So the Protectorate guards hadn’t told the other kids what had really happened last night. No surprise there, since Linus Quinn wanted to keep everyone in the dark about the new group of Reapers.
I wondered how long it would take the other students to realize that Lance wasn’t coming back to Mythos Academy—ever. One week? Two weeks? Or maybe he would end up like Amanda, here one day, then gone the next, with no one batting an eye at his sudden, unexplained disappearance. It would serve Lance right if no one remembered him, since he’d ordered those chimeras to murder Amanda in the library—and me too last night at the mansion. He was going to pay for that—all of it—and so were Drake and the mysterious Sisyphus.
But the good thing about Lance’s party was that everyone was too busy talking about it to hassle me. I actually got through the morning without one single person giving me a dirty look.
By the time lunch rolled around, I was actually in a good mood. We might have lost Lance, Drake, and the chimera scepter last night, but Takeda would use his Protectorate resources to find them again. Once we figured out where they were hiding, we would get the scepter and put them in prison, where they belonged, along with Sisyphus and all the other Reapers.
In the lunch line, I grabbed a burrito stuffed with spicy grilled chicken, black beans, rice, cheese, sour cream, and pico de gallo, along with a couple of chocolate chip cookies, then went over to the corner table where Ian, Zoe, and Mateo were already sitting.
Ian looked up at me and smiled. My heart did a funny little flutter, and I smiled back at him. Then he realized that Zoe was staring at us, and he quickly scowled at me like usual.
“Hey.” Ian ducked his head and concentrated on his food.
“Hey,” I replied, trying to play it cool.
Mateo had a candy bar in one hand and his phone in the other, so he didn’t notice the sudden awkward silence between Ian and me. But Zoe did. She waggled her eyebrows and gave me a knowing look, which I did my best to ignore. I set my tray on the table, plopped down in a chair, and started eating.
Slowly, the awkward silence faded away, and the four of us started talking about our classes, our professors, and more. Even Mateo put down his phone and joined in the conversation. It was all so…normal.
After being alone at school for so long, it was nice to hang out with other people. To sit and eat and laugh and talk and not worry about my parents being Reapers or the other kids whispering about me or all the other drama that made up my life.
It was nice having friends again.
I had missed it more than I’d realized, more than I’d thought possible—and I would soon miss it again. When this was all over, Ian, Zoe, and Mateo would go back to the New York academy like they’d planned, and I would be all alone again, except for Aunt Rachel and the gryphons.
The thought jarred me out of my happy bubble. My hands froze, and I stopped breaking apart the last cookie on my plate.
“Rory?” Mateo asked. “Are you okay? You look like you’re about to be sick.”
I put the cookie down and pushed my tray away. “I’m fine. Just full, I guess.”
I tried to make my tone light and breezy, but it didn’t quite come out that way. Ian glanced at me, then at the uneaten cookie, and back again. His gray eyes narrowed. He’d only known me for a few days, but he could still tell that something was wrong, especially since I hadn’t finished my dessert. But he didn’t say anything, and I was glad for that.
Eventually, the four of us bent our heads together and started talking about what had happened last night, keeping our voices soft so that we wouldn’t be overheard.
“As far as I can tell, no one on campus has seen Lance this morning,” Ian said.
Mateo held up his phone. “None of the security cameras has caught him coming or going either. Not at his dorm or any of the other buildings. He’s definitely not at the academy. I even plugged Lance’s picture into the Protectorate facial-recognition database this morning, but he hasn’t been spotted on any cameras anywhere in Snowline Ridge or the surrounding area.”
“Wouldn’t you be hiding out if a bunch of Protectorate spies crashed your party and tried to arrest you last night?” Zoe snarked. “I certainly would.”
“Sure,” I chimed in. “And I would tell the rest of my Reaper friends who were still at the academy to keep an eye on those spies and let me know what they were up to.”
Ian frowned. “You think that Lance told his friends to watch us?”
I shrugged. “I would have. Besides, that’s how Reapers work. They never come right out and attack you head-on. Not until they absolutely have to. No, they stay in the shadows and play games and keep their true selves hidden until they’re ready to strike.”
Ian noticed the bitter tone in my voice. He stared at me, and I knew he was thinking about our talk last night and all the feelings we’d shared about our Reaper relatives. But I didn’t want to think about that right now. I’d already obsessed about my parents’ betrayal long enough. So I looked out over the dining hall. Ian, Zoe, and Mateo all did the same thing, staring at first one student, then another.
All around us, the other kids laughed and talked and wolfed down their food, since lunch was almost over. No one pointed at our table, no one whispered about us, and no one snuck a sly glance at us and then started texting on their phone. Everything seemed normal, but at Mythos Academy, that was usually when things got the most dangerous.
“If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that you need to be careful who you trust,” I said. “Lance has a lot of friends. He tried to recruit me to become a Reaper, so maybe he did the same thing to some of the other kids. Everyone needs to watch their backs. At least until we know where Lance is and what he and Drake are planning. We might think Lance is gone, but he could always come back to the academy and surprise us.”
Ian nodded. “Rory’s right. Everyone needs to be careful. Takeda wants us all down in the Bunker after classes today. Maybe by then, he’ll have found out something about Lance and Drake and where they are. See you guys later.”
We all murmured our good-byes. Ian and Mateo got to their feet, grabbed their trays, and walked away from the table, leaving me alone with Zoe. She sat back in her chair, crossed her arms over her chest, and gave me another one of those knowing looks.
“So you and Ian, huh?” she asked.
I stiffened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Ri-i-ight.” She drawled out the word. “You go off and talk to him last night, and now the two of you are being totally awkward and adorable with each other.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I repeated, although I could feel the hot, guilty blush staining my cheeks.
Zoe laughed and waggled her fingers, shooting blue bursts of magic all over the table. “Oh, please. You guys are giving off more sparks than I do.”