WHEN I WOKE UP on Monday, for once, I found myself grateful that I had to go to school. It had been a long weekend of fruitless patrols, broken up only by the hours I spent alone in my room, crying into my pillow so that Diane wouldn’t hear. Jim had decided to remain a Guard, and so far was following orders. So was Malachi. Perfectly, as I would expect. Coldly, which hurt more than I could say. Firefighters had discovered two bodies in the basement of that Mazikin nest, burned beyond recognition. Police were investigating. They suspected the house had been a drug den. I knew better, but we’d combed the area and come up empty, so now we were back at square one.

I needed the distraction desperately. And maybe the chance to grab a nap.

Then I remembered I had two classes with Malachi. At least Henry had agreed to drop him off at school in the mornings, so I didn’t have to ride in a car with him. I wasn’t sure the fragile stitches holding me together would hold if he were that close to me.

The early morning sun bounced off lampposts and windows and windshields, blinding me as I pulled into the school lot well before school was set to start. I stood outside my car, which was one of the few in the parking lot, wishing my head would stop pounding, wishing I hadn’t promised to meet—

Tegan pulled her little black BMW into the space beside mine and got out, holding two coffees. She offered one to me. “I don’t know how you like it, so it’s black.”

I cradled it in my hands, savoring the warmth in the cold morning air. “Thanks.”

“Want to go in or sit in my car?”

I didn’t really want to be in an enclosed space with her, but when I saw the gray sedan pull into the lot, Henry at the wheel and Malachi sitting next to him, I practically dove into her passenger seat.

“Okay,” she said as she settled herself in the driver’s seat. “How was the rest of your weekend?”

I took a sip of the coffee and let it sear my throat. “Fine. But you didn’t ask me here to talk about my weekend.”

She blinked. “You always cut right through the bullshit, huh?”

“I’ve never had time for it.” And I had no interest in preserving her feelings.

“Well, if that’s the way it is … the purple in your shirt matches the circles under your eyes,” Tegan commented.

“I guess you won’t bullshit me, either. I haven’t been sleeping much lately.”

“Because of Nadia?”