Daemon nodded. “It is.”
Talk of his brother ended right there. Carissa turned around, and though Lesa rarely let awkward topics detour her, she didn’t pick up our conversation. But after class, as Daemon and I navigated the hall, people were almost at a standstill.
Everyone was staring at Daemon and there were a lot of whispers. Some tried to keep it quiet. Others didn’t seem to care.
“Did you see?”
“Two of them again…”
“So weird that he’d come back without Beth…”
“Where is Beth…?”
“Maybe he came back because of Adam…”
Gossip mill at its finest, I realized.
I took a sip of my still-warm mocha and peeked at Daemon. The curve of his jaw was hard. “Uh, maybe this wasn’t a good idea.”
His hand rested on the small of my back as he held open the door to the stairwell. “Now what makes you think that?”
I ignored his sarcasm. “But if he didn’t come back, what was he supposed to do?”
Daemon stayed by my side as we headed to the second floor, taking up most of the cramped space. Kids had to squeeze past him. And I really had no idea where he was going. His class was on the first floor.
He leaned down, keeping his voice low. “It was a bad and good idea. He needs to get back into the world. There’s going to be fallout, but it’s worth it.”
I nodded. What he said was true. At the door to my English class, he took a sip of my mocha and handed it back.
“See you at lunch,” he said, kissing me briefly before pivoting around.
My lips tingled as I watched the back of his dark head disappear, and then I headed into class. So much was going on that concentrating was pretty much out of the question. The teacher called on me at one point, and I didn’t notice. The entire class did, though. Awkward.
Turned out Dawson was in my bio class, and boy did he have a lot of eyes on him. He was seated beside Kimmy when I walked past. He nodded and then returned to flipping through his textbook. His tablemate’s eyes were like two moons.
Did he get any sort of education while he was gone? Not that it mattered. The Luxen developed mentally a lot faster than humans. Missing over a year of school probably meant nothing to him.
“See?” Lesa twisted around as soon as I sat behind her.
“See what?”
“Dawson,” she whispered. “That’s not the Dawson I remember. He was always talking and laughing. Never reading a bio textbook.”
I shrugged. “He’s probably been through some crazy stuff.” Not a lie. “And it’s probably uncomfortable for him to be back here with everyone staring at him.” Also not a lie.
“I don’t know.” She tugged on her backpack as she glanced over at Dawson’s table. “He’s moodier than Daemon used to be.”
“Daemon was moody?” I said a bit dryly.
“Well, just not that friendly, I guess. He kind of stuck to himself before.” She shrugged. “Oh! By the way, what the hell is up with Dee hanging out with the Bitch Squad?”
Bitch Squad was a code name Lesa had given Ash and Andrew when I first started at PHS. Once upon a time, I bet Daemon was a part of that group.
“Ah,” I said, suddenly wanting to read my bio textbook. Whenever I thought of Dee, I wanted to cry. Our friendship had taken a sharp detour to Breakupsville. “I don’t know. She’s been…different since Adam.”
“No. Shit.” Lesa shook her head. “Her grieving process is scary. I tried to talk to her yesterday at her locker, and she looked at me, said nothing, and then walked away.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah, it actually hurt my feelings.”
“Pretty much what I’ve—”
The door to the classroom opened as the bell rang and the first thing I noticed was the vintage Nintendo shirt worn over a gray thermal. I loved all those old-school screen T-shirts. Then the messy bronze hair and hazel eyes.
My heart stopped; a buzzing started in my ears and picked up to a roar. The air was sucked right out of the room. I’d expected Will to come back, but not…him.
“Oh. Look who’s here,” Lesa said, smoothing her hands over her notebook. “Blake.”
Chapter 9
I had to be dreaming because this could not be real. No way. Absolutely not. It wasn’t Blake strolling into the classroom like it was any other day. Nor did Matthew drop his stack of notes. I glanced at Dawson before realizing he wouldn’t know any better. He’d never seen Blake.
“You okay, Katy? Looking a little wigged out,” Lesa said.
My eyes darted to hers wildly. “I…”
A second later, Blake was taking his seat—his seat beside me. The rest of the class blurred out. I was struck stupid by his reappearance.
He placed his book on the table and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms. Casting me a sidelong glance, he winked.
What the holy hell…?
Giving up on waiting for me to finish what I was saying, Lesa turned around, shaking her head. “I have weird friends,” she muttered.
Blake said nothing as Matthew gathered up his scattered papers. My heart was now racing so fast I was sure I was going to stroke out any second.
People were staring, but I couldn’t pull my eyes off Blake. Finally, I found my voice. “What…are you doing?”
He looked at me, a thousand secrets among the green flecks in his gaze. “Going to class.”
“You…” There were no words. And then the shock wore off, replaced with a spike of anger so powerful and so hot I felt static rush over my skin.