he’d shown up with a serious case of zombie it had been painfully apparent that I didn’t know even

a quarter of what I needed to, in order to deal with the Real World.

And I was beginning to wonder if he’d really known all I thought he did.

It was an uncomfortable thought. Almost, well, blasphemous. Even if I’m not a big believer in anything other than holy water. I’ve seen holy water work against roach spirits and some kinds of hexes.

The rest of the God trip I’m not so sure about. There’s just too much nastiness happening to people

who don’t deserve it.

Graves field-stripped the last butt under his boot sole and ground the cherry against the concrete.

The ash made a black mark. “Hand up?”

“Nah.” I used the shelf-bed to push myself up. Ash made a sleepy sound, chuffing out a breath, and

stilled. “Thanks, though.” Four numb-drunk steps across the room, then I had to grab for the doorjamb because the muscles in my legs started to wake up, pin-and-needling. “Ouch.”

Benjamin leaned forward, peering around the corner. A pair of dark eyes under spike-dagger auburn

hair, the bridge of his nose just visible. “You’re not dressed.” His tone wavered between shock and

disapproval, with a healthy dose of primness mixed in. “You’ve been in there like that the whole

time?”

“I’m perfectly dressed.” But my jaw kept wanting to clench, muscles locking down with the chill. I

shivered, hugged myself. Graves’s sweater rucked up against my ribs. “All my bits are covered.”

“You’ll catch your death of cold,” he muttered, and glanced at Graves. “Come, let’s get you back to

your room. You’ll want to change.”

“What for?” Even shifting my weight was agonizing. A heavy werwulf on your lap makes for some

damn painful walking afterward. “It’s daytime, right?” Meaning, We should all get some sleep.

“A message arrived just after you went to bed. You’re due in front of the Council in an hour.” Ben-jamin said it like it pained him. “Alone. To answer questions about Reynard and your escapes from

Sergej.”

“What?” But I wasn’t really surprised. They’d debriefed everyone except me already, including

Graves, who refused to talk about the whole thing even with me. Right now he was watching Benjamin closely, long-fingered hands dangling. It occurred to me that Graves had been trying to sleep

right outside my door.

The djamphir had the rooms all around mine. Just in case. But Graves was loup-garou. Not werwulf, not vampire. Something different. And he obviously wasn’t going to stay in the dorms like

they wanted him to.

I tried catching his eye, but he was still staring at Benjamin like there was something stuck on the

djamphir’s face. Being surrounded by teenage-looking boys that could be older than your parents