakes, huh? I never would have guessed that you liked those…cupcake.”
For once, his tone was more teasing than taunting, and I decided to play along. I grabbed one of the cupcakes, stripped off the paper wrapper, and sank my teeth into all the delicious layers of cake, filling, and frosting.
“I don’t just like cupcakes—I love cupcakes,” I mumbled through a mouthful of chocolate.
Ian snorted, but his lips twitched, like he was holding back a smile. I’d definitely won that round. I grinned and took another bite.
“Whether Lance is a Reaper or not, he’s invited pretty much the whole academy to his party,” Mateo chimed in, still staring at his phone. “Right before lunch, he sent out an email to everyone who’s on the official academy roll.”
“How do you know that?” I asked.
Mateo looked up, a satisfied smile creasing his face. “I hacked his phone while you were talking to him on the quad earlier. Now I have access to all his calls, texts, emails, everything.”
Zoe leaned over and punched him in the shoulder, making blue sparks of magic fly out of her fingertips. “You mean while I was flirting with him and distracting him from what you were really doing.”
Mateo grinned at her. “That too.”
“All those kids packed into one place…” Ian’s voice trailed off. “That would make for great cover for Lance to meet with Sisyphus and the other Reapers. That might even be why he’s throwing the party. So the Reapers can blend into the crowd and the Protectorate has a harder time tracking who comes and goes.”
I polished off my first cupcake and started unwrapping the second one. “Then we’ll have to keep an eye on Lance and see who he talks to. If he is a Reaper, he’ll have to meet with the others sooner or later.”
“We?” Ian shook his head. “There is no we. This doesn’t concern you.”
I waggled my cupcake at him. “Ah, ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. I’ve decided to take Takeda up on his offer to join your merry little band of misfit toys. Temporarily, of course.”
Ian’s eyes narrowed. “Like I’ve said all along, we don’t need you, and we certainly don’t want you.”
“Well, that’s too bad, because I’m in this thing now, and nothing you do or say is going to change my mind. So you might as well lose the attitude and start being civil to me. Before something bad happens.”
“Like what?”
I gave him a razor-thin smile and gestured at the items on my lunch tray. “Like me accidentally-on-purpose stabbing you with my fork. Or braining you with my plate. Or breaking your nose with my water glass. You know. All the usual Spartan tricks.”
Anger flashed like lightning in his gaze, which darkened to that storm-cloud gray. As much as I hated to admit it, the intense, moody glare worked for Ian, and he looked totally hot right now. Not that I cared how gorgeous he was. Not at all. Not when he was so determined to hate me for some mysterious reason.