Laney smiled up at Malachi and scooted closer as he sat down. “Do you know what prom is?” she asked him.

“No,” he answered, looking over at the poster.

I turned toward Ian, in dire need of distraction. “You have a game this afternoon, right?”

He set his milk and orange juice at ten and two. “Yeah. First one without Aden.” His voice was sad. “We haven’t practiced all week, either, what with the wake and funeral.”

“You’re worried.”

He nodded. “Greg is good on the mound, but the Veterans team has a lot of good hitters this year.” He pushed his messy hair out of his eyes. “I don’t really even want to play,” he said quietly. “It won’t be the same without Aden in the dugout. But I want to win. For him.” He fiddled nervously with his milk carton. “Hey, can you come?”

My mouth dropped open to refuse, but then I remembered Malachi had insisted I take the night off. Maybe I’d take the afternoon off, too. “Yeah. I’ll try.”

His dimples were really kind of stunning. “Awesome. Maybe we can meet up after the game?”

I turned my head to see Malachi staring at me while Laney yapped on about tuxes and after-parties. She laid her hand on his arm, and that made my decision for me.

“I’m free,” I said to Ian, savagely hoping that my next words hit my Lieutenant like an elbow to the gut. “And I’d love to.”

After a terse meeting with Malachi and Henry in the parking lot after school to go over the new patrol routes, I headed for the baseball field. If not for Malachi’s insistence that I take a night off, I’d be on the streets tonight, hunting the Mazikin. It was where I was supposed to be. But then I reminded myself that the Mazikin knew exactly where to find me, and where to find my classmates, and that being here might be just as important.

I sat in the stands with Tegan, Jillian, and Laney, scanning for threats or suspicious characters, following their cues for when to cheer and keep silent. I’d been to plenty of games with Nadia last year, because she’d been dating Greg at the time. Sitting on the hard metal benches as the chilly breeze tied my hair in knots made me miss her so much it hurt.

Tegan had her slender fingers wrapped around a hot chocolate. She got me one, too, and handed it over with a calculating look. She leaned around me. “Hey, Laney. Did he say yes?”

Laney gave me a sour glance before she answered. “He said he’d think about it, not that it’s any of your business. I think he had to ask his host father.”